"Hello again," to anyone and maybe especially maybe to akamainegrower, if you happen still tobe around this forum... Due partly to my having as yet not been able to get much of any reply to somewhat extensive inquiry sent the past year or so to two (I think--having various inquiries and "feelers" out there to various places, it's a little hard to keep exact track) heavily involved in blueberry research , I've elected for now to try contacting that other type of place you mention: Christmas Tree Growers' Association (s). But, so far , a few weeks later, no response. Of course, the timing isn't necessarily the greatest, being around tree selling time, as well as apt to be time already of some freezing already of the ground. That University of Maine department which you mention, also may be of interest. At the same time, maybe "if" I could , before contacting them, run a test myself to , hopefully, get some sort of actual proof begun, of one or more of my specimens actually being immune-maybe that might help make my inquiry to them or to whomever, more intriguing? Sure seems like it couldn't hurt; and in these days of easy photography and easy communicating, maybe I could at least visually document my efforts doing such actual test. But , besides that the bushes involved are somewhat "well out" in the woods...under a foot of snow and ice I guess, around now...I still will have to somehow come up with a few young fir seedlings or young plants that have the disease (to use as source of disease spores to expose the blueberry bushes to...inside on my big plant-growing window sill, I guess). Maybe --by some longshot chance--someone here would happen to know of and have access for digging up ,of a few young "infected" firs trees (any kind of firs, although if it'd be wild firs rather than tree plantation ones, seems to me it'd most likely end up being "balsam" firs). Young or seedling firs "infected" with this fir-blueberry rust, that is...(the Pucciniastrum goeppertianum one...the one that causes broomlike growths on blueberry plants, and I guess as to on the firs, causes just small yellowish or whitish spore capsule happening on some of the needles . I maybe should stress, in case I haven't mentioned it before, about the "other" kind of witches broom happening with fir trees: the "other" kind does make broomlike growth happening on the firs themselves...but that's a totally separate disease, if/when "that happens". The only ones I'd be interested in are young or seedling firs happening to have gotten the first type of "witches broom " disease, the one wherein it's only the blueberry bushes that get the brooms, with the firs , again, just getting some kind of small-to-tiny tag growths on their needles. I do think that likely as not, patches or areas of firs of most any kind , happening to be very near (especially within maybe 50 to 100 feet[ of a bunch of wild highbush blueberry bushes or a patch of lowbush blueberries, IS by my guess, at least pretty likely to be involved with the blueberries with infection of this disease happening between them. Given these two types of plants growing nearby one another, the infection of this disease that I see as likely, might be easiest to spot the likelihood of, by checking whether the blueberry bushes have any if the broomlike growths showing. There would be pictures readily available (I think I'll also see if I can get hold of some images and post links here, assuming that's allowed and that I can figure out the procedure) to check further what to look for, online such as at Google Images, Yahoo Images, etc. (searching for , probably: witches broom, blueberry. or: fir blueberry rust). Which, especially as to possibly making available to me, a few of these prospective "infected" young firs--would be "going some", I realize. Therefore, here's what I think (hoping there's no proscription here "against" it) I think I can offer (if anybody's not already been too bored , here, to read this far): If anyone can find and have or get access (for digging) such an instance of little fir trees and blueberry bushes growing together, or adjacent, such that it's resulted in the occurrence of this disease, and would be willing to try to dig three or so of the infected firs for my use: than, while it'd be apt to need to be "first come, first served " and maybe only one deal available: I believe can try to make it worth your while, monetarily (make an offer?) Pictures "first," please...of the plants on the site, showing infection (typically very obvious when it happens) of some of the blueberries on the site, with the broom-like growths. Also, if possible, pics of the evidence of the disease on the little firs that would be dug. Maybe send COD, for no risk? or otherwise, putting them for me on Ebay? I'll try to follow here, of course, for replies...while I believe my profile page does have a link for privately emailing me, if anyone wants. "Thanks" to all.

I agree with a lot of what has been said, but wanted to discourage the idea of DH becoming a professsor. There are a lot of rank levels below "professor": instructor, assistant professor, associate professor - and usually anything above instructor requires a Ph.D.(not just a Masters). Teaching contracts are short term with the understanding you move up or you are out. At each level, many, many people get squeezed out - "publish or perish" - and shown the door. To make it to full professor is a significant acheivement, and the tenure (absolute job security, like the Pope) and sabbaticals (year off teaching to pursue research, etc.) are perks that just don't exist in the rest of the real world. That, the youthful culture, the prestige, and the intellectual purity and nobility of it all no doubt figure in to that job satisfaction report. Doing some teaching may be an OK way to make some interim money - but don't confuse being one of the legion of low paid instructors with being one of the elite full professors. Whole 'nother thing. Dh would need 6 years give or take for the Ph.D. and another 6 to 15 to try to climb the ladder, actually more like a pyramid with so many at the base and so few at the top. And as Sweeby says, even then many full professors make peanuts. Only the first rank universities pay really well, and those guys usually bring in huge bucks to the university in research grants and book earnings. (also, did you know a university significantly "taxes" all your outside earnings when you are full time faculty?) Going for professsor rank is a very, very competitive life, only for the truly dedicated. Not something DH should think he can do briefly while setting up a writing career. No way. Also, I agree that true writers write - no matter what. It is like a driven passion. Sounds like DH is looking for something better and thinking back on liking writing when he was in school. That's different from drive. Perhaps he should step back and open his mind to all work possiblilities. One exercise in career planning is to take some time and make a very long list of every conceivable occupation. All of them - not the ones for you. All of them. Then, and only then, strike out the impossible or absurd for you (jockey, ballerina, Microsoft chairman, pro basketball player, movie star...). Next strike out the ones requiring too much training/time (brain surgeon, astronaut, *professor*). Next strike out what is unappealing. What is left may be surprising and worth further consideration. Good luck to you and DH.

