About the only things I still covet (and all too often succumb) are plants and books. I've still got bits and pieces of art and sculpture packed away from our move several years ago...especially a Greenman bronze mask and a couple of fountains for the garden that I remember vividly coveting...now it's been just too much trouble to go unearth them. LOL When my Dad retired from Army after WWII we spent a year or so moving around the West living in an aluminum housetrailer (in my memory it was called a "Covered Wagon" but that may have been just my Dad's sense of humor. LOL Spent 6 months on a high bluff above Pismo Beach CA and one Christmas snowed in at Flagstaff, AZ. I think we visited every national park. It was a wonderful time as I remember it, but I was 11, my brother about 5 and sister a toddler. I'm not sure how much fun it was for my Mom...LOL Today I'm strictly an armchair traveler...not even enticed by hotel room service! josh

I live in a high, arid desert with alkaline soils. Blueberries grow in acidic swamps at much lower altitudes. So, of course, I figured that if'n I add enough PM, I can turn a small patch of local dirt into a blueberry growing spot. So I dumped cubic yards of the stuff, stirred it up, planted a dozen bushes. After 4 years and no growth what so ever, half died, I moved the rest into large pots with acidic potting soils. That didn't work either. So, all in all, spread out over 8 years and spending I dunno how much money, I'd picked a pint. People in Maine have like whole big patches of the things that just grow wild. I mean, they rake them even. Like leaves. A natural bounty of blue berries, and here I am with some Charley-Brown-Christmas-tree-like foot high Bonsai plants with 4 berries. One of these days, I'm gonna go for a swap them some fresh cactus leaves for a case of blueberries, using a blow torch to get off the spines. When a lad, we used to go camping in Idaho, and once camp was set, spend the afternoon eating wild blueberries and watching out for bears. Good times, good times.

Well if they spent the time & money on erradicating wild parsnip (poison parsnip) or Eurasian milfoil or the blue-green algae that killed my dear sweet dog that they do on denigrating & legislating against loosestrife, the resources would be better spent. I've read professional opinion that states that the long-range impact of loosestrife is unknown, so I'm highly skeptical of claims about its harmful nature. We transplanted several loosestrife plants to our 1/4th acre swampy area well over a decade ago, and it has coexisted peacefully with the native cattails all this time. Although the purple blooms have proliferated, loosestrife has not overrun the cattails, not turned the swamp into solid ground by eliminating standing pools, nor has it inhibited the multitudes of seasonal birds that feed there. The only change was an aesthetic one - our swamp is a lovely purple garden in late summer. When agricultural/conservation workers come help with the annual brush clearing of 6 foot tall butt-ugly overbearing poison parsnips in our pasture, suffer some of the massive skin blisters these plants can cause, and help foot the bill for our $2000 brush clearing machinery, then they can preach to us about the supposed ills of our purple flowers.

I have some JCP panels I'm fixing to hang after I get the curtain rods right. The law here in Texas is specific, and consumer oriented, and I'm not going to be rooting around in some store trying to find matching lengths if mine don't match. Here in Texas we have the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. It is not about cost, it is about truth in advertising. If it is advertised as 84 inches it dang well better be. If two panels are off by 1/4 or so I probably wouldn;t fuss, but much more than that? Yeah. Would I take them to court? Yeah. Many states have similar consumer friendly laws, to protect consumers. I do believe that a custom panel might have finer materials, finer workmanship. But a panel sold new at any cost which announces that it is 84 inches long, better be. I'm not a rug that manufacturers can walk on me, and being from Texas, I'm not afraid to rodeo with them. If consumers insist that 84 inches means 84 inches, there's no question in my mind that in a short while, 84 inches WOULD mean 84 inches. Made in China or anywhere else does not have to mean shoddy and mismeasured. After all, Swiss-made watches are said to be some of the finest anywhere. It is all about consumer expectation, and I expect that 84=84 and I believe it is the manufacturer and not the area of origin that is responsible for lax practices in manufacturing. One last comment: Sellers love to make YOU dance when THEY are at fault. No, I'm not coming into the store. If my panels are off, THEY can find a seamstress local to me.