Yes T'M', and I've got all these carrots, onions and celery root to use up! Pot pie is a possibility but since I have to ask DW to make the pie crust . . . shepherd's pie makes double sense. I generally follow Dafy's recipe that we talked about on this forum, way back when. I've linked below where she gave us that recipe. The old thread on beans that came up reminded me of it. I was trying to come up with more ideas for veggie use in the kitchen back then. The conversation kind of drifted when David told us about deep-frying pork, or something like that (shudder). I've found that it works well for me is to make gravy separately. Then, I can get that as close to "just right" as possible -- and, pour it over the cooked veggies and meat in the pie crust. (In this case, the mashed potatoes/cream cheese. :o) I'll use frozen beans. The potatoes will be Purple Viking. I'm kind of pleased with how that one is holding up. The are still real juicy & crisp down there in the basement. I wasn't real impressed with the square foot production in the garden but the tubers were HUGE. That is what I think was the problem with lowering production. I should have left more eyes on the seed potatoes so that the plants could have filled in better. The potatoes would have been smaller but there should have been more of them. Steve Here is a link that might be useful: Has gardening given you a better diet? RMG

That would discourage me too. House wrens are not good neighbors. They will pierce eggs and/or remove them, and toss young from the nest to die, as well as filling all nearby cavities with dummy nests to prevent competition. If the bluebirds are outnumbered, inexperienced, or just happen to be away at the moment, their nests and young are often doomed. Are you intentionally hosting house wrens? If so, then don't endanger the others. Either take the extra boxes down, or use hole reducers so that bluebirds cannot enter and be tempted into nesting with a false sense of security, and wasting precious time and energy only to have their young killed. Then, you can at least hope that the bluebirds can find safe accommodations elsewhere. They DO have time for another nesting! Or, perhaps you could find a more suitable location for bluebird nestboxes, well away from the HOWR territory. Bet describes HOWR territory on her website linked below. Bluebars Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sialis.org/wrens.htm

Would you draw a bathtub full of water, and let all the family member's use the same water? Its the same thing putting dishes in the dishwasher without rinsing them off. Your washing all your dishes in dirty water.... But according to the posts I've read their are a number of factors that contribute to the discussion. It wastes water by rinsing dishes... Well is the water turned on full blast or just at a trickle? The food on the dishes actually helps the detergent work better... Really? Thats like jumping into a mud pit, going inside and taking a shower while trying to lather up with the mud still on you? Does the soap work better? One post read that the dishes sit in the dishwasher for awhile before the dishwasher is ran. So a response was to use the prerinse. Isn't this the same thing as rinsing before they go into the dishwasher? By not prerinsing, food can and will clog into the sprayer jets, eventually. Most people don't know what their hot water heater is set at, and it usually takes a minimum of 125 to start to break down food, and 160 degrees to dissolve food. Not to mention that your dishwasher is usually filled with cold water because the of the draw from the water pipes doesn't heat up in time to get the hot water to the dishwasher. So, in turn if your dishwasher has a heating element, it heats up the water, which is counter productive of the whole reasoning not to rinse your dishes. How many people use the dryer selection to dry their dishes? Or do you just open up the dishwasher and let the dishes air dry? If you use the dryer selection on the dishwasher, You are using as much, if not more, energy then my prerinsing the dishes..... But from what I read, if you aren't using the correct detergent then you've lost the game. Well, if the dishwasher is doing its job, then it shouldn't matter on what kind of detergent you use? Moral of the story, rinse your dishes, check the temp of your hot water heater, prime the hot water before running your dishwasher, let your dishes air dry and you will actually save more energy.

lyra, these are unsweetened and I don't like them. If I did, there would not be any to worry about. lol I used to eat dry sugared shredded wheat at work in the am, but I don't need a snack place anymore. I carry a visible one around with me....my belly! Poor ol' Sebastian is diabetic so no cheerios for him either! btw, that plate is one of two that I got back in the late 80s when the local Mikasa outlet used to have great stuff, and I had no husband to narrow his eyes at me. The Mikasaplace is history and we renovated ourselves out of a lot of hideyholes...if you get my drift!