Boca, Boca, Joe, Joe, Joe. I find that the In-N-Out Burger wrapper information is a bit too technical for me to fully comprehend. (Must be the winter brain freeze we experience here?) Yes, 'tiz true that Dr. GonZ is very good at propaganda. I am a proud card carrying member of his organization! :-) I find that Parade is more of a specialty publication. Where else can one find THE source for one tree that will grow Avocado, Coconut, Vrassia, Sugar Cane, the next Triple Crown® winner AND eight varieties of tomatoes in a single 6 inch pot!?!?!? We here in Ohio do not have the longer growing season as do some other zones so we need to get in as much variety of growth as possible all in one. I do confess that my 'Tree-o-Plenty' does not yet look like the cartoon like drawing depicted in the magazine but it has grown for only 4 years and has not yet reached maturity here in my piddoly zone 6-7 ish. My children do attend school in Zone 20. Personally I don't really see a profound difference in this zone but everyone slows down to a crawl as they pass through this zone. No doubt they do this to "catch a few rays" as they pass by. I'm thinking it is what I read may be a micro climate. At home we sometimes experience Zone 9 or 10. There were a few days last year when it was really hot, like in the upper 80° F - 90° F for a day or two and it got really humid. That only happened in the summer though. Here's a few questions, if you don't mind talking an amateur planty thing person through some of this stuff. It has probably been asked before but I can't find the posts. ~~ How do I get Calzoned? Do we need to plant a Pasta Tree? I am growing a Cinnamon Tree (Cinnamomum zeylanicum var. 'Durkee') from cuttings. ((Spices, isle 3 in Kroger's grocery store.)) I placed them in Miracle Gro potting soil, watered them really well and placed them in a sealed plastic bag on a sunny window sill. After only a couple of weeks there was a thick grey / blue almost fuzzy coat on the bark. When the leaves start to develop I will slowly take them out of their protected environment, so I think I can handle some pasta. ~~The last question has to do with one of my palm trees, a Fox Tail Palm from the Tropical Gardens of Maui. It looks like it has either already died or is close to it. My concern is for the spider mites that live on it. Does any one know of a palm or other plant on which the spider mites could live? How do I move them so they are not disturbed with the change of habitat? Thanks for all your help! Moocho appreciato-ed. Chick a D

Calliope, thank you for the link to the embroidery site, looks like it will be very helpful in explaining different thread types and tension adjusting, both top and bottom. I've book marked it and will study more when I have the time. Thanks for all the compliments on my quilt, and the opinions on the thread colors. I laid a string of deep, rich gold across some of the blocks, and also a string of slate blue. I'm thinking the gold will blend better with the colors in the fabrics. I'll think on it some more and maybe try other colors to see which is best. This quilt has a story (don't they all!). I'll try to tell the story without tearing up so much that I can't see to type. My oldest sister's dh was diagnosed with gastric cancer in 2003, he had surgery, radiation and chemo, and was told in 2004 that he was cancer free. In 2005 the cancer came back, he went through treatments again at that time. He had lost a lot of weight and was very sick and very cold natured. I started piecing this lap quilt for him in November 2005, didn't tell anyone I was making it for him. About the time I got the piecing finished, his Drs. told my sister that he wouldn't be around much longer, and before I could get the quilt sandwiched and quilted, he passed away in Jan 2006. The quilt has hung on a hanger in my sewing room since that time, I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. This man had been my BIL, but more like a brother to me since I was 15 years old, I'm 61 now. I've never told anyone that I made this quilt, but recently, I pulled the quilt top out of the closet and decided I want to finish it and give it to my niece, their daughter, as something that is, in a way, connected to her daddy. She's a very special niece to me, and I feel that I'm special to her. I'm just not sure if I can tell her the story of this quilt, without losing control, and I would sure love to get through it without losing control, for her sake. Tell me, do all of you think this is a good idea, or not? I just can't think about finishing the quilt and letting anyone else have it.

I use my steam oven for almost everything. It is much better at reheating food than a microwave or regular oven. For example, I had some leftover chinese food yesterday - microwaved rice is usually kind of hard. I put everything in the convection steam oven in the plastic and waxed paper takeout containers, set the oven to 220 degrees at 50% steam for 15 minutes - when it comes out, everything tastes great like it is fresh. If you keep the oven temperature below 220 or so, you can use plastic containers or your regular dining plates because they won’t melt - it’s the same temperature as putting them in the dishwasher. I could reheat the same food more quickly (in about 10 min) if I put it in an oven-safe container and turned up the heat. The food stays moist because of the steam. They’re really good for roasting chicken or broiling fish because the outside gets crispy, but the inside doesn’t dry out. Anything that you’d cook in boiling water on the stove can also be cooked in it - pasta, rice, quinoa, oatmeal, etc. You can stick an egg in there and make a hard boiled egg in 6-7 min. You can steam veggies, fish, lobster. and lots of people use it to get a chewy crust on bread. many people get rid of their microwaves when they have a steam oven, but I still like having a microwave for my kids’ food or some frozen meals. My oven has preprogrammed recipes - for example, you can tell it that you want to cook salmon, broccoli, and rice, and have everything ready by 6pm. It will then tell you what time to put everything in so that it is all ready at the same time - the flavors don’t mix in a steam oven so you can cook fish and broccoli in the same oven without a problem. You can also use it for sous vide cooking because it has very low precise temperatures. So basically it can be used as a regular oven without stream, a pure steamer, a sous vide cooker, or a combination for anything that you want to bake/heat but keep moist. The Miele oven that I have has a plumbed water line so I don’t have to refill the tank. I’ve also used it as an extra warming spot when my warming drawer gets full because you can turn the temperature on very low.

For that size of garden buy your compost in bulk this first year. If you can find a local bulk supplier it's usually much less expensive than you might assume. I pay around $250 for 8cu.yd. (thats 144 bags worth) delivered which would cover the planting area of your garden (assuming you plan to have some paths) 3-4" deep which is plenty for the first year of no-till. Cardboard to put down first should be easy to come by if you just moved and with everyone buying so much more online, my neighbors buried me in cardboard when I asked for donations. I've done double digging and no-till and I will never double dig again (not just because I'm a lazy gardener) Where are you located?