diff --git a/README b/README
index 139ea30..b31e782 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -26,13 +26,19 @@ To get started with db_populate, create the folder db/populate in your Rails app
 Any code you put in this folder will be run by db_populate. Optionally, you can create
 subfolders for your Rails environments, just as you can with config files. db_populate
 executes all of the top-level populate files first, followed by any environment-specific
-populate files, sorting each list by name. So, for example, with 4 files in the production
-environment, db_populate would order this way:
+populate files, sorting each list by name. 
+
+Files in the 'shared' subfolder will be run for all environments, sorted with the other
+files for that environment. Files in the 'after' subfolder will be run after any environment.
+
+So, for example, with 6 files in the production environment, db_populate would order this way:
 
 db/populate/01_roles.rb
 db/populate/02_services.rb
-db/populate/production/01_users.rb
-db/populate/production/02_options.rb
+db/populate/production/01_users.rb    
+db/populate/shared/02_options.db
+db/populate/production/03_accounts.rb
+db/populate/after/01_cleanup.rb
 
 Within each file, you can place whatever ruby code you like. To help create consistent
 records, db_populate adds create_or_update to ActiveRecord::Base. This method looks up
@@ -72,7 +78,8 @@ the db_populate tasks available:
 require 'db_populate'
 
 History
-=======
+======= 
+2010-08-27 Added /shared and /after conventions
 2009-11-26 Allow create_or_update to skip validations (suggestion by Josh Sharpe)
 2009-11-26 Fix gem version (bug reported by Vitaly Ignatov)
 2009-09-15 Add db:reset_and_populate task
diff --git a/db_populate.gemspec b/db_populate.gemspec
index f0a8966..bffdc39 100644
--- a/db_populate.gemspec
+++ b/db_populate.gemspec
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.name     = "db_populate"
-  s.version  = "0.2.5"
-  s.date     = "2009-11-26"
+  s.version  = "0.2.6"
+  s.date     = "2010-08-27"
   s.summary  = "Seed data populator for Rails"
   s.email    = "MikeG1@larkfarm.com"
   s.homepage = "http://github.com/ffmike/db-populate/tree/master"
diff --git a/lib/db_populate.rb b/lib/db_populate.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea8b888
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/db_populate.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+require 'rake'
+module DbPopulate
+  DBP_ROOT = File.dirname(__FILE__)
+end
+
+# prevent the task from being loaded multiple times.
+unless Rake::Task.task_defined? "db:populate"
+  # Load the rakefile so users of the gem get the tasks
+  load File.join(DbPopulate::DBP_ROOT, '..', 'tasks', 'populate.rake')
+end
diff --git a/tasks/populate.rake b/tasks/populate.rake
index a94235b..53125c7 100644
--- a/tasks/populate.rake
+++ b/tasks/populate.rake
@@ -7,7 +7,11 @@ namespace :db do
       load fixture 
       puts "Loaded #{fixture}"
     end
-    Dir[File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'db', 'populate', RAILS_ENV, '*.rb')].sort.each do |fixture| 
+    (Dir[File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'db', 'populate', RAILS_ENV, '*.rb')] + Dir[File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'db', 'populate', 'shared', '*.rb')]).sort{|x,y| File.basename(x) <=> File.basename(y)}.each do |fixture|
+      load fixture 
+      puts "Loaded #{fixture}"
+    end
+    Dir[File.join(RAILS_ROOT, 'db', 'populate', 'after', '*.rb')].sort.each do |fixture| 
       load fixture 
       puts "Loaded #{fixture}"
     end