Like dian57, I keep my empties with my "fulls." My pantry shelves always have about the same number of jars on them (give or take a few dozen that have been given away, or are harbouring leftovers, in the dishwasher, or seconded for wasp trap duty). But in November about 90% of them are full, while in May about 90% of them are empty. After every dishwasherload I take the clean empties into the pantry and put them where there's space, rearranging a wee bit as necessary, pushing full jars to the front & grouping batches of the same size together near things that I can in that size. I used to keep my empties in the basement and my fulls in the kitchen, and I NEVER could make myself do the trek just to put empty jars away so there were bags and piles of empties near the stairs waiting to be taken down (and getting knocked over by cats, dogs, nehpews, etc.). ANd I'm bad at getting around to big re-org projects, too, so it works better for me to just do a teeny bit of re-org each time I do dishes. Can I say, btw, that the every time I take several used canning jars out of a dishwasher, I get a little happy feeling? It reminds me that my home-canned food is now an integral part of my life, if you see what I mean. When I began, my canned goodies were few and often esoteric things saved for special occasions or to show off for guests. Now the home-canned-goods pantry is just where I get my tomato sauce from, as a matter of course. Everyday joy. Z

I have had issues with GW lately failing to email me when subsequent posts to threads come up, so you're not the only one it doesn't like! The mason bees have one generation per year. It makes them so easy to have around. You certainly don't need to bring in the bee cells to your home if that's not your thing. If you don't, there could be several predators that will mine little holes into some of their tubes and attack the developing larvae. Some suggest waiting til fall to bring them in, but if I remember, I just grab the blocks that are filled up and store them in the basement once the adults are no longer visiting the blocks (usually around the beginning of June). Bringing them in greatly reduces the risk of predators. The adults are only out from late March to early June. Once you've got all your planting done for the season, but the end of May early June, then it's time to start to monitor the boxes for adult visitation drop off. Yep, we've certainly had a few bees in the house! If you forget them in the basement, they will emerge by about mid April no matter the temperatures, so you gotta get them outside by the end of March. If a couple do emerge earlier, I put the freshly emerged adults into the refrigerator with a cotton ball soaked in sugar water 2:1 water to sugar. The cold slows them down and the sugar water sustains them for a few days to a few weeks. I then put the entire little box in the fridge until it looks like Mother Nature is cooperating, and providing them with blossoms to visit. To avoid any issues, I try and put the boxes and bee cells out when the flower buds on the fruit trees start to look like they are about to open. I wish I had some pictures of the larval cells. They are like little bullets with mud on either side. As a note, the roofs on the boxes for mason bees are totally not needed, though I think the little workers appreciate a little rain cover. I've seen people stack 2x6 blocks in their yard without any rain cover or roof, and they still keep their bees happy. In the late fall, you can often find folks selling starter mason bee pupal cells on Craigslist and EBay for around 20 bucks. Of course you can purchase them from online sellers as well. I never have had that many blocks where I had a bunch of surplus bee cells, but maybe I'll build a few more boxes this fall to increase the reproduction opportunity next spring. I'm not in it to make money, but I would be willing to donate some starts to someone wanting to give them a try if they produce enough next spring. Zach, as much as you seem to like insects, this little cheap project should be on your to do list! Of course, I'm happy to answer any questions that may come up along the way. Dan

JMO, but seems lucky to me if he is only 2 days or even 2 weeks behind. Also seems lucky to me if he split the bill to fix a previous person's mistakes. We are not DIY'ing but I am GC'ing it, and as such, having to deal with the schedules, etc that normally the homeowner wouldnt have to deal with. I just had to accept that it is part of the job I took on. I know it is frustrating when ppl are late, but I try to understand that things come up on a job that can't be helped, both professional and personal. Professionally, I want it done right, so if something comes up that needs the attention and therefore will make a delay, I would just as soon it be done right, but then that pushes back the schedule, and sometimes the cost. Sometimes personal issues cause delays. Workers are people with lives outside of work also and my crew is giving me 110% but my main guy's baby came up very sick, with issues to his brain, and he needs 4 days of treatments in the city. My framer thought he was safe to wait until we at least had the roof on, but I told him this house can wait, he needed to get that done as soon as he can. I could never live with myself in my nice dry house if I tried to force him to stick to a schedule and his baby had brain damage for the rest of his life. So not only does that make my job later, it pushes back their next job also, but it is the right thing to do. I am new to this whole process of building and bids, but one of my bids, which happens to be the foundation, one was considerably lower than all the rest. I don't know much, but I could tell that the math wasn't right. So I went with another person, as I was afraid of what else might be wrong, what else this guy might hurry through on the job that I would have to pay for, one way or another. I had a hard time finding electrical contractors that would even talk to me. They said they only deal with General Contractors for a couple of reasons. Usually the GC can tell them what exactly is needed, without them losing a day(s) per bid to come up with a supply list and costs, and also due to people adding/changing this or that, and then not wanting to pay for them. The concrete in the wheelbarrel, seems like could have been cleaned out, but then again, if he was doing something time sensitive on your foundation, the basis for your whole house, the last thing on his mind might have been to rinse out the wheelbarrel. I tend to give too much anyways, probably to a fault, but if I have something that anyone can use that will make the job go easier, especially these guys working on my house, it is ultimately to my benefit so that wouldn't be a big deal to me. I understand those items werent yours and you were borrowing them so they were in your care and responsibilty. I guess he borrowed them too, which probably saved some time of having to go and get one, or not doing something that needed to be done because he didnt have the tools available at that moment. I dont know, I am just yakking, and not awake yet but seems to me like this is what most everyone who builds, talks about in terms of cost overruns and being over schedule. But I do agree that it would be nice if everyone was on time and stayed on budget, and it seems like a person should be able to get a bid and that is what it costs, no more, no less, but unforseen things come up and I would sure hate to scrimp on the fundamental things. Maybe when we get closer to the end of the build (and end of the money) some items may have to be adjusted. But I tried to inflate the schedules at the beginning, both time and budget, as these seem to be the common thread that everyone talks about, so I just tried to plan for it from the beginning. Every bid I rec'd, I added $ to it. If it was a 2 week job, I tried to schedule in 3. I thought it might be a little less stressful and maybe not so many surprises that way. So far so good with this method, as it has been really nice when I have been able to adjust my spreadsheet in my favor. It helps to offset those that still went a little over. :-) But I certainly can understand and appreciate your frustration. Seems like a bid should be a bid. I guess if it were a Doctor, doing a scheduled surgery that should cost X amount and take X amount of time, but then he got in there and found something else that needed fixed or something unexpected happened or he could see another doctor's screw up, but it would take extra time and extra money to fix it that wasnt in the "bid" and he had another patient waiting who was also expecting him to be on time, so he just closed me back up and went on cuz it wasn't in the bid or in the schedule.... I dont know, two sides to everything I guess. But I do like it better when it is working in my favor :-)

I didn't have one that was that brand, but Grandma bought a natural boar bristle brush "just for me!" I remember it had an "odd," though not unpleasant, odor when I'd wash it. (The brush, not my hair! LOL) I had very long, very thick, slightly curly hair. It needed all the help it could get.