I figure I could add something years later since other people added comments a year later. I moved into a rental house in Boulder, CO that had very well done perennial beds around the time this original post was written. It's been neglected for 7 or 8 years or so, especially the last 3 years. I can tell from Google maps the last year the lambs really took out for the rest of the beds and even the yard. I've been digging, pulling and now have covered an entire bed with clear plastic to kill the seeds before I'll consider planting there. The roots have formed an impenetrable mass and are sometimes thicker than my thumb. They have smaller roots finding them all together. I think if I were building a prairie Sod house I would be thrilled to find these. I'm constantly facing masses of sprouts and churning them over with hopes of killing most of them. We live in a Bee Safe neighborhood, and I don't think Round Up would have helped much anyway. I put an ad on craigslist and I've had many people haul garbage bags of plants away but eventually I got tired of answering the text-I think I had probably 50 people take A wavering amounts of these plants. I've never had them spread before but I stay on top of them, possibly since I use them in flower arrangements or pull them out as soon as they stray out of their designated area. I've discovered I now despise them and I don't think I'll ever let them grow again. I see them downwind from our yard and I'm tempted to go pull them now to spare them future agony- especially since it's likely the seeds came from here in the first place.

This has been one of the most helpful threads on clothes that I have ever ever read. I just went through my closet yesterday, because I've been "out of action" and then away for so long, that I'd lost track of what I had. Also, we are now going from cool weather into our hot season, so I was ready to change things over. Well, I thought I was doing well yesterday when I filled a grocery bag with items I simply didn't like anymore. Now, after reading on here, I am going back in there, to pull out the two linen shirts I kept, because they are simply great shirts. I haven't worn either of them for 2 years, but they are classics, and so I thought I'd hang onto them, for that skirt that I might find that might just be perfect with them. Now I realise that there are a lot more "mights" to factor in... They might be out of date, might not fit, might just be a waste of space, might, meanwhile be useful to someone else, might be tired of hanging around for the skirt that I "might" find. They're out of here....gone! And the more posts I read on here the more things are going out. I think too, that as we get older, it's not variety we need, but what suits our shapes and lifestyles and age. When you're glowing with youth and vitality, can any clothing be a "mistake"? I have 3 slim lovely DILs in their 20s, and my son's GF is a beautiful 18 year old. They can throw on a hessian bag or a silk sheath and look stunning. They don't bulge, sag, wobble, spread or fade. I'm learning that it's no longer a matter of liking an item of clothing in the shop. It really has to like me. Sometimes I've thought it would be nice to just find something I like and know it'll look good, rather than having to search and wait to find the "just right" piece. On the other hand, when we're older, we can relax about "trends" and "fads" and get away with just a few good pieces. When I was younger, I remember avoiding stuff that made me look like my mother. Now I am my mother, and it's rather nice to go "classic" at last. I find that I now have clothes that seem to be able to go "anywhere", by just dressing them up or down. Put on black stockings and court shoes and a lace top with that simple black skirt and it's ok for a night wedding. Throw on some sandals and a T-shirt, and I can wear it to a beach party. Not quite that simple, but something like that anyway. We recently had a 92 year old lady visit us, and she looked like a queen. She was wearing the softest pale pink fluffy cashmere sweater with a classic blazer, and a floaty skirt. She looked a million dollars and I decided I wanted that look when I'm an old lady. It was comfortable, and yet so dressy. So I've already planned my old age look (LOL). But I realised when I was studying her outfit, that she could have worn it anywhere, at her age, and fitted right in. She wouldn't need anything else to wear outside the house. Thanks for all the helpful advice on here. Lily

Colleen, I agree, for what that's worth. I live in a small college town, but my chances of being a victim of violent gun related crime are 1 in 346, according to state statistics. It would be 1 in 47 if I lived in Detroit. My chances of getting sick from eating home canned jam are far lower than that, as bacteria and mold can live in the acidic environment of home canned jams, but only a few are pathogens. The government writes their "guidelines" based on the premise that the dumbest person in the dirtiest kitchenstill won't die if they follow the instructions. They build in room to mess up and still be OK. They fail to differentiate between quality issues and safety issues, as KatieC also mentioned. So, would I eat LindaC's jam sealed with paraffin? Without hesitation, and I have, her crabapple jelly was lovely and delicious, she sent me some. I just cannot get the "hang" of paraffin and never have been particularly successful, so I use rings and lids on the jam and use the old jelly jars that had metal covers without threads for things like a salt container by the stove. Ashley uses them as containers for her homemade candles and sugar scrubs, along with any "cool shaped" jars, so they aren't discarded, but I don't use them for canning. Additionally, if you are providing those items to the public, many are very suspicious about home made products. Remember all those threads here about whether something is safe to eat? I know people who throw out milk because it's reached the expiration date, without even stopping to see if it's sour or can still be used. Those people are not going to buy/want/consume a product that's out of their comfort zone, and people will sue you at the drop of a hat if they even think there's an inkling that you have an "unsafe" product. Aa for reusing jars, first the guidelines said not to use them, they were not approved. Then the guidelines said go ahead and use them, but expect more breakage and seal failures. Now they are "not suggested" or something similar. Whatever. I use those old wide mouth Miracle Whip jars to can tomatoes, I reuse spaghetti sauce jars if lids fit, some of the old marshmallow cream jars have a really nice "squatty" shape and wide mouth lids fit perfectly, I use those for salsa. So, if a lid fits, I use it, and I don't get any more breakage than I do with commercial mason jars. I do not put them in the pressure canner because then I do seem to get some additional breakage, but boiling water doesn't hurt them and some of those Miracle Whip jars that I put tomatoes in are 25 years old or more. (shrug) They still work. Annie

Thank you everyone for your very flattering comments. Sleevendog, you gave a very reasonable and fair criticism for my BLT. Thank you. Let me give you a little background on how I ended up with a somewhat challenging looking BLT. First, it is always my preference that a sandwich should not be too thin. Thin is for making cookies and pancakes. Also, a sandwich should not be too thick. You should not risk dislocating your jaw trying to bite into one. In trying to make a typical normal BLT with lots of flavor, there is a need to pack lots of tomatoes and bacon. So you end up with a drippy soggy mess that falls all over the place Here I tried to re-engineer a BLT that is very flavorful but just thick enough to be a reasonable not too thick BLT, with lots of flavor and not soggy drippy, one that does not require you to wear a bib to enjoy. Tomatoes – very thickly sliced juice fresh tomatoes, only sweet juicy center-cut slices, still warm from the hot summer garden, were put into the dehydrator for about 4 hours under low heat. The thickness of the slices were reduced to about ½. The slices were cut into halves so they would fit better on a square sandwich. They also happened to fit on my square platter. Bacon – Normal fried or baked bacon rashes tend to be fatty or too overcooked. They also come in all kinds of shapes which can take up a lot of room if you want a lot of bacon on your BLT. I came up with a way to bake bacon so that the end result is a slab of high density bacon that is very uniformly done, very flat, very crispy without overcooking or fatty. I am not a fat eater. Again, because the bread was square, so the slab of bacon was square in shape, which also fitted nicely on the square platter. Lettuce – from my garden, freshly picked, washed by rain. The bread – bread needs to be very fresh, I used 100% whole wheat bread, slightly toasted. Folks, I ended up with a very unusually tasty BLT with intense tomato and bacon flavor. I am spoiled. I highly recommend the above method. dcarch