Carla I am a believer. I will worship at your feet. you are my goddess of tomatoes. I hope you are saving some of those precious seeds for me. What can I offer you besides my undieing devotion and love for all of eternity for just a few tomato seeds. What a deal. I do not like Brandywine. Terrible tomato. What a waste. Remember Carla if I win in Burlington VT next year you get half the winnings. I will rename this tomato as Carla's Magic Tomato. My email should be accessible to you. If you can not reach my email then let me know in the thread. If you dont want to send them all the way to New England then at least I did not fill up your email box with my begging for seeds. Danny the Dan Man Yummy in my Tummy

Pawsitive, that sounds intriguing and a lovely way to combine two of your interests - your dogs and your knitting. Would it be possible to post photos of some of the garments you've knitted with dog hair?

Canada provides an Old Age Security that starts at 65, and has a residence requirement (10 years, 18 years or so residence in Canada) so I applied for it then, 17 years ago. If one earns over about $65,000./year, they begin to claw part of it back, with full clawback at about $110,000. - that provision does not come close to affecting me, with annual income something under $50,000.! Canada began a mandatory public pension plan, with both employer and employee contributing, about 45 years ago, looking to retirement at 65, with a reduction of 1% for each 2 mos. that one chose to retire early, or an addition of 1% for each 2 mos. that one delayed, up to age 70. I more or less officially retired 15 years ago at 67, at which time I applied to receive my Canada pension Plan benefit. As I had had a fairly low income for a number of years, thus made less that regular contribution levels, that benefit has been somewhat reduced. I had a private pension to which I had contributed for just over 20 years and I began to receive that benefit at 65. I had a modest self-administered retirement plan with contributions deductible and payments added to income when drawn. I had a part time job at slightly over minimum wage until about 70, but have not been employed since. I have been able to live within those pensions, and save some to add to investments in almost every year. As a personal financial advisor for a number of years I learned money management, which allows me to make use of some tax deductions related to investments, and substantial contributions to various medical, social, international, educational and religious charities, plus some political contributions, which have allowed me to cut my federal income tax recently to zero (with extra unused credits, this year) and only a small provincial cost, most of it supporting our healthcare system, which I feel it a privilege to do, though I have made few demands on such service until this past year. I will be surprised if my pensions, with additions from investments if and when needed, will not be sufficient to maintain me adequately till I reach a hundred and more. I've heard many retirees say that they've become so busy that they don't know where they ever found time to go to work. I garden in summer, have only about 200 - 300 feet planted of something over a quarter mile of row planned, but it's been raining so often that it's hard to plant, and part of the ground is clay: if one works that too early, when it's too wet ... it bakes about as hard as iron. Take the proceeds to a couple of churches to give away, with the proviso that recipients add at least part of the value to their contributions, and some goes to family, friends and social service agencies. I read and visit friends in winter, plus spend time on the internet and do some social activities, in addition to doing a number of volunteer activities, including income tax preparation for low-income folks, a service offered by one of the churches with which I'm involved, in early spring. I learned to live fairly frugally while growing up, and had some additional lessons in that game while helping refugees get re-established in Korea following the Korean War. One of the jolly and heavily involved men at church says that he likes to have me park my car next to his somewhat older one ... for it makes his look good. Never mind - it gets me where I want to go and brings me home (most of the time). I'm thankful to be physically, mentally and emotionally able to get myself out of various issues that come up from time to time. My rent here on the farm is rather low (I have to carry my water for drinking and most cooking ... but I've done that before, so it's not a burdensome chore) and I figure that I can continue to live here as long as I am able to drive my car. I've said for some time that it seems to me to make a lot of sense for up to half a dozen old folks, when they come to the time when looking after their place becomes a burden, to share a house. Living alone doesn't exactly make for interesting conversation. Intellectual stimulation helps to keep Alzheimer's at bay, I've heard. Shared chores are more fun than doing them all by one's lonesome ... and the extra hands would mean that they were much less onerous that in one's own digs. Not only that - the reduced costs of household including operation would mean that they could hire heavy cleaning, etc. done. If someone were to fall over with a problem ... there'd be others on hand to provide or summon help ... and no doubt they'd know whether they could take care of it ... or should call the family caregiver ... or call 911: right now! There'd be a large reduction in costs over maintaining each individual home ... and certainly over the costs involved in entering either a residential or a nursing home. Interesting discussion, today. And there's more info over on the "Retirement" forum, if anyone wants to consider other facets of the situation. ole joyfuelled

I'm not sure I'll be much help on this subject since I'm just now decluttering and reorganizing my home. Here's a few little things I'm doing: Since I don't have a regular pantry (I'm going to make one somewhere, someday--lol) I keep all breakfast items in one drawer, like instant oatmeal, grits, hot chocolate, etc. So, I know in a glance what I need and don't buy extras. I just tear off the top of the pkg. and set the whole thing in the drawer. I also keep my ironing supplies on one drawer---irons, spray starch, etc. I actually had to buy a second iron because I couldn't find the first one---before I organized! I took all on my junky paper and cut it into note size, put it in my desk drawer. If I have pretty junky mail, or envelopes, I cut them up to use as gift tags or small note cards. I hate frying bacon, so I bake it now on a rack. It's healthier and I don't have to spend so much time at the stove. I actually baked a pkg. this morning, used it all at once---now, we have bacon for tomorrow. I don't have very many closets, so I'm using decorative tins and hatboxes (I went thru a hatbox-making phase a few years back) for storage of sewing and craft supplies, and anything else that I can't find a place for!!! LOL These things hold a lot, so I may not have to buy any shelves. In my foyer area, I have a narrow table with a mirrow above it. I just cleaned out that drawer in the table----I have a place for car keys (his & hers), gloves, hairbrush, and glasses. Since I wash my hands a zillion times a day, I keep either an old dish detergent bottle or shampoo bottle with soap, water (*and now hand lotion or baby oil mixed in) under the sink to wash hands with. I just saw a Dr. on Tv say that if you wash your hands too much and they're dried out, germs can enter your body thru the cracked dry skin EASIER!! They were talking about the flu viruses. He actually said that rubbing your hands back and forth, creating friction, would kill germs on your hands!! Rub your hands, rub your hands!!!!!!