"My neighbors idea of gardening is going to Target while the landscaping guys come to cut the grass." --LOL, Doris! This is my first year WSing. And really, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Most seed winters over and then you get "volunteer plants". Every year, I have "volunteers" -- hollyhock, sunflower, cherry tomato, marigold, basil, and even last summer, I got about ten very nice cantaloupe from vines that came up out of composted soil that I had just moved into a new raised bed. I didn't even have much for it to grow in yet at that spot, and at first I thought the plant was cucumber so I trained it onto a trellis. Imagine how well it would've grown with better conditions! Thanks to several generous folks, I have WS'd a lot of really interesting-sounding plants that I never tried before. I do not have good luck with seeds I plant in the ground in spring. Some of them never come up. They dry out just at the wrong time. Or the cat digs them up. Or the dog walks on them. Or the birds eat the seed! And worse yet, I've even been known to forget what I planted where and have PULLED THEM UP thinking they're weeds! Whoever coined the term "Golden Years" must not have been old. When you think about it, it's just really nature's way, what we're doing, except that we are protecting the seed from drying out and from all the other things that happen to it. The "volunteer" plants seem to "know" when it's time to come up. So this is going to be really interesting to me to see how the milk bottle makes the difference. With my milk bottles clearly marked (with grease pencil), that alone will keep me from destroying seedlings thinking they're weeds! I live on the back of a small town park. People use the sidewalk that runs about ten feet from my back chain link and I see them sometimes just standing there looking over my garden in the summer. If I'm out there they always make comments and ask questions. I always grow tomatoes in my raised beds and people around here seem to be really interested in tomatoes. Those who don't have space for anything else, will grow that. I plant mammoth sunflowers and hollyhock just outside my fence, they get a lot of attention; so much so that somebody actually cut off one of the sunflower heads last year and made off with it. And they love to look over the grapevines just inside my fence that grow on an "arbor" DH made me out of iron pipe, pipe elbows and stock panels. Those same people walk the park all year 'round and now they've started to ask questions about what all those milk jugs are in the corner of one of my raised beds. I mean, these folks truly get involved in my garden. In the hottest part of the summer, when I'm not very good about getting out there and pulling weeds, they let me know about that, too! So thanks everybody for taking the time to post advice and especially to those who've sent seed to me, and in fact sent seed to the person who sent seed. I got really excited about some of the seed I got after I Googled and saw what some of the plants look like! I keep a "gardening journal" on my computer and I like to copy the pictures of what the things I plant are supposed to look like from the Internet, along with any other information I can get: height, growing conditions,culinary or medicinal uses, etc., and paste them into my journal. So I was really busy doing that for awhile. I still have planted my tomatoes and peppers inside this year. I know the tomatoes would probably be fine WSing but I'm not sure about the peppers. They seem to need to be warm all the time and I've been told that if their roots get cold it affects production for the life of the plant. DH is a tomato lover and I like to can whatever excess I have so having good tomato plants is important. If things do as well as I think they will this spring, I will WS tomato seed next year. I too am having trouble collecting enough milk jugs, but I will save all year now and be better prepared next year. I just can't take things out of people's trash. I work for an agency that provides jobs to people with disabilities, and one of the businesses we run is a recycling center. But taking things out of the bins is a big no-no for us. The mess in the parking lot people make when digging around in our bins means we have to spend a lot of time cleaning up after them. Things blow across into other people's property and they have the police come out and tell us to clean up. If we don't do it fast enough we are fined. When there are lots of people taking recycling materials, it really reduces the amount of stuff we ship out and affects our income. So if you live near a recycling center, please ask them first if it's OK for you to take things. They might have things they can't recycle and have to throw away that you can have all you want of. In our case, that would be anything made of styrofoam. And any time any of you dumpster dive, please clean up after yourself. Don't climb in. There are sharp metal objects, broken glass, and sometimes even 'poo' in there. Although the mess that's made is always a problem, what most businesses fear about dumpster divers is that they will get hurt and sue.

