A couple of thoughts and anecdotes: When I first got red worms I send for my stock by mail, in 1992. They cost $10 a pound back then. We were staying, that year, in Ohio, and my father-in-law purchased several dozen, for fishing, leaving them in a Styrofoam cooler, in the garage. He offered them to me. But by the time I got there, they had frozen. I brought the cooler into our basement and within two weeks we had gazillions (but that's just an estimate) of newborn red worms, which had hatched out. The adults did not survive being frozen. But the eggs did. I raised mine in the basement, in Rubbermaid tubs. We never had a gnat or fly problem, that year. We were slated to go back to Mexico the following June, and I wanted to take some with me, but only enough to start up again, after arriving. So, as an experiment, in January, I took 7 (seven) red worms and placed them in a butter tub with peat moss and shredded paper. I fed them a little and watched them multiply. By June they filled a Rubbermaid tub and numbered in the hundreds. We arrived in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo, with our worms, in June. I dropped them into a 3'X3'masonary planter, in our front yard. The planter had no soil in it. I simply dumped them in there and added soil, to about 7" deep. Then, we added coffee grounds and scraps, as we had them. By fall, we had GAZILLIONS of red worms. It was impossible to count them. The Mexican government was giving seminars on red worm culture. But, as was often the case with such seminars, they failed to make any stock available. So the presenters simply collected their checks for giving seminars. An agronomist friend of mine, from 6 hours away, where we used to live, heard that I had red worms. He and several agronomist friends offered to rent a car and drive six hours, each way, just to purchase a couple pounds of red worms. They were going to use them in an integrated agronomy system. Instead, I managed to pass them off, to his wife, at the halfway point, in Mexico City, when I went to do paperwork. I also gave a start to another agronomist in Hidalgo, who spread them around to his friends. Guess we ruined the monopoly! I taught gardening and small animal husbandry in a Bible Institute for 8 1/2 years, starting that fall. So, my students received notes and class time on red worms. Below is a link to download a simply set of notes, translated into English, like what I handed out. If anyone cares, they can take the data on rate of reproduction and extrapolate. Given the right conditions these things multiply exponentially! By the way, these notes were originally written when I had more experience raising them in the house than outdoors. I had red worms in our tool shed, here in Oklahoma,for over five years, before losing them last summer. The shed has no AC or heat. This year, just to be safe, I started a small tub of them and keep it under my desk, at work. That way, if my home bin gets cooked, I can easily start over. I received my new start from our very own joellenh. George George Here is a link that might be useful: George's Notes on Red Worms

What most amateurs and seemingly all sales people fail to recognize is that in the built environment there is a dangerous accelerating convergence of decreased ventilation due to the rising cost of energy, increased use of composite materials due to the rising cost of natural materials (and their maintenance), and a staggering increase in DIY homeowners due to the ease of access to information over the internet and the traditional I-can-do-it attitude of Americans. The resulting profit opportunities for manufacturers is incredible. It is possible to find seemingly credible evidence to support any opinion you might wish to propose and there is always someone ready and willing to sell any material to you with the click of a link even if it's sale and use is restricted by law in your state. 50 years ago it was possible to ask the clerk at the local lumberyard for advice and build a house yourself without agonizing about the materials. Just as Thalidomide forever changed how we think about drugs, formaldehyde changed how we think about building materials although no one seems to be old enough to remember either of them anymore so we may be forced to learn the lesson all over again. The health risk of formaldehyde should not be dismissed with specious philosophical arguments. The environmental danger to your health that you face outside your home does not justify increasing the risk in your home where exposure is considerably longer and more intimate. And it is ridiculous to suggest the risks are similar. The concentration of formaldehyde in a typical home is about 5 times that of the outdoor air and in a home with elevated levels of formaldehyde it can be 20 to 60 times greater. My advice is if you have no long term and/or direct experience with these environmental health issues and/or feel confused by internet and retail sales hype, you should add a heat recovery ventilation system to your house for the protection of your current and future children as well as your grandchildren. I put one of them in every house I design and so far no one has deleted it. If you wish to play the priority game you should first not allow cigarette smoking in you home. Then avoid any baby crib that contains composite materials and check the formaldehyde content of any carpet in the nursery as well as toys, especially the stuffed ones. Cost should not be an issue for children. Next consider where older children sleep, and where they are subjected to poor ventilation especially near unvented gas appliances. Then apply this test to where adults sleep, then where they watch television or work at home. I wouldn't worry about plywood in kitchen cabinets but I would avoid too much particle board. However, it is considerably easier to ventilate a kitchen than a bedroom and it is unlikely to be occupied as much as a bedroom. Of course, lifestyles have also changed and kitchens are sometimes part of other living spaces so use your own judgment about time of exposure. Be especially careful about materials used in basement recreational areas because there is rarely enough ventilation in these spaces and the materials used to finish them are often the cheaper composite ones. Be careful about laminate and engineered flooring and avoid acid-catalyzed urea-formaldehyde factory coatings. Look for the higher European standard E0 stamp or the even higher E1 stamp. Buy particleboard or hardwood plywood stamped with the Composite Panel Association (CPA) or Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association (HPVA) stamp. Look for PF and MDI resins instead of UF resins. The CPA standards are not as strict as the California standards which are not as strict as the Japanese and European standards which should be no surprise to anyone. Avoid the use of particle board as a flooring underlayment or subfloor. These issues are automatically dealt with in professionally designed homes through standardized written specifications. If you are selecting materials "by the seat of your pants" you're going to have to research each material, ask a lot of questions, and be prepared for evasive misleading answers. Good luck.

