Oh that's very nice Brenda and Pat:) That's about 20 daylillies lining the front between the garden area and the grass behind the different bulbs dieing out. There are 9 more roses that you can't even see behind the dragon and the redwood tree. I've still need to push some more of that walk on bark up behind the climbers to the fence and cover the clay and then get a couple loads of mulch and cover all this area. I plan to do that next weekend on payday. Most of these are the larger mini floras and floribundas and HTs showing here and yes it'll look way different in a few months and next year at this time way different. Especially once the climbers start filling in. I'm not really done and this will be an on going process too, I think a garden is always an evolving process:) The next 3 roses arrive on Friday I hear, so I'm taking a break until then! You just don't think you have nice gardens and I hear you talk about your plants and I don't believe a word of it! I've been yearning all fall and winter to have a small part of what you have, LOL* It'll be years before mine looks very lush. I still would enjoy pics, I love to see pics of flowers and plants.

TT, Definitely label the tomato whose seeds you are going to save and place some sort of indicator on the stem of the very flower(s) that you pollinated. I just write a code number on the label (to keep the label small) and in my records (I keep a separate journal for that purpose) I put the code number and details about the cross, including a description of the parents and the date(s) of pollination. "Also, if I save the seeds from the resulting tomato, will it grow the same kind of tomato if I plant the seeds from it?" F1 hybrids do not "come true" from seed in the F2 generation, but the F2s vary wildly from the original F1 cross. A small percentage of plants will be very similar to the cross. If you save seeds from them and repeat that operation for several years, you can establish an open-pollinated stable variety from your cross. Otherwise, you can simply repeat the cross to get an additional supply of the F1 hybrid seeds. If you are doing this for yourself, a single tomato can supply you with a good supply of F1 seed that might last you for several years. The book, Breeding New Plants and Flowers by Charles W. Welch, has a chapter on tomatoes. You can get used or slightly shop-worn copies of it for a reasonable price. The book, Breed your own Vegetable Varieties by Carol Deppe, has a lot information, including lots of information about breeding your own tomato varieties. I don't breed tomatoes (I do raise them and eat them), but I have both of those books and frequently refer to them because one of my hobbies is amateur zinnia breeding, and they have information relevant to that activity. MM

The first question I'd ask - how many times since you've had bank accounts have you needed to dig out an old check? How many times have you had to prove that you paid something? The law of averages is on your side that you will never have a check go astray in the mails or that you'll be audited by the IRS. I save bank statements for one calendar year at most. When tax returns have been filed, the tax year bank statements get shredded. I don't keep routine paid bills for any length of time (basically, only as long as it takes me to pay the bills and run by the post office with them) - if a utility or credit card or whatever didn't get a check, I'd know about it on their next bill. Lots of people are drowning in paper and everyone's a little different with regards to saving paper. You sort of have to look at what you're holding on to and why and for how long and find your comfort level.

I have no idea what tests were or were not performed while I was hospitalized, nor how to find out, so I couldn't possibly argue about it with a doctor or insurance company. My file was several inches thick for 20 days in hospital in 2005. Often, bills were submitted by a practice, but paid to a particular doctor such as Pathologists and oncologists, infection specialists, hospitalists, etc. - mostly MDs, none of whom I ever met and whose names I never knew until they were paid. The same thing happened when my husband was hospitalized three different times in 2005 and 2006, and when my 35 yo son had a heart attack in a different state in November. I cannot imagine how one could find flaws in billing or match EOBs to paid claims. Or, frankly, why. I was just happy to be alive, and spent months recovering. I had no strength for such tedious work, and no interest in it. If we are ever audited or questioned about our medical bills, we will have to rely on their computer-generated bills.