OFFERS TODAY: Tuesday Feb 10, 09 1 offer Bi-color Mixed varieties? 1 offer Watermelon Sugar Baby 1 offer Melon: Honey Dew 4 offers Maltese Cross 1 offer Watermelon Jubilee 1 offer Large Pear Shaped Tomato 1 offer Passion Flower Passiflora caerulea yr unknown Comm. pk 1 offer Lavatera Mont Blanc Annual yr unknown Comm. pk Full Sun 1 offer Euphorbe Summer Icicle Annual yr unknown Comm. Pk Sun to Part Shade 1 offer Thyme (Organics Biologique) Comm.pk yr unknown 1 offer Lettuce Mesclun Bon Vivant yr hand written on it 2008 1 offer Dill Chia Brand Herbs Comm year unknown 1 offer Morning Glory Heavenly Blue Comm yr unknown 1 offer Tomato Brandywine (Oragnic Biologique) yr marked out 1 offer Castor Bean feels like 4 seeds comm. pk unknown yr 1 offer Tomato could be black no other info 1 offer Heirloom Tomato Basinga 2006 1 offer Isis Yellow Flag 2 offer Asclepias Soulmate Pink zone 3-9 Please note I have NO clue what the first one might even remotely be, your guess is as good as mine! Also remember anything you are requesting could be on your list and if I have put one pack in your bag already and you request these extras too, then you have 2 I will not pull the first pack or the requested. It would be too confusing to try to keep up wiith I think so you will just have 2 lol. :) Fran

Hi, everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day!!! I am incredibly busy, but just wanted to post at least once today! Thank you Tracy - I am SO happy to hear that you all loved the cranberry jam stuff! I have to tell you I made your homemade cranberry sauce yesterday, and my hubby LOVED it! He and I were the only ones that ate it - we always are! But, he went on and on about how it was way better than canned, and way better than any other homemade anyone has tried! Then, the stuffing! Girl - that was wonderful!! I did add a half pint of mushrooms that I canned a while back, and chopped them up very small so the kids wouldn't really notice them. That went really well too! Dave said it was the best ever, and my brother-in-law loaded half his plate with it! William is the only kid here that is a stuffing eater, and he loved it too! (So did I!!!) I am getting close to finished. Not really, but it's nice to say! I have all the chocolates and candy and cookies packaged. Just have to cut and package the fudge yet. Make labels and stick them to all the jars of preserves. Make the cocoa mix, muffin mix and pancake mix, and make all those labels and package them. Umm, make an order form and price sheet, make an inventory, and I'm sure much more, but that's all I can think of right now. I am not going to bring the cupcakes I'm afraid - I've just run out of time to finish those. I got some baked, but I don't have time to make frosting and make the decorations, so hopefully some people will check out my website, where I will post some of those soon, I hope! Anyway, gotta get back to work - I want some sleep tonight! : ) Hugs, Becki

Artichokey-I think a walk through would be useful and if we layout the closet right we should still have good space. I do not have a plan for the hallway. It has stuck out to me as wasted space but I haven't figured out a way around it. Thoughts? Back to the Garage again (it is what we continually hash over): We ended up with an L thinking it would maximize our space for views and keep it opposite the master br. There is a very large mature oak tree near the already cleared driveway (had a partial clearing when we purchased it) that we are trying to avoid cutting down. Maybe we need to entertain that idea but thus far we have been trying to work with it. The placement of the existing drive is fine - but it does mean the outbuilding will be on the north side so that is a constraint that we also have. Our main goals for the house are: living, dining, kitchen areas on the east and south master on the north or west preferably on a corner for 2 points of light/air flow When looking at plans it gets complicated when the garage is introduced because even if you reverse image the plan sometimes it puts the master on the south side and we don't want that. Living in MI - I can't get away from the attached garage. Totally spoiled and can't imagine not having it. The other issue is if we have a side load on the north side - you will not see the front of the house...and we are back to all garage again. We were hoping with an L company would at least be at the front when they arrive (which we do not have much company besides family anyhow). Here is a rough sketch (very rough - drawing, clearing is accurate but slope of driveway is not) of the land/existing driveway. It starts on the North side and is about at the midline where it ends at the opening of the clearing. We WILL have to clear trees to the west or front of the property. Again - trying to avoid cutting to the south to keep some privacy from neighbors and barn will be on the north. With fall here and leaves starting to change/drop we will get a better picture of where the cover will or will not be in the winter. We do have some pine trees mixed in and may have to plant more or a few blue spruce. Here are a couple more photos with a little detail: Lastly-I think if we got rid of the front and side bumpouts that will save cost? I like the back by the porch so I'd want to keep that if at all possible.

hex2006- Just 4 times a day? Is that the practice? I've heard about switching on/off every 15/30 mins and that sounded somewhat less than optimal to me... If you flood the roots for 15 mins, wouldn't that be too much for many plants? Conversely, leaving it to dry for 6 hours, isn't that detrimental or at least stressful for many varieties (and even if there is enough moisture, does the plants have enough access to nutrients)? Jeremiah- Yeah, the power consumption was high on my priorities when I considered hydroponics. It's not like I'm gonna sell the produce but I am in a dire lack of excess money to burn- that's why the pump power consumption actually did seemed important to me (unless I'm growing weed then that is a whole different matter). I calculated that if a simple 10W pump ran for 24/7, 365 days, it would amount to 87.6KW. I pay 20c for KW/h, so a yearly cost would be around 17.52$. The price of tomatoes at my local market is a little more than 1$ per kg. That means that simply to cover the usage cost of this one pump I need to grow more than 15kg. You can see why I'm not a fan of letting the pump work more than it needs to. Lol, I missed your meaning, when you said "making the box water tight " ,did you mean the timer box or the grow box? because in both cases I just use a discarded bucket/cereal box with some water proof glue on the lid. Ghetto to the max! And when you say “digital plug timers” you are referring to this type of thing?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-LCD-Display-24H-7day-Programmable-Timer-Electronic-Plug-Switch-110V-US-/361252796244 If so, then like the with my opening post, they have up to x powerons per day. Very annoying. , , , The second scenario you described is actually pretty nifty, but I fail to see the advantage if indeed rapid switching will burn out the pump. My case however is the common first scenario (mostly because of space constrictions (the sun is at the top)). I don't know if it is that 'rapid', but if the pump fills the bucket in 4 minutes (and turned off due to power conservation) and the drying occurs for another 11 mins- then we are talking about 90 cycles per day (I have no idea if that is a good growing practice, but speaking hypothetically). I took your warnings about the quick burnout to heart, but I'm not sure what's the alternative in an ebb-flow system (other than cycling it to 2 operations per hour). One thing I thought of changing is the placement of the pump. according to Kleeems explanation ,a partial cause for the failing is the column of water already present in the pipes, overloading at each start up. Seems like it can be solved by placing the pump in an upside fashion near the top... thanks guys.