I sent them a request to fix it too after I typed in a couple of thread titles that came to mind in the search box and they didn't come up. I had bookmarked a couple of threads I might want to revisit but I think in future I'll be bookmarking more just in case. There is so much good information in these past threads, I hope we get them back. Annette

I planted some Cayenne pepper and tomato seeds yesterday, and it looks like I'll have to keep them in pots for awhile when they come up. Only planted 3 seeds of each tomato variety; Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter and Roma. I already have cloned starts of Everglades, Early Girl and a NOID large red cherry. Hoping I'll get one of each for me and one or two to trade. I just don't have a lot of room for tomatoes this year, so I'll probably have to do away with some. I won't be able to adhere to the 10 foot rule on separating tomatoes, so don't know what I'll end up with. I will try to keep the Cherokee Purple and Mortgage Lifter away from the others so they can come true, but might just have to stick the others wherever I have room. Full sun is a problem, although there is more sun now that all the leaves have fallen from the Chiquapin oak that was shading the courtyard in the afternoon. That won't last, though, since it will start releafing in March.

I have noticed in my own life, that there are two schools of thought, and both work OK, both have their down sides. I follow one, SO follows the other. My school of thought is like what has been discussed, cook up a big passel of food and then use parts of it for meals the rest of the week. Things like a roast on Sunday or a big pasta dish, enchiladas or stir fry. Roast chicken on Sunday, leftovers for sandwiches or to add to salads or pasta, and then big pot of soup for the carcass. Lots of good vegetarian canned or boxed soups to have on hand for your daughter in a pinch. Freeze what you can't fit into the freezer for quickie "poof" meals, (Pull it Out Of the Freezer). I often make soups, pastas or stir frys to use up bits and bobs of what is languishing in the fridge. I'll make a batch of muffins and then have them for a snack all week, etc. The downside of my way of doing it is sometimes your brain and body is just too tired to pull it off. We try really hard to save money by not buying a lot of the "convenience" foods, but if your pantry is bare and you end up eating out, you're not really saving money. So I have broken down and started to use baking mixes, salad mixes, canned baked beans, canned seafood, and jarred pasta sauce, and frozen vegetables. They are wonderful and still save you money over buying the whole thing already made by someone else. SO's school of thought is having a few standard meals that he really likes, very simple, and putting them together quickly for a meal. So his version of a chicken dinner would be a boneless chicken breasts well-seasoned and cooked in a pan, the perfect amount of a vegetable side either steamed fresh or some frozen version, and a starch like potatoes, rice or a roll. Salad sometimes too, made just the perfect quantity in individual bowls. He might do pasta and top it with the chicken or sausages. He will make just enough for the two of us. He's a big believer in seasoning mixes, like Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb. I on the other hand, have a pantry full of spices, most of which are too old to be any good! SO is efficient, I am expansive! The downside of SO's way of doing thing is you never have any leftovers, so lunches have to also be made from scratch and sometimes you're just too tired for that whole gig too. So when you have the energy it pays to make something big and freeze. A mix of styles. We also use the crockpot a lot. The best use for that is some well seasoned type of meat, and root veggies. Very nice to have a hot meal ready ahead of time! I'm putting a chicken in to stew today before I go off to work, for example. Another one of our "poof" meals, (this time Pull it Out Of the Fridge") is braised cabbage, onion, carrots, maybe celery if I have it, and sausages. I use a mix of kielbasa for SO and fake kielbasa for me, since I am not a huge meat fan either. Or use some Italian seasoned stewed tomatoes in with the mix and Italian sausages. Or you can poach some eggs in the stew and that could be for the vegetarian. Over the years, I have found a lot of good recipes in the "Cooking Light" magazine. Quite a few duds too, but when they are good they are usually really good. SO never uses a recipe, but makes the same things he knows he likes over and over. Hey, if it aint broke, don't fix it! Most of the world eats like that and so did we before all these new markets were created for fru fru stuff. So together our cooking is a mix of his solid, tried and true, and me throwing caution to the wind and mixing it up a bit from time to time. The best thing for you is to find a system that works most of the time for your tastes and energy level.

Security first, a workshop is an irresistible draw for opportunistic thieves who look through the windows first and will break a window for a $40 tool. Windows invite thieves and suggest window sizes where a person can't crawl through and shaded to reduce temptation. A workshop means tools and easy to pawn so don't think you're safe even in a low crime area, thieves look for garages and work shops as easy pickings. My son is a police detective in a major city but lives in a low crime and higher scale suburb who just had his garage broken into through a side window and all his tools were taken out the same window. Two brothers had their garages looted through windows in the past, and when I first bought my present home with a 1200 sq. ft. shop someone broke in through a big front window for a couple of truck tires worth nearly nothing and we all live in low crime areas. Those big front windows are long gone by the way. I have 16" awning window's barred on the inside to look like pane dividers and installed up high where I can use the wall space below and it came that way. I added 720 sq. ft. to the original shop and used a 16" x 48" fixed window with barred dividers on the south side for security. I also have steal doors with all hinges screwed into the 2 x 6 studs, not just the jamb and steal plates around the door jambs where the door locks are. I've accumulated $30 to $40 grand in tools over the decades and would hate to lose them in one night. I use a lot of High output 8' florescent fixtures for light (10' ceilings) but started added a bunch of high lumen LED shop lights and I'm telling you they're not quite the same as sun light but the next best thing and cheap. With the daylight high lumen LED's you can even forget about windows all together. Have fun in your shop, I do.