Tom: I am not familiar with red pine in your area. Here in northern VA red pine is not an option. In Garrett county MD they are planted for pulpwood, but have problems with beetles and annosus root rot disease after 30 years or so, and no one is keeping any to grow for timber. In my pine plantings, a few of my red pine are beginning to die. I have been very careful to treat all the stumps of any I cut to keep annosus out, so I am not sure what the cause of the mortality is. I haven't confirmed anything. I keep the trees thinned out so they are vigorous, and should resist beetle attacks. I see evidence of beetles, but I am not sure if they are primary or secondary contributors to death. So, in the area of my timberland I would not recommend planting red pine. But your area may be different. You already have native white pine, and I love those. If I were starting over at my timberland with plantings, I would do larch Norway spruce, and white pine as the main species. Does your forester have any recommendations about the red pine? Has he talked about any risks? In my pine plantings, the Norway spruce, the white pine, and the red pine do well together. The Norway spruce started a bit slower than the red and white pines, but they got going fast enough so that they grow up with them well. With the red pine, I was afraid they would be outstripped by the white pine and Norway spruce, but that has not been a problem. The Norway spruce and the white pine are growing faster, and will eventually be much taller, but after about 40 years, they are still compatable. Of course, you can plant them in seperate blocks, or mix them. I would do some of both kinds of plantings. One consideration with the red pine--the trees don't assert dominance in a stand very readily, which means they need artificial thinning to maintain a healthy stand. Norway spruce will sort themselves out very, very readily, with the stronger trees overtopping, and eventually supressing the less vigorous trees, so they don't NEED thinning. I thin mine to enhance growth a bit, and make the stand prettier, but after 200 years, unthinned NS stands will be just as fine as stands that were thinned. The same is true of white pine, but in my experience, the best trees don't assert dominance quite as readily. As for larch, I just don't know. My guess is that they will be like white pine or NS in this regard, but I don't know that for a fact. So, my bias here is to plant much more white pine than red pine, but I am sure that red pine, which I assume is native there, is for you a much better bet than for me here. Some say red pine is native to the area of my timberland, but I really don't agree. There IS an outlier of native red pine in one spot in WV, but for me that doesn't qualify it as native to Garrett County MD or other places where a naturally growing one has never been seen. As for your not focusing on planting tamarack, I agree. The native species are not always best. We have native red spruce in Garrett county, but they are far inferior to Norway spruce--no contest. But if you have a very wet area, go with tamarack. They are short lived compared to other larches, but occasionally some have lived well over 200 years. As for NS seed source--boy, this is tough. I wish I could see your seedlings from Itasca. If some of them are growing very, very fast--that's something! You may not be able to do better. But, are some growing very, very much faster than others? Are there a fair number of "runts." If so, that could indicate that some of the seed is coming from trees not cross polinated. Two possible solutions: you can either plant them at tighter spacings to give you more trees, and thus more really fast growing ones. Or you can try to mix in seedlings from another seed source. The Musser may be a good choice, but, what performs well for me here might not do so well there. Also, You should check and see if Musser has made any changes in the seed they use in the last 6 years or so. If so, I know nothing about what they might be offering now. One thing surprized me a bit with my NS here. The finest strain I have seen in the higher elevations in the Appalachians was a stand planted near Glady, WV. I dug up some seedlings and planted them at my timberland. I since dug three of those up again and planted them here in the hot and dry northern Shenandoah Valley. I am stunned by their performance here--all three rank as the best of those I have planted here, with the understanding that most of the 400 or so I have planted here are too small to really evaluate yet. But that that strain does so well in the cool wet mountain environment, AND down here, has surprised me. Unfortunately the stand near Glady was cut three years ago--a real shame! I am not sure what you should make of all I am telling you here, but NS is a remarkable species in its variation and adapability. Well, keep me posed on your plans and progress. Oh, I am becomming more and more an admirer of Thuja! --spruce

The thing is: everything(well ok not everything probably, but most of it) that was made 15 plus years ago -was made better that's why I highly prefer to hunt vintage(even though I'm more hesitant with soft upholstery, but did buy it couple times anyway-you can see the sofa, the house..you kinda rely on your instincts it won't have fleas or something)-they made it better. Whatever the price range was. 20 years ago-great. Fifty years ago-even better. I agree with every comment made (yeah I know))-everybody makes a great point. Yes there are new pieces that cost quite a lot-and advertised like they're so affordable-and I'm sorry but the quality nowadays is-mostly- not there, and the affordability is questionable too. Might matter less with end tables etc, but is important when comes to upholstery. I wait for sales with these..very patiently..I put it in my virtual shopping bag, and can wait for months, like a cat for a mouse, and the company might be tempted to give you your own special price, after all:) That's how I bought a daybed for DS on West Elm site..their cost was 1200..I bought it for 400..)) They delivered it(very nice delivery guys btw, nothing but compliments here)-and yes, it's great for 400 (I just want to remind you it's a daybed, so the whole mattress thing is still on you, which is partially good, that's how you control the quality), but if I would impatiently pay 1200$ they wanted, I'd be livid. One can get very lucky with floor sales. I know I was. Entered a store by chance (had no idea at that time what it was but it seemed very upscale and was on main shopping street in Greenwich CT), fell in love with a bed that was a floor model, the price was reduced from 6+ K to 2200 I believe. It's still expensive for a bed by the way but I was smitten with it. I was smitten to the point I lost my marbles and we payed another grand to get it shipped to CA. Across the country. And you know what? That was worth it. That's a bed by Barbara Barry for Baker s Furniture(that's what the store was)-I bet I'm leaving this world before it does. The moving guys commented they never saw such well built bed in their lives. And they're movers, they see beds each day and have to take them apart, put together, all the shebang. So besides CL, vintage stores, etc-I'd check local stores with good reputation, you never know what they might have drastically reduced, standing there waiting for you. And another source that highly surprized me-Goodwill happens to have its own site. And it so happens that some very upscale stores decide to donate their floor models to local Goodwills. You need to pick it up at certain location, and these will be rare instances, and will be gone soon, But as I myself missed this opportunity to own Roche Bobois chairs etc for laughable money..log in and check your local Goodwill:) The website. You might be pleasantly surprized.

Horrible Sofa.. I bought the Sven Leather sofa and the back cusions got flat in 8 months, we put it in front of the TV qnd use it daily. ARTICLE sent me the back cusions replacements, but they leather color is lighter, faded and it seems very stiff (maybe storred incorrectly). I instered couple od dawn pillows in the back cusions which bought me around a year. Now it looks horrible and deformed. Now installing the replacements which would probaby last 8 motnhs as well, then will add the dawn pillows to buy another year. will end up getting 4 years out of this thing!! The side round pillows sagged after a year, they sell them for $180! My 12 years old Ikea leather sofa which I moved to the basement has 0 sag what sp ever! Very comfortable, no sag what so ever, the leather peeled off little at some placese, corners but thats about it (after 12 years). Do yourself a favor and buy from Ikea, they have some high end leather sofas, prices are close to Article and quality is much better!

We love it! It's a beautiful couch, and super comfortable. Even though it was definitely more than we wanted to spend at the time, we have no regrets at all having owned the couch for about 5 months now. P.S. I don't think I noted it above, but we were able to customize the fabric when we ordered at no extra charge (there was a promotion at the time). When we saw it in person, neither my wife or I were big fans of the texture on the fabric that comes with the sofa. We have a similar (very light colored) performance fabric, which seems to be holding up great so far despite a 2 1/2 yo :)