Lucy's right. Apples and crabapples need stratification in order to germinate, and this can take as much as 3-4 months of cold to happen. You will also need to scar the seed coat some before planting (scarification). From Iowa State University: "Most apples and crabapples will not reproduce true from seed. They are usually propagated by grafting and budding. However, seed of most apples and crabapples are viable, and can be germinated. Collect fruit from trees as they ripen. Remove the seed. Sow the seed in the fall or stratify the seed for 60 to 120 days at 37 to 41°F and plant in the spring. Sow the seed 1/2 to 1 inch deep." Matt

I absolutely love using the library's online features! With 3 small children, I either have to make an extra trip down to the library after they are put to bed which doesn't give me much time before the library closes or I have to try and keep them quiet in the upstairs adult section which doesn't usually work very well. Imagine VERY loud voices asking questions like "Why do they have so many computers up here?" "Why do we have to be so quiet?" "When is it time to go hoooome? *whine*" Once I realized how easy it is to do things online, I started using it all the time. I can renew our books online so that I don't have huge late fees. I can put things on hold at our library like popular DVDs or new releases. They are always on hold for someone so it's much easier to get my name on the hold list than it is to find it on the shelf. And of course, the interlibrary loan system is great! I've found so many books using that. Besides the ones I was looking for, I've also found some by using the features "nearby items on shelf" and "find more on these topics". They have a pretty nice setup. Our library also has an ongoing used book, magazine, and CD sale near the front desk. I once found a whole stack of gradening magazines like Garden Gate and Organic Gardening for 25 cents each! And you can check out magazines also. In fact, I just quick bumped over there and put the last 4 issues of Garden Gate on hold (from Waterford library). Oh, and Julie, if you do a search using the words "fine gardening" that magazine is available at Burlington library plus a few others so if you need some reading material this winter but don't want to shell out the money for a magazine that you only read part of, it can be transferred to the Racine library for you. There is also a series called "Fine gardening design guides" that seems to have been put out by the magazine along with a few separate books titled "The Best of Fine Gardening: Perennials", "The Best of Fine Gardening: Shrubs and Trees" and a few others. Does Sturtevant have a library or do you use Racine's? If the bookmobile comes out near you, you have the option of choosing where you want to pick up the items and can switch it to Bookmobile. It's funny, most of the libraries only seem to keep the last 2 years of issues but West Bend has copies of Fine Gardening going back to 1997! I wonder why? Perhaps they have more gardeners in that area or just most storage room. There's a new book by Melinda Myers titled "Month-by-month gardening in Wisconsin : what to do each month to have a beautiful garden all year". I'm going to have to put that on hold. I wonder if they have Birds and Bloom magazine. Well, I'm going to quit bouncing back and forth between websites and just send this before it gets any longer. Kimberly P.S. My library's SHARE program covers these areas: Dodge, Jefferson, Racine, Walworth and Washington Counties. But I'm sure there are similar programs for the other parts of...

Life of Pi ... one of my all time favorite books about a boy who, after a shipwreck at sea of a ship carrying zoo animals ends up stranded on a raft with some wild animals. The ending will have you scratching your head. The movie is coming out in November of this year. Sarah's Key ... a heartbreaking story of a little girl who's family is sent to concentration camps during the WWII Nazi occupation in Paris, France. The film is excellent too. The Poisonwood Bible ... follows the life of a Southern family that moves to the Congo to be missionaries. Each chapter is written in the voice of the three kids in the family. Jodi-

The most favorite read in our house is a series of books by Clive Cussler. Note that as his book career advanced, other authors entered his fold. In some of the later books, he has lent his name to the title and cover, when it may have been written by another author. Many of his subjects are on a grand scale affecting large geographical areas, sometimes the entire world. His tales could be classed as science fiction, however, his ideas hold the potential of real possibility, rather than 'pipe dreams'. A reoccurring theme in some of his stories involves his son borrowing one of his collector cars for a date and then he gets chased by some baddies and the pristine car gets beat up.