Im sorry jmcbackyarddigger!! I didnt mean to steal your post!! very sorry for that!! The poison ivy is gone (Thank someone, probably the doctor that put me on steroids!!) And yes Ken i am surrounded!! but i love this little city of Ferndale, MI!! cant think of anywhere else I would want to live!! But the yards are SO small and the double lots here are too expensive (and a double lot here is probably a 1/4 acre! I dont know!)It would be nice to live out in the middle of no mans land, but I really hate to drive over 40 miles to work one way. and that is how it is around here!! even the city of South Lyons (which was farm country 10 years ago "and is only about 25 minutes from home on the xway> now even has a McDonalds!!! would you believe that!!! it is so built up now!!! my parents used to drive out there when we were kids (8 siblings, and not much money) to go see a movie for less than a dollar each!! That is where I get my hair cut ( friend owns a barber shop) so I know how much it has changed in the last 10 years !! I would love to go back when nothing ws open after 9 pm and life was SOOOOOO much slower (not even a gas station was open on sundays!!! let alone a BEER STORE!!! (and this is not the Quadrillion acre woods that winnie the pooh lived in) this house was built in 1918 and so was this tight knit comunnity) probably spelled wrong there!! OOPS!! I am rambling..... uh oh yeah now I know, Pics on the hosta forum SORRY!! Ken you are bad for distacting me!! now i am onto wine cause i forgot to pick up the BEER when i got out of work!!! okay now for some answers I guess and hopefully in order as they appear to my eyes ( the wine is starting to hit me faster than the beer ever does!! ) and this cat is sitting in my lap which makes it more diffifcult to type (she is really ornery tonight!!) sunny east texas pic 3 the three hostas in the pic are Francis williams (behind the begonia) to the left of that is Sagae to the right of sagae is aureomarginata something (or Oreo Margaritta)! Pic #6 That is Perrilla Magilla (not sure on the spelling) grows just like a coleous, no flowers that i know of (which means no picking out flower buds, and is REALLY easy to start from cuttings, usually i do those in the fall) the one on the right is planted in a pot (with some blue hosta seedlings that you cannot see, and neither can I when i look at it, around the base)the perilla was about 6" tall when put in that pot, and the other in the ground, the hosta in the middle of all of this is Rich Uncle. and the black things in the background are my neighbors garbage cans that I cannot photograph around!! Thanks for the nice comments (always love to here them, dont we all?) Hey upnort!! I didnt even see myself in that pic until i read your post!! (there is a ghost in my yard, or did you get out the microscope to check out the pic? now i see the bird feeder in there, hope the birds arent hungry!!) was having a hard time juggling the two, (the beer can just wasnt taking the pics i wanted!!)so I had to hold the camera!! DARN and i was so thirsty!! Carol ( I should have said Sunny and Carol, Sorry!!) oh wait!! the dryer is done (have to fold and put in the other load) back in 15!! thankyou for the nice comments!! my head is swelling as my glass gets more empty (does that make any sense, this is the wine speaking , it is so much different from drinking BEER) Actually my pond does not get that much sun, only a couple of hours a day, (well maybe 6 at different times) I have a large canopy of MAPLE, elms and oak, all of them are mature. I love the shade that they all make!! which makes it so nice to sit on the deck and just watch the yard grow. and then go pull another weed b4 i take another picture or go grab another can of beer(or grab the 5 gallon bucket and fill it from the pond to water another hosta). that plant is also in pics #1 to the left next to blue angel #3front and center #5 to the left (which is the same plant in pic number, oh jeez #6?) Hey starina thanks for the Zanfel tip!! is that a cream? it only cost me $10 (and 2 hours)to see the dr and $10 for the steroids (insurance). which started to work on the second day!! but took about 2 weeks to finally clear up after 2 weeks b4 seeing the doctor!! oh carolreall tough! (well, and gross!) hey mctavish6! Thanks for the nice comments! pic# 2? is wide brim if i am correct or pic # (soory i have to go back and count) oh, have to go count again...oh and again... lost my thought here... #4? to the lower ledt (i think the wine spelled that one!!) uh left? is ... darn, one more time (darn wine, not like the beer)...hold on, let me go back....oh jeez! what is that!! let me think!! ummmmm oh yah ,,, uh uh uh OH!!! summer breeze next to the uh japanese painted fern. WOOO!!! that was hard to do (LOL) okay, and for the sculptures, there are actually 3 total, only 2 in these pics, a very nice friend of mine was living in an upstairs flat, just around the corner from me, such a really nice guy. was helping him move to an apt around the corner from where he lived, they were in his back yard when he moved there. when he moved out the land lord told him that he could take them with him if he wanted to. they are made of ceremic and weigh between (depending on which one) 150 to 400 pounds each. he told me and my partner that we could have them. (had to leave one behind because after moving 3 we were pretty well worn out) (and kinda upset to leave one behind) they were made by a previous tenant which the landlord (or my freind) didnt rememner the name of. so we picked them up( and not really that easely) and brought them over the couple of blocks to our house! and what a chore that was!! but they are SO WAY COOL!! oh and mctavish? I store my elephant ear in 5 gallon buckets over winter. no holes in the bottom in a sunny window. they like a lot of water. except the Xanthosoma in pic #(have to count again, DARN)4!!! (yes!! okay,getta grip) in a very large pot, in a window. my dining room in the winter time is pretty much a over winter plant area, I have a 7' ficus and some orchids and others to deal with. and for some reason i take the tropical waterllily in for the winter too!!(which all my freinds can attest too!! and the second load in the dryer is done, hold on, more folding and hanging stuff!! AAARRRGGHHHHH!!!!!'' did i tell you that i dont have an eye patch or a parrot? If this doesnt make any sense at all or I have spelled something inkorrectlie, I will blame it on the "charles shaw" wine that i am drinking!!! (or 2 buck chuck for those who shop at (oh no !! i forgot the name of the store!! oops sorry!!) well any who thanks for all of the nice comments (except for KEN, there are no cows in FERNDALE!! LOL!!) Paul ps I hope i got to everyone here! and id this message is rejected i will be so POed