Ken, I think that you are totally misunderstanding my point of view. First of all, I never got the impression that Cube's dad owned his house fee and clear. She said that he said, Âbut the house and car insurance snuck up on meÂ. I took that to mean house payment, although, it could have meant homeowner's insurance, or real estate taxes. I don't know. But I assumed that he did not own the house free and clear. Also, I could care less about the inheritance. I don't care if I inheret a dime from my relatives, and I guess that I make the presumption that others don't care either. My concern is what is best for Cube and her dad. Sure, she could continue to supplement his income, and write IOUs, but that really is not what's best, because Cube is planning for a layoff, and the money simply will not be there for her to give to her dad. You can't give what you don't have. The RM is a possible alternative, but I don't think it's best for Cube's dad, mainly because, as you said, he may have another 20 years of living to do. That RM is gonna come due eventually. Or, he will tap it out, and then, how will he pay for his living expenses? As stated above, my opinion was not based on the fact that the RM would prevent Cube from obtaining an inheritance. My point was, the best way for Cube to help her dad out of this situation, which she feels a moral obligation to do, is to help him to not spend more than he earns. I'm sorry that you feel that that would be "treating him like a child." But, I disagree. My grandfather does not feel like he is treated like a child. My mother does not insist that he hand his money over for safe keeping. He willingly gives it to her and asks her to hold it (because he is well aware that he is not good with money,) so that if his cars breaks down and cannot be fixed, he can purchase a new one. And, I'm not talking about huge sums. Currently, my Mom is holding $3000 for my grandpa, and that is his entire net worth. In the case of my family, this is not an inheritance issue, it's a looking out for one another issue. No one has $3000 to give to grandpa, but my mom can help him be prepared in case an emergency pops up and he needs money. Perhaps the term "allowance" makes you think of a child. But many adults put themselves on an allowance. It's just the amount of money that they have to spend each week (or month) after they have met all other financial obligations. Call it something else if you like. And, I never called anyone "money stupid." I don't like the term "stupid." But, I would not equate someone who is not good with money with someone who has different money priorites either. Someone who has different money priorities is not necessarily someone who cannot meet all of their financial obligations. Do you see the distinction? I think Anita's last paragraph is a very good suggestion, IF it's even possible for Cube's dad to downsize.

Well, I think everybody has an opinion on this and I also think everybody is right. Indoor cats that are never out are very happy with the life they know. Indoor/outdoor cats would never be happy with completely one or the other. Outdoor and feral cats are living with what they know and you would have a hard time bringing one inside. A feral cat has an average lifespan of just over a year and that is sad, but they are wild animals. If they live and mature outdoors, the predators loose the advantage. My two were feral kittens that we found with their other two litter mates and got them used to us. Two of them got taken in the night when they were well under a year old and the two remaining come inside our guest house to eat every day and spend the night when it is too cold for them to want to stay outdoors. It is completely up to them and they are happy kitties. (yes from a former post I told you they both have loose stools right now - I'm told it is probably parasites and comes with the territory for cats that hunt for lots of their food.) Even with that, they are extremely loving, healthy with shiny coats.

I read your posting as an acceptable small vent. As anyone, faced with label reading, shakes head, and wonders why all that stuff is necessary...the ingredient long list. (-and why we keep reading about the major suppliers deciding to 'clean-up' their horrid additives...Kraft taking out chemical dyes and using turmeric, etc) Their sales are dropping. It is all about money. I just completed a 4 day road trip. Prepped all our meals and beverages. All done in a flurry of multi-tasking the few days before. We bought one bag of ice just before the ferry for the pups. (they would knock over a bowl of water) My granola balls failed, but that another issue altogether. I did line up a dozen small bags and made a granola gorp...nuts, dried fruits, freeze-dried veg (good crunch), best addition was the ginger, cured two ways, one salt, the other sweet...cut the size of peas...the only sweet n salty in the mix. Lots of quick snacks can be portioned and made weeks in advance. -mine failed as it was too wet. I should have chopped by hand the dates, (my glue)...almond butter was too runny. I saved it but not as good as in the past....rolled in my granola and coconut flakes...nice small marble size balls. Had a big bag of organic carrots...peeled, cut into snack size, quick two hour pickling, then into food saver portioned bags. (with some olives and red pepper strips)...yes, a big waste of plastic, but for car snacking pulled from a cooler....success All the leftover small packages i tossed into the freezer last night. The paper thin meats with cheese slices will make a nice grilled cheese. Did not eat or make many sandwiches but we had options. Barely touched the humus but was great with carrot sticks...the other three small containers i froze. So we have lots of snacking for a few weeks.... To answer your original question...you can study, read, and learn. But will discover that buying anything packaged and overly processed is your enemy. Any good nutritionist will say the same. Being a NewYorker i've had just about every bar, nut/fruit bar available these days...hundreds of them now. I don't buy them as they are free at work...horribly expensive. We sample them when a new one is on the table, cut into peanut sizes. Some are ok. We like the Chia bars but i would not spend the money personally. Annie, Subway, lol. A young co-worker left a Subway in her hot car over a weekend and it looked the same a few days later... : )