Investigate orthopedic pillows, the ones which have a curve for your head and take the pressure off you neck - it works its way down, eventually: I find all of life's trials eventually become pains in the arse. The other thing which helps us is a feather bed - here in Canada one can get a feather topper 2-3 inches thick and it moulds to one's body, taking the stress of adjusting to a hard/soft/lumpy/whatever mattress off one's back. It's also warmer, but I guess that's not an issue down there. I don't remove it for summer and we don't find it hot, BTW. Best of luck, Lucinda -----Original Message----- From: owner-gardeners@globalgarden.com [mailto:owner-gardeners@globalgarden.com]On Behalf Of Marc Winterburn Sent: 04 February, 2003 1:44 To: pennyx1@juno.com Cc: gardeners@globalgarden.com Subject: [gardeners] Re: Hello! and West Australia report. Hi Penny and every one. Thanks for the thoughts.It sure is busy here at the moment. I took delivery of 35 tonnes of chicken poo that has been composted with brewery waste. I also got 1.3 tonnes of sheep dag pellets ( Sabrina Hahn's Sheep Dags, More than just sheep poo!) to help build up the soil. I am also using fish/seaweed and soil microbes to reestablish the floriculture in my soil. Check out the products I am using on this site. http://www.ecogrowth.com.au/ I have at the moment approx 5000 plant a mix of Zucchinis, basil , lettuce , various capsicums ( Sweet Bell Peppers) and melons oh and of course chilies ready to plant. A lot of the plants were donated by a nursery some 350 kms away after they heard of my plight. They would normally have thrown them out but decided to gift them to me to help me out. The weather is pretty much just hot with a couple of cooler days thrown in. We did get a smattering of rain on Sunday but although Perth had a really heavy down pour 1" in total we only got a trace. I am getting a little 16hp 4wd tractor with a range of implements with it so that should make life a lot easier. I am also looking at becoming the agent for a local wildflower packaging company that packages small mounts( home garden) They have a huge range and I do love my wildflowers. If anyone would like some WA wildflowers let me know and I can see what I can do. Check the West Australian wild flowers out on google of similar. West Oz is world renowned for its native spring displays. I go into hospital at months end to have the first of my carpel tunnel operations then the second some six weeks later. After they are done with they can then hopefully find whereabouts my back pain is coming from. It makes life very hard when you cant walk for a couple of hours in the mornings. I have to swallow a few painkillers and wait a while and then I can function. I broke my back in 1983 and it has been relatively well behaved up until last winter when it went again. It hasn't come right since. Must away more work to do, keep up the good work everyone. Kind regards Marc Winterburn The Oz Chilli Man ----- Original Message ----- From: <pennyx1@juno.com> To: <marcw@iinet.net.au> Cc: <pennyx1@Juno.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 12:57 PM Subject: Hello! > > Hi there, Marc -- I've been hoping that the weather conditions in western > > Australia had smoothed out some, but we have not heard from you -- > this is a private message only because I wanted to send you several > attachments concerning the fires and flooding, and we are not allowed > to post them thru Gardeners... > > Did the torrential rain reach south to you? Three weeks ago I looked up > where you live, but right now I am not sure where the rain line fell. > Lancelin and Mogumbar, 50 miles north of Perth -- only I have a problem > placing them on the full west coast of Australia. > > Flooding in Western Australia > http://naturalhazards.nasa.gov/shownh.php3?img_id=5381 > > No, the more I look at it, the more I realize that you must be quite a > ways > south of the rain. Have you been blessed with any at all...? > > http://naturalhazards.nasa.gov/shownh.php3?img_id=5384 > http://naturalhazards.nasa.gov/shownh.php3?img_id=5375 > > As for the fires on the east coast, they apparently rage on and on. Here > in > New York, right beside the Atlantic Ocean, we are occasionally subject to > > dreaded hurricanes, bringing with them strong storm surges which drown > coastal properties and homes (my friends in Connecticut and South > Carolina, > for instance); we do periodically suffer an intense drought; we had one > winter about 10 years ago which brought 18 snow storms (phenominal - for > the norm is about 2); and we actually had a moderate earthquake about > 10 years ago, (epicentured only 4 miles away!) which woke us up in > amazement. But the usual weather pattern for New York City is very > moderate -- perhaps down to 20*f in winter, and up to 90* or 95* for a > few days only in summer. This winter IS different: -10f to -15f every > night for two weeks ... and everyone in the area has fallen trees, > myself > included. Nature has evidently gone nuts. > > How are the zucchini plants doing...? What else have you put in the > ground? > > You are welcome to reply to me directly on the Gardeners line, since I > know > so many people are really interested in your well-being .... > > Penny, NY > > > > . > > ________________________________________________________________ > Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today > Only $9.95 per month! > Visit www.juno.com >