Importing cuttings into the USA? What's the deal?
10 years ago
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10 years ago
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About Importing Plants
Comments (22)Doug, I had a friend in MD send me cuttings a couple years ago. Interestingly the USPS thought the route from MD to FL included a side trip through TX, then onto CA, then back through CO, then finally onto FL. Also apparently they consider a package staying in a sort facility for over a week part of the trip. Supposedly they lost it, but then they found it. I mention this because the little tour of the US my cuttings took, was just under three weeks. Until it was "lost" it showed the route on the tracking. amusing in a sad kind of way. And the cuttings arrived fine, a little dehydrated, but they perked back up quickly. I still have every one of them. So, I'm thinking your package might have been left in the hot sun for a good bit of time. Did you use EMS or just regular international mail? Maybe that is the difference? When I get my order, I'll take pics, see what happens. Renee...See MoreImporting appliances into Canada from USA
Comments (52)Hi Pelican Dave here in Toronto. Bottom line - purchasing stuff in the U.S.A. is often EASIER than in Canada. You often get better service in the U.S.A. We purchased our top of the line Subaru Outback from Van Bortel in N.Y. last summer and paid only $USD 30,500 (just had to email for a quote - that's it) all options and freight in, vs $CAD 48,000 best quote in Canada. Only additional cost - $190 + GST for the federal import fee - that's it. No Canadian dealer style B.S. of attempting to further pad the sale with glass etching fees - or worse "administration fees" for their sub-par service. Of course we paid Canadian (PST/GST/$100 AC) taxes to register it (but never paid any US taxes). Now that we are literally building a new home within our old home's 105 double brick exterior walls (totally gutted the interior - even gutted the studs, joists, etc), we're in the market for all new appliances, bathroom fixtures etc. Canadian dealers and distributors can go F*** themselves as far as I am concerned - and put that arrogant disservice attittude right in their ...... but I digress :-) You will pay no duty on any appliance manufactured in USA/Canada/Mexico, otherwise, as I understand it, duty is limited to 6.1%, since Canada is part of the World Trade Organisation. GST is collected at the border, and is calculated on top of the duty. Legally you are supposed to voluntarily declare your purchase to the provincial government and pay P.S.T. as well - as if you would - LOL. P.S.T. is not applicable to any energy star rated appliance in Ontario anyways. I plan to do the same for our bathroom fixtures. If you thought appliance fixtures were a rip off in Canada, check the Canada / US price differences on sinks, toilets, tubs, etc - often up to double the price in the U.S.A. Too many stupid, compliant, lazy Canadians, make for continued windfall profits for greedy, sleazy Canadian distributors, and their compliant, wimpy dealers. If only more dealers were like Walmart Canada, who temporarily pulled all Lego products off the shelves, until Lego cried Uncle, and agreed to sell their products here at the same price as in the U.S.A....See MoreUnwittingly removed asbestos floor tiles. What's the deal?
Comments (364)You can cut off a chunk and send it off to a lab to test for asbestos content-- obviously, don't do that in an obvious place if you're not immediately planning on replacing it or covering it. If you can lift a baseboard and get material from the edge, then cover the missing section back over with the baseboard, that's often a good location. For the mastic, you can get it wet and scrape up some and send it off for testing. The lab will almost always have specific instructions on safe ways to collect material for testing and how much you need. Similar appearing materials are all over the place on actual asbestos content. Vinyl asbestos tiles tend to be square and have kind of a marbled look. They are often, but not always, 9x9. The vinyl asbestos tiles are generally quite low risk compared to the asbestos-backed sheet vinyl, because the asbestos fibers are bound in a matrix with the vinyl. Unless you pulverize them in removal, you're not going to get airborne fibers taking them out. If you contrast whatever your local recommendations are for VAT removal with sheet vinyl removal, they're usually pretty different-- the main thing people are concerned about with VAT is how you dispose of it. For sheet vinyl, though, they're really worried about how you take it up. Mastics can be pretty difficult to get up. For example, the black mastic was really easy to get up with Bean-E-Doo (whatever they call it now)-- anything else, though, forget it. The remnants of the Bean-E-Doo itself were challenging (lots of soap, water, scrubbing, etc.) However, though the same chemical said it works on old carpet adhesives, it didn't work at all for me. If you have things tested and the tile's asbestos and the mastic's not, the tiles are pretty easy to remove nondestructively with steam (e.g., a steam iron or a wallpaper steamer, or you can rent a big machine that heats the tiles for you). Then you can rent a big commercial scraper to get the mastic up, which is the most efficient. If the mastic does contain asbestos, either it shifts easily with heat or it doesn't, it's water soluble or oil soluble, etc. Use whatever people think is the best method for the specific type of mastic you have. Or paint over the mastic with one of the sealing compounds if the standard removal methods don't work. Since your tiles are loose, though, I'd take them out before putting any new flooring down....See MoreMurray cypress - so what's the big deal??
Comments (41)Well we had a navy to supply and an empire to build dontcha know? Oddly enough, conifers are pretty much the forgotten species here in the UK. They last had a moment in the sun sometime back in the 70s (for which we certainly thank the Bloom family)...when they were planted, along with the ubiquitous heather, as low maintenance foundation plantings. Since then, with apologies to you guys, conifers have been relegated to the 4th division of trendoid planting styles and categories (unlike the sodding new perennialistas with bloody echinaceas, grasses and rudbeckias popping up everywhere, no matter how ludicrous and inappropriate). Naturally, I have been loudly and contrarily singing the praises of these much underused plants (conifers) for the past few years - falling on deaf ears but hey, baby steps...and I confess I am also starting from a position of woeful ignorance - although only yesterday, I ordered a Bhutan pine to add to the fruit tree order) and I have seedlings - lots of them. It is true though, that national characteristics (albeit largely imaginary and stereotyped) does have some bearing on our planting preferences. Unlike the French, the English have always romanticised the countryside...and that countryside, at least the one which lives in the national imagination, is largely of the green rolling hills and hedgrows variety with only a tiny bit of Highlands to compare with the vast arborial forests of the American psyche. And we are a tiny country with nothing of the geographical variety of the US (our default imaginary landscape tends to be the coast). No deserts, no prairies (although we do have the flat waterworld of the fens and Somerset levels). Ho resin...expect some action on some of these grouse moors this summer - the misery of flooding, exacerbated by the unnatural draining and clearing of the peat moors will not go unpunished for much longer - the hunting/shooting and riding to hounds fraternity are diminishing (despite recent monied converts desperate to buy into some olde english tradition) and deference to class is receding year on year....See More- 10 years ago
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I took a chance, I examined multiple pics & they didn't seemed photoshopped, those are usually pretty obvious! Didn't think it would even make it through customs....lol
Here's one of the pics they advertised...
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