Hmmm. This thread has given me some food for thought. I'm currently working with a group that's launching a general, commercial barter site. My suggestion to the group which got approved was to add a free sister site strictly directed to plant/garden swapping. I've actually finished building the bulk of the functionality, and I haven't yet gotten approval for incorporating a feedback feature. But now I'm wondering how we can protect the integrity of the swap other than by using a feedback feature, or even, what steps IN ADDITION to a feedback feature could we incorporate? Any suggestions from you fellow gardeners? The garden swap section isn't necessary to the commercial site--just kind of a bone the group tossed me--and it was intended just to be a rather informal place that allows gardeners to swap plants with some advanced searching features included. With face-to-face transactions you can see if you'd like to pick something up or not (usually). It's not so straight-forward with cross-country swaps. My own feeling is that if scammers are just going to sour everybody's goodwill (and yes, I think gardeners have a natural abundance of goodwill), I'd really rather back off of the idea of launching the garden swap section at all. Hmmmm. -eric

Can you describe what you mean by not much action? Also have you been watering? We are still experiencing a drought, particularly with groundwater -- see the link below for your area. Your plants might not take advantage of the rain if there is an overhang on your house. -- Maria Here is a link that might be useful: NJDEP drought watch

I make my suet mixture using suet or lard. I melt the fat in a glass bowl in the microwave until liquid. Then I add crunchy peanut butter, which melts in the hot fat. Then I add the dried ingredients - corn meal, flour, oats (usually ground in blender), ground eggshells, crushed nuts, a little jam or jelly, etc. The mixture is about 1/2 fat, 1/2 dried ingredients - maybe a little more dried. I aim for a mixture that is the texture of Play-doh - it clumps together easily for the suet log, but also crumbles into pieces that I spread in a tray feeder. I made the suet log over 3 years ago out of an old red Pine log and glued lots of perches and branches. It did not have much bark on it - which is fine, except that over time the log has darkened quite a bit, perhaps because of the oils in the suet mixture. Also, most of the perches and branches have broken and fallen off. This birds don't seem to care. If you put perches on the log, this will enable many more birds to eat more easily. However, this isn't necessarily a good thing because with mine, it enables the Starlings and Blue Jays to hog the suet log, and it encourages House Sparrows. My suet log is pole-mounted with a squirrel/raccoon baffle, so nothing gets onto the log but the birds. Here's what the suet mixture looks like - Some Bluebirds on the suet log a couple years ago. They don't eat that much on the suet log any more, because I usually spread crumbles in a tray for them.

I went to Amazon and searched MX-450 and found this: Universal Remote Control MX-450 Custom Programmable Remote Control with On-Screen Macro Editing for $250. If you add this: Universal Remote Control MRF-260 Addressable Narrow Band RF Base Station ($150), you can get the "behind closed doors" capability. The price is what the salesman was quoting you, so I suspect it is the same thing. I know nothing about the brand or the equipment--it would probably work just fine for you--the description says it will do what you need it to do. But do check out the reviews on Amazon--they seem to indicate that it is not terribly user friendly for the non-techy. If you shop around you will find other equipment that will do what you want at a lower cost. A basic universal remote should run you $25-$50 dollars and a basic remote signal extender, that will allow you to put all the components in a cabinet behind closed doors, between $50-$100, depending on the brand name and the features you want. For $400, I'd want something that did more than combine all my remotes into one and let me put the DVD player inside a cabinet. For that money, I'd want a home theater receiver or a better sound system or something else upgraded. If all you want is to use one remote and put the components behind closed doors, there are cheaper ways to go. Here is a link that might be useful: Universal remote MX-450