-regarding leaving seed pod on plant to develop -craigr2006 posts about rate of pod maturity -on harvesting seed - when it becomes soft -claims you can pick after 5 months. __________________________________________________________ note: information on culture may be coming from south africa __________________________________________________________ i hope this can be of some help

Hi guys! No, I didn't finally jump over the ledge :) I just took a small hiatus. I boarded "charliedawg" in a kennel, packed the suitcases, got the family in the car and got the heck out of here. WHEW! If I ever build a house again (which I highly doubt I will) I will definitely put mental health vacation $$$$ in my budget. LOL Tragusa, I'm not glad that you had all of the problems but I'm glad to know that it worked out for you so I know it will all be ok fo me too. GC will be back tomorrow. She has ALWAYS made things perfect so I'm not sure why I doubted it now. I think I just felt out of control because she is gone. I'm not the type that needs to be in control of such a big project, I guess ya'll figured that out by now.

Sally, congratulations. I love porches you can actually sit on and the floors will be lovely when they are all polished up and done right. I actually kind of like the cabinets in the kitchen but the black appliances are kind of dark. Keeping the floor the shade it is, it will probably look a lot bigger with lighter cabinets, countertops, etc. Of course, I'd just paint everything white, LOL, except the floor! And I love that old tree, it would make a great "horse" for a little cowboy, also a fort to protect him from marauding Indians and a great outlook to spy outlaws ready to attack and maybe a ship discovering new worlds and very possibly a rocket..... Annie

Yes! I was really freaked out when I first noticed it! My heart just sunk. I had worked for weeks getting the bottom on this pool perfect, just perfect. I wanted those expensive ColorLogicLEDs to look perfect when reflecting across this glassy smooth pool bottom (OK, maybe it wasn't glassy smooth, but those lights were all I could think about when I was troweling it on!) This pool bottom was really really smooth. But unfortunately I couldn't drop the liner in immediately due to the irregular pool shape. The liner had to be custom measured (using point-to-point) and custom made. It was supposed to take 2 weeks to get here, but the manufacturer ended up taking nearly 2 months!! By then the weather had turned cold. We left standing water in the pool bottom and around the pool itself. The water was freezing and thawing (both on top of, and underneath the surface) which cracked the pool bottom. We never even realized it until it was too late. However just before we drop in the liner, we are going to COMPLETELY remove those "cracked" sections with a sledge hammer, and totally replace it with a new bottom in those places. Can anyone think of anything better to do? (short of demolishing the whole thing) What would you do if this was a liner replacement? My biggest concern with the moving sections was not just to repair them, but to determine what caused them in the first place. The "Good News" was that I'm fairly certain that it was the standing water/freeze/thaw conditions that created the problem. By knowing that, I can redirect the water, let the soil dry out, and then feel confident that repairing the section will work. I'm just a simple DIYer, so I may be missing something here. That's one of the reasons that I'm posting it. Can anyone think of a better way to handle it? Would it be helpful to add rebar in those sections? (I wouldn't think so, as the rest of the pool doesn't have it.) This pool bottom seems really fragile. The directions for the installation say to only walk on it with soft bottomed shoes, don't spray water from a hose directly on it, etc. When I work with the portland cement/sand mix, I feel like I'm building a giant sandcastle! It's not at all strong like cement or even mortar. My personal feeling is that the sooner the liner is on it the better. My mistake seems to be letting Old Man Winter get here in between finishing the bottom, and dropping in that liner! Please keep the suggestions comin'!! -Renee