Thanks waterbug_guy and mike_il! That's I'm here - you folks are smart. The events of the past few hours have certainly shown me that you are both correct about the source of the water. I don't know what the heck I thought I was doing with my testing, must have read my yardstick wrongly. At daybreak tomorrow, I will be digging out a cubic yard of pea gravel into two large trashcans and get to the manifold at the bottom of the filter pond. No doubt, it's leaking at up there. All of my plumbing is now exposed, so that's not it. It's leaking like a pig now when the pump is running. I can't even get the waterfall to flow with the pump on, put I but my hand in front of the pump and it's pulling water, so all that water is getting underneath. A close look with a flashlight tonight showed damp ground all around the upper pond at the base of the dirt build-up. This explains a lot of things - wet vegetation around the pond, a shrub that died where the water is accumulating, and the waterfall has been a bit less powerful and tonight it"s just a trickle (pump off now). Big question: I've always run my pump 24/7. Will the fish be okay for 24 hrs with no aerating waterfall, or should I go out and buy a fountain or take my oxygen tank from my welding kit and bubble some O2 up? I will post some pictures tomorrow so you can all see my leak.

We haven't made any cuts at all, actually we have acquired a bad case of "while we're at it" disease ... but it really DOES make sense to rework the second story plumbing while the first floor ceiling is open... I think that things are slowing down a bit in our region for suppliers and contractors, but here that just means that they are very busy rather than insanely busy - although one high-end kitchen supplier recently folded. We are doing most of our work ourselves so have not noticed much change in labour costs ;) but we are hoping that prices on some things we have yet to buy will come down a bit. Spring 2009 will probably be much different. I think that there will some excellent deals to be had then. If I was planning on starting a reno I would wait until then but I would not, under any circumstances, go into debt to do it with the global economy in the condition that it is now. Things are going to get extremely tight. I believe that it will be many years before the real estate market ever approximates the performance it turned in over the last decade, so it may be a good idea to make sure that improvements are done to one's personal tastes rather than with an eye to a quick resale.

Let me clarify above opinions because I am suddenly the guy who likes forced air gas instead of GSHP...which is really not true. There are many reasons to use a different heat source than forced air gas. All of those reasons are great and true and good and yah! To pretend that gas doesn't have any advantages is simply being disingenuous, as would pretending that GSHP's don't have any advantages. They both have some advantages and some disadvantages, but there are also some myths about both of them. Real geothermal has some amazing environmental benefits, but many of the GSHP environmental benefits are oversold. As these systems age and start dropping antifreeze into the groundwater table I can't see the marginal fossil fuel benefit being enough to make them environmentally friendly. This isn't to say they are bad, or that you are bad for doing them, had the finances worked out I would have done one. However, payback period refers to the period of time required to recoup the funds expended in an investment, or to reach the break-even point. Payback is purely financial, whether you install one system, two separate systems or two hundred separate systems really has nothing to do with payback at all. The savings that are quoted for GSHPs simply rarely come to fruition, and rely on customers having a lack of understanding. We were quoted a minimum of $18,000 more for GSHP after the tax rebates (assuming the drilling had no unexpected problems). When the guy started talking payback period he conveniently left off the additional interest charges for the mortgaged amount. Payback period also ignores the time value of money. At some point, you have to get away from payback period altogether..I use 9 years. Anything not paid back in 9 years essentially never pays back. The fact that it will never get close to paying for itself is the real reason I am saying no. Others may have the exact same numbers and decide the benefits are worth paying for. I would pick it over gas if it were competitively priced.

I love Gekks although they are expensive. For decades I have tried all the solutions to no-sock look, from footies, to toe covers, and half foot covers. All of them showed above shoe line or slipped and bunched, or caused blisters creating extra friction with the elastic at heel or along the top seams. The pretty lacy top liners gave me blisters and never looked that evenly spaced peeking out of my shoes. Gekks is the first sock liner that works for me: for flats, loafers, and sneakers. Since there is nothing else like it, I pay the high price to keep one in each pair of my favorite shoes. I was not interested in spending the time moving and reinstalling to another shoe ( they do last longer if dedicated to one pair of shoes). Solution to issues I have read about: 1) Gekks not sticking to some shoes; 2) adhesive can damage shoes with delicate leather liners like Everlane; 3) limited budgets for an expensive product to buy for each shoe in closet. But there is an easy solution: put a thin gel (or other) 3/4 insole in your shoes and attach the Gekks to the insole. Then move the insole to any other shoe with Gekks sock attached. Voila! issues solved for any shoe you could use with a thin insole! There are many insole products. You can search for "thin shoe insoles" on AMZ. For Rothys, which have removable insoles anyway, choose one of your Rothys basic color insoles, attach the Gekks, then just move the Rothys insole with the attached Gekks sock... from Rothy shoe to shoe. Then you only need one Gekk style per Rothy style in your closet. Start collecting slowly: Attached to a movable 3/4 insole (or one of your basic color Rothys insoles) makes Gekks work for any shoe that you could use with a thin insole, although the Gekks heel adhesive would wear out sooner, but a great solution while you are building your collection. I recommend 3/4 insoles because different shoes have different toe box shapes and it is hard to make a full insole fit perfectly for moving shoe to shoe. The heel adhesive may wear faster moving shoe to shoe, but you should get a good amount of use while evaluating Gekks while giving your budget time to add more if you love them like I do.