Amazing thread! Great tips. I began salvaging the old double-hungs from our 1913 house we sold to a builder -- he gave me 7 days to get everything out I wanted and was amazed that I pluck so much: all the doors, windows, stair rail, cabinets, even the lovely trim around all the doors and windows. I used them to rebuild a house on our ranch in Texas. Fortunately I had a skilled carpenter who built the house around the salvage material. The next house he built required more windows, which I found through a demolition company who called me whenever they had a house with windows in good condition. Great way to harvest shiplap as well. We're in the process of building again, and this time my "picker" got windows that need work, so I sent them to a carpenter who is framing them so the crew can just slip them in like a store bought. The key is to get the entire window out, in the frame, and don't forget the weights! You'll save a lot of money if you don't have to build the frame and all the mechanisms of the weighted window. My attempts to deal with the vinyl replacment contractors has FAILED -- they simply refuse to take the time to pull the window out in the frame, like the pictures show above, they leave the frame and rip up the sashes as they pull them out. Crazy!!! I offer them good money, too. Fortunately we live in a neighborhood where anything pre-1940 is being bulldozed and replaced by McMansions. That's the best place to hunt.

AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!! Our nightmare is described here. We placed a nearly $4,000 order with Cabinets To Go on 6/13/12. The standardized Cabinets To Go receipt and paperwork we received stated that we should expect 1-2 weeks for shipping. Carrie, the representative in the Raleigh, NC office that we worked with and ordered from, told us we should expect 10 days for shipping. The 1-2 week timeframe on the CTG correspondence would have placed our delivery somewhere between 6/20/12 and 6/27/12, and the 10-day estimate from Carrie would place our delivery date on 6/22/12. However, we have received no cabinets by 6/29/12. As soon as CTG received our payment (which was made in-full and immediately upon ordering on 6/13/12), all communication with us stopped. We were extremely satisfied with CTG's customer care during the designing and ordering process, and Carrie exchanged 35 emails and 5 phone calls with me over the 5 days that we spent considering our options and making our decisions. However, as soon as CTG got our money, customer care went out the window. On 6/29/12 we were still waiting for delivery of our nearly $4,000 order, which was paid for in-full and upfront. Furthermore, we received no communication from CTG in regard to tracking our $4,000 shipment, updates on delivery, or even scheduling a delivery until I started asking questions on 6/21/12 about where our cabinets were. We understand that CTG may not be able to pinpoint an exact delivery date immediately upon ordering. However, we never even got the opportunity to request an estimated delivery date during any conversation with CTG, because these delivery estimates were bestowed upon us and this topic of conversation was completely initiated by CTG! If you are going to give an estimate, it needs to be an accurate estimate. If something goes wrong during the processing and shipping of an order, the customer needs to be told, so as to adjust their expectation for delivery. We were never told that the delivery estimates provided by CTG needed to be adjusted due to processing or shipping problems, so we expected the estimates to hold true. When we had received no cabinets by 6/21/12, I contacted Carrie in Raleigh to inquire about the status of our order because we had not received any correspondence from CTG during the 8 days that had passed since paying for our cabinets. Carrie responded via email on 6/22/12 and told us the cabinets were in transit, but one item was on backorder. So, our cabinets been shipped and no one had told us, and part of our shipment was on backorder but we were not informed about this. So we waited for 5 more days, but when we still had received no cabinets on 6/27/12, I began calling and emailing the CTG headquarters and their customer care representatives. At this point, it was 9 days after our items had shipped and 14 days after we had ordered, and we still had no cabinets. Chris, the corporate customer care representative I spoke with, informed me he was very concerned about the lack of customer care we were receiving and would forward my concerns on to the Raleigh office, something I had already done on my own. Later that same day (6/27/12) Carrie forwarded me an email that she had received on 6/18/12 containing details about tracking our order. (It took 9 days to get our shipping information forwarded to us from CTG, and we had to request this information from them!) We were directed to contact CGL (the carrier that CTG uses for delivery) directly about our order. CGL must have been informed that I was on a mission to track down the cabinets, because a few minutes after I got the email from Carrie, Katarina from CGL called and left a voicemail requesting that I contact her to schedule delivery of our cabinets. I called, but was told the scheduling team would not be back until 9:00am the next morning. So I called them back at 9:00 on 6/28/12 and asked to schedule our delivery. Katarina told me she could not yet schedule delivery, as our cabinets had not reached the distribution terminal yet and she could not tell me what day we could expect to get our cabinets. I called CGL three more times