Ezzirah, Dryland farming means raising crops only with natural rainfall! For the record, it is hard to do, especially in our part of the country where heat is so extreme and drought is so common and where "enough" rain rarely falls in July and August even when we are not officially in drought. My Dad's family dryland farmed on the Texas side of the Red River about 30 or 40 miles from where I now live back in the 1920s-1940s when he was growing up. It was a very hard life and while they were able to survive on what they raised themselves, they rarely had cash to purchase anything they couldn't or didn't raise themselves. I do think his love of gardening came from growing up on the farm, but he never attempted to grow dryland at our house when I was a kid growing up. In a bad year, about all they could raise dryland style in Nocona, Texas, was corn and pinto beans. Sometimes okra and melons if they had enough rain in May and June to get them going before the real heat arrived. In a good year, they could raise anything and everything and they always canned every bit they could not just for that year but in case the crops failed the next year. When I was a teenager, my dad took us back to the farm (by then it was just a cow pasture and the old unpainted house was collapsing and being used to store bales of hay). The old red sandy-clayey soil there was so poor that there wasn't a lot growing in it. Looking at it, I could not imagine, even as a teenager, how they were able to raise enough food in that soil to feed their family year-round, or how the skimpy pastures had nourished their milk cow, pigs and chickens and also their donkeys that pulled their plow. Somehow they did it, but I cannot imagine raising a garden with no supplemental water at all, especially knowing it was our only food supply. They would carry out the wash tub of water after washing dishes, clothing, or even people, and dump the 'used' wash water on their most precious plants, but that couldn't have amounted to much water in comparison to trying to raise a year's supply of food for 11 people. Care to give dryland farming/gardening a try? Just try raising a garden with no supplemental water. It is the most frustrating thing in the world, especially in drought years. Some of our older neighbors here grew up dryland farming and they have absolutely no desire to have a vegetable garden now. All their memories of growing their food with their parents when they were growing up are painful ones....hauling buckets of water from the river or from a well, hoeing by hand for hours a day, hand-picking bugs in the blistering sunlight, etc. The work was so hard and the results so poor in the absence of rainfall that they never developed the love of gardening many of us have. Think how lucky we are. All we have to do is turn on the water hose.....and pay the water bill! Dawn

We have had the 48" for about a month now. LOVE IT. Not finding it temperamental at all, does help to read the manual tho - needed a small adjustment in the large oven but since the distributor adjusted it, oven settings are spot on. Also no problems simmering. I find it MUCH easier to clean than my old Kenmore and a heck of a lot prettier! I do a ton of canning and the big burner gets the canner boiling in no time. My husband bakes bread a couple of times a week and the loaves have cooked evenly and are beautifully browned. The griddle is efficient and easy to clean as well. I did a lot of research prior to deciding and found the threads here very very helpful. This stove has loads of bang for the buck in both function and aesthetics.

As a soon-to-be buyer, I would want some plain talk about what is and isn't realistic in my price range. Say it nicely, but say it. I have some friends who moved from a rural, low-price part of one state to near where I live-- a more urban/suburban area of my state. Their idea of what they ought to get for the money was seriously not in line with the market here. They couldn't help but contrast how much they paid for their rural house with what they were being asked to pay for less-nice houses here, and it was hard for them to accept that the market is what it is. They had me go along with them on a number of house-hunting expeditions, and I don't think their agent tried to set appropriate expectations. He just took them to places in their price range and let them struggle with convincing themselves of the realities. It took them a long time and a LOT of houses and a lot of very grumpy talk between them about the failings of each and every house they saw. If it were me, I would rather have an agent who at least tried to give me a realistic picture of what was and wasn't possible in the new area. To me, one of the main benefits of using an agent is targeting, and part of hitting the target means being pointed in the right direction in the first place. If I'm not facing the right way, I need the agent to say, "hello, that's not a target for you." It would save me time and aggravation.

We have a full replacement value policy on our house which includes full replacement value on the building and all the contents. We get a discount because there is a fire hydrant within 60 feet of our property and because we have a new roof (Gerard Stone Coated Steel). There is a year-round creek behind our property from which the fire department can get water, and we also have an in-ground pool in the backyard from which water can be taken. Last night on the local CBS news, they gave some tips for what to do if you have enough warning before having to evacuate because of a fire. The tips included: Turn off the gas and all pilot lights Connect all of your hoses and leave them within easy reach of firefighters and volunteers Fill every bucket you have with water and leave them outside within easy reach of firefighters/volunteers Remove all flammable window coverings Move as much furniture as possible away from exterior walls and either put it in the center of the room or, if possible, in another interior room that doesn't have exterior walls