Good questions Brady. I will only comment on what I have observed with my plants in my area because I haven't been doing this long enough to say what's right or wrong. Im defiantly still in the learning curve with my plants. With Rabbiteyes I think there are a few things to consider. I live right next to the gulf of mexico, with in 1 mile of Galveston Bay. Needless to say its very humid here in a normal year. Add a very wet spring on top of that and leaf fungus becomes a issue with the spring flush of growth. My limited experience with them has shown me they are more sensitive than SHB to really humid/rainy conditions when it comes to leaf fungus and premature leaf drop. I saw this last spring. In a dryer environment it's probably not a big deal? Can't say cause I don't live in a dry environment. Because of that I tend to prune to keep the center of the bush open which seemed to help with my fungus issue. Also some varieties of Rabbiteyes can get very tall and I'm not crazy about breaking out a ladder to pick fruit. What I've doin the past 2 years is after harvest I cut the fruiting canes back to about four feet. By the end of the season they are right back to 7ft or so when they stop growing. Perfect for picking I'm my mind. Now some varieties are more up right while some are more spreading so prune accordingly. Also in late winter I will do a light prune to thin fruit buds on the tips of branches. I dont know if I even need to do this as I obviously thin next years crop by topping back the plants at 4ft but I do it any way. I leave 5 to 6 fruit buds but I may really be shorting my self on fruit. Maybe some one can correct me here? I do know that berry size has not been a problem. They are very large so far. Chill hours have also been a concern for me here with Rabbiteyes. From looking at a chill hour chart for my area we only received 180 or so chill hours in 2011-2012. For some reason it didn't seem to effect any of my Rabbiteyes negatively. They all fruited and leafed out fine. This year I'm showing 250 or so chill hours so it should be a good year for them if the past holds true. All mine fall in the 300-450 chill requirement. Maybe excessive pruning is keeping them fruiting and growing???? I don't know,,,, I would think lack of chill hours would keep them from fruiting and leafing out but I haven't seen that yet??? SHB are a little different. Now keep in mind I'm growing all my SHB in pots with the exception of one Emerald. I can tell you this, the one Emerald in my raised bed is massive compared to my potted plants. It's actually wider, just as tall and much more impressive than my rabbiteyes! Now with SHB it's all about controlling crop load as a over producing plant can bring on unwanted disease. Stem blight is bad one that can kill a plant in a matter of months. How much fruit is too much??? Don't know and don't want to find out. I'm not in it to push a plant, I'm in it to feed my 3 boys home grown organic goodness! I have pretty much followed Fruitnuts and Bams advice on pruning them. Prune heavy after harvest and a light bud pruning in late Jan before the buds break to control crop load. I've gone with 5-6 fruit buds on all the major branches. All small thin branches or weak shoots that spout in the fall get pruned out in Jan. So far so good. I haven't had leaf fungus problems on them like the rabbiteyes, at least not yet. I do tend to prune with more of a open center though with SHB also just in case. Keep in mind I tend to over kill everything so take my post with a grain of salt. I try to be as proactive as possible rather than reactive and that's probably helped me more to this point than anything.

Here's something that might be fun to try, from one of my favorite out of print books, "The Herbal Pantry" by Emilie Tolley. Pear Ginger Liqueur 8 very ripe pears, about 4 cups 2 inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced 4 cups vodka 1/2 cup white wine 2 cups sugar 1 cup water Combine the pears, ginger, vodka and wine in a large jar with a tight-fitting cover. Place in a cool dark place to steep for one month. Crush the pears slightly with a wooden spoon or potato masher and steep for another 4 days. Strain the liquid, pressing and much juice as possible from the pears, then filter. Boil the sugar and water together in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved; cool, then gradually stir into the liquer, tasting as you go. When the liqueur has reached the desired level of sweetness, bottle and age for an additional 3 weeks in a cool, dark place. You could then probably add this to taste to warm wine. Could also probably use red wine in the recipe.

Scentsy sells (or at least used to) little "liners" that lay on the bottom of the dish with tabs that stick out to the sides. When the wax is cooled, simply lift out the liner with the tab. I don't use them. It's a waste of money imo. I do it one of two ways. Let the wax cool and then with a butter knife, slice the wax down the middle and start to go around the edge with the knife. Each side will pop out effortlessly. Or, holding the base of the plug-in warmer, dump the hot wax in the trash and use a paper towel to wipe out the dish. Both are extremely simple. But, this is Scensty wax. Not all waxes are created equal. In the beginning when I was trying to go the cheap route, I bought WM (Better Homes and Garden) wax cubes. They don't come out as easy. You have to chip them out. ps...did you pay $33 for that plug in warmer? :o A much superior product, with life time warranty, is $20.

We have had the Jack D006 model for the last few months. We got the brushed nickel one and are pleased with the look and quality. Our electrician hard wired ours and put it on a timer. I think hardwiring it voids the warranty, But we wanted it done. It is just DH and I here most of the time. Unfortunately, due to a family member from out of town being here in hospital for the last month, I have given my sister that bathroom while she is staying here to tend to her ill hubby. So we have barely used It and had 2 bath towels on the go yet I did use it for a couple weeks before we got guests. We were very limited in space and chose the D006 as the largest one that would fit. We liked the swivel aspect for access and ease of hanging towels on it compared to many that have multiple bars but looked like a chore just to get a thick bath towel hung up. I think once we get permanently moved into our new bath, it will be the one having the bath or shower just arranging their towel to get most of the heat from the bars and then hanging the other up after they are done. Rather than leaving both on when one person is showering. I like a bath at night and DH showers so this works for us. The bars actually start getting warm within about 5 mins and are quite hot in 10. Since it is also not winter, I am not feeling the real thrill of a heated towel. Unless you leave it on for 20 mins. before you start your shower, you will likely only feel heat on one side of the towel. But that suits me. The towel isn't cold at least. And it is great for hanging wet hair towels and facecloths on and having them dry faster. Other higher wattage ones maybe work better, but I can't really see how because this model gets hot enough that if it was any hotter, it would hurt to touch it. So I guess to summarize, I can't see 2 towels getting warm at one time as one needs all 6 bars to heat the entire towel. But other than that we like it and it works well. When no-one is using the tub or shower it can hold both bath towels and I also have a face cloth and smaller towel on there as the bars are wide enough for that.