Teresa, Thanks for catching that. No! it is bone dry. I've been out since 8 cleaning out gardens and when I got tired mid-afternoon I did that look-up to justify sitting my 60-year-old bones down for a good rest. My gosh, what a luxury to have a) a spring weekday off and b) beautiful gorgeous perfect weather to work in the yard and c) promise of rain tomorrow. ;-) --MH

Thanks Karin for answering and clarifying where I was a little off in my reply...I'm trying to learn from your posts and I read yours any time I see one (I think that MANY of us are fascinated with learning more about the hunk of rock that many of us look to place in our kitchens). Yulia - there have been cases of some GW members finding something that was labeled as quartzite and as Karin mentioned, it turns out that it wasn't. Probably the most important thing that I've learned from my time here is that if etching and/or staining are issues that you prefer to minimize or mostly eliminate, you HAVE to get a piece of the stone that you are planning on using and subject it to the "stress tests". Even that isn't totally foolproof - as I remember from someone else posting, they did get a sample and tested it - the sample passed the test...the slab, once installed, unfortunately didn't so much...you could get a corner that doesn't have those etching/staining characteristics in that small piece of rock because the composition of the rock can vary - I'm not sure how often that happens, but it can. The slab composition can change from slab to slab as well. It's fairly reasonable to figure that two side by side slabs are likely to be mostly the same composition...but something that was later in the "harvest" could have a different composition of ingredients to it. I'm sure that I'm not explaining that any where nearly as well as what Karin could because I've learned probably just about enough to be dangerous! Still - the caution remains the same...get a sample of anything that you are seriously considering putting into your kitchen and beat that baby up if etching or staining is something you worry about. Don't take the word of someone else who has the same named stone...yours may have the same name (and it may or may not be the correct name) but came from a different quarry or even a different section of the same quarry and be quite different.

We installed a redwood ceiling in our bedroom years ago. Planned on knotty pine but it was a little too "tahoe-y" for our home; found the redwood and loved it. So it was an easy call with the second remodel. We looked at cedar too but couldn't get long enough pieces to work. But it was honestly a nightmare for the guy who installed it. Then the painters wanted to paint it white!!! At least we stuck to our guns about the ceiling. Well worth all the headaches. One downside of the roll out shelving w/in cabs is it's two separate actions to get to your stuff. Opening both doors of the cabinet wide enough not to nick the inside of the doors, then pulling out the shelf/tray. And I guess you lose a little square footage of storage too, as drawers w/o cabs would fill the space more fully. It is easy access though, as the sides of the shelves are low, and you're not reaching down into a drawer. I have serving bowls in deep drawers and have no access issues; on the other hand my warming drawer has open sides so it's super easy to lift platters in and out with the openness. If you do keep really heavy things like cast iron in just a drawer choose your handle carefully. My larger drawers on my island don't have heavy contents, but I can feel a little wiggle of the handle when I open them, so I'm gentle. Most of my cast iron is on the roll outs, and they are super substantial. (I told my cabinet maker they'd be used for cast iron.) Also, you're not pulling on a handle, you're pulling on the whole front board of the tray/shelf. I would have liked to have drawers for my "pantry" cabinet I think, having the same set up with cabinet doors and two ROTS. It's a lot of movement just to get to the baking soda. But the upside with that is once the doors are open and the shelves are pulled out I have access to both the top and bottom stuff (all baking supplies) at the same time, so it's all good. I think there are kitchen people steadfast in both camps. I gave in to my cabinet guy when he said having cabinets breaking up the drawer runs would look better. What ever combo you opt for, they both are miles ahead of the "old days" of lower cabinets with stationary shelves that you had to get down on all fours to see what the heck was lost in there! So glad to be rid of those.

Lilyfinch, thanks for your kind words and well-wishes. I'm hoping to be out of the hospital soon, to finish mending at home with the hope of supervising some garden work until I'm healed enough to resume myself. Ingrid, I got Duchesse de Brabant as a one-gallon from Chamblees. Your many posts inspired the purchase, and I'm delighted to have this rose, even if it only does bloom during cooler weather. I'm growing it in conditions opposite yours: only a few hours of the strongest afternoon sun, so I'm impressed it does as well as it does. Regarding the yucky stuff, I became a beached whale after a minor injury that incapacitated me. When I couldn't get an expedited appointment to take care of the injury, I floundered trying to take care of myself, and ended up with multiple fractures, torn ligaments in several areas, including one torn all the way off, three stage three decubitus ulcers, and a suspected DVT. So here am, still hospitalized, getting stabbed in the belly with injections every night, after almost three months, when I should have been up and running in a few days. Thank God I'm in the hands of exceptional and caring physicians, nurses, and therapists -- some of them friends, former classmates, and clients. The hospital is set in a lovely and serene garden, which makes me yearn to get back to my own gardens all the more --- SOON! And I'll have roses waiting to be planted when I get there! Sammy, I'll have to check out Miss Caroline. But I agree -- DdB is a very pretty rose and I'm so glad I discovered this one thru Ingrid and the forum.