Thanks for the info about the Milky Spores and that they are probably in my lawn; I do find grubs now and then when I'm digging, not a whole lot but enough to know they are under there lurking. I don't have a spreader, and I need one to get some pre-emergent down before that awful grass totally takes over, then I'll have to figure out how to stagger the applications of if you can do both at once (probably not good). And it looks like I'm going to have to do it myself or hire it done. I don't like admitting to myself that some of this is too much for me by myself and getting old. I can't both garden and keep the lawn mowed by myself, so have the lawn done (have a hard terrace for one thing) and have hurt my back again. I'm still upset about the tiller this morning, and part of it is my fault. I studied carefully before I bought it, it was highly recommended, got the better model, and it's getting oil in the thing the way it is designed. Twice now I've put too much in it, and it was running all over everything. The first time I did it, they charged me $30+, the second time $40+ and made me wait two weeks at a critical time, I called after one week because I needed it badly, did you buy it from us? Their store name sticker is right on the bar. The book was not clear about the position the tiller should be in for CHECKING the oil. Well, I don't like feeling like a ditz, but I ended up with a puddle of oil on the kitchen floor. Again. If only they would have shown me how to do it, they did explain how to start it. I'm not so dumb that when my son-in-law came to help, I could explain exactly how the choke should be on a cold start vs. warm start, how to turn it on, know that it won't just take off once it starts, know how to set the tines for tilling, cultivating and the border attachment, know when you have to pull it backwards and walk it forward, etc. Part of that somebody explained here, and the rest I learned reading the book. I was told it breaks sod, and it is advertised that it will. Well it does, but at a terrible price, bounces all over. Then the grass comes right back after adding amendments and tilling over it twice. You have to strip the sod off first. It's one month past a year that I could have taken it back and gotten my over $400 back. The lady at my regular hardware store said if you are a woman, they probably won't deal with you like they would a man. I have found that to be true all my life with a few pleasant exceptions. When I got it back the last time, it was not registering any oil at all on the dipstick. I assumed they would have put the right amount in for me. Here we go again. I put just a tiny bit in and got a few chores done. Then it won't register on the dipstick, yes I wipe it and put it in the way the book says, nothing registers. Finally I get it to register just half, figure I'd better quit, and still, running all over the place. I printed out the online warranty (clearly says 2 years for tillers, excluded two models that aren't mine), tried to call the Mantis company at my own expense, a recorded message said I had to take it up with my dealer. Well the good news is no sign of Jap beetles yet, we're behind the south in my zone on those, usually about July they show up. Thanks for listening. And thanks for answering my questions thoroughly. Sorry no crackers (or is it cheese or both?) with my whine :-). Sometimes when I read posts here, I can't help feeling a little envy at the ones who have husbands to help. I know modern gals are tougher and some do manage to do most or all of their own hard work; it's amazing the things I've learned from women, too!

I'm the one that had/has the vitamins that were too big for me. I kept telling myself I'd use them (and I should have know otherwise) and eventually they were expired but I still have the 3/4 of the bottle I didn't use. I'm curious how you suggest one reuses expired vitamins. I'm in agreement that one should reuse if at all possible, but you must have a much greater imagination than me if you know how to reuse vitamins better than the suggestions in the thread this came up in which was "Expired Vitamins in the compost". I don't know about the brown paper post, but let me give you a scenario where I think you are very incorrect on your assumption that Freecycle would be the better option if I came across a roll of brown paper not in use and I had no other use for it but composting. If I put it into the compost, it will break down and provide food for much life including mine. No landfill material where it will take a lot longer to break down due to likely being doused with other chemicals from other trash. If I put it on Freecycle then someone possibly uses it for packaging. That packaging is not nearly as likely to get reused again and will likely go into a landfill because the number of people that don't reuse or compost is exponentially higher than those people like us that do. And Freecycle isn't just full of greenies. It's also full moochers or poor people looking for free stuff. It's a fact that neither of those groups is notorious for their recycling/composting habits. You might think I'm being harsh or politically incorrect, but try driving in a poor area and tell me how littered it is because the people just don't care. Can anyone here speak up from the south side of Chicago (specifically halstead street where the plastic bottles outnumber the blades of grass) or certain areas on the east side of Indianapolis, please? How about the poor areas of Gary, IN? Anyway, the proof is lying in all those yards and along those streets so I don't feel bad about my statement. The point is that the roll of paper is a lot more likely to end up in a landfill using freecycle and the benefit of reuse is largely reduced to less than the benefit of composting it. And I didn't even add in the gas used to transport the roll of paper if you use Freecycle. Let's consider the Freecycle person is like us, but doesn't compost. Instead, the person used the paper for kid projects and turned around and recycled it afterward. Good for them! But the environmental impact of the recycling (which uses fuel and emits lots of carbon and requires transportation) in the end is still larger than the impact of simply composting it. So my good intentions actually led to a worse impact. I find a lot of "environmentalists" tend to forget to take in the big picture. They only see the immediate effect and choose not to think further to the end result. It's why a lot of "environmentalists" buy bottled water. They think that recycling the bottle makes it okay and makes them green. They choose not to consider how much recycling adds to the waste stream, carbon emissions, and pollution. Instead, they throw the plastic into a recycling bin or reuse it a couple of times and then do so and then feel good about their decision to make this a better environment. They forget that all that was negated by the very purchase of the bottle of water in the first place. Are you taking in the big picture? Or are you seeing one simple act as the saving grace while ignoring the rest of the process? I don't think you are purposely ignoring it. But I do think a lot of people accidentally do with good intentions.

