I've aged doors with a crackle finish. I painted a base coat of one color, then a top coat of another color. Then I apply the crackle finish, and use a blow dryer to dry it quick. The top coat cracks as it dries, exposing some of the base coat. Then I used a varnish on top to protect. The crackle finish is sold by Ralph Lauren Paints, or they have something at Pottery Barn also. Hope this helps.

My CB is very vigorous with some water and fertilizer. An old established plant should not need much to grow. I agree with michaelg that canes do decline in productivity over time. What I would do if it were mine is to see if any vigorous new canes are emerging from the base of the plant and try to train them in the direction where you want the growth. Once you see they are growing adequately (but haven't become monsters yet) I would cut down that old woody trunk and let the young canes take over. Masha

Molly, lucky you with the easy apart windows. Mine have tenons secured with dowels, but the dowels have never been easy to remove. This post got me going and I put a final exterior coat on my window yesterday. It's a second story window so I try to do as much on the ground as I can. I'm in a race against age, mine more than the house. I may try drilling a dowel out of a rescued sash to see if I can get it apart. We are making wooden storms with tenons and dowels and repair pieces can't be much more difficult to fabricate. Can you hear my husband moaning? I think it is going to become more and more difficult to purchase anything oil based. Do you think linseed oil will also "evaporate" from the market? I know I'm starting to sound old, but I just can't completely accept the latex is better theory. Will oil based glazing compound also be banned? I think there are water based glazing compounds that do not require any wait time to skin over. I use UGL compound and it sometimes takes 10 days before I feel comfortable enough to prime over it. I'm usually ready to have an excuse for a break at that point. If you know of a better compound, please let me know. I'm sure the original poster is well on his way to complete his painting project, but I thought this site had a decent sequence of repair for a variety of old house projects. I'm sure many of us can identify with the "before" examples. It would also be nice to have input from the forum experts on the methods used on the site. Has anyone used the Multi Wood Primer mentioned on it? I think I'll order a can and try some if no one here has negative reports. I'll bet someone on the Old House Journal forum has an FPL formula for you. I can't imagine having to repaint our barn with latex paint on the next go round. I get a mental image of us crossing some border and smuggling the banned ingedients and paints back into the country. I hope people will chime in on the site I've included. If it has been discussed in the past, someone just needs to yell at me and direct me to the thread. I'm up early to finish prepping the the parting bead and stops and am praying that I have enough sash cord to finish this. Here is a link that might be useful: repair and paint old siding, etc

Fascinating! I only ever thought of barley as an old world crop, the kind essential to brewing beer ;). In fact the only cereal grain I had ever heard about coming from the Americas was corn. How very interesting! You could probably throw sunflowers into that mix as well. Though, the reading I have done follows yours in that many of the plants such as sunflowers and goosefoot (chenopodium, which would fall in the amaranth family), weren't necessarily "cultivated" but sort of "followed" human habitation and agriculture. Kind of an Indian version of "weed cuisine" haha. I also was reading an interesting article on peppers from NSS a little while back. While chilies were gathered and used frequently by the Indians in places like Mexico, further north, in areas like the Four Corners region, they never really caught on. The Indians there preferring a more "bland" diet.