Xmas cactus don't have leaves. Each 'branch' is a stem composed of numerous little segments or joints. At the end of each segment are the cells that will initiate new root growth. And more stems, down the road. Stem cuttings won't work unless they are nice and healthy. Don't even bother if the stem sections you're trying to propagate are still soft and wrinkled. Each cutting should consist of three or four segments. Don't be tempted to take large cuttings (with a bunch of segments), as that will greatly reduce your success. I actually never let mine dry out for a few days, but I know that others urge that you do so. As long as you use plenty of perlite in your potting medium, rot will not be a problem. Take as many cuttings as you like. I will typically take three from the same plant and insert them (together) in a small clay pot for rooting and growing. These cuttings result in a well-balanced finished plant. Also, I'd strongly suggest that upon sticking the cuttings into your perlite/potting medium that you drench it then and there. Those cuttings will need moisture in the beginning. Again, by adding plenty of perlite, you reduce the chance of rot. (You can even use 100% perlite, which is what I do.) Attached is an image of a cactus stems consisting of about three segments each.

We have our house listed with a real estate and we are also advertising it on Craig's list ourselves. We have an agreement with our realtor that we can sell it ourselves without paying a commission. We have had no one look from the real estate (listed for one month - but not the best time during the holidays) and 6 people who qualify and are seriously interested from Craig's list, ... but all 6 have to sell their homes - one would qualify without selling but they don't want to carry two mortgages even though they have just rented their other home. So there are people looking and if they do sell their homes, we are hoping they will remember our home if it is still available. We had a couple of companies contact us and didn't email them back except one which sounded ligitimate - they were an investment group, we gave them the particulars about our property, but not our financial picture or any personal information and no last name, not what we owed etc. I told them we didn't have to sell but if they were seriously interested to make us a reasonable offer, we never heard back from them. I think more buyers are looking at Craig's list and more sellers are putting their homes there. Definitely put your home on Craig's list and be sure to post the best 4 photos you have of the home, also use flickr or photobucket and have a link to more photos of your home and put the link in the ad. We are looking at Craig's list for when we sell our home and we only look at the ads with photos of the home. Make sure your home stays near the top of the list on craig's list, don't let it go to the next page, most folks don't look any further than the first page of ads. Just cancel the ad and re-up it - but no sooner than every two days. A little house and lots of land, right up my alley, but not in your state - too cold. In 1993 we couldn't seem to sell our home through a real estate (we lived in Arkansas then). We finally decided to sell it ourselves, put an ad in a newspaper of the next closest city to us and sold it. All the real estate agents said we would never sell it (for the price we wanted). We also had a relative set up a website for the home the same week, but when it hit the search engines we had already sold it - one guy called us from the website and was really mad it was already sold - saying "but it just came up on the computer". Thank goodness we were persistent or we'd still be there. You never know who's looking to move where. Good luck.

SDMomof2 � Thank you for the advice. I will follow up with that. Perhaps I should try and find a good fabricator in my area and try that approach. Annkathryn - I will try that with the company Ikea works with if I can. I think I can still get 20% off. Yes I am very concerned about if I am making a mistake and having my kitchen turn out to look cold instead of warm. I am trying to learn but so far have bought all Ikea white glossy cabinets. Not sure if I can exchange some at the moment or not (they are still in original boxes). Would it look better to have darker cabinets on the base and white glossy on the walls? I have been going back and forth in my mind between darker countertops or lighter. Darker will give more contrast. I am looking at lighter but then have the problem of trying to keep a warm overall look to the kitchen. The white macaubus seems to have some light gold/brown in the veins but not sure if that is enough to bring in a warm look. This is not easy. How do other people do this to get that "WOW" type of kitchen?? Do they hire a good designer or would a good fabricator know what to do? Thank you for the Sochi link. Sochi � You have the "WOW SO AWESOME" kitchen that I want. How did you know how to do that? Did you hire a designer? You have a great sense of doing contrasts. I love it. Can I hire you to do my kitchen? That slab that they were trying to sell me seems to have too much broken lines that look more like cracks than just veins. Your lines seemed like more shifting and much smoother. I can post another picture. I am afraid I made a mistake of getting all glossy white cabinets. My kitchen is small and gutted at the moment. I have the idea to knock my dining room wall out to open the kitchen/dining area. The Ikea cabinets are still in the boxes. Now am trying to figure out what to do to bring in warmth into the kitchen. Should I try to exchange the base cabs for a darker base and keep the upper walls glossy white? I am not sure if I can do that but maybe I can as long as they are still in the boxes. So far I have all white Ikea glossy cabs, natural bamboo flooring and stainless steel appliances. Any ideas from this point to bring in warmth? Annkathryn did suggest some things. I am trying to keep my costs down and do as much as I can myself because I may sell the place. I do want under cabinet lighting controlled by dimmers. Gee there is so much to learn about kitchens, much more than I ever imagined. Any others in my situation or have any thoughts on what to do? Thank all of you so far. Again, this is not easy.

My favorite storage place for canned goods in jars is in the pantry space beneath the staircase. It is in the very center of the house and stays pretty dark and pretty cool and not real humid. An interior closet works almost as well, but in our house, that means carrying everything upstairs to use a closet in a spare bedroom. Some years I have used the in-ground tornado shelter, though it works best for stuff you are canning in autumn after the worst of the heat is already over....and you need to use them up before the following summer arrives. I do like the tornado shelter for autumn-harvested winter squash, but then, we do not get very cold down here in winter. I don't know if it would work as well in zone 6 as it does in zone 7b.