Colleen, your Echy still adorns my desktop. Doubt not your skill. About the Gasteria, those are the first Gasteria seeds I tried about 2.5 years ago. They came from a spotty Gasteria I bought from a guy named Richard at the farmer's market. The seeds were open-pollinated. These seedlings are special in the way that the "first dollar you ever earned" is special. The hybrids I've created and sown since then are something I can get excited about. 'Spotty Rick' is historically significant, only to myself. I will keep you updated, though, and you're welcome to some of the brood. That's only one of three identical pots. Mara, hahaha! I'm taking beach's down-time as an opportunity to catch up! Seriously though, how can I compete with a real South African? That dude is legit. How, thanks for the info! I'll sow them today! I'm sure it's still warm enough, though it IS pretty foggy today. It feels like the beginning of Fall but I'm hoping for a few more freak weeks of heat! Ashton, gracias!

I don't know of a way but if it were me I would just record it while I played it. Windows sound recorder would work or you could go for something more full-featured like Audacity.

I love making soil. I love it even more when someone else is doing most of the work for me. I'm itching to start some spring planting in my tiny garden, but it's technically still a bit early (our last frost date is supposed to be around the 18th or so, but these days who even knows) and I'm impatiently waiting for the contractors to show up and replace my rotted fence before I can do any planting in the back half where the pile of rock mulch over weed cloth used to be. The fence would have rotted anyway, but the bottom of it was completely eaten away where the rock mulch was piled against it. I have already put down a tiny new tree (Amelanchier x "Autumn Brilliance") which arrived bare root and needed to go in the ground ASAP, but it's not next to the fence, so it should be fine as long as the fence guys don't step on the 18 inch high forked stick which, seen with my eye of faith, is already a handsome small patio tree. The tree went in the spot where the old, scrawny, unhealthy cherry plum used to be, where I have been piling vermicompost and leaves ever since last summer. I didn't amend the planting hole at all - just dug and filled in. Enough leaf mold and vermicompost just fell into the hole to make me feel fine about the start my new tree's roots are getting. Anyway, the "someone else" who is working for me outside is a healthy passel of earthworms, which I can see out there every time I pull back last autumn's leaf mulch, which I diligently collected from the sidewalk in front of my row house and brought out back. Even if I can't set to work yet, I like knowing that they're hard at it. I've seen some of my red wigglers who rode out from my indoor worm bin, and at least three separate species of native earthworms: slow gray short guys, some really huge red nightcrawler types, and a longer, thinner, super-active wiggly worm that's new to me. I've also scattered out some seeds and grains for the sparrows and squirrels, inspired by some videos of composting chickens I've watched on Youtube: so there's been lots of pecking and scratching and digging going on in the layer of leaves, which is both fun to watch and will serve to further shred down the leaves for incorporation in the soil. When I do get to the planting along the back fence, I'll try to remember to post a soil pic as a "before and after" to the one at the start of this topic.

One of the best things I did was to research the drugs (prescription and non) I was taking after the various hospital trips. Entered them into the interaction checkers and set up a list of what to avoid with what. Also found out things like what inhibits the absorption of iron and what promotes it. Doctors, clinics and hospitals didn't tell me any of it, just that I was anemic. After changing it myself, I was back to normal levels within a week to two weeks. The doctor basically went "duh". So to those who say to blindly follow the doctors, I say ABSOLUTELY NOT! I become an informed patient, ask questions and research things to get answers.