If I sale at the 2 smaller markets it could be 4 days a wk, I imagine I would go to Market on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday-- I would have the option of Friday, but I personally don't want to go back to back days. I know that I will make less at the smaller market, but after gas & fees the other market might amount to an extra $100 or so a month or it could even amount to me going in the hole. The large market has people waiting in line at opening & there are 12 or 15 vendors. About 6-8 are produce, then there is soap, canned goods, candies, herbs, flowers. Oh & for the large market I have to attend monthly producer meetings & pay my membership fee soon, so that is why I need to figure things out sooner than later. Smaller market has about 5 or 6 regulars then those that just show up when they have extra stuff. The smaller market only has 3 vendors that showed up this year on Tuesdays, but they say Tuesdays are VERY slow. So I am assuming it isn't worth alot of peoples time to sell on Tuesdays. The grant is for anyone in Oklahoma that has less than 40 acres. They had 16 openings & my application was selected. There is a big push to eat local. Even McD's labels there items that are MIO (made in oklahoma). With the grant I have to agree to sell half of the produce. They are not worried about profit but want records of the harvest to determine how well plastics help small farmers. IF you have never seen a plasticulture set up this power point helps Here is a link that might be useful: link to Plasitculture slide show

We have the Jotul F400 and love it. I did not look at the soapstones because we wanted a traditional cast iron stove with an old-fashioned look - and picked Jotul because was the best looking one IMO. I prefer the radiant heating over the convection, mainly because I like being able to stand right next to the thing and thaw after being outside in the freezing cold. I also like that the Jotul doesn't have a catalytic converter - it burns well and is easy to use and maintain. Our house is 3000 sq ft, and when we get it cooking, the F400 heats the entire house -- we have a very open floorplan that allows the heat to travel (we had planned to use it to heat only the family room and kitchen, which is why we went with such a small stove - we weren't aware of how dramatically the heat would travel around the house), plus our winters aren't usually super-cold (we're in PA - usually in the 20s-30s during the day and teens at night). Today is colder than normal and very windy and I'm a little chillier than I prefer, but still no need to turn the furnace on. I will say that we tend to burn the stove pretty wide-open and maybe that's why we can heat so much more space than Jotul says the F400 is good for. Unlike the older cast iron stove I had in college, it seems impossible to overheat this stove, even when you stuff it to the gills and leave the damper wide open. And I guess because our house plan is so open, it seems that we really have to burn hot to feel warm in the room where the stove is - the heat dissipates through the house so quickly. So we burn usually at about 550 degrees (Jotul recommends 400-600) - we get great heating but we do blow through the wood - if I'm home, I'm usually reloading it every 2-3 hours to keep the house toasty. I would think that for your house, you could probably damp it back like it should be and get much longer burn times. We load it up for the last time at night around 11:30 and damp it way back and at 7am, there are still enough coals to relight quickly, although the house has gotten pretty cold by then. Depending on how whiney the kids are, I'll turn the furnace on to take the chill off in the morning but the stove has pretty much taken over by 8:30 or so and the furnace doesn't run for the rest of the day. We have it installed inside our masonry fireplace (it's freestanding but inside the firebox) and since the masonry heats up, we get a bit of the soapstone's extended heating in that the masonry continues to radiate heat after the stove has cooled down. Good luck!

Hi TurtlesHope. Yes, the dollar figure we received from an Appraiser who specialises in VA/FHA mortgages, not from our REA, was 306. The maximum it would be financed under either plan is 306. We could market it as VA approved property, as the mortgage was originally VA (paid-off). That does have a bearing for other military home buyers needing a mortgage. And tax value in Virginia/Fairfax County, I'd say is very close to actual market value, give or take by a few dollars only. Usual resale here, other than Flippers, appliances do NOT convey. We're conveying all major appliances that were replaced in 06/07 (including wash/dryer). Not new by any means but good quality Maytags, regularly serviced by the dealer we used. None of our work is "by homeowner" either. We've contracted with skilled tradesmen: Master Plumber, Master Electrician, Master Finish Carpenter, and Stonemason. We got Roofer through a recommendation by Carpenter. These people are friends, who know their crafts, and I trust them. :-) What's frustrating is the sheer range of recent SOLD comps and new listing competition. I don't want to price high, hope for an offer, and go through multiple reductions. One property, next row up is doing this right now and has reduced the asking by 50-thousand since May from 389 to 339. It's a conventional sale, clean, a few refreshes like carpeting & ADA interior door handles. A few visitors, no offers. Older couple, like us. They're hoping with BRACs moving in and elections they'll sell before another reduction. So glad there's folks on this list to talk with :-) DH is not accustomed to moving turmoil...add in selling and... Retirement ain't for sissies (neither is downsizing & moving). =).

I made my partner a shaving soap that he loves... Unfortunately, I'm at my parents' house this week and the recipe is at home!! But, it wasn't really anything special - I added some oils (I used calendula-infused safflower oil) and sandalwood e.o. I remember reading somewhere about adding clays to shaving soaps, but I'm not sure why/how much/etc... I hope someone else can be more helpful! :)