No problem. You are paying insurance not just to cover your butt but to go to bat for you when your stuff gets damaged--your claims adjustor is your friend in this instance.

Good luck, and let's hope it's just a couple deck boards.

Farmers do that because alfalfa and clover are hay crops, which feed animals and is worth a fair bit. Again, it's the roots, not the "shoots" that are important in crop rotation.

Ripping off machines is counterfeiting, and passing off any fake money (excepting pennies) as real money is not legal, either. Which is why I'm not passing it off.

One side appears brand new and shiny especially for a 2004 quarter, the other is poorly done and has a matte finish. I don't have a precise enough scale to tell for sure, but it also feels lighter than a normal quarter. By slug, I mean possibly counterfeit.

Actually, burning, although it does oxidize the pan a bit, is the best way to ensure that nothing nasty survives on the pan. Who knows what was cooked in the pan before it wound up in a thrift store?

When my apartment flooded in 2008, I burned my own cast iron pans after I salvaged them, because God only knows what was trying to eat the grease in the cure coat (bacteria, petroleum products, invasive carp) while they were underwater. Yes, the metal will oxidize, but only the surface--the same principle is behind the use of cast iron pipes in plumbing, and the resulting rust just seals the pipes together better.

I've had to do the same thing as Basement Dweller--burn, then wire wheel to remove the rust, then wash with soap and immediately into an oven to dry, then cure. The pans are just fine now, including the one that was my great-grandmother's.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dowager

On the barriers, unless your path is the size of a parking lot, you're unlikely to have drainage problems, so you can use black trash bags without issue. I have seen semipermeable barriers. Some installers will McGuyver such a barrier by using kraft paper (like brown paper bags), but this will eventually biodegrade.

I've been researching this myself lately, as I need to replace a poorly-installed patio and path at my house.

You're welcome, sir.

Your new boss might also be asking if you're looking if he came across your resume on a jobs site.

Thanks for the shroom and good luck in your mathematical endeavors.