Thank you for posting and verifying what many people in the USA have learned the hard way. I am curious if recent crackdowns on illegally sourced timber and higher taxes on the export of Russian logs have caused Chinese furniture prices to rise? Rubberwood is still relatively cheap, but birch and oak from Russia and tropical hardwoods have risen? N. American hardwoods are low at the moment due to the weak housing market which impacts cabinet, moulding, and furniture demand. There are many pieces of furniture Made in the USA today, and in the past, that have inferior quality standards. Many eventually get sold at yard sales and used furniture stores and then fixed (or tossed into the garbage) by the some owner. Generally, the same problems arise like poor quality joinery, weak or inferior glides, and poor choices for materials in the drawer sides and/or bottom. My biggest problem with world trade is the lack of uniform standards between developing and developed countries. Companies in developing countries get to trash the environment, use stolen raw material, ignore worker rights, etc., and thus produce goods at a lower unit cost (i.e. it's not just the labor rate). To be fair, one could argue that USA companies should have the right to carryout the same practices in order to be competitive. Of course, no one here (USA) wants that, but we just allow this hypocrisy of "free" trade to go on. And then when oil prices get high again, the furniture jobs will probably come back to N. America because of high shipping costs for bulky goods. By then, China will have moved on to supplying its own people with such furniture and/or shifted to producing higher value goods. I believe that all of this "free" trade happened because those few who wanted it for financial gain were able to pay off, in one way or another, our elected officials back in the 70's-early 2000's. Gullible economists assumed that everybody in the world would play fair and raise all standards. I guess economists like to ignore the lessons of history.

Posted by hawk307 : "Hi everyone : I didn't know Dc was at it again. ----" Old dog new tricks? Old tricks old dog? New dog new tricks? I am confused. :-) "--There are 2 definitions , of " Rasher ", ----" Oh yeah? So you think you have the only answer? You are the authority? :-) "---DCarch: I don't care what anyone else says. I think your presentation is great as usual. You may be a little eccentric,LOL !!! -----" Maybe I have Mr. Abby Normal's brain? "---Some have to run to Google and then put in their comments? to show how smart they are ???----" You must be talking about me. I am the only one who Googles to show how smart I am. Here is what I found Goolgling: [Irish bacon may also be called rashers. The Traditional Back Rasher with a high meat quality and unqiue succulent taste. The Maple Cured Rasher, smokey with a sweet aroma for an indulgent, mouth-watering treat and the Beechwood Smoked Rasher for a robust, delicious taste; perfect on it's own or as a five-star bacon sandwich. What is a rasher of bacon? A rasher is a single slice of bacon or raw pork, ----- that it can (also) be a serving of several such slices. ---] dcarch

I have a wild kingdom going..and I would think Crows would make fast work of Mantids. I used to see Jays and Mockingbirds..but once cats started in this neighborhood,rare to see them. Possums would make a snack of them...they eat anything. Even the number of fence lizards has gone down..when they had showed up for a few years out of nowhere. Same for Garter Snakes come to think of it. Could be the wet weather 2 years in a row spread everybody out?

Rusty, my climate is a lot milder than yours. Average low temperature in January is 50°, and average high is 68°. Typically, it won't get below 45° in the winter, but in cold winters, it can get down to 40°, which is not too cold even for most orchids. In the summer, it rarely gets above 80°, but September is the warmest month. We get ocean breezes in May and June that keep us cool, and in the winter, the warm Santa Ana winds prevent us from getting cold. Most house plants will do fine here, but a lot of them will need shade, and I do run out of shady areas. There are lots of microclimates in Southern California, and I am in the beach/coastal microclimate, which is the mildest. I do have trouble with some tropical plants that require a lot of heat because we get very little of that, but I was able to grow mangoes in Venice, which is not too far from where I live now. My climate is similar to South Africa, and so I have a lot of South African plants, as they require little maintenance. I can also grow plants that are native to higher elevations in Mexico and Central and South America. I grew up in Texas and used to visit friends in Mission, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Here's a photo from my back yard January 10, 2019 in the dead of winter: