You should read a link that Tango posted on February 16, 2006 about a tutorial for newbies. It's a great, basic help about hypertufa before you start; tells about recipes, forms, etc., and you can take it from there. Maybe do a few smaller troughs until you get the feel of how wet, etc. the hypertufa needs to be, and how to pack it, cure it, etc. before you launch into something the size you have in mind. Don't know if you are thinking about making it outside this time of year, but in New York it is still too cold out -- it's not going to cure propertly with these cold winter temperatures well below freezing. I think that the best way to do anything is to just give it a try, but that being said, you may find a trough the size you are talking about for your first project a little more than you bargained for. That's a lot of mixing, sifting of peat moss, tamping and packing, and it's going to weigh a ton - you won't be able to move it without the help of 6 boys and a mule. Remember, you are going to have to turn it over to get it out of the Rubbermaid mold you are thinking about using (unless you are planning on destroying the mold). You might want to think about using Portland, peat moss and perlite instead of QuickCrete. You guys correct me if I'm wrong (not that I ever have been before :)... ), but I didn't think QuickCrete was the medium of choice for hypertufa. Happy learning!!

When you first posted this I was still in the middle of making my crosses. Today I'm about 3/4 of the way through collecting pods. I have around 500 seeds collected so far and still quite a number of pods out there. 'Brown Witch' x 'Milk Chocolate' turned out to be a bust. I had lots of pods set but both plants aborted all of their pods early. I tried other pollen too and they did the same thing. I did get one to mature on BW x MC that gave me 3 seeds. I guess the plants just need to settle in better. It is a real mystery why they aborted. I asked Margo and she said that BW did not come out of MC so they should not be THAT closely related to cause a self-pollination block and BW is very pod fertile for her. 'Desperado Love' was a great parent both ways. DL x 'Cleopatra's Jewel' gave me 45 seeds in 4 pods. Looking forward to seeing those babies. 'Wild Horses' was another fantastic parent both ways. And I was successful using frozen pollen from this one (yippee, another process I must have done right). I have a pod on 'Sear's Tower' from it that I'm anxious to see ripen before frost. I also have some WH crossed with 'Cleopatra's Jewel' that should be as interesting as DL x CJ. My best diploid pod setter was of course (Murphy's Law) that NOID yellow though I thing Fairy Tale Pink will surpass it next year when FTP is settled & has more flowers. The NOID looks exactly like 'Mary Todd', even has her fragrance, but it only accepted diploid pollen so I'm calling it a dip. I started out just trying to see which ploidy this plant was to help with ID but then look at how it set! It does have some nice branching & bud count so I guess that's fine to have so many babies from it. Some of the pods were really full of seed. NOID 'Yel' x 'Royal Kaleidoscope' 52 seeds in 3 pods. NOID 'Yel' x 'Persian Pattern' 40 seeds in 2 pods NOID 'Yel' x 'Brown Witch' 15 seeds in 1 pod NOID 'Yel' x 'Milk Chocolate' 45 seeds in 2 pods Lots of others but these are what I'm most excited about.

The Bona mop cartridges were restyled in March and they are now refillable. So when you buy the mop, it does come with the hardwood cleaner (which can be used on any hard surface). However, once the cartridge is empty, you can refill it with anything you want. There is a useful purpose for a fine mist. You want it to be spread over a large area finely so not to saturate your surface. The Reveal might have enough of a fine mist to accomplish that...I don't know cuz I have never seen one spray out the liquid. The mist on my Bona is very fine so I'm happy with it. I did get a chance to compare the two different types of dusting heads sold by Bona and Rubbermaid (Reveal). Because they both used velcro to attach to my Bona mop, I used the Reveal one with the Bona. The Reveal one was larger but a bit harder to fit into smaller spaces. The Bona was an entirely different type material and very electrostatic. I thought after dusting all my laminate with both dusters, the Bona was slightly better as it picked up more dirt than the Reveal one. The only thing I have noticed now that the Bona cartridge is half empty is that it is starting to cave in. I called Bona and they admitted that the first plastic they used on the refillable cartridges was too thin and this happened. They are sending me a free cartridge to replace this cartridge so that it will not depress and can be easily refillable. I'd say that is great customer service!

Janefan, I am the mother of twins, too. I never forget how hard my twin pregnancy was, but I do adore my girls (4.5) despite how hard it was, so maybe there is hope that I will love my kitchen, too!!! Bellamy, I only wish that I hired a cheap GC, so at least I wouldn't be paying a fortune for every aspect of this kitchen, but it is not the case. We hired the GC used by very close friends, friends who are incredibly demanding and exacting (husband's friend from the military), who did a very large addition to their house. They could not have praised this GC more. We saw his work in person, while it was in progress, work that was done exactly on schedule, perfectly. He was the most expensive GC of all that we interviewed, but we hired him because we were willing to pay more to have a job done on time and well, and because we trusted our friends' judgment. Sometimes you can do all the due diligence in the world, and things just don't work out the way you expect. If you read my post you will see that I never said that the KD is wrong to wait, and I didn't ask him not to wait, just frustrated, mostly with the being given false expectations, and with the carpenter, who obviously has too many jobs. I do see lots of people on this board with appliances installed before the rest of the kitchen is 100% done, and I do think the KD is being overcautious to protect his butt at our expense, but I have let him run the job the way he wants in that respect. I have done a renovation before, knew it would be long and frustrating, girded myself for the length and frustration, and believe that we have been actually quite patient. Too patient in the beginning. Just wanted to vent my frustration a little. Sorry it irritated you, Bellamy.