Hey pick up this months issue of Aquarium Fish International, they have a great article on how to train your fish and a few of the tricks they have successfully managed to train a variety of fish. Who knew Goldfish could learn how to do anything but beg for food?:)

Thanks Vance Nothing added to the "handles", yet. We left them long for a couple of reasons, to use as handles (like a wheelbarrow) and to add on a hopper, sloped feeder or conveyor delivery system in the future. If we find out they get in the way, 5 seconds with the torch and they are off. We can install removable handles if necessary. They didn't seem to get in the way when we were sifting, I never really noticed them and never thought about it until you mentioned it so I don't think it was an issue. The biggest "problems" were, we couldn't keep up to it (ran empty a lot) and the first two containers underneath had to be emptied more often than the back two. Took longer to set up than it did to sift. The motor is not waterproof so the whole unit has to be stored inside a building until we figure out a way to protect the motor. I'm thinking a Tupperware bin with a bungee cord will work but it will look ridiculous. All in all not a bad project built with mostly "surplus" parts. Bills (squeeze) idea to mount the motor on top was bang on. I'm glad he pointed that one out. This was the first batch of compost I have ever sifted but it was also the first batch I made without first running the raw materials through a chipper/shredder first. I was concerned about the number of branches that went into the tumblers and didn't want the final product to have a lot of large sticks in it. So in the end it costs a little bit of electricity to sift the product, but it saves a whole lot of fuel (and time) from pre-shredding. I can live with that. Lloyd

How big is the heat pump? Are you building a energy use conscious cabin? It is possible that you heat pump is enough to cool and heat the new structure. Ok not likely but possible. The mancave should be built underground and then won't need much if any HVAC. No one can answer your question "What is the most efficient way to Heat/Cool (Types,Size and Brand)the new 2600 home built on a slab? " without a lot more information. The most efficient way would be geothermal - probably not worth the expense but is the most efficient. Your energy use has a lot more to do with the structure than the system.

Wow, nice to see my friends from Smaller Homes here! I am sorry to hear of the loss of your Joe, Chris. I don't think I heard that before. I knew he was ill. Hope you are doing well on your own. Steph, we have been thinning out books, too. My text books have to go, as do my professional ones. DH needs more room on the bookshelves as he is now reading everything in hard cover! I have moved to Kindle because my hands won't hold books anymore. I have been in his office/library/music room a few times and have tried to declutter a bit. It is a challenge! We are buried under clutter most of the time. Just a thin layer, covering all surfaces, one layer deep! DH drops anything where he uses it, including any packaging it came in. So some mornings as I feed the dog, I go through the kitchen and toss garbage and recycle-ables into the correct bins. Then there are the things that do not have a good place to live, so they just sit out. I have worked at finding homes for things. I have three boxes of things to build sitting against walls - a shoe organizer, a CD shelf, and now a golf organizer for the garage. Meanwhile, I am back making final purchases for the always-in-the-future bathroom gut and remodel. We have both gone through closets and thinned our unworn clothes out, and I have moved a chest of drawers to where I can use it for our sheets, blankets, pillowcases, and stuff for packing for trips. DH is taking occasional business trips. I also organized all shoe-shine equipment into a hand-made shoe-shine box I bought at a garage sale 15 years ago! I had help one day in the basement and built two shelving units we had down there and started going through boxes and organizing things down there. I also got a great deal on a big steel cabinet with shallow drawers that was designed to hold microfiche cards. It has 12 drawers that are 18" front-to-back and 3 or 4 ft wide. It is very heavy-duty and perfect for holding stones. If we could move it, we could get it in the house and I could fill it with all the stone and glass and metal beads I have for jewelry-making. I could easily see what I have then! The only problem is that once it is in place, it will be too heavy to move and the place it will have to go does not have a floor down, just a sub-floor. We pulled up the yucky carpet in that bedroom after Dad died. So I think I have to wait until the bathroom remodel is done, since that is going to steal 6 inches or so from this room, and it does not make sense to lay a cork floor down before we tear out the bathroom wall and rebuild it. Last year, though, we did get new gutters and gutter guards and covered the soffitts and fascia with aluminum and vinyl trim and we replaced the last 4 windows! The bathroom project is down to choosing the bathroom flooring material, the shower pan, and buying the swanstone walls for the shower. I also have to finalize the toilet choice - ie: do I need to get one with the tank in the wall to give the shower doors more room to open, or is a regular toilet okay? So I am at the point where I need to call Jim, my contractor, and get his input and get scheduled. I have a new bath fan/heater fixture to buy, a new door to get, and just a few other really minor things. I am zeroing in on a color for the vanity. As soon as the weather warms, I can paint it. I have it all filled and sanded, sitting in the garage, waiting for the warm weather.