I was so very tempted to get the cedar fence post by the shed and roll the snowmobile down the bank and off my iris. Figured why stoop to that. Besides my husband thinks he can make it run well enough for my daughter to play in the field. Don't think it will ever be a distance machine. Don't think it's Meth. I don't see the physical signs. There is a big problem here that the police are just starting to recognize. Heroine too has made a strong come back (something I was warning them about constantly in my final years as a cop but nobody listened) Last summer a car full of speed freaks totalled my car. No insurance of course. Both are currently in jail for drug violations. My insurance paid off all but $500. Car was kind of full of crayon and kid goo from my daughter. Fortunately my daughter wasn't hurt. No chance at all I'd ever see my money again. The girl's husband got it into his head at one point that he was going to work for the Dept. of Corrections. Passed the oral and interviews and drug test. Couldn't pass the physical agility. I found this very odd. The pt test isn't hard. I could pass it at 46 and smoking. It's mostly to check if you are in reasonable shape so if you get into a tussle with an inmate you won't drop dead. He was 24 and working at a lumber mill and had been working for a landscape company before that. Should have been pretty buff. Took the test 3 times and each time failed. Doesn't make sense. However I'm finding lots of really large beer cans around. Not tons but ones forgotten in the woods and out around where he was working on his machines. Lot of boxes from custom bike shops shipped here stuck in the shed. There's my rent money. New cell phone boxes, new computer boxes, looks like a lot of shopping went on very recently. Found part of my cabinet. Was being used as a ramp for motorcycles. Ruined of course. My husband is going to see if he can get a one of his corrections buddies who is a good carpenter to come down and make the counter and cabinet look less horrendous. They weren't fancy, very country. The kitchen had kind of odd space too work with and factory cabinets just weren't right. The kitchen part of the house began it's life as a storage shed for the house next door. Lot of rough barn boards and the cabinets kind of looked like mini barn doors. I bought it as a summer camp from it's next owner and added on as my family grew. I've owned this place since I was 23 years old. Really breaking my heart. In the kitchen there were two lofts on either side. I used to use them for storage because the only way up was to grab a ladder. They cut a hole through the ceiling to one loft and made 2x4 stairs. Not a bad idea in itself but you don't cut holes into a home your renting. Thing is real rough but functional. Maybe a coat of paint and some finish wood. I don't know. I have a child, I have 2 dogs. Have a bunch of horses. I never let the kids just run through and mash things. The dogs were kept under control. Not saying accidents didn't happen. Actually happened pretty often but spaced out enough were my plants could recover. Pulled my knome out of the pond yesterday. He was on a big boulder in the middle of the pond in bed of creeping phlox that would drape over and into the water. Mud and cigarette butts there now. Got tired of cleaning yesterday and tried to find some of my daff bulbs in the beds. I can't find one. There were daffodils all over the yard. Every bed had literally hundreds and in some cases thousands. Nothing named or fancy. Most were oldies from my grandmothers garden and old aunts. Can't even find a rotted one. I can't imagine that $%W@%! dogs ate them all. Thought a little digging in the dirt might relax me, that backfired bad. Every shovel full should have brought up a bulb or 10. My yellow climbing rose is dead. Just twigs. Undermined by dogs. Roses are so hard to grow here. Only a few can take it. Canes chewed, roots chewed. I really need to put blinders on and just clean up the crap. You know they even managed to kill most of the psued that lived around the pond. I didn't have the heart to kill it all when it became a banned plant. Pretty amazing accomplishment. That stuff is one tough plant. Maybe I should rent these people out to various wetlands boards around the continent. It's still there but down to a third of what it was. Another season and they would have done it. Something not even Monsanto and Dow Chemical can do. Sueing them would feel good. Limits of small claims in this state is $5,000. I'm already over that just in rent alone. I doubt very much if I'd ever see anything. $35 to file and another $35 everytime I needed to get the court to order them to pay. Think I'd be throwing more money down the hole. However... It might put the kids on notice that this isn't the way people live. I could easily prosecute a small claims case myself. Kick it to Superior court? I might be able to deal with it. Getting a little out of my league but they allow a layman a lot of leeway. Little more money in fees. I did find one of his pay stubs. Stuffed it in my pocket just in case. Not going to get much out of my husband except plain old grunt work on this. He's heartbroken. Kind of gone silent on me. Over the fireplace mantel is a picture of the girl with a big bunch of ballons all smiles at disneyland. She's about 9 years old in the picture. That's what he's remembering. I think I should just take the tax write off and leave it. I'm just so hopping mad at this point. Then there is this other bizarre observation. I found 2 big trash bags full of nice baby boy clothes, small infant. There is no baby that I know of. I often watched their girl because they always whinned how much daycare was. I have this horrible image of an infant being left to lay with the dogs while they are at work. Kind of freaks me out. If I tell the police or youth services they would think I'm nuts. Icky thought. They were letting some person live in the back bedroom. I had to really get harsh to get a name out of them. I wonder if he had a baby. Never saw the guy. Another one of those annoyance points. Nice baby clothes, I'll take it to the church next time I head to town. Somebody can use them.

Hmm, I've also been reading this thread with interest because I was just about to buy a KA stand mixer. On their website, it says the Professional 600 series is "Flour Power" rated for 14 cups, "8 loaves white bread, 13 dozen cookies, 8 lb. mashed potatos" Also from their website: Warranty Our Hassle-Free Replacement Warranty guarantees that if your countertop appliance fails during the first year, KitchenAid will replace it free of charge. We will: # Deliver a replacement to your door # Arrange the return of the failed appliance # Guarantee the new appliance for one year For more information or complete warranty details on KitchenAid® countertop appliances, please call Customer Service at 1-800-541-6390. Sure doesn't sound like your experience. Maybe I'll have to look at the Cuisinart instead. W.

Have not read entire thread so forgive me if I am suggesting/asking stuff already covered. Not sure what area you are in but do you have good cell coverage? Could you do without a landline? Can you get internet thru satellite or cable? When I had small kids I would not give up landline in case of 911 emergencies. When they got to where I thought they could accurately report address I dropped landline and we all have cells as well as an emergency cell that is pay as you go. It is charged and sits in kitchen. Also a couple years ago our area allowed us to voluntarily register our cell numbers with our address. I have since made 911 calls and they asked are you calling from home and able to then connect us to our address. I know that I really like the savings! Best of luck in your new home. Again, if you have small kids the cheapest landline might be a good idea. Maybe this really isn't about what you are asking but just my thoughts.

@Kauaiguy, I second what Alexandra said. There is no way you've been taking care of orchids for so long and not become an expert. I certainly value your perspective and thank you for the advice. I am here to learn, after all. Speaking of which, I should probably stop claiming I've figured out what kind of buggers I have because I obviously haven't. If I sound too sure about things, it's only because I am trying -- and failing -- to be brief, not because I actually know what I am talking about. So here is my dilemma: I think I need to know what bugs I am dealing with so I can decide on the right intervention. But I don't have any actual bugs on the plant to identify -- the ones in the pics were in the humidity tray, not on the Phal, and they were found before the last repotting when I soaked the mix and the roots in Physan 20. Most instructions for any treatment I have seen include a step where you decide whether it's helping or whether the bugs have come back which I can't do as is. Would it be a good idea to get some sticky traps and place them around the plant to hopefully capture some culprits? The alternative would be to go in blind with some sort of nuclear option which scares me because my first priority is the health of the orchid. Oh, and I am dropping out of the see-my-garden arms race. I am just not worthy. Yet! :)