Would love to hear a report on how solar eclipse heucherellas do in full sun.... I am also interested in knowing how they respond color-wise to more shade or less shade. I like them best when their centers look like dark chocolate, rather than a rusty nail. When I purchased mine from Lowe's, some had the very dark centers, and some had rusty centers. Just in case it made a difference, I chose all dark ones. However, I suspect the difference was just the amount of light they'd been exposed to over the previous weeks.

They can easily be made and you'll find lots of how-tos if you search it. Everything from a simple pizza box to any number of other models and sizes. You'll also find lots of recipes on-line. I bought my solar ovens. I'm a gadget person (LOL)! Be sure to check prices, they vary greatly for the same types and models. For anyone in the U.S. who watched the Ed Begley, Jr. show on HGTV "Living With Ed", he used one of the models I use - a Global Sun Oven. This one is tall enough inside to bake a loaf of bread. It has a self-leveling swinging shelf so you can pretty-well get cakes level. The other is a hybrid - the Tulsi-Hybrid Solar Cooking Oven. This one has an electric back-up as a safety feature. If the temperature falls to an unsafe cooking temperature, it will use electricity (if it's plugged in and set to come on) to bring the temperature back up to a safe level. You can also use this model without the sun using electric power. So it's versatile. It's similar in size to a small hardcase suitcase. You'll find many people on the missionary field use these solar ovens because you can pack everything you need in them for easy transport. I'd recommend the book, "Cooking with the Sun" by Beth Halacy and Dan Halacy, which includes building instructions as well as recipes. -Nearly anything you can cook/bake in a conventional oven you can make in a Solar Oven. They can reach temperatures between 350-400°F. Exceptions - avoid recipes like pies with a bottom crust - they tend to get soggy and pasta can be tricky. -The oven needs to be preheated (approx. 30 minutes) before adding food. -They work best between 9:00 a.m. and 4 p.m. -Your traditional oven is bottom heated. The solar oven is heated from the top and the sides. -Slow-Cooker recipes work well in a solar oven. -You need to use dark, thin, cookware. Dark enamelware works great! Forget thick crockery or cast iron. You can also use glass canning jars. Just paint the outside of the jars black with heat-resistant paint designed to be used to repaint gas grills. You can heat water in the quart jars as well as cook in them. -Foods that are easy to cook 1-2 hours: eggs, rice, fruit, (above ground) vegetables, fish, chicken -Medium cooking times 3-4 hours: potatoes and other root vegetables, some beans, lentils, most meat, bread -Hardest to cook, 5-8 hours: large roast, soup and stew, most dried beans -You need to move the oven to follow the sun, shifting the oven every 30-minutes to 1-hour. An oven thermometer is used to check the temperature. You can adjust the temperature several ways, including placing the oven off axis. -I have a pair of Kevlar oven gloves ("OVE" Glove) that I use instead of hot pads for working in the solar ovens. With the gloves you have all your fingers and thumbs to use. Hot pads or mits can be cumbersome. -Wear a visor and/or sunglasses when working with the solar oven to protect your eyes from glare. -Release the built-up steam occasionally while cooking. -You can cook eggs in their shell WITHOUT water in about 30 minutes. -Solar ovens can be used to pasteurize water (on a sunny day - 4 litres water in approx. 4 hours. -I have my ovens on a metal shop cart on wheels and move them from the garage to the patio and cook on the top of the cart. I use a heat resistant tray (or jellyroll sheet) for transporting hot foods from the oven to the house. -You need to plan carefully. You need to cook while the sun is high and hot. If it's hazy, even if it's sunny and no clouds, you may not be able to reach high temperatures. When they burn the wheat fields around here I can't use the solar oven because of the haze in the atmosphere. Thankfully, that's only for a week or so. There's probably lots more I'm not covering... -Grainlady

Wow! I'm in good company! I'm probably most like TimberFrame4us. In our new kitchen, I've devoted TWO deep 33" drawers to the plastic containers AND the glass ones are in two 30" drawers in the baking area (along w/mixing bowls, casserole dishes, & soup tureens...by shape) as I can bake in them as well as use them for storage. The glass ones are all Pyrex; but in the plastic, I have a selection of Tupperware, Rubbermaid, and those disposable ones (Ziploc, Glad, etc.) in all sorts of shapes & sizes...rectangular, square, round and little condiment sizes, kiddie snack size, all the way to those big rectangular (great for Christmas cookies). Like Zelmar, I did get rid of all those "misc containers" when I packed up the kitchen for the remodel (a year ago...wow!) I use the disposable ones when I go places so I don't have to worry about getting my containers back. I have noticed that probably 75% of the others have not been used since we moved back into the kitchen...hmmmm...I guess that's telling me something! Time to get ruthless and get rid of (or maybe pack away for awhile) all those I don't use....I bet I can free up one drawer... As to the lids, I took one of the long rectangular Rubbermaid containers and stored all the small-to-medium sized lids. The larger lids that didn't fit sit underneath or stand next to their "mates".

If I were you, I'd be repeating the phrase "We are close to the edge of totality" as many times as I can. It just sounds so, wow. 'Edge of Totality'- Great name for a song... or a band! Long range weather forecast for us already doesn't look good. We've been unusually cool and rainy for about a week, and the pattern looks to persist.