Julie, that's a funny story. You're a trooper, love the way you and NDN split the detective work, the tasks, and got the boys to the party. :) (the big honkin' TV on the cedar chest sounds about right for this house, too). Do I recall that you don't drive? Mary, I know what you mean about the testosterone factor in the the building trades. It's not appreciably different in the marine trades. ;) The best way to deal with it, IMO, is to simply tune it out OR smile and tease them right back. I get called, "dear", "hon.", "cupcake", etc. at least once a day and have for years now. It's not uncommon to hear some crack about the "nice view" when I'm on the floor doing a layout. My take on it is that they like me, respect my abilities, and it's just their way of showing it. It doesn't really bother me, personally. Any chance you will be able to share some photos? I know I have to be very mindful of sharing photos of work I've done for customers. Yeah, I think Maine could be a fun destination, Mary. We have oodles of time to set a date that will suit everyone who would like to come and I'm able to get time off pretty much whenever I want to. So start looking at your calendars, everyone, and we'll figure out how much time we want to devote to it and what we'd like to do. Monique and Les. have highly recommended the Maine Botanical Gardens. Sue, I'm impressed that you were a 4-Her, too. I didn't know you had rabbits! is it true they eat their droppings to get some vitamin or nutrient they can't synthesize for themselves? The AWS usually has a few rabbits for adoption (some of them are huge); I had no idea you can get them to use a litter pan, but DID suspect that keeping a sharp eye on their busy little mouths was pretty important. I always wanted a guinea pig but Mum and Dad nixed that idea repeatedly... . It's going to be a real "wash out" this weekend. Wonder if Saucy's kids and husband have planned a camping trip? Had I had my wits about me I'd have taken a few shots of the swamp maples in the marsh area that are beautifully colored up. Cross your fingers that Kyle doesn't blow the leaves off them before I can get a pictures. They're really pretty, but there's still lots more color to come. A quick spin around the yard the other day revealed the extent of my garden sloth... it is clear that I have no need for aspirin to deaden any pain. lol I was fast asleep by debate time; I'll have to rely on the "post game wrap up" this morning on NPR (the Today show is the lamest excuse in the world for a news program).

Amy if is low on the tomato, at least in our garden, it likely would be a turtle. I have bug-eating turtles that occasionally eat low-hanging tomatoes. I don't mind since they generally eat lots of pests otherwise. It also might be a squirrel, rabbit, or any other kind of shorter animal. Often they are more after the water than the fruit itself and you can stop them by leaving shallow pans or bowls of water in the garden for them to drink. You can google and find animal or bird bite marks on the internet. Their appearance will vary a lot because sometimes you find a tomato with just a small area bitten or pecked, and other times you'll find a tomato that has been devoured so much that not much is left except the core hanging from the stem. It could be birds, but they tend to peck fruit higher on the plant since they aren't restricted only to the lower-hanging fruit. Grasshoppers sit and nibble away all day. Once they've eaten enough, it is hard to tell the difference between the damage they've done and damage done by something else like a hornworm or even an animal. One grasshopper alone doesn't do much damage but put a dozen or two dozen on one plant eating all day long and you can end up with tomatoes that are just completely chewed up. I only 'assume' it is grasshopper damage when I catch them on the fruit eating, which has been happening a lot lately. Sometimes, once one creature or another has begun eating a tomato, others join in and help them devour it. My tomato mill does have a salsa screen and it does give you a thicker, chunkier processed tomato with the skins ejected into the waste pile. If I use the sauce screen I get a much thinner puree that you quickly can turn into perfect pasta sauce. To make Annie's Salsa you only need 8 cups of chopped tomatoes, so I think that is doable even with a relatively small garden. So, I'll link my favorite copy of the recipe. It is one with all the notes about which changes are allowable and approved. My favorite change is the ability to use ReaLemon or ReaLime instead of vinegar. Sometimes I use 50% ReaLemon Juice and 50% ReaLime Juice, and other times I use 33.3% vinegar, 33.3% ReaLemon and 33.3% ReaLime. It is great either way. It wasn't bad with all vinegar, but my one complaint (always and forever with any salsa recipe I've ever canned) has been that the vinegar is stronger or more noticeable in home-canned salsa than in commercially produced salsa. So, when the use of ReaLemon and ReaLime in this recipe was approved, I was thrilled. I like the salsa so much more without the vinegary flavor. Also, there are some small batch canning recipes that produce as little as 3 jars of finished product. There's a whole canning recipe book available of small batch canning recipes. Gardens do just keep getting bigger, a trend I love! Someday I 'll get too old to tend my ever-growing garden and I'll have to shrink it down to a smaller size, but until that day comes, bigger is better. Today I harvested the first cucumbers, so salsa and sauce canning are about to end and I'll start making pickles. The first habanero peppers are about halfway orange, so as soon as they color up fully, I'll start making habanero gold. At our house, the transition from tomatoes to cukes to peppers is as regular as clockwork every summer. When I start canning tomatoes, it feels like an endless summer lies ahead. By the time I'm making pickles, summer is half over, and when I start making Habanero Gold, which usually is in late July, the worst summer weather is about to hit. Calendar? We don't need no stinkin' calendar on the kitchen wall.....we have the real life canning calendar that tells us what month it is. Here is a link that might be useful: The Annie's Salsa Thread With Notes

