Once hired a student out the Jr. college that had a course in horticulture and they gave one credit if a student worked inside the industry during the summer break. I thought it might be a win-win situation where I would get a worker who was actually interested in plants and the business and they would get better pay than one of the big box stores were paying and some college credit also. Went to career day at the college and found a 22 year old man who seem qualified. First day he comes in thirty five minuets late. One of my pet peeves. At the time all of our plants were in pots grown in fir bark. The main task that day was repotting. All you had to do was take a plant in a 4" pot and dump the old bark out, wash off the plant and repot it into a 6" pot. Seems simple enough and all the material was light weight that a child could do it. So I could get to know him a little bit I decided to do the same job next to him figuring that the learning curve here for a college kid was in the first five minuets and then just repeated for the rest of the day. It was obvious that I --- the very elderly man --- was producing much more results than he was. I encouraged him to keep up. After lunch he wanted to learn something new. He had had enough potting up. But while I said we would do many different tasks within the plant industry... today all these young plants needed to be repotted so we could get them ready to be sold. Next morning he didn't show up for work but came around in the afternoon to pick up his paycheck for one day's work. Quote "This is too much like work!" Obviously he thought that a job was getting a paycheck but without any effort. Most of my employees are pretty good overall. But sometimes you come across a situation that you just cannot guard against because you didn't think anyone could survive without one iota of commonsense. Like the time a thirty year old was water the pots and the water was coming out with such force that it was forcing the fir bark along with the plant out of the pot. Had over 100' x 6' of empty pots and suddenly bare root plants. I feel there is not much you can do with someone this to the bone stupid and it will only get worse in time. This guy has the record for the shortest employment, I doubt I could of been able to help him become better in time. Of course when these two first showed up looking for a job they said all of the right stuff... They are pretty good at interviewing for a job. ... but not keeping one. One reason why they are good at interviewing is that they have had so much practice at it !

i don't know where you have been, women have been the largest group of consumers in our industry for years, it's a natural progression. your not gaining on us, your in control

Thanks for the kind words and thoughts and prayers. Mom is failing faster than was projected. We are probably looking at a weeks at most...unless she breaks out of this pattern of decline. The nurse comes this morning, so we will know more then. The terminal agitation is ramping up. Several grandchildren were in this weekend. She went from actually having a good conversation with one on Thursday to blank stares at the ceiling and incoherent speech on Friday. The oldest and most faithful grandson flew in from Boston to experience Friday only to come Saturday morning, and after she got oriented, he was blessed with a real conversation with her. They said their "I love yous". By Sunday when we returned from church early afternoon, we saw the the huge decline. Two more grandkids came and had to say their tearful goodbyes without Mom being very aware. A married grandson and his wife, from 5 hours away, saw her Sunday morning and my brother thinks mom knew they were there. Systems are starting to shut down more, but we are still feeling blessed to be able to have her here to care for. This is so hard, but still, the strength God gives us along with the peace and wisdom, is a joy to think about and experience. Trusting God for His plan, Terri

thank-you! It was such a relief to come back and see replies and advice! Lavender Lass--Those windows have driven me #$%$^&!!! :) In the end it came to what common window sizes worked in our 8ft ceilings and would also give us the longest bank of windows without having a post in the middle of my view. I couldn't get 3 windows to work as well. Our roofline is low on this side of the house and the exterior soffits protrude so I have to be careful of balance. I'm quite at peace with the windows/sink location. The windows will be square. rhome-I'm glad you addressed the cupboards flanking the range. I'm not sure why I'm having such a hard time visualizing those. I have a bank of cupboards like you described (no corner angling). I know some people dislike them but I guess I'm tall enough that the reach doesn't bother me. Good idea on turning that pantry. I had planned on using it as a combo broom closet/bulky appliance (crockpot,electic griddle, etc.) cupboard My only concern is if it would work with the existing flush wood vent that is in the hardwood in that location. florantha--I'm waffling on plunk space---I know the evil of which you speak. We've gotten better as we have a very tall dog with a whippy tail and counter-height nose. processing leftovers-to the right of the cleanup sink, same with toast (the toaster will likely live to the left of the range) Making sandwiches will either happen there or on the island. florantha/bmore As far as the microwave I *think* I'm going to put it on the left of the island. I know myself well enough that I would rather take an extra few steps out of my work triangle then to have someone IN my work triangle. I tend to do a lot of re-heating from the kitchen table and from our coffee/tea station (the far-left from the cleanup sink, where the open shelves are) so it would certainly be convenient for that. Our girls are forever microwaving their hot wheat bags 'warm-ups'. bmore-I hope we can make the disposal work with a pull out garbage. The garbage would be pulling out on the corner, towards the windows and the base sink cabinets would open towards the fridge. Would that work? Is it rhome that has a similar setup? sandyponder--I knew I recognized your name, it kept coming up in archived posts about corner ranges when I was exploring that avenue! . I'm going to make that prepsink as large as the cabinet will allow although I haven't figured out schematics yet. Stay tuned for more questions on that when we start picking cabinets and sinks! I'm being booted off of the laptop as my DH just plated dinner. Thank you all so much for the time and thought put into your replies.