erm... wait a minute. Hold up. You mean, the excitement over getting a compost pile cranked up AND sizzling hot, is supposed go away after the first one? Beg to differ... thats NOT how it usually works. I still get excited about them all. On occasion, I'll get MORE excited than usual. For instance, this time (current hot pile) ...I had to hack up a layer of glacial ice with a giant ROCK PICK to get to the LAST pile, so I could build the NEW pile. Never had to do that before... wasn't sure how it was gonna fly. But it worked! (I got stoked, right away... who wouldn't.) Then, I ran out of ICE to feed the pile, and it started to dry out...Gah! Had to feed it yukky CITY water for the first two flips... worried that would be too much the microherd to bear at this time of year, but they pulled it off...whew! (Got excited over that also...for obvious reasons.) Now today, were having a BLIZZARD...after record daytime highs over the whole last week. Second flip was only the day before yesterday (tap water...grrr)...and now its COLD, heavy wet snow everywhere. Double-gah! I feared, the whole thing might STALL OUT, and loose too much of its momentum... but we are still smoking, hanging right around 140. Right on time. AND, the pile has shrunk down to about 1/3 of original size already... its only a couple weeks old! Go microherd!!! (Yep. Giddy, all over again.) After all this, as if it wasn't like Christmas already... I came up with a NEW PLAN this morning...that's designed to insure, that THIS pile (and maybe even the NEXT pile) will NEVER need to suffer with yukky, treated, city water again! You can't stop me from doing the yippy-skippy dance over this one...check it out: (oops, I'm sorry... almost forgot what I came here to say. Congratulations on your first hot pile. I can totally relate to your excitement, it's perfectly justified. Just be mindful, as you move on to the next one... these hot piles can get a little addicting. Just sayin'... Les in CO Here is a link that might be useful: Check it out...

jkunkel, it wasn't quite as cold last night as it has been . About 48 but that puts a chill on the buds. In fact, we have been sleeping under a comforter. We are asleep by the time it gets cold in the house and is warming up by the time we get up. I am hoping for the best. A good rain would help I think. lisaday, look at Tinkers pics. Someone has a LNS that looks like mine. I have a lot of yellow with the pink in mine. It may have something to do with the climate. That pic was taken in Fl at my sisters. Of course, mine looks the same but if you go north, it may not be quite so bright. I bought mine from a daylily friend who has passed away. I bought a lot from her and am still trying to find the correct names for most of them. Year before last, I found the Brocaded Gown name. I had that one for several year until on of our GW friends named it for me. Since he is DEEP into dls and knows more about them than most, I trust his judgement. Now if he could just come here and name the rest..LOL. I have promised a trade with Jill but haven't heard from her yet. I can find a fan or to to trade with you if you are interested.....Ellie

How housebroken is the dog? Does she regularly have accidents? A dog who pees in the house more than once or twice a year is not a good fit with an apartment with wall to wall carpeting. If you think you will really need the rug shampoo unit, maybe you need to find a different apartment. About the dog noise--currently I live above a dog and below another dog. Their running around really doesn't bother me. They are dogs; they run around. The occasional bark doesn't bother me. Their owners, who slam doors and drop heavy objects on the floor, they bother me a lot, because they are humans and can control these actions, but they chose not to. I wouldn't pre-warn people, because that sounds like you are going to warn them that your dog makes noise, but you aren't going to do anything about it. Instead, as you meet your neighbors, tell them that you have a dog and to please let you know if the dog is ever too loud. I suspect that your building will have a fair number of dogs and people who have dogs should be more willing to accept the occasional noise of another dog. I know nothing about video games, but can you use headphones when you play them? If not, you should be prepared to keep the sound very, very low after 10 or 11 at night. Listen carefully to how much you can hear from the other units. If you can hear every sneeze and whisper, you will know that your neighbors can hear your video games. When you play them at hours that other may be sleeping, you will need to find a way to play them as quietly as possible. Tell your neighbors, "Hey, I play a lot of video games. Please let me know if the noise is ever a problem." And be prepared with a solution if they mention the noise. For your early morning/late evening comings and goings, I wouldn't say anything. Just be as quiet as you can--close doors softly, speak softly to your dog, have her on a leash, try to figure out how to keep her from barking as you leave the building. You have every right to enter and leave the building when you choose. Telling the neighbors about this might give them the idea that they have some say over your time schedule--and really, they can't. So just be as considerate as possible. If someone does complain, ask them what can be done to solve it. It might mean taking a different route to the front door of the building, for example, so that you don't pass their apartment. But someone walking down the common hallway at an odd hour is just a fact of apartment life.

Quote: "The reason that we chose the "Salt System" is because of our kids eczema! 100% chlorine is so bad for their skin." A salt pool actually has chlorine as well. The SWG generates chlorine from the salt in the pool. The chlorine levels are the same as a non-salt pool. Chlorine gets a bad rap because everyone remembers swimming in public pools that had a strong smell, burned their eyes and dried their skin and hair out. In fact all those problems are a result of an improper chemical balance. Our son has eczema, but we didn't go with an SWG because there have been a lot of problems in our area with stone decay. We've been keeping the chemical levels within recommended range and our pool water has no smell or taste at all. We don't get that dry skin or hair feel when getting out either and our son's eczema has been unaffected. I think SWGs are great and certainly am not trying to talk anyone out of one, but chlorine gets unduely blamed for a lot of problems.