I've done searches in the past and posts always seem to disappear after a couple of months. This is regrettable, but I'm not sure they're doing anything different. I've gotten in the habit of saving a few of my really long-winded answers on my computer, because it seems like a number of questions, like "How to dig?", get asked again and again. Then I just cut and paste.

Tom, I really have not look at the archives but about your question on the fall vegetables like broccoli, it is better to succession plant them a little at a time. I usually start mine in a big container and after that I put them in the garden. Broccoli can benefit to an early start since they take a very long time to grow. If you start your own seeds and supplement with good quality transplants bought at the nursery you can have a longer season. When I saw the way they grow seedlings at Knox nursery, I learned that they put something on the seedlings to make them short and bushy, of course they did not say what it was.-( I will start broccoli the first days of August. Silvia

Outside playing, my busyness seems to come and go. But there's nothing like a day spent with other women and my kids' peers to remind me how good I really have it. My kids are healthy even though they're a lot of work (and they aren't little!) my parents are mentally and mostly physically healthy and alive and nearby if frail and 90+, I have a pretty supportive DH, my living room does not have a foot (or 6!) of water in it, I can kind of choose my hours, I don't run my Roomba with a new puppy in the house (has everyone seen that story?) etc. robo, your grandmother is very perceptive! With the caregivers I can go back to being a daughter mostly. My next step is to hire a maintenance service to look after the house (things like checking the gutters and basement and tending to the issues that arrise), because I spent a week mentally berating a sibling for thinking that "that leak isn't so bad" while I sucked up gallons of water with my floor machine. I don't mind the cleaning as much as the berating: one is execise, the other is bad for my spirit. Yes, another option would be to move them out of the house, but who are we kidding? Today, of course, brings a new issue: the hospital wouldn't do a "full admit", but "admit for observation". Argh. Medicare and I have a love-hate relationship. I don't do that kind of bookkeeping well.

I have no idea what people here do, Sephia. Personally...I don't have the time nor the inclination to read every single thread. There are days upon days when I never visit KT because my real life prevents me from doing so. What I was trying to contribute is there are two sides to this issue. It's not necessarily a matter of changing times. Often the subjects mentioned end up in nasty, verbal confrontations and name calling rather than as respectable conversations. The members of the KT...as I've observed over the 20 years I've been here...are very news savvy and observant people. And I'm sure...they get their fill of the news in their private sectors. KT is their place to rest and relax for a spell. I don't dictate. I do...and did...try to present a complete picture of this forum and its members. And I really don't measure my success or anyone else's by the number of "likes" one gets. IMO there's room for everyone here as long as we all treat each other with respect. If you want a good argument...take it to the HT forum. Many a good battle is fought there on a regular basis. If members don't scroll by a topic it's because they may be interested or curious. When that topic becomes a back alley snippy fight...that's when the trouble starts. I don't think it's a matter of control by some members. It's a request to take squabbles and insults elsewhere. Why is that so hard to do? .