I used to live in Macon, Georgia, and your post got my attention. I remember the summer of 1977 because I had just graduated from high school and was doing remodeling work on the outside of my parent's home before I started college. It was the most miserably hot summer I can ever remember. I looked on wunderground.com to see if my memories were accurate. For much of that summer, both the temp and relative humidity were over 90. We had several peach and plum trees, which had wonderful fruit that summer. My mother was pealing peaches to put in our freezer, and whenever I went inside to cool off, I would eat so many peaches, she complained that she could barely peal them as fast as I ate them. I know we had one Elberta, which was our latest bearing peach, with a variety of other cling and freestone peaches. The trees were hanging so heavy with fruit, I had propped up all their limbs to keep them from breaking. I did not know then about thinning the fruit, so the limbs were so heavy with fruit they were about to rip off the trunks without support. I drove metal fence posts into the ground around each tree, and strung wire between the posts in a criss-cross star to support the limbs. Even though I had not thinned the fruit, the peaches were still good sized, ranging from tennis ball to baseball size. We had a really heavy bloom that spring, because January 1977 had been very cold. Several days in January 1977 set the all time record lows for Macon, and several days in June and July set the all time record highs. The trees were kept mulched with copious amounts of composted straw and horse manure. The summer before I had started growing organically for the first time. I had just learned about composting and was a zealous convert. I lived in Macon, just north of Peach county where the commercial peach growing belt begins, and also lived in Cordele, "The Watermelon Capital of the World" which is just south of the peach growing belt. I can testify that the summers are both hot and very humid. Maybe your peaches are just homesick and not in a "New York State of Mind". ;-) Greg

I planted 5 hunks of dahlias and only one is blooming so far. Another one is ready to bust open. I was told they were white but fortunately they have a pink blush which gives them some character. I find the flowers I do have to be very lovely and long lasting. I don't understand why you wouldn't at least dig them up and stick them in the basement. If they wither up, fine, but how hard is it to do that? It isn't like gladiolas, which I get in bags of 15 and I have sworn to stop digging up, because there are so many and it is a pain in the butt. I just have a few dahlias so I will certainly dig them up. Will also dig up the stupid canna lilies. Have grown them for 2 summers now and still no flowers. If they don't bloom next year they are finding a new home. At least the leaves are interesting . . . Marcia in WI

Hi Mary, I've been reading a number of the posts in this forum as I'm considering a wood burning appliance of some kind, and although I'm not a expert of any type I've read a lot of stuff about wood burning these past few weeks, I've also been reading your posts with interest as well. I recall you saying that the fireplace was going to take up a lot of the room, and that quite rightly you're concerned the heat output will be too much. I also believe you'd rather have had a corner unit? Well, you can fit a normal insert in the corner if you frame it in there. The framing is just to finish it and make it look pretty, so it can be any shape you like. However, I'm facing the same issues you are with excessive heat output from the modern units. I want to build a fairly small highly insulated house, thus most inserts put out far too much heat to maintain this space in normal weather. However, since it's a low energy environmentally aware design and I would like to use the fireplace for heat, I'm not going to consider anything but a modern clean burning unit. So far I've found two ways to solve this problem... 1. Buy a stove instead. They come in smaller sizes with far lower heat outputs, but they still burn cleanly. They're also better proportioned to smaller spaces. Another bonus is that they're cheaper to buy and install. 2. Buy a ducted wood insert/fireplace. These are pretty much the same clean burning high efficiency fireplaces you're looking at, they have a glass front to view the fire and to emit radiant heat, and they have a heat exchanger that blows heated air in to the room. However, these units allow you to turn off the heated air and direct it by ductwork in to another room, or better yet the furnace's cold air return so it can be blown out all over the house and substitute some of the heat generated by the furnace. You'll still get radiant heat, but it shouldn't be excessive or overheat the room you install it in. However, this will cost more than a normal fireplace. Personally I would recommend the first option as it's cheaper and probably better suited to someone who wants atmosphere and some heat. Since you're installing geothermal I doubt the savings by hooking the fireplace up to the furnace would be significant; unless you're getting the wood very cheap or live in an area with very expensive electric. Using the fireplace a lot may also swing the savings in your favour. The possibilities for saving money entirely depend on your lifestyle. Of course, a cold air return in the same room as your stove/fireplace will direct a reasonable amount throughout the house when the heating is on. Large doors that open up the downstairs would also help the heat flow around the house and make use of it. The only thing I wouldn't do is buy an oldfashioned non-EPA unit. It's not just about heating better, they emit a fraction of the pollution and are safer as the flue stays cleaner and they exhaust less heat through it. They also use less wood, leave less ash to clean up and burn with far more attractive brighter flames. You really can see that secondary burn as the fumes re-ignite.

You asked for advice, so I am going to tell you that your responses to your neighbor have been aggressive and provocative. Your reactions to the neighbor have added to the conflict. Your goal should instead be to give neutral or calming responses. Snookums2 gave you examples of these. Nan-E-Fan gave you away of thinking of the situation that protects you from thinking that by changing your responses to this family you are "wimping out" or acting like you are weak. By keeping calm and responding to exactly what is said, you keep control of the situation. The woman says, "my husband says he saw you letting your dog pee on our lawn." You say, "I don't let my dog pee on the individual lawns, he only goes on the common area." If the neighbor does not know where the common area is, this gives them the opportunity to ask, "where is this common area?" If the neighbor, instead, insists that you do let your dog pee on her lawn, you ask her to take a picture of it. If she says that she has no camera, remind them of their cell phones or tell her to get a cheep disposable. Or offer to pay half for a disposable. This shows that you are concerned for their issue (you don't really have to be concerned, but acting like you are keeps the peace). By remaining calm, you keep the power in the relationship. If they start getting accusatory toward you, or start complaining to the townhouse management, you can calmly say, "I told them that I only use the common area and asked them to photograph the dog using their lawn as a toilet. I even offered to share the cost of a disposable camera. They never did anything to prove it was my dog, they just continue to harass me every time they see me outside." Or if you can remain calm when they harass you, then YOU can go to management and complain about their treatment of you. It takes practice to remain calm and to learn to respond only to the words people are saying to you. What you have been doing is responding to the emotion behind what the neighbor is saying and making assumptions about what she is staying. Your assumption has been, "This family has something against me and my family." By having this assumption in the background, based on your first few interactions with this family, you have been working from an assumption that you are at war because this other family has decided you are. Nothing could go right after this assumption was made. That is why I suggest that you concentrate only on the words that are said. It keeps you focused on your goal of remaining calm and responding to the situation and the concerns that the person is bringing up. It is too late for you to make this relationship start out right, but you can work on calming it down. That will give you practice for future relationships with other people. I had to do this when I found myself getting all upset talking with insurance companies and the like on the phone. After one set of phone calls when I got mad and frustrated and yelled at the person on the other end of the phone, my eyesight went all wonky. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope that was turning. I thought I was going blind! Through the little bits of clearness, I waited through my dial-up internet and slow page loads and figured out that I was having an ocular migraine. I did not need to go to the ER, but I should see an ophthalmologist soon. So I called my eye doc and they got me in the next day. What is one cause of an ocular migraine? Stress. What else does stress do? Cause high blood pressure and other heart disease, contribute toward diabetes and other diseases. Gotta lower stress!