Rosewitch, England was definitely one of my favorite places I have ever visited. My folks took me there when I was 14, and I remember bits and pieces the Crown jewels, walking amongst the Stonehenge stones (roped off now, vandalism), Stratford upon Avon. Time for me to take my own 14YO. Im trying to think how I can get over there for a whole summer, LOL. Dlynn, I could have worked so much more. I didnt really look at night time stuff and there was loads to do. Greece: cant help you, but shoot Yasou a line, she went a few years ago. LOL Annie! Teresa, well go together. I wanted to explore more cooking and food shops/stores but didnt get to. Terri, here is more a link to Pictures of England, a website pointed out to me by Denise. I started it on Bourton on the Water, where we stayed for a few days. Thanks Sharon, I was actually thinking how can I even come close to posting her quality of travel guides, I dont do the pictures she does LOL. We might have sat at the same table in the Cheshire Cheeses dining room! Sawdust still there, but we didnt make it to the cellar. I missed a lot of the British Museum. It has changed.check out the new atrium. I couldnt keep up with DH and DS16. Afternoons, when I planned museums, I crashed. Next time! Pam, lots of people did more than we did per day! Theater every night, more attractions, I cant imagine. Gina heh heh yeah I need another vacation like a hole in my head. Speaking of whichDH has another week off in August. Nooooooooo! Kathleen, DH says he took an average of 200 pictures a day. Yup. Me, I just buy the post cards or Google the images, same thing (DARFC from the photo bugs here) Cathy, thanks for giving me the War and Peace moniker heh heh. Next time I go with CF friends! LindaC, I know. Im still exhausted. Speaking of the V&A, did you know there was a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entrance room?

Me again. Finally, we're back in working order. The local service guy and I both learned a few lessons. He learned not to assume that the valve that failed is the cold one, when the customer can't shut off hot or cold supply independently. I learned not to assume he would assume either or both and so order both parts. We both thought about that whole situation a few times since Saturday and both of us realized we should have thought further about where else we could turn off cold or hot supply separately - just the fitting at the wall by the washer, or could we have tracked back further? I'd forgotten that I'd insisted the plumber put in additional shut-offs earlier in the line, in case we ever needed to shut these lines down, without impacting the rest of the household! I also learned that the people at Bosch (where you end up when you schedule warranty service through the 888-77LOWES number) vary wildly in their knowledge of how to proceed. The first one I spoke to misunderstood me back on the weekend I initially posted. He thought I said I was OUT OF WARRANTY so he sent me direct to the local authorized service guys (Scott's Appliance Installation and Repair). Scott and I muddled through trying to get the part ordered over a couple days, and then trying to get it expedited. Once we got through that, Scott came on Saturday (a week after this all began) only to discover in the meantime, that the bad one was the hot, not the cold. He scoured the New England area this morning, found a source, worked out whatever deal he needed to get it in hand today and replaced hot and cold fill valves this evening. Although I'd have been happier if he'd done a more thorough job of troubleshooting me in the first place, I truly like this independent authorized service provider. He works alone - so I'll never see some clueless idiot with an attitude. I like that he completely owned up to making a mistake in troubleshooting and that he made it right, and did a late appointment today, rather than making me stay home from work tomorrow. (On his first visit, when we realized we couldn't make the Bosch functional that day, he fixed a couple dopey* things wrong with my old machine for free, to make sure I could do a couple loads on Sunday, too.) He also helped me put the Kellett ShakeAway Pads I ordered a while back under the machine, even though his experience with various pads said I'd be unhappy because it might cut the sound but the machine would be jumping around more visibly. When we tested them, he said, "I have to admit, I'm impressed!" I'm happy... and the Bosch is humming away upstairs, and my whole house AIN'T shakin! (*hubby put new hoses on the old machine on Friday and ran a load or two. I found them dripping on the basement floor and he'd hooked them up backwards, hot for cold. Good thing I didn't run a load of undies in "cold" or my unmentionables would have also been my invisibles!)