YOU"RE WELCOME...Oldpea Like I said...it has been awhile since I set the garden out. I forgot how exciting the winter gets prior to starting seeds (planning, drawing the garden, looking for seed). My wife loves the garden...but she doesn't get nearly excited as me at this time. The only drawback is I am relying on her to get the plants started. Don't get me wrong...she is more than willing and capable; it is just she is the practical / frugal one in the family. My gardens always seem to be enough to feed our little town...and it drives her nuts. But she is a trooper. I just hope she starts all the seed I am buying. I could see her only getting 25-tomatoes started instead of the whole lot! Example: I have a total of 110-tomatoes, 150-peppers, 15-zucchini, 10-butterboy squash, 12-spaghetti squash, etc, etc. This year I am planning on doing a veggie stand or truck the excess to the local farmers market 20-miles away instead of giving everything away. We will still keep the family & our church stocked...also I also want to try and balance out the expense. I have 3-kids (2-teenagaers and an 11-yr old) that could always use some money. One started driving in September and he likes the freedom. With gas over $3...I think he will be especially excited about the thought of earning money. I should have my most "weed free" garden yet. Oh...I forgot to mention...I am also making my wife a raised bed around the house and loading it with herbs (1st time). She seams to be excited about that. I will probably start posting some stupid questions here over the next 4-months. My memory is a little rusty and I am sure all the answers can be found right here. Thanks...Brian

Mike, the disk. works good with 2 cement blocks after you plow. As far as just trying to disc virgin soil with grass it wont do it. You have to plow to loosen the soil. My best tool is my spring tooth drag harrow. I can run that through a few times and then till each path for planting seed with my 2 Earthways. without having to plow every year.( because my soil has been worked up every year.) But my first year was a Bugger. I have 6 growing areas this season for around 29,000 sq. ft. of tilled soil. I do not use beds but add a lot of organic matter and manures. I plant my greens tight spaced rows of 3, my beans tight rows of 2. The rest I plant convential with 18-30 inch spacing ,depending on the crop. The equipment that I have does a good job for 1-3 acres ,any more and I would go with a 8n ford or similar with a 3point. My chipper/shredder is great for making compost and also grinds soybeans and corn for chicken feed fast I can grind a 50 lb. bag of any grain or seed fast and have perfect texture, also grinds cornstalks and any other dead plant residue even chicken-manure /straw mix. Mark

I thought it might do well with chicken-apple sausage instead of kielbasa. I was wrong. Regarding the honey, the little bit drizzled on was just to add a touch of sweetness; it's not like the recipe was for potatos glazed with honey. That piece wasn't offensive at all. It was just an uninspired mix of food. Maybe the sausage substitution wasn't a good idea? Dunno, but I won't bother to try it again the "right" way. And if there were to be a next time (there won't) I'd peel the apples.

Hi Roulie, I was looking at the beautiful blue kitchens in your thread about painting your cabs, and went looking for this thread for more pictures and info about your kitchen. (I would try the SW Naval from Deb's island on one of your trial boards, it just rocks!) I have an opinion about the hole in your counter. I love the idea of using stainless, and if the Jenn-aire that was removed is the griddle next to the big Garland, I would suggest that you have someone come and fabricate a stainless steel cover that simply butts up to the range and covers the whole counter top surface, front overhang and all, for the length of counter top hole in the wood. That will give you a bulletproof landing spot for messy cooking. YOU may not need it, but you have at least one young person, and a messy spill on your butcher block with a stainless steel insert in the hole in the wood will be a lot harder to clean up than on a seamless sheet of steel. Have the fabricator match the finish as much as possible to that of the Garland, and it may not seem so much like another added texture in the room. It also occurred to me, looking at the photo, that there does not seem to be a range hood. Is that a problem for you, or do you not put a lot of grease into the air when you cook? A metal fabricator could fashion one to fit below that cabinet, and you could put the guts in the cab. Just something to think about if you have someone out to see about the hole in the counter. I went looking for your thread about your butcher block counter refinishing. The problem with wood near your sink area made me think of old porcelain 1920s to 1930s sinks as a solution. In my first search result I saw the one linked below, and it fit the one in my mind's eye perfectly. Something like this will better protect that beautiful refinished counter of yours. It prevents any more deterioration where the wood meets the back splash, as well, and does not go very far up the wall. Check out the link below. I think I am interested in your project because it reminds me of my own. I refinished a used bead board kitchen almost three years ago.I have an island top that is 25 years old sitting in my garage that is very similar to your butcher block. I did not use it when I bought it with my Green Demolition kitchen. I refinished my beaded-board oak cabinets from GD by hand sanding and re-staining them with a creamy oil-based stain that my local Sherwin Williams mixed up for me. I could not get a "pickled" stain in water-base. My routed-out lines were far closer together than yours, but you have a LOT of cabs to do, too. If I had to do it again, I think I might paint. I do not have tons of wood grain around like you do, and really like the grain peeking through, so staining was a good choice for me at the time. My problem was in getting the stain to stick to end grain. All my rounded edges exposed me to end grain, but I did not realize that this was my problem at the time. Stain did not stick well on the perimeter of all of my 34 doors and 20 drawers, and I have a rubbed-through look in places. I also have a few pieces that are a different color. Don't know if it was a stirring problem, a real color difference in the first stain can, or what. By the time I was done, I just did not want to know! Part of my problem is that I have asthma and had to wear terrible face masks to keep the VOCs out of my lungs. I had to work outside because of the fumes, too. In the steamy heat of the summer of 2010, I had little patience for problems and just let the color differences get by me. I just wanted it DONE. If you can paint with latex, it is a lot less bother and mess than what I went through! Oil-based stains are still the most common with wood. Here is a picture of my doors before I refinished them. If you want to see my kitchen (minus the missing cab door that we found in the carpenter's shop 6 months after I finished staining everything else), you can go to my website and see it at www.pbase.com/nancyb/image/127230055 Here is Here is a link that might be useful: