edweather: I'm with you on the Russets. All the potato dishes I love are far better with them: baked, mashed, French fried, scalloped. The only thing I prefer waxy potatoes for is potato salad. My family loves Russets so much that I used to take them on the plane with me when we vacationed in a cottage on the Florida panhandle. We could never find a decent potato in the little stores down there. (The beef was awful too! We're hopelessly Midwestern.) Of course, Homeland Security put an end to potatoes on the plane. terrybull: According to the sources I've seen (Washington State University, Maine Potato Lady) Nicola is a mid-season variety. Seed Savers Exchange says it is a late season that matures in 90-110 days. I thought late season varieties typically took more than 130 days to mature. Please report back to let us know how yours turn out. I have read that only a few late season varieties will grow stolons with tubers all along the buried stem, which is what you want in a potato tower. Potatoes are like tomatoes in that some are indeterminate and some are determinate. Determinate potatoes flower once and produce one layer of potatoes and die, so they are not suitable for a tower. Indeterminate potato varieties apparently flower continuously throughout the growing season (like yours, edweather?). Most potatoes are determinate. Some potatoes don't actualy bulk up until the weather turns cold. Russet Burbank is a classic indeterminate potato that takes 140-150 days to mature. If I ever do anything like this again, I'm going to look for a potato that takes at least 135 days to harvest. And I think I'll leave it in the ground as long as possible. Whoops. Looks like I'm dreaming again.

Thanks for your replies and for the prompting. Silly me - I should have included what I am doing to get the train back on the tracks! I held the old cab makers feet to the fire to fix all the basic stuff like mismeasured shelves, wrong cab size and replacing drawers with correct thickness of bottom. That was all required to finalize our divorce agreement. I had my GC do the cab install. It was orginally out of scope for them and I paid more to have them do it vs the old cab maker but was worth it to ensure the job got done right. Then I was referred to another cab maker who is finishing the job by re-ordering all new door and drawer fronts, will drill the hinge holes and ensure everything fits. I then signed a change order for the GC to prime and paint the first coats of paint and I will paint the last coat by hand to get the brush strokes I want. Ultimately I am paying more than I would have (+$3,000) and I incured a 3 week delay but given how problematic this guy was, it became clear I needed to just cut my losses and move on. I am a single professional so while it is a PITA it is manageable. I would rather live another month in the construction zone and get the kitchen done right. My cats have settled into the construction zone and have come to love lounging on the microwave that sits on the folding table in the diningroom! They like all the boxes in the livingroom- it is like a big fun park! Patriot I love your perspective and sure wish I had that experience. My theory was that he was under great financial duress which was causing him to make poor decisions but the errors kept mounting so at a certain point it did not matter what his problem was, he just had to go.

Thanks everyone for the kind words of support. I wasn't intending to have a "pity party" by any means. Just basically was frustrated at losing so many roses and had to sort of explain the whys. Sheila, I hope you have fun building your new garden! I know what you mean about the drip emitter-thing. I don't use many of those, I use mini sprayers on stakes, attached to the drip line with the 1/4" "spaghetti" line. Sometimes trying to move or replace them it's hard to find where they're connected. So much overgrowth of weeds and layers of pine needles! LOL OMG Seil, you mentioned violets... I forgot about those infernal things. Wild violets grow everywhere here. I kinda gave up for awhile on digging them out too. But where I am digging them out, I'm finding tons of snails and other undesirable critters. Auuggghhh!! Rebecca, speaking of grass... the other side of the yard from where we've been working is overgrown with Bermudagrass. I hate that stuff!! My husband tried digging a bunch of it out a few yrs ago, and he told me I was probably going to have to dig out the roses and start all over again!! I said "no" but we may have to do that!! Thank you Rose_crazy! I certainly appreciate it!! Thanks Jim, Mustbnuts, Towanda and Buford for your encouraging words! Cynthia, you are so right. I really need to get cuttings of some of my really rare roses out there so they are not lost forever. My plan was to send a lot to John Bagnasco, but he's soo busy with his radio show and all the other things he does. Maybe in the fall.... Thanks Patty. I know you're right. It can only get better. I know I will eventually find a job, but it's really an eye opener after two and a half decades of not having to get out there!! Oooh Diane! What wonderful Benardella rose is that??? I really must get his ROEDEAN and ZEBRA out to someone to propagate them!! Nicole you're so kind. Yes the financial part is very discouraging. We had such plans of retiring a little earlier than maybe we should, but now we can't afford to. And not being able to find a job is really frustrating. I just don't know if I'm not good at interviews, or what. Or they just seem to want stronger younger people. I am however enjoying not working, and it's going to be a rude awakening when I do go back. It's almost 11 months since I lost my job. I'm getting set in my ways now. Crap, maybe I sabotaged myself in the interviews.... I dunno. The interviews are so different from yrs ago. So many weird "scenario" questions. I just don't get it. I mean I'm only looking for a minimum wage retail job. Not like I'm going for some big high-paying corporate career! Sandra, thanks so much!! You are so sweet! Yeah, we do have that work ethic that so many of the younger generations don't seem to have. But it's funny. In my case, they chose to let me go... one of the more knowledgeable employees in the dept, and kept the two newer employees who are very nice retired gentlemen, but they know little to nothing about gardening. And one even said he didn't want to learn the dept... he just wanted to stock shelves and talk to people. If anyone needed help with actual gardening questions, he'd pass them off to one of us who knew about it. Oh well, I guess it's not about the quality of the employee, it's about the pay grade. I was making $3.50 more than minimum wage, and only working 24hrs, where the new guys were working 36-40hrs at minimum wage. So the new boss gets more for his money that way I guess. But... customer satisfaction apparently wasn't an issue. Go figure... Thanks again so much you guys. I'm tryin' my best to get the rose beds cleaned out. But we pay extra for a third green waste can, and they only pick up every other week. I already have 2 1/2 filled up and have another week left before they pick up. So I can't get much done this weekend. My husband could make a dump run, but well, this weekend is a holiday one and we have family coming. So it'll be aother week before I can really clean up more crap outta those beds. I just wish they picked up the green waste every week. Oh well, we can only do what we can only do! LOL

For some reason I never could warm to to Umberto Eco's writing, no mater how much of it is spot on, see his last quote.