I think by being very active in an adjacent community/ies, we might be able to do so, Pete. I know it sounds a little ambitious. It would have to be close to a fairly good sized metropolitan area to draw from. We could have in-school presentations and/or visits from schoolchildren and their parents. If we got into it, we could have living history demonstrations; those always birng in the schools bigtime, esp. if we covered aspects of music throughout history, i.e. Civil War, railroad bldg; days of Robin Hood; cowboys, etc.

Sturbridge Village, a llving history working village with farms, cooper, glassblowers, etc. has gotten kind of touristy and I wouldn't want to have anything like that, at all, those people work hard everyday to present a fantastic and authentic experience of 1830's village life, but anyway, they attract tons of schools and others who pay pretty fair amts to tour for the day, ride on the wagons, watch teh sawmill, groom the oxen, etc.

Myabe, musically, we could do something like that, on a smaller scale? I dunno, that doesn't sound like much of a retreat, though, does it? I don't really feel like catering to a bunch of outsiders, personally.

Hey, BigRib, would you or Gint refresh my memory? What does CPAP stand for; cardiopulmonary what? I am not on this for my lungs and my machine is called a concentrator, plus I carry a small oxygen bottle attached to my face(:-) when I go out. Listen, take heart, literally. I had to lose weight because my leaky heart was starting to enlarge. I have lost 45 lbs in 7 months and my echocardiogram was much better this year than last. I am doing my own vegetarian modifications of Dr. Atkins low carb/hi protein diet and so far it has worked well for me. And, sometimes when I go out, depending on stress, I am able to go without the O2 for short periods of time. When I first went on it, I had to sleep in an old comfy rocking chair because I had no breath lying down. Just losing the first 8-10 lbs cured me of that and I've been sleeping much better with each pound I lose, so it is worth the effort.

Sure would be nice to figure this out.

kat