over the course of 6/28/12 and spoke to three different CGL representatives, all of whom gave me different answers about when we could expect delivery and whether or not they could even schedule delivery yet. My fourth call to CGL on 6/28/12 ended with the representative telling me that the cabinets would arrive in the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC during the night on 6/28/12, and she said she thought we could get delivery on 6/29/12. Exasperated by the back-and-forth of the last two days, I emailed the CTG headquarters a second time and updated them on the mess that we were dealing with. I also called the number Chris had left for me and left a voicemail for him with the same update. I called CGL at 9:00am on 6/29/12 to check on the arrival of our cabinets at the distribution terminal in Fayetteville, NC. However, I was told that someone at CGL had made an error since my last phone conversation with them the evening before, that our cabinets were put on the wrong truck, and they were currently at the distribution terminal in Atlanta, GA. I insisted that we get our cabinets before the weekend, but CGL said they had no trucks available to bring us our cabinets. I requested that CGL rent a U-haul and drive our cabinets to us, since this was their error and we were way past the delivery timeframes indicated by CTG. They indicated they would not consider this option. I immediately called the Raleigh CTG office and asked someone there to deal with CGL. I was told by the man that I spoke with (Bob) that he would look into it, but I never got a call back. I called him again later that morning, and he said he had no information for me. I asked him to keep me informed, but I never got another call from anyone in the Raleigh CTG store. I called the CTG corporate offices again and spoke with Chris. He indicated that he was sorry for the inconvenience, but offered nothing in terms of restitution for the incredible hassle that our order had become, and did not even offer to contact CGL on my behalf. Katarina at CGL called me several times over the course of the day on 6/29/12 and appeared very apologetic and concerned that the delivery of our cabinets had spiraled into a big mess. She indicated that she had called another shipping company in Charlotte, NC and that they could deliver our cabinets between the hours of 1pm and 3pm on 7/2/12. I indicated that this delivery time was not preferable, as we wanted our cabinets before then, but that it could work if need be. The director/manager at the Boston CGL location was also on the line and asked me to call CGL's contact in Charlotte, NC to confirm this delivery, and then call CGL back to let them know what was said. I did as he requested, but this could have been handled by someone at CGL rather than by me, their customer. We were then looking at a delivery time of 19 days at the very very best, but IF AND ONLY IF our cabinets actually got delivered on 7/2/12. As you can imagine, we were extremely displeased with the absolute mess that our order turned into. As CTG's customer, I shouldn't have even been expected to deal with their distributor, CGL. I am the customer, I just paid them $4,000, yet they put the burden of tracking down my cabinets on me. I am appalled that the Raleigh CTG office washed their hands of this mess, since they are the originators of the order and the people who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that we continue to get quality service DURING OUR ENTIRE Cabinets To Go experience. I am appalled that CTG headquarters has offered nothing in terms of compensation for time lost or for hassle, and am even more appalled that Chris said, "I'm not sure how we can compensate you for this," during my phone conversation with him on 6/29/12. I can think of several ways: 1.) Paying for and arranging for special delivery of our cabinets so we get them on 6/30/12. The drive from Atlanta, GA to Wilmington, NC is only 7 hours long. 2.) Offering our money back for what we paid in shipping and delivery costs. 3.) Offering a discounted price on our order, since we have been waiting for $4,000 worth of cabinets that have yet to show up. This order and shipment of cabinets was only half of what we had designed for us by Carrie and only half of what we planned to buy from CTG in Raleigh. We told Carrie up-front that we would have to split our purchase in two to make it fit our budget, and she indicated she would save her designs for us when we were ready to order the remaining cabinets. We had planned to order the other half of our kitchen cabinets from CTG around mid-July (more than $3,000 in additional cabinets on top of the $4,000 we just spent), but at this point, you can safely assume we will NOT be ordering from CTG ever again. While CTG offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee policy on all purchases, they in no way guarantee their service OR the customer's experience. On June 30, 2012 Mark McIntire from the Cabinets To Go corporate headquarters called me (someone had forwarded him one of my emails - I'm not even sure what his position is in the company) and asked me why I was "causing such a debacle." I told him we were frustrated with the poor communication between all parties involved in our order and just wanted some acknowledgement that things had gone wrong. We wanted an apology for being left in the dark, and wanted an answer about when we would get our cabinets. He said that I was "being ridiculous" and that he didn't "want to deal with this" so he cancelled my entire order. Then he hung up on me. And that was the end of that!