If you live in Iowa, here is your state's landlord/tenant code. Actually, they spell things out rather nicely. Not a lot of rambling legalese. 562A.10 of your code addresses no written lease. Basically if you took possession, he took your $, 'without reservation' on either party's part it gives your verbal agreement the same weight as if it had been written. I read through your post twice. Quite a bit jumped out at me. If you pursue it, it might be wise to anticipate some things coming up. Not taking sides, just pointing out observations based on what you said. You're putting heavy emphasis on how the money was handled and saying he doesn't have it based on what a neighbor said. Neighbor is a source of information to you but in the end it's just a neighbor talking and not worth anything more than that. Where the money at is the last duck in the row. First it has to be established you're entitled to any/all of SD back. About the damage. Crumbling ceilings and holes in walls are hard to miss on an initial viewing. You can argue you lived in a dump that was never repaired, but you rented the place in that condition. And you've got to be realistic. Even in the nicest of places walls get dings, that's a nothing issue. Holes would be different. Big difference between hairline crack in ceiling (settling will do that in an old house) to plaster chunks falling down. If it was really bad, unless it was the last place possible for you to rent to get a roof over your head, why did you opt to take it? And if a LL promises to fix something major, it should always be gotten in writing before moving in. I'm not condoning a LL let his place fall apart and be a hazard, nor is it legal. But tenants have options. So taking a unit in that condition, being long-suffering, then trying to use that as leverage later to get SD back doesn't make sense. The faucet deal was not handled well by him, but it was fixed so isn't relevant now. The harassing entry situation. Don't see it. That leak certainly constitutes an emergency entry - no notice required by law. (That type of leak is major tho, not minor.) You said you were in the shower and your daughter was sleeping when you heard loud banging and he rushed in. Is there a chance neither of you heard him knocking at a normal level before that? At that point all he knew was water was going where it shouldn't, needed to be stopped at the source, and he has no idea if anyone is home, not home, ignoring him, didn't hear him, sound asleep. He is allowed to protect the integrity of the structure, hopefully swiftly. (Had you attempted to delay his entry purposely that could really backfire.) As far as ranting, maybe he could have been more diplomatic, but LLs are human, too. You've just purchased a house yourself. What frame of mind would you be in to discover a leak like that a week after your purchase? The landlord is never home either he is an over the road trucker so he is rarely around. This winter, the property was not adequately maintained. The sidewalks were dangerously icy and snow covered. Never once were we told that we needed to take care of any of the snow shoveling. Uh, might be wise to leave that one alone. Did you ask if your rent payment included snow removal service? If only other building occupant is away all the time for work, & your rent didn't specifically include the cost of providing a service like that, it can be reasonable concluded without being told that if it snows, you might have to grab a shovel and toss down some de-icer and clear a path for yourselves and car. I also found some vague things about since we never received keys to the actual dwelling, he technically never surrendered the dwelling to us. But he did surrender possession of the premises to you. You lived there. And as far as a key goes, you're absolutely entitled to one from the start. Why would you live there the entire time without the ability to lock your door? You had the option of requesting (preferably in writing) and if he still failed to comply immediately, call a locksmith, have a new lock installed, keep your keys, give LL a copy key and the bill. It's at a date now where you don't have legal possession or access to the place anymore. You say the place is spotless. But yet you've not cleaned the carpet yet - it's still on your to-do list (tho your tenancy is done). But then you say you shouldn't have to pay for cleaning of the place on move out when you weren't shown the same courtesy when you moved in. I'm confused - spotless or it needs to be cleaned? I didn't read through the laws on it, but if your state law says you need to give 30 days notice, it means 30 days. Your letter only gives 28. If it only requires "a month" you're OK. Also, if he's got 30 days to respond from date of your notice, that gives him till 3/2 because Feb only had 28 days. So maybe it's en route to you now via postal service. Guess next couple days will tell.

Following. I just purchased another Miele today. My 2002 Miele is having trouble pumping water out and restarting over and over isn't in my game plan. You may have noticed from other posts that I was debating whether I wanted another Miele. After careful consideration, I decided that another MIELE was the way to go. Especially since they're offering a free 5 yr extended warranty through Nov. 30th. Since someone here recommended the MIELE tabs, I've used 1/2 tab. Previously I used 1 tablespoon of Cascade powder (old formula). Early on a MIELE service tech told me not to believe the suggested amount of detergent and 1 tablespoon was appropriate. I have never had a problem with cleaning nor had any build up on the walls of the machine. I hope that the new MIELE concierge service will install the machine properly and get my salt levels correct. It's my assumption that the initial machine installers were poorly trained and never set things up correctly. My MIELE tabs are cut and stored in an open box under the kitchen sink. I have never had an issue with dampness or diminished cleaning ability.