There ARE no accidents here, everything is done intentionally. Of course, I don't think Cheney saw a feathered creature anywhere either, but he shot anyway. Hey, when things get boring, just shoot, and liven things up a bit. Sometimes a man's got to do, what a man's got to do. Kt

Kellie--Some of that bigger stuff can go in the pantry, but not all of it can. I want all my food stuffs in the pantry first and foremost. I hate walking out to the garage every day to get that cans, etc. There will be left over room in there for non-food items. But remember, I have a LOT of non-food items, many huge and awkward, to store too. Blfenton--I don't mind the cabs in some places. I will store the stuff I hardly ever use (like the huge commercial stock pot on the kitchen side and the punch bowl on the DR side) in the back of the cabs. They don't fit well in drawers. I don't care about digging to the back the two times a year I need those items. I'm sorry if I confused you about the drawers. I was thinking 3 shallow drawers across the top at 16.6" wide each. Then a doored cabinet under the two closest to the fireplace. The cavity inside the two doors would be all open to allow me to store bigger, wider things and move them around as my inventory changes. Then, under the right of those 3 drawers would be 2 deeper drawers, which makes a 3-drawer stack. Does that make sense? Frankly, right now I don't have everything at hand to measure. Nor do I have the time to lay every single item I have out to obsess over what will fit in what size of drawer and how deep that drawer should be. I have so many other decisions I need to make for the house that are holding us up from making progress. Island will be my prep area. I don't have enough storage there for all my prep stuff, so it will overflow back to the drawers flanking the rangetop and share space with my cooking supplies. The drawers to the right of the rangetop will also be cooking items and baking items as I moved the baking zone to the right of the range. Garbage is in a pullout at the north end of the island so it's usable for prep and cleanup chores. Here's my initial cabinet layout before the peninsula shrunk. I also decided on 4-drawer stacks flanking the rangetop instead of 3-drawer stacks. Thanks for the words about my uncle. He wanted to die, but that doesn't make it any easier for those of us left missing him.

Yep doc gave me a z pack and some other meds, I have taken all of them, I think I am finally getting better. I really was worried it was turning to pneumonia but I think we deterred it. Seems every one I talked to is sick or their families are. I first felt ill on Sept 20th as we prepared for the Oklahoma trip. Funny how rumors start. My good friend and neighbor called me to make sure I was home, seems the neighbors across the street from her saw an ambulance come down our street and thought it came here, then she talked to one of the garden club ladies that told her I was very sick and may be in the hospital! So suddenly every one is calling me to see if I am home from the hospital! I told my friend to please let me know if someone is scheduling my funeral because I want to see who attends! Today I ran into the President of the garden club and she said oh you're out of the hospital. I just shook my head and laughed.

NH Fish & Game says to take feeders down by April 1. We usually see a mother bear and cubs in the spring and then usually not again although at one 4th of July party a bear strolled along the stone wall maybe 200 yards away in the middle of the day. The UPS guy says he always checks the area near our house where the woods meet a marshy meadow. He has video of cubs scrambling up a tree. We have watched cubs playing while mama made work of something near the stone wall, perhaps an insect nest. Across the road a bear tore a dead tree apart to get insects. We have never had a problem with one coming to our compost bins but I usually top kitchen scraps with a thick layer of grass clippings or leaves. That said, a gardening acquaintance in a very rural area of New London (last house on a dirt road) had a bear tear into her garden shed to get the bird seed. We also have deer and other wildlife that usually stay away from the house. Maybe they just have more wild food available. I have more trouble with voles and chipmunks doing damage to the vegetable garden. One time we did not give permission for someone to train his bear dogs on our property. Of course, the dogs didn't know property bounds. Someone was camping next to the river and the dogs chased the bear towards them. Upon seeing the people, the bear jumped into the river. The farmer used to plan corn in the field on the other side of the stone wall and we used to see more wildlife then. It's a hayfield now so we usually only see deer and one porcupine. Even the wild turkeys have stopped visiting and they used to roost in the pines along the edge of the field.