I too have a maple tree to plant under. Trouble is, they are not only greedy feeders, the roots tend to come up into any soil or mulch you put over them. They also tend, like the black walnuts, to be somewhat alleopathic and don't want just anything growing under them. I have tried a plethora of shade plants under them, but have had success with only a few. Common violets do well, as does ajuga. I also grow rudbeckia, coneflowers and bidens. Iris, daylilies, acanthus, chrysanthemums, amsonia, irises, baptisia, coral bells, ground cover sedums, and spiderwort all grow at the edge of the root line, but hostas and ferns hate it. Forsythia and nandina grandiflora share root space and hold their own, as does an autumn clematis that grows up the trunk. Maples also don't like grass growing under there and competing for water and nutrients, so that is usually killed out. I live in the rocky, tree-rooty hills of the Ozarks, and still grow wildflowers under the trees in my woods. I use a small hand pick to make holes in the rocky, rooty soil, and drop in bulbs or put a bit of garden soil in a hole just big enough for a plant to give it a start, and that usually works. Sometimes I have to resort to a regular size pick or mattock, but I never dig up a whole area, just make individual holes. I find sometimes that if you injure the bigger roots of some trees they will send up suckers in those spots for you to deal with, so if I run into a big root I just move over to an emptier spot. Plants that compete very well include mayapples, Solomon's seal, wild geraniums, wild ginger,lily of the valley, ferns and hostas (except under maples, hellebores, arums, sedums, and daffodils hold their own no matter how many rocks and roots there seem to be. I also try to plant small so I don't have to dig a very big hole, and smaller plants seem to adjust better.

Twotogo, I noticed another installation error in the picture of the "stress" crack to the left of your window. There is no horizontal Z flashing installed above the window trim and the siding is caulked directly to the trim. If you refer to the installation instructions from any fiber cement siding manufacturer, they instruct that horizontal flashing must be installed in these areas and that the installer leave an "uncaulked" 1/4" gap where the siding meets the flashing. The flashing is to prevent the possibility of water infiltration and the gap is meant to act as an escape for any water or moisture that might get behind the siding. If the gap is caulked (with or without flashing), moisture can get trapped in these areas and cause problems down the road. The fact that I didn't see any flashing above the window indicates you will most certainly have leakage issues at some point. Short of pulling the siding above all windows and properly installing horizontal Z flashing, the only thing you can do is very closely and frequently monitor those caulked joints to minimize water infiltration. From everything I've read and seen on your siding, I have to agree that it is an installation issue. Hopefully you have Tyvek installed behind the siding to prevent rotting to your wall sheathing should you experience water infiltration. Best of luck to you

Well, in figuring this out I was surprised at how light bran is! You need more than I thought. (I picked wheat bran as the most likely source of fiber, and the easiest weight/volume equivalents online.) I'm also assuming that all of the bran counts as fiber; if not, then use a bit extra. First, you want to know how many slices per loaf. Sixteen seemed likely to me, but of course you may slice thick or thin, and that will matter. But taking 16 as the number, multipling the amount of fiber you want per slice (3 g) by the number of slices (16) gives you 48 grams for the whole loaf. The USDA says a cup of wheat bran weighs 58 grams. At this point I'd just say, "throw in a little less than a cup for each loaf." But if we want to be more exact, we can divide 48 by 58 and we see that it's .8275 cups you need. That is, just under 7/8 of a cup. Add the bran before you add the last cup or two of flour, while the dough is still wet. Then wait (I hope this extra 15-30 minutes won't blow your schedule). Let the bran absorb some water. That's the secret to making whole-wheat breads that aren't too dense or dry. Bran, whether it's in whole wheat flour or added separately, is going to soak up water. Let it do its thing, and only then add the last of the flour.