Jen, I don't believe you will find many suggestions about watering plants on a schedule. You say you will water every week or two..instead of the 4 - 6 weeks you have been doing. Its very easy to know when to water a plant. Treat it like you would yourself....drink when you feel thirsty. You water a plant WHEN IT NEEDS IT....NOT WHEN YOU FEEL YOU SHOULD WATER IT. Plants require watering at different times, in different amounts and for different reasons. In their summer months, wherever/whenever that occurs, they require more water than in their wintertime when they are not growing. Thus, for a plant in winter, it can often go without water for weeks so that you can safely go on vacation and not worry about whether it has received sufficient water. I suppose I'm the person who is referred to about having different perspective on plant care. Well, so much for manners. We all have a reason to wish to try to help where and how we can and if different opinions are expressed, they should be taken as such....opinions. Unlike the car that Henry Ford put out.....you can have any color you want......as long as its black... we allow that others have thoughts on the best approach about plants and we respect each other's right to do it. Al......that mention about 40 - 45% of water retention. I suppose you have a reputable, maybe professional meter that reads such moisture level....and what about other soils. All soils I would suggest do not lose or retain such moisture in the same way, in the same time. So whether a soil retains sufficient moisture to give to a plant would then depend on what kind of plant is in that soil and its particular needs. And this 40 odd percent moisture level....I assume is in the ball rather widely held so that the roots are indeed in contact with some percent. I contend that letting a soil dry out too much, will, in time, cause shrinkage....and shrinkage can only be allowed to go on for a time before it becomes dangerous. It too can depend on the type of pot the plant's soil is in. Plastic holds water much longer than does wood...or clay. Metal....no need to go into. Ceramic.....again...it holds water longer. Much better for the novice houseplant owner to use a material that can offset bad care.....for a time. I contend also, since the wick is at the bottom of the drainage hole and allowing it to dry up, is bad water care. Plants do not rot just because they have a little moisture around them. Its when there is too much water and the water is being made to be drawn up into the plant above. If the wicking of the roots are unable to further suck up moisture to the foliage (and blooms) above, then there is little concern about whether there is too much moisture. The finger is as good a meter as one wishes to find. WE use our heads....our commonsense, to decide whether the soil has sufficient moisture in it. Lke the lemon pie, add a bit of lemon juice over it before it goes into our mouths will not adversely change the taste. Adding water so it reaches the roots is the goal...and should be always the case.

Thank you again, my friends. Julie, you are SO right, I feel so much better talking this through with this group and getting suggestions, input, and condolences! Vicky, so nice to see you here and thank you for your encouragement. Last night I saw the woman who is to receive this quilt. I showed it to her and she loved it. She told me that she has never made a quilt and she has never owned a quilt before and she is thrilled. I told her that I tried some new things and some worked better than others (obviously she saw where it was falling apart) but I didn't point out all the faults and she told me that she really liked the fact that I experimented. Ironically, she was particularly impressed with the machine quilting. One of her colleagues quilts and sends all of her tops out to be quilted, so my friend had in her mind that quilting a top is a very difficult, impressive thing to do! Ha, if only she knew how I felt about MY quilting. But I kept that to myself and just told her I hoped it would hold up to the wash after I finished re-sewing all the circles. Anyway, thank you all again for listening and participating in my quilting saga. Lola

I think it's going to be a hard road in your situation, even if it ultimately works out. Coming into the life of any ***teenager*** ---no matter how perfect/imperfect either the SK or the SP (or the BP) is or isn't--- there are many classic & predictable issues that must be worked through. (In addition to just the ones of classic, typical adolesence itself). Again, this isn't a sign that the blended family is failing, just going through its natural processes. Where many people unfortunately make a mistake and end up making a stressful adjustment so much worse (and into permanent rifts sometimes) is when these normal things get turned into Major Malfunctions. Somebody always ends up in therapy, but usually not together. Everyone's feeling unsure, ambivalent, yadda yadda yadda, and the impulse is to ascertain who is "The Problem". Chrisb123 correctly points out that there tends to be a 'scapegoat' in these situations. And that role is free-floating and in a constant state of negotiation. It's all too easy for an SP to feel like a scapegoat (after all, they are the "new" element). But this tends to foul up the nice new marriage and in any event still doesn't take away the tense, unsure feelings all around. It is quickly deemed undesirable as a group dynamic, especially by the parent and step-parent, who tend to have more power and means in the family and thus more ability to adjust the dynamic. Thus the next phase in the blended family adjustment is often to swiftly invert the 'scapegoat' role onto the SK. Thus, he becomes the lone 'problem' on the therapists' couch. ("See? He's IN THERAPY... He must be THE PROBLEM...") And SK gets rightly angry about it, feeling....well... scapegoated, and maybe starts to develop more serious anger with the SK. And the BP. So the therapy doesn't tend to "stick" too good at this point, in that scenario. The whole family needs to go to therapy together, period, to work together so that NOBODY has to erroneously feel like The Problem.

Here is what I heard from the company that did the shingles roof of my house. Names have been changed or omitted to protect the innocent. ;) First Reply: Hi – It looks like they originally installed an EPDM rubber roof system up there and then applied a coating to it once it started to fail and cause leaks. I’m not sure on the leaks obviously, but most people would not spend $4-5 a SQ FT to apply a temporary solution for no reason whatsoever. It also appears to have been applied during the summer which is why you’re seeing bubbling in certain locations. Even though you’re not experiencing leaks, you can see on some of the zoomed in photos that some of the fiber from the rubber membrane is exposed due to aging. That’s obviously not a good thing. How much life remaining is almost impossible to narrow down since most people are pro-active and try to fix a problem before it becomes one and other people wait until they have interior damages to repair before doing anything about the source of the leak. I can’t speak for you there. Moving forward, we would recommend a TPO system (Thermoplastic Polyolefin) that utilizes fuse welded seems and also has energy efficient properties. This is the same type of membrane that’s used on commercial roof systems and new modern homes without roof pitch. We’re a GAF certified Master Elite TPO installer so we’re well-qualified to tackle this for you if you decide to go that route. Let me know if you want us to have someone out and get you a quote for that. Hope this helps. Thanks! I then asked him what it would cost, whether a low-slope roof is better, whether a shingles roof could be put in instead, etc. Second Reply: It’s better because there are essentially no penetrations for roof to get into even with product failure. Most shingles cannot be installed on a low-pitch roof and even so, they will typically have issues during heavy rain. We can usually instead a TPO system for $400-650 per 100 SQ FT depending on the area (large commercial projects will see the low end of that) and whether or not we’re adding insulation (PolyISO) board below the TPO as is common practice. I would of course get more than one quote from a low-slope roof specialist if I go that route. What do you guys think? Anyone familiar with the TPO System? Thanks in advance. (I still haven't gone up to measure the pitch. So, shingles may or may not be an option).