"I don't have rain gutters so I cant capture rain water but I do use pool water for the lawn when a little drain is needed. I also just recently started putting my RO waste water to use ...." 1. Sounds like you can afford rain gutters (I recommend seamless) which aren't that expensive. Rainwater is pure water, nothing finer. You can keep all that falls on your property pretty easily. And maybe even direct passing water onto your property. 2. People generally frown of pool water reuse. If you use the salt water method of fighting algae then you are nuts! (see below #3). If you use chloramine (sp?) you should dump it in the alley as the stable chlorine will kill a lot of your precious soil life. If you use chlorine then I encourage you to go ahead and dump your water into your yard, but time it so it would normally be just after you would re-chlorinate so levels are low. 3. RO waste water. You are nuts! Why don't you just dump seawater on your plants? There is a reason RO water is the best (along with rain) for plants--it is pure. The salts extracted and concentrated in the waste water will kill your plants and more importantly sterilize your soil against ANY plant growth forever. This is why so many growers have contempt for those who manufacture RO water as you said, it screws up a lot of water for every gallon it makes. Worse, tons of water has to be applied to wash the salts down to rehab the soil. It is better to just bulldoze it up and haul it to the dump after it gets dosed. There is a reason conquering armies used to salt the fields of their enemies. 4. Graywater re-usage went unmentioned. It can account for 40% of your water bill. Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting Rainwater

Cookies were a pound - 454 grams. Then it was 350 ... then 300 ... and recently some have been 284 grams. Yogurt was 175 grams per tub, with a number in a cardboard sleeve. Then it was 150, then 125, then 112, now almost all are 100 grams per tub, that are sold in the sleeves. I called the 800 number a while ago, to complain about them having discontinued the 175 gram ones, and he said that they were still available, that I could still buy them ... and I said, yes, but I have to buy them individually, at a higher price ... no longer in the sleeves. I can buy a tub of about 650 grams (slightly under a pound and a half) on sale for $2.00, and a sleeve of a dozen 100 gram ones, on sale at $3.00 (a few cents under, in each situation). How come, buying 3 of the $2.00 650 gram ones, I get 1,950 grams of goods ... but buy 2 sleeves of 12 of the 100 gram ones for 2,400 grams, at a cost of $6.00? I plan to take about a dozen stacks of the empty 100 gram ones, 12 high ... and 18 of the larger tubs, which telescope down inside one another when empty, to make a stack not much more than double (maybe three times) the height of one tub, to the store for a discussion with the manager. When one considers the extra cost of making all of those little tubs, of packing them in cartons to ship to the dairy, the hauling, then filling them and putting them into sleeves before putting into other cartons, then hauling to the store ... how come I get 2400 grams of stuff in the little ones at the same price as 1,950 grams of the same stuff in the big tubs? Ice cream, used to be 2 litres (just under a half gallon) per package ... then it was 1.75 ... then 1.66, recently some have put it out in 1.5 litre tubs. One company still produces their ice cream in the original size ... and they're the almost only kind that I buy. I've found that sometimes, even when the price per litre is lower in the smaller tubs ... I have passed them by. BUT ... I haven't told the store people about that choice yet ... and think that I should. You can take those shrinking-sized packages and stick them ....! ole joyfuelled ... (with some help from yogurt ... and ice cream and cookies, on occasion) P.S. But just think ... what a considerate benefit the suppliers are giving us, in helping us with our dieting ... in helping us use most of our fuel to manage our systems, so that a higher proportion of it goes to getting our work and play done ... and less to fat! What's that you say - that the servings that we dig out of the packages are the same size ... that it's just that we get to the bottom of the package sooner? Oh, rats! o j