. what more do you need? Well, according to some members of the city council and some people who have complained in the press, we also need to prevent our "itinerant population" (students) from raising them and to address the supposed problem that they're going to be abandoned en masse without care, and that they're going to bug neighbors and lower property values. Just because their complaints are unrealistic doesn't mean we don't have to deal with them :( I'm just concerned about what we've seen from the council so far. Of the 7-member council: ------------- Correia I don't know. My sister lived in a small town in Illinois and her neighbors across the street had chickens and they were kind of friendly, but I don't really see it in Iowa City. I'm sorry O'Donnell No. Champion I don't know. (several talking) ... Lombardo Where do you stop? What regulations, I mean, in terms of just legislating how to keep them(several talking) Wright The fact that it's relatively common, I think there are plenty of models that could be used out there. Um ------------- Then, from one of our local papers... Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey who said her grandmother owned chickens said she was not interested in supporting such a move because supporting local business leads to a more dynamic economy, but she is interested in hearing what others have to say regarding the matter. We have a weak mayor system, so Mayor Bailey is basically just another vote on the city council. The other two members of the council haven't really said anything that we've been able to track down that indicates his views. We have Wright seeemingly in favor; Correia, Bailey, and O'Donnell seemingly opposed; and Wilburn, Champion, and Hayek unknown (Lombardo was the city manager). That's not a good starting point, and we don't get to "negotiate" with them (at best, we'll get to speak our peace in front of them the session before the vote). Then they'll either vote it up or down. So, in our position, what would you do? It might not hurt to have educational workshops at your County Ag Extension office Hey, that's a good idea. We should give the ag extension a call and see if they'd be interested in that. I think that'd go over better than just requiring that applicants read a pamphlet.

Ah Autumn - you made my day; I temporarily ran out of things to stew over LOL. I did forget about power outage possibilities and have read several posts, but usually in relation to loss of oxygen for fish. Highly unusual here but of course possible when we have the blizzard of 08 and four feet of snow obscuring the pond! Not buying a generator, maybe a treadmill for local kids to "play" on. There's one of those uncontrollables. I have seen pictures of your pond/stream and it is really special. You have a great setting with the distance and twists and turns possible with topography. I enviously took inspiration from your pictures. Sandy, I can tell you some of those slabs weigh close to half-a-ton and getting them to the site and in place was awful--give me a lever long enough and I can move the world. Whatever. You had to be a very good girl to get some of those. The cliche, be careful what you ask for. I sort of understand what you are saying about heat loss, top to bottom. I remember an irony from physics that changing state from liquid to solid actually involves heat somehow. I removed all the stones that were causing splashing in the summer, generally those covering the liner on the side of the stream, on the outside of the bends. I also cut back water flow modestly in an attempt to keep water on the stream bed. My uninformed thoughts about volume and velocity of flow were that too slow could get covered over easily but faster would always move snow or go beneath it, flowing. It worked this time--but even a blind dog can tree a critter once in a while. Horton, I do understand your arrangement now. One of my handicaps was that I had no room for any buried barrels, containers of any type. Had I known! we installed a patio before I decided on a pond, it could have been smaller and the pond environment larger. Otherwise constrained by walkway, fortuitous storm water drainage system and slope. and more ground water than can be imagined (why the ground water system is there and no water evidence in an 85 year-old house, knock on wood). I started a modest 6'x9' pond and ended up as you see. So by-passing the falls would require a whole different approach, if possible even. My skimmer quite circulates the surface water as I observe everytime leaves fall in. I was banking on that fact to keep the pond surface ice-free. