My Son Is Turning 1 This Saturday the 12th and I Need Some Ideas His Cake??

I did two balloons for my son's first birthday. Its easy two round cakes (small as you want) and some candy string. Also you can usually rent cake pans if you want to make a train. In Canada you can rent them at Bulk Barn. If you are not up for fancy icing just dust with icing sugar or cocoa. You can even use a stencil. You can also write the message on plastic or similar that is not edible. Or I find writing on chocolate easier to fix mistakes. You can even do individual letters on chocolate squares (cut to size from a sheet you make yourself). Most bulk stores have precoloured coloured melting chocolate.

1. Do you like the new Ruger 10/22 Rifles being made now or are the older ones made better & would you recommend?

The older 10/22's have nicer details. More metal parts instead of plastic. (Barrel band, triggerguard etc.) Ruger claims that these new polymer parts are tougher, more consistent...We all know that it is cost cutting that really drove the change! If you buy a new 10/22, look for the Deluxe Sporter. It has a nicer stock than standard, better wood. (Checkered walnut instead of beech.) The Sporter also does away with the unsightly plastic barrel band that comes on newer 10/22's. (No barrel band at all.) I have one of these that I bought new in the 90's. It does not cost that much more, making me wonder why anyone would even bother with the base 10/22? (Unless they were going to put an aftermarket stock on anyways.)

2. Paper or Plastic grocery bags and if you recycle what do u use them for?

Plastic & I have an over abundance of them. I use them as trash bags in the small kitchen containers. Those I do not use I take them back to Wal-Mart to be recycled.

3. Gardeners, what should we do about our tea bags? –

We've all become aware of the need to reduce our use of plastics and think carefully about how we dispose of them - and when we garden, being out with nature trying to get the best from our environment, we are probably more aware of this than most. When we are gardening we try to reuse plastic pots and recycle packaging where we can and, of course, compost. Composting is one of life's little pleasures. Garden and green kitchen waste can be thrown on a heap and, with very little input from us, rich brown soil-improving compost results and we've done the environment a good turn too. But, with all the publicity surrounding the damage plastic pollution does to our environment, if you compost your teabags you will be concerned to hear that they might contain plastic. Most tea bags use polypropylene to strengthen and seal the bags. In terms of composting, though the plastic is not biodegradable, it usually would isappears' into the soil - and at worst you are sometimes left with a white mesh after a year or so. But not everyone is comfortable introducing any plastic into the environment and considering there are billions of teabags sold across the UK every year, that's a lot of plastic. Not all teabags contain polypropylene. More expensive brands such as Teapigs and Pukka Tea are plastic free. And some mainstream brands have started offering plastic-free versions. Twinings' pyramid tea bags and 'string and tag' teabags from Clipper are polypropylene free and the Co-op launched a fully biodegradable paper tea bag in February. And things have changed significantly over the past decade. A Which? Gardening investigation in 2010 found that just one small manufacturer was producing polypropylene-free tea bags and concluded that: 'the full recyclability of tea bags is not high on many companies' agendas'. So we are heading in the right direction, but what is stopping all manufacturers from cutting out the plastic? The alternatives clearly exist. Heath & Heather, whose tea bags also contain no plastic, explained how a polypropylene-free bag is made. They said: '[our] tea bags are natural, recyclable and compostable; made from soft woods, hard woods and long fibre such as Manila hemp. Instead of using a traditional 'heat-sealing process' like many everyday tea bags [our] tea bags are sealed by being folded and sewn with string.' But until this catches on across the board, if you want to have an environmentally friendly cuppa without any microplastics you would best look for a tea bag with a string and a tag - or better still treat yourself to some loose leaf tea. And if you do not want to change your brand of tea, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) still recommends composting or popping them into your food recycling bin is still the best way to dispose of tea bags. Did you know your tea bags might contain plastic? Will it stop you adding them to your compost? And how worried are you about adding plastic to the environment?