Ah yes, Buff Orpingtons, Kitty. Well.........maybe, in the (distant) future. We had them at the allotment and they were fun to have around.....as long as they didn't escape.....and therein lies the dilemma - Mr Fox is perpetually lurking and chickens, unlike a lot of birds, were not terribly smart. Cath, I love the thoughtful info you impart - it is worth reading twice, especially since you are mentioning plants which I am utterly unfamilar with. Even now, shrubs have not popped up in my brain - still playing with perennials. Way back in the day, when I first started gardening, it all began with a particularly colourful flowering shrub (lavatera) and, thrilled with the success and ease of having colour and structure, I followed the well-known novice route of rapidly buying several more (philadelphus, weigela, the usual stuff)....and, of course, roses. I ran out of room in the first year! Anyway, apart from a few deutzias and philadelphus, those shrubs are long gone from my garden and also from my brain - so thank you for reminding me about a huge class of stalwart plants. I do recall checking out lindera and fothergilla and concluding they wanted a more acididc soil than I could provide (I had a brief flirtation with autumn colour) but I have always been crazy about heps and berries (I might have to risk a few of the better behaved cotoneasters) and I love the sound of your holly(although I have been looking at non-prickly types such as J.C.Van Tol). Also, I now have room to indulge in some of the less familiar fruits such as aronias, japanese wineberries (and indeed, rubus of various winter colours and good white spring flowers). I feel a bit faint when I consider the massive shuffling around this autumn, moving roses and perennials, so I may have to reach into my purse (deep pockets and short arms syndrome) and spend a bit of cash on a few statement bushes, for the sheer ease of straightforward planting (as opposed to cutting back, digging up and moving ).

I finally just read all of these posts and noticed Martin's saga of the Yellow W55. I'm sure that everybody sees through his cr*p, but I'm going to have to call bullsh*t on at least part of his story. Martin hints that credit cannot go to Dr. Raabe in the catalog blurb because this might somehow tarnish his image. Yet Martin clearly identifies respected emeritus professor Dr. Robert Raabe in an earlier post. He seems to believe that long lost journals are going to note the missing seeds from this precious tomato (a tomato so precious that it was never released). Martin said that Raabe took some seeds, not that he ripped the entire plant out of the ground. And if some reputation tarnish will develop, we all know who took those seeds now, don't we? Thanks, Martin. Martin, if you want to be the great savior of all things Wisconsin, have at it. Just have a little honesty in the process. I like WI cheese as much as the next guy, but yours really stinks. Now back to more important things. My wife made it worth my while to take the Dubya bumber sticker out of my truck before the election. I am willing to compromise for peace.

socalgrl, Thanks for your reply. We are also the exact same heights so I would take your advice but...apparently, I have the world's dumbest plumber. He kept telling me that the shower shelf was adjustable and could go anywhere on the bar so yesterday, I pulled the whole thing out and played with it to see how to put it together (the same one you have) and the shelf HAS to be on the bottom like the picture. Now I have a problem-grrr. He mounted the elbow 4 inches below the valve and if I lower the bar, the hose will run over the shelf. As it is now, there is only one way to mount the bar and the height is going to be too tall for even dh at 6'2". I am about to cry. So the shelf will be directly below the valve/plate/handle to turn on the water and above the elbow for the hose and that puts the bottom of the bar 40 some inches from the shower floor-ack! I wanted to be able to flip the head over to be able to use the spray at least on my lower back. (I love this thing and how it flips!) I think I will try and take some pictures and see if anyone here can help me figure it out. The painter comes tomorrow so I still have a few days. Thanks again!

We have a Fiberon Horizon deck built in Fall 2018. This summer 2022 will be its fourth. Our deck gets morning sun and late afternoon shade. We live in the Colorado foothills at 7600' elevation with big snow loads in winter, strong UV in the summer, and incredible 40- to 50-degree temperature swings in spring and fall. We chose steel framing, which helps the decking to lay nice and flat. When deciding which decking to purchase, I laid out on our existing wood deck a sample of redwood plus about 7 samples of composite and PVC decking from different manufacturers for about 2 weeks. Some definitely got hotter than others, but the Fiberon Horizon was only very slightly hotter than the existing wood deck. If I needed something on my feet to walk on the hot Fiberon decking, I would also have needed it to walk on the hot wood decking. Our deck builder uses Fiberon Horizon because it causes him fewer problems afterward, and time is money. In the end, that is the product we chose in ipe color and with walnut color at the edges of the deck for contrast, clip-type fasteners, and we LOVE it. Easy cleaning and maintenance, no warping or sagging or twisting, no delaminating, no rot, no fading even with the strong UV here in Colorado. Has held up to the snow load and is not noticeably slick when wet. Surprisingly tough and scratch resistant. So far, so good. I would make this choice again. I think it important that the material is stored properly before the build and that the installers know what they are doing.