The wen cutter or concave cutter is the only really indispensable tool. You can root prune with old scissors or secateurs. Small nail scissors or cheap sewing cotton cutters will do for tip pruning. Whatever you do, invest in the best concave cutter you can afford. Cheap Chinese ones last no time at all. Don't be tempted by stainless steel either. They don't hold their edge as well as proper forged steel ones. Joshua Roth are a good manufacturer and they have a good range here http://www.joshuaroth.com/catalog/page3.html

I never said my conditions are so ideal. I try the best I know how but would never attempt the likes of Telipogons. Andy is the only one I know who has grown them successfully. I think I work backwards, creating the conditions first and then finding plants that love them. In the new cold greenhouse, temps are kept below 80F, humidity is high,70% and up and I water everything often twice a day with RO water which has a little fertilizer added. Certain plants will love this, others will not. If a plant does not adapt to this I will not change the conditions, rather do without that particular plant. The main target plants, Draculas, Masdevallias, Pleuros, Stelis, Lepanthes, Odontoglossums etc seem to like this environment and now we sit back for a year and see what they do. After going a complete year adjustments may be made. I have the following growing areas: Cold greenhouse, warm greenhouse, lath house under 63% shade cloth and lath house under 50% shade cloth. Darker areas and brighter areas. I shuffle plants around until I find the right spot for them, some never do get happy and I learn to live without them. Each area has major groups. Bulbos and other species warm, Cymbidiums and AU Dendrobiums under 50%, every thing else under 63%. Sarcochilus have a dark corner where they get very little light. The conditions are written in granite, just need to move the plants to the right place. Which plants are best is a loaded question. Totally personal preference as to which to purchase and knowing that there probably is a spot where the plant will be happy. On Phaelies for example, I have very few, just a few species. Disas, been there, done that, no more, too much trouble. Hardly any Paphs, that's a world of it's own, I choose not to go there. Have a ton of different strains of D speciosums though, most Paph people tend not to go there. In the end it's all personal preference. Nick

chi, you see what you see with eggs because of a law change. Effective the beginning of this year, eggs sold in California (whether produced here or out of state) MUST come from hens not subject to tight confinement. Some call it cage-free, I'm not sure if larger cages with less animal density can be used or not. Part of the law limits physically restrictive conditions for other animals too. "I see people always promoting animal welfare for dolphins, dogs, etc. but they continue to eat factory meat. The hypocrisy is amazing to me." I see what you're saying to a point, but not everyone is well informed about food sources and choices. If they have concern for animals, their hearts are in the right place, maybe they'll do more as they learn more. As far as hypocrisy goes, it's a human failing. A couple I know are strict vegetarians, of the preachy type. Always lecturing others on the need to monitor one's life practices, avoid dangerous foods, etc. All well and good except both are alcoholics of the broken blood vessel, rosy-nosed variety. Do as we say, not as we do.

According to the U.S. Census, the article continues, median income in 2014 was $53, 567. , which is 6.5% below the pre-recession level of 2007 and down 7.2% from its peak in 1999. - Again this just points out the problem with statistics...First, income is down, but disposable income is up. So we are really better off. Second, this idea that most haven't gotten a raise is complete B.S. you have to understand what you are looking at with stats or you get really scary and grim pictures. Stats can be misinterpreted either on purpose or just because the person doing the investigation doesn't realize it, Yes the average household makes less money today than it did in 1999 - but household size has decreased dramatically. The number of single income households more than doubled, the number of children per family dropped, and that is exactly why discretionary spending is way up. So while a 7.2% drop seems significant, it becomes much less significant when the people the income must support dropped almost 20%. Finally, stop looking at all income earners and look at full time workers - if you look at the top 80% you get a different picture. Yes the bottom 20% has had a 17% drop since 1999 and is crushing the statistics. But those are not full time workers, we have had a serious increase in the number of part time workers, and a decline in the hours they work, which is a discussion in and of itself but not one relating to middle income earners and the plight of the full time worker heading to retirement. Added to this that the whole idea of middle class has changed dramatically. One could argue that the whole concept is dated to the extent of no longer being useful. The idea of the middle class came about because it drew a line between certain "haves" and "have nots" - today that line is blurry at best. Access to good reliable internet, entertainment options, telephone communications, access to somewhat reliable transportation, and access to education are no longer restricted to a middle class. Compare the convenience and lifestyle of today's full time career workers below the middle income line to those people in the 1970's well above the middle income line, and see who has it rougher. Edit: At this point I will jump out of this thread - I will close with this - No matter how old you are, if you can read this take a few minutes to make sure you are making sensible contributions to a retirement plan that is risk appropriate for your age.