Jojo..Thank you so much..:-)Nope, no more blonde moments and Mom send you a a big hello! She tells me she may want to visit you if we head to Arizona...:-) Jodik..Thank you for your common sense in understanding it was simply a mistake in forgetting to water, and thank you for your confidence in my ability to nurse them back to health..I couldn't of done this without the mix I use, or by adding more water retentive material, or the support from all of you...The roots would of rotted by now if the dead fine roots had been allowed to take a long time to sit in a damp mix, especially this time of year. Considering it is not the first time I forgot to water, like 5 years ago when I was using bagged heavy mixes, I still forgot! We know why they came back this time and not in the past.... It is not even inconveniant for me to water in the gritty mix at all,which I can not understand why it would be for anyone. If anything much more so in the crappy heavy mixes that rot plants in a quick amount of time should be! Here is what an inconvenience was to me before I use the mixes I do now.... 1. Having to worry if I was ever going to see my plants dry out before they rotted. 2. Having to replace my plants every time I over watered after I watched the croak. 3. Having to deal with gnats everytime my roots started to rot and mix stayed wet to long and then spend money and weeks on traps trying to rid them. 4. Never being able to leave my room a lot colder like I do now so I can avoid pest issues and encourage flowering because the mix I use to use would not dry out and even develope mold issues. 5. Having to spend money on replacement plants everytime I killed the same one I loved over and over and not being able to locate some again. 6. Having to watch my clay pots turn white from salt depsoits and look ugly. 7. Having to worry about fertilizing and salt burn. 8. Having to watch a plant die, instead of come back after a an under watering mistake, because the roots were to weak to take up water before the mix could dry out causing death. 9. Having to deal with dropping yellow leaves every single winter and through out the growing season because of poor root systems.. Oh, I could keep going, but to me, it was more inconvenient to use crappy mixes, soils, or any other than what I use now.. The only thing for me that I have to worry about is this.. I can't forget to water when needed. I would much rather deal with this one inconvenience than all the other inconveniences brought on my using poor mixes.. Hugs to you too!! Thank you all for all your support and kind words... Pug...:-)))))))))))You are wonderful as always! Mike

Thank you so much for the ideas, countrycottageklutz and sandca! Her GC had actually suggested cutting the handles down (she said 'no way', of course), so recessing into to drawer front might work. I'm not sure if the handle style has a small 'stem' or not, but I'll ask her. And sandca, the recessed pulls would definitely solve the problem. I don't know if I trust the GC to install them properly, however... I also did a search at knobs4less on 'low profile' and got several hits, although they still have an inch or over projection. I'll have her measure. Thanks again for the ideas!

mr. gabriel cut his first tooth just yesterday! he will be 8 months old on saturday. he's doing great! i think he's gonna be one of those babies who skips crawling all together and just starts walking. he "walks" all over the place with help from whichever grownup can bend long enough without back pain. LOL! needless to say, we take turns! he has figured out quickly all about putting one foot in front of the other. melissa is in the process of putting gates up to keep him corralled. he LOVES to be in the pool!!! he splashes like crazy and doesn't care a bit about getting his face wet. :) thanks for asking about him! he is the light of my life. i'm going up tomorrow to spend the day with him. he has this cute little fake cry when he's getting tired but fighting sleep. it cracks me up! i laugh at him and he starts laughing back. i LOVE rocking him to sleep! he is eating lots of different foods and is drinking from a little cup!!

Bestyears, I was keeping it vague because discussing dog training methods can be equal to politics! Try telling some of the militant rescue groups that you will be using a different training method than the one they strictly follow ... you will never get a dog from them! Here are two articles from two opposite theories that gives you an idea of how they think. 1) https://positively.com/victorias-blog/balanced-dog-training-theres-nothing-balanced-about-it/ 2) https://www.nitrocanine.com/blog/2015/06/12/in-defense-of-balanced-training/ With my rescue I started out with a purely positive trainer. It worked great in the house and yard as the dog is very food motivated ... BUT outside none of the training made a difference. Critters and the chase were a much higher reward than anything I could offer. I even tried carrying filet mignon! I was being dragged around town by a crazy dog ... even with the easy-walk harness the positive trainer told me to buy. The dog just walked sideways and pushed into the harness. The last straw was when on a walk the dog nearly knocked me, and my father, to the ground when trying to get a squirrel. I had to kick the dog to stop her lunging and get us untangled (my Dad also had our smaller dog on leash). I looked for a different approach and found "balanced" training. The trainer I found is slightly different from #2 above in that they do use food rewards. Happy to message you a link to the training program website and the actual trainer I used. We now go on off leash hikes and I get stopped regularly by people who comment on her behavior and level of training. I got so many questions that I started carrying business cards for the trainer!! One of those people actually contacted and used my trainer, even thought she isn't local. Do your research and choose the trainer and method that best works for you and your dog. The best method will most likely be a combination of several different ones.