Thanks for the replies so far, IÂm surprised more people havenÂt chimed in with their random thoughtsÂthis thread isnÂt meant to be a definitive anything at this pointÂitÂs all speculation, observation, and guessing for now. Pdshop, youÂre right, IÂm not married. My dogs have shown an inclination for playing with tubers that were put into a low propagation tray last year so I am taking precautions not to do that again. They have left the plants themselves alone. I will be taking as many pictures as I can. Viking, glad IÂll have someone to trade results with throughout the winter, this is going to be fun! Plantlady, your observations are pretty much what I expected. Your remarks, coupled with my own cutting experience last winter, tells me that a tuber is a sprout factory more or less for life. I had it in my head that a tuber, once it had produced a plant, was pretty much spent. I realize, however, that I took many cuttings from a single tuber last winterÂso why couldnÂt they do it year after year too? With no replies to some of the questions so far, hereÂs my plan: A1: I am going to simply cut the tubers at the pot boundary on the assumption that I can get enough whole tubers in each 4" pot to propagate what I need for next year. A2: IÂm going to keep one or two cut tubers as an experiment, but for the most part I am planning on tossing those that end up with a large cut. A3: I am going to bring the pots in as soon as the stalks are cut and place them in my propagating cabinets to allow the eyes to form. I am going to try and wash out most of the soil from the pot and then place them in the trays, then put a small amount of water into the tray to feed the roots. A4: Thanks Plantlady and misslucinda. A5: Thanks everyone. A6: For those varieties that take a long time to bloom I plan on starting them as soon as theyÂre out of the ground. As a tuber eyes up I will cut it from the original clump and put it into its own pot. I am interested in seeing whether plants grown from tubers, as opposed to cuttings, exhibit any differences (Faster growing? Better growth? Higher survivability?) A7: Thanks misslucinda. IÂll cut off side branches. A8: Guess weÂll just have to see what happens. Hopefully my experiments with the existing blooming plants will give me a heads up as to what to expect next spring when there are too many plants for the cabinets. Cheers, Russ

My vote is for 6 shelves (wasn't that an option?) or even 7 shelves, so definitely add extra rungs !! We also do not stack stuff, so almost all of our shelves are 5" to 8" apart, which is perfect for almost all cans and boxed goods turned on their edge so the boxtop faces out. I also would vote for the shelves to be less deep than 22". A 22" deep shelf will allow you to have 6 Progresso soup cans deep (we never have 6 cans of the same item!), but also tends to end up with stuff hidden behind other stuff in the pantry. Or, it is pushed to the back of the shelf and hard to see because the light does not reach the back of the shelf as well. If you did 10-12" deep shelves instead, that would be 3 cans deep and pretty much all boxed items will fit in that depth as well when they are turned on their side (which is the box height but turned sideways). Then you could have shallow (4" = 1 item deep) 10" wide shelves of varying heights on the left and right side walls of the pantry for all of the things you only have one of. It drives me crazy having to move the peanut butter to get to the can of Pam behind it to get to the bottle of olive oil behind it to get to the bottle of balsamic vinegar behind that. The tallest items we have are a bottle of olive oil at 11.5", Crisco vegetable oil at 11.25", and various vinegars at 10.5" or less. Those items would work perfectly on the 1 item deep side wall shelves of the pantry. You could also hang baskets on the side walls to hold items that come in packets. Do you have somewhere in mind to store your spices ? You could hang a spice rack on the back of the door.

Your SS benefits are not based on the last year you worked. It looks at your highest paid 35 years over your entire working career. It goes something like this: The calculation will be made over 35 years which is 420 months. First, your record is searched for 35 highest paid years. If you do have that many, then there will be some years counted as zero years. Next, the older years are indexed to sort of bring them up to todays dollars. The factors used is something like a cost-of-living adjustment, but in my humble opinion, the adjustment falls short of the actual inflation rate. However, the same index is applied to everybody be they rich or poor. For example, if you earned $100 30 years ago, the adjustment factor might be 4.5, so your $100 income made 30 years ago would be adjusted to 4.5 x 100 or $450 in current dollars. This is done for each year using a different factor for each year. If there are zero years, these are included also. The 35 highest paid years are used or all the years if there is less than 35. All of the adjusted years are totaled and then divided by 420, the number of months in 35 years. This becomes the average monthly income figure that is used to determine your benefit. Clear as mud? I hope it is a little better than that. Go to the social security site to find this information. The indexing list should be there and it may change some for each passing year. The formula for using the average indexed monthly taxed earnings for computing the benefit should be there.

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