But the Brussels sprouts still need to go in, and we grow dozens of them. If your only experience with Brussels sprouts is from a supermarket, you don't know what you're missing! We look forward to harvesting them, which we begin doing in late November, after a good hard frost, and we eat them pretty much everyday until they're gone, usually sometime in January or early February.

We treated ourselves to tons of hay this year, and we'll be mulching away for the next month or so. It cuts down dramatically on weeds, reduces the need to water, and fertilizes our crops at the same time. We'll also continue to succession plant a bunch of crops, ranging from corn, beans, and lettuce to spinach, arugula, and cilantro.

We're most eager about this year's tomatillo crop, which we'll turn into jar after jar of yummy salsa verde. The recipe we'll use is on page #4. Enjoy!

On a more serious note, this issue focuses on home equity loans, and exposes the myriad ways homeowners are at risk of being ripped off by new sales pitches, fees, and come-ons. We also talk about how to save on gas and share the pros and cons (mainly cons) of variable annuities.

Bike for Youth Votes 1776 Miles from Canada to Mexico September 15, 2000 - Election Day, 2000

In between his gardening projects and continuing to help renovate his daughter's house, Marc and our niece Rachel put together a great Web site for Bike for Youth Votes, a nonpartisan group founded by our nephew, Ben, and two of his friends, to get more young people involved in the political process.

Their plan is to start out on September 15th, and bike 1,776 miles, from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, by Election Day. Their focus will be to get young people to register to vote -- less than HALF of Americans aged 18-24 are registered, and that's 20% FEWER than were registered in 1972! They'll also be holding education forums at colleges and high schools along their route.

To learn more about this great project, please visit www.bikeforyouthvotes.org, and if you can provide some financial support, that'd be great! West Coast residents who might be willing to serve as host families are also needed. So if you live there, and would enjoy helping out three wonderful genXers by offering them a place to spend the night, please call Ben at 970-453-1063 by August 31, 2000.

Hope you enjoy the rest of this summer!
Nancy Castleman

P.S. Subscribers: Remember that you can click on Subscribers Only at the bottom of our homepage, for direct links to every Web site we recommend in this issue.