DON'T give up trying - you'll be missing a "rare find" indeed! I live next door in Freehold and this time of year, I drop in weekly just to stroll through the display and propagation areas - an endless sea of rhodo- dendrums (and azaleas, of course) in constantly shifting bloom, all nestled into a pine woods - but don't miss the main sales area and greenhouses where they have hundreds of other remarkable plants. Go soon: this continued rain isn't being kind to all the blooms. Both sets of directions above would work, since Wright- Debow Road runs from Rte. 537 all the way through to Rte. 526 - but coming from Interstate 195, the Rte. 537 is easier. Try this: when you exit the Interstate from either direction, be aware of the traffic lights - the first light is directly above the Interstate - the second light is the entrance to Jackson Outlets - the third light is the intersection of Rtes. 571/526. All this happens in LESS than one-half mile! Continue NE on Rte. 537 toward Freehold, but immediately start looking for Wright-Debow Rd. on your RIGHT (less than a mile) - turn onto this road and wander along for a mile or more, but the moment you cross over a major highway (it happens to be the Interstate) almost instantly turn RIGHT onto Patterson Rd. The big iron-gated entrance to Rare Find will appear on your LEFT with-in the first quarter mile. Try this when you leave: turn RIGHT onto Wright-Debow Rd. (instead of left, back over the highway bridge) and follow the road out to it's termination at Rte. 526 - if you turn right, it will take you back toward Jackson Outlets - if you turn left, it will take you further into Jackson along County Line Road and eventually all the way to Rte. 9. If you're from Jackson, that should sound familiar! To reach Ciccone's, approach it from either direction on Farmingdale Road (which it's on), a road that extends from Jackson Mills Road all the way across to Rte. 9 (the first section from Rte. 9 to Fort Plains Rd. is actually called Hulses Rd.) Don't you love the old English tradition of changing road names every time it intersects a new one?!!! LOL. . .

Walkin - Ebay eliminated them! I went looking myself awhile back. I think it was a catch-22 w/magazine subscriptions and Ebay's 90 day dispute policy. It happened to me twice w/bogus deals, thankfully for very small amounts. If you remember how it was, they would state that it can take 12+ weeks before you may get your first issue due to ganged orders submitted or if the magazine is bi-monthly which can easily make it go past 90 days for filing a dispute? After it happened to me, I would give it 60 days, then contact the magazine itself and see if a subscription in my name had been opened - if not I would give in a few more weeks and inquire again, if it hadn't even been submitted at that point I would have started a dispute that was within the 90 days. Thankfully the latter sellers were honest. What I have found is you can get deal on mags using the dealers w/ads on the pages. Also, if you order Hearst magazines(House Beautiful) online at least, if you order one subscription at good rates BTW, they'll offer other magazine they publish at great savings - I got O at Home for $5. & either Country Home or Living for $5.00 as well for a yrs subscription. Jim

Pains me to see such good intentions go to waste though writing about the experience here will help others. This situation is why some builders advocate for being involved in the design process. Even if just a consulting roll, a collaborative team effort might have prevented this unfortunate outcome. I think designers often fear their vision will be watered down but with the right people involved, costs and alternative construction details can be evaluated as the design is developed without sacrificing design or aesthetics. Design-bid is a bit antiquated for those seeking higher performance. In my experience, everyone benefits in a collaborative approach. To address some confusion above, Passive house (PassivHaus Institute PHI) is a German born building certification. Passive House US (Passive House Institute US PHIUS) is the N. American split from the German version. Passive Solar Design is the traditional term used to describe getting free heat from the sun. Being mindful of those strategies can help reduce cooling loads in TX, like stretching a home from east to west helps minimize windows on those vulnerable directions. Keeping Homes Cooler is a blog I wrote for new and existing homes. Often Passive House homes end up with passive solar design elements as do other designs looking to maximize efficiency with no extra upfront costs. Some passive house projects are approaching cost parity with typical crappy construction. I always enjoy Steve Baczeck's articles in Fine Homebuilding. If you can't do Passive House, at least do Energy Star. This will involve a third party energy rater who will help push a home towards current international building codes. Though these codes are rarely adopted and enforced locally, they represent a very good balance of cost and efficiency. Involve the rater early in design process. Matt Risinger is an awesome resource for building in TX and anywhere in the south. I would follow his advice as much as possible. His videos and articles on airsealing, insulation, waterproofing and humidity control are particularly important.

I would have shaped them with the container and removed them before freezing. There is a lot of moisture in ground beef and it will cause the meat to expand when it freezes. You could very well have had all the meat totally stuck in their cubes. I would have just popped them out, put them on a parchment lined baking sheet or shallow container and covered them with plastic wrap until they froze. In your situation of limited freezer space, once frozen I would have wrapped each one individually in plastic wrap and simply sealed them into any freezer safe container or even a zip lock bag. Actually I wouldn't have used the mold at all. I would have flattened the meat mixture to the thickness I wanted in a rectangular shape and cut the meat into squares like I would brownies or a sheet cake.