The remedies for them are as different as their diets (voles are generally smaller, by the way, and are rodents, essentially a type of mouse -- moles aren't even in the rodent family, or so I've read). Anyway, Moles will often create tunnels digging for worms and grubs (if you have a large Japanese beetle problem, they may be taking care of that for you, underground, but they also love earthworms, which we all know are the gardener's best friend). The FIRST THING they taught us in Master Gardener class was how to kill moles (the class "mentor" is apparently a real "mole-hater," and he did a slide-show in an intro session a month before the first class, wherein someone signed up of the PETA persuasion promptly protested, quit the program and asked for a refund, lol). If it's moles, they'll be active in the daytime, and you'll see them moving the ground as they tunnel. If you can actually see one tunnelling, one thing that works (I once saw my dad do this as a kid) is to walk up to where the head of the tunnel is, where the mole is actively digging, with a shovel, and whomp down HARD with the shovel, flat onto the ground, right where the leading edge of the tunnel is, thus basically rattling Mr. Mole's brains and causing instant death. If not, you determine where an "active run is" (they have instructions for doing this with the trap you'll need to buy), place a harpoon trap over that active run, and the next time Mr. Mole comes through there, he gets harpooned. If you can determine where voles are active, you can expose part of their run (they sometimes don't dig tunnels at all, just kind of create "runs" under mulch or loose earth), set a mousetrap in there with a bit of apple and peanut butter on the trigger, and most importantly, cover that back over TIGHTLY with a bucket, or something, so that NO LIGHT gets in, as most underground voles like total darkness and won't go anywhere they see light. That's another point... There are two common types of vole in the Carolinas: Pine voles and meadow voles. The pine voles are the underground kind; meadow voles are essentially like field mice. While pine voles will eat the roots of your precious plants and the bulbs of all your flowers, the meadow voles can do something even MORE insidious and attrocious -- they can and sometimes WILL chew off all the bark around the base of a small tree up as high as they can reach, thus girdling it and killing the tree. If you've spent $50 or $100 or so for a Japanese maple or Prunus mume, or similar, and gotten it "just so," and a little mouse comes along and kills it by eating a a little chunk of bark from around its base, well, I don't know about you, but I'd be wanting to kill every rodent I could find! Good luck with whatever it is you have, Crazy4Life! Jeff

Suspect that these are a fermented pickle and you would use a salt brine to 'cure' them. Usually cukes done this way will remain a bright green as opposed to a lightening of skin color when in a vinegar based brine. Recently, I have posted many tips and suggestions on making a salt brine type of pickle. You do start with very fresh pickling cukes as well as fresh dill weed and dill seed heads. Not sure if yours were made at other times of year, besides the growing season of summer. Mine are half sours and are soaked in a salt brine/water for only about 2-3 days, depending on the cuke size. Because I like using fresh dill, they only get made in summer time. Linda Lou's recipe also has merits, as there, you also start with a salt brine cure prior to pickling. Its that first step that helps them to retain their bright color. Everyone may follow a recipe to the letter and realize that the taste might not be their preference, so start with small batches and adjust whatever you feel that was overpowering in the previous batch. Trial and error helps here. Once you get your taste preference met, then you write down the recipe. My mom used to make sweet picilili with green tomatoes, and her recipe was also composed of several recipes from different books, as well as her personal experience. Adding food colorng might be OK, but that would probably be better to add to a finely chopped cuke relish to improve appearance.

Bmorepanic, Thanks you for your help once again! Your design is good. I can see many excellent features in it. It reminds me of some of the two island designs we played around with, but with one bigger island. The flow between dining room and kitchen would be wonderful with your plan, which was one reason we resisted a peninsula for so long. However, I am now too happy with the L plus big island concept to let go of that idea. I am not bothered by the peninsula between kitchen and dining room (although shorter is better). I like the idea of having that block of the peninsula when I am entertaining and we are dining. I also really, like the idea of doing dishes in the peninsula spot more than against the wall (as you know I am not happy against a wall -- too jumpy for that -- wall spots are good for DH though). From the peninsula, I can chat with those at the dining room table, take in the fireplace, watch TV or look out (from a distance) at two large windows and a set of french doors). I can even see my younger kids on their climber in the backyard. When my teen son understood he could watch TV while he washed pots he suddenly was keen to do dishes -- priceless! Watching my neighbour on his deck out the side kitchen window does not have that much appeal. Also, by the time we do dishes it is often dark outside so you can't see anything out a window anyway. I see your issues with the DW around the corner. LOL about the bumps and leg jabs. I could see myself with some bloody legs, so, thanks to you, I am not going to place the second DW around the corner after reading your comments. I have it in the latest design (see below) as two DW together which allows a shorter peninsula than if we put one on each side of the sink. The reason for this is I would not want one DW right up against the corner which would block the storage above. I can imagine no time when we would be organized enough to be loading two DWs at the same time. I imagine one would be full running through a cycle or be in need of unloading, while the other was in receiving mode. So for me two side by side does work. I do appreciate the time you have taken to think through my kitchen with me! Below is the newest version. I think we might consider making use of a cart for distribution of groceries to their various corners, and even to help unload dishes to the glass cabinet. When entertaining, we could also clear the table with a cart. I realize that our DWs are not close to glass, bowls and small plates storage which will be in the glass cabinet. However, the benefit of having the dishes close to the snack zone is worth the hassle of unloading. Just can't have it all in a 20 foot long kitchen! We also plan to make use of a Kornerking drawer/lazy susan device in the corner for baking/cooking ingredients combined with a easy reach L cabinet in the upper corner area for food as well (not snack food). I went through a very long list of typical kitchen jobs and assigned each an area for completion so I can figure out what to store where (and hence make progress on the size of drawer, shelf, etc to incorporate). I was able to see that most of our kitchen tasks will not require too much walking and zones will not cross too much. If you see any other tweaks, please let me know? Carol

Hmm. Ack. Tile goes on the diagonal. I'd have to count leftovers that came with the house. So why? Sick of remodeling and having my home overrun by contractors. Downdrafting is easier to DIY than updrafting (not just because of my spanking new roof). There is electric convenient. The current downdraft could actually be ducted properly without a great deal of effort. But I don't like the range so I'll be replacing THAT. I've never tried the downdraft because it's not ducted and I stuffed it with foil so I wouldn't spill things into the hole in the middle or have to look down it at the years of accumulated nastiness. (On the bright side, we've been cooking healthier!) Downdrafting isn't the best but it's sort of an island installation so updraft won't be ideal either. It's better than nothing. The reason not to do updraft, aside from being burned out on finding competent help, is this is the view from the entire living area of my petite house: kitchen...family room...dining(ish) room. I am missing walls. Yeah, it's kind a fixer upper. If I could get over the finding an installer issue and the overall looks of an island hood smooshed behind a header (rear of range pretty much lines up with the header), it would be alright I guess. It's not like I can fix this weird mess without major work anyway. I have extra roofing material so that when I eventually do get up the nerve to do another remodel, I can fix the hole in the roof (on the front of the house, by the way). I just want to make this kitchen functional enough to not have to gut it ASAP. And it feels silly to put in a new range without ventilation. I'd prefer to use stuff I can reuse whenever I do remodel, though, and I'd probably not intentionally have a downdraft OR island situation. However, you have almost convinced me. Actually you haven't, but I just remembered it would be really nice to have some LIGHT over the cooktop! How bad would it look to put a giant hood behind the header? Can you put an island hood against a wall (some day)?