ah! this breaks my heart! i moved from corvallis to tucson last september and i am remembering and missing all the great gardening in the area! 1. nurseries: try ginhart's (8 miles down peoria road, a mile or less outside of peoria proper) off of hwy 34. they are a mom 'n pop place with exceptionally reasonable plants. Garland's on hwy 20 is fantastic and a great place to visit and sip some free hot tea/coffee while drooling over their selection. a bit more expensive but they are well stocked for gardening supplies. 2. don't forget the national clonal germplasm repository! this one specializes in fruit trees. the greenhouse manager's name is jim and you can set up to visit their greenhouses with him. he's exceptionally knowledgable in native plants, and he's been in the process of developing the most fabulous woodland garden in the neighborhood! he is also a fantastic orchid grower and will fill you in on any club events if you have those inclinations, too. 3. robnett's hardware on sw 2nd street is also very well stocked with quality gardening supplies. you can visit them after you stroll the saturday market, where there are a lot of local plant sellers vending heirloom roses, PNW natives and other woodland plants. even some succulents, too. 4. walk through the OSU campus. they have an online guide to their plants. i got a lot of ideas on what to plant outside from them. i especially like the small patch to the side of Cordley hall. they have lewisias, an established passionflower and other woodlands. rhodies and azaleas should be blooming and there are a few daphne plants around campus that should be just finishing up but still smelling wonderful. 5. if you want to amend your soil, you can drive your pickup out to the OSU dairy farm and they will give you a load of aged manure for free and load it up for you, too. there are a ton of mint farms in the area and many of them will either sell very cheaply or just plain give you a load of mint hay compost for your garden. there are bark and mulch places in almost any direction you radiate out from corvallis. i would recommend amending with a load of one of their mixes if you plan to put in vegetable/flower beds. this time of year there should be coupons out in the democrat herald for soils. 6. invest in mud and rain gear. good, waterproof shoes are invaluable. good gloves! consider lightweight summer gloves and heavy duty (kidskin or other) for winter and for digging. 7. i also hit up rite-aid and bi-mart. rite aid, especially, has huge plant displays seasonally. this time of year their gardening supplies are starting to come in and you never know what to find. plus, they're right accross the street from one another. i don't know if that really helps. just some gardening habits i have from corvallis that i thought i'd share. i guess a good thing to do would be to survey what you have to work with, decide what sorts of plants/what look you like in general and explore around that. or, you could be like me and just buy what you like and find a spot for it somewhere! living in the PNW is one of the most rewarding gardening experiences possible. the variety of plants you can grow and the ease at which you can grow them will be really rewarding. -ming

I pulled the filter and checked mine last night. There is water like yours and there was some small bits of food particles. Did not smell. Although It finished running a load about 18hrs before. I can't test the two day thing since it pretty much always has dirty dishes in it. When there is dirty dishes in it obviously will have an odor that will build over time. I scrape but do not rinse my stuff. Wasn't as hard to break the habit that we had with rinsing the dishes since we were without a DW and sink for like 8 months for my remodel so it was like starting over :). I just started using the DW a few weeks ago. I have started using Miele Tabs and using 1/2. No rinse aid or salt. I have a whole house water softener and I just tested the water again and its at like 2 grains vs 28 without the softner. Kas, You use Tabs and rinse aid. I thought based on the directions that rinse aid should not be used with Tab detergents? I set the unit to not dispense any rinseaid. I do get white spots on silverware, plastic and glasses. Not sure I should add rinse aid.

Just for grins - and also because I'm behaving a bit obsessively on this detail (ya think?) - I cruised the FKB slide show seeking out island hoods. I found more than I expected to find, 26 in all and I determined that half of those fell into the traditional design mode, according to my criteria, which may or may not jive with someone else's. I also counted downdrafts for island cooktops - 39. Frankly, I expected to see a greater percentage than that. Don't ask me why, though. I haven't a clue. If you're looking for inspiration like me, here's a quick list (including 2 that posted above): arc1017 billyc busymom2 camargo Diane2566 formosalily Gary64 hiltonc jcthorne jill_77 julier1234 KaCee2002 lnersesian markbr michoumonster Nicole_ pharaoh pjsluna riverrat1 saydiver smooya sue7972 sweeby tobler TommeCA TxRunner Huh, I know I didn't see the kitchen that's on the home page so the latest kitchens might not be in the slide show yet. Here is a link that might be useful: FKB

Late to the game but would echo the Waterlox idea. We have BB counters at the lake and have "experimented" with multiple finishes: 1) Our first try was satin urethane. Bulletproof, no maintenance, but even satin has the very glossy look of "plastic" and would seem to defeat the whole purpose of using reclaimed wood. Even on our BB counters it screams "fake" and I hated it. 2) Next, we went traditional with mineral oil. A huge PITA. Applied many many coats, laboriously worked them in, and the counter still stained at the first hint of wine, strawberries, grease etc. We also had some delamination which required repair, and I think that was in part due to the poor water repellency of the MO. I considered the beeswax/mineral oil approach but still felt it would be way too much trouble for less than ideal protection. I'd be even more concerned if we had used more "delicate" wood like yours as opposed to generic BB. 3) My "light bulb went off" moment. We had already done our floors in Waterlox and loved the look--totally natural wood with none of the plastic appearance of urethane. It's been four years and they are holding up great. Checked to confirm it was food safe and, having done so, sanded away and then used it on the counters. They look great and are totally stain repellent. Water beads up, unlike with MO. If you use the Satin finish after the initial coats of Sealer the final result will be quite matte. Waterlox is polymerized tung oil. It maintains many of the advantages of pure tung oil but to quote my definitive expert source (see below): "Polymerized tung and linseed oils dry faster, harder and are more durable than raw oils." Pure tung can take days to weeks to dry between coats. We didn't have that kind of time. And, on the subject of mineral oil: "Mineral oil is recommended for cutting boards. MO will not cure as it is a non-drying oil and will continually leach out with every washing, requiring periodic reapplication. It will also leave a mess on your countertops if you apply too much Ick! The problem with cutting boards is that you cut on them, so any type of film finish is pretty much out of the question." I do not cut directly on the BB counters. I'm careful to use cutting boards, mainly for sanitation purposes (I can throw them in the DW, as opposed to having to try and scrub down countertops after raw meat exposure, for example). Therefore a film-forming finish like tung makes sense for my purposes. BTW: I have been cautioned rightfully in the past to warn folks with nut allergies that there is at least a theoretical risk of reaction to tung oil based products including Waterlox. Though, as I said then, given the consumption of peanut butter in our household, anyone with a real allergy would anaphylax just walking into the kitchen. Here's my source: Incredibly detailed, extremely useful discussion by SteveRussel of oil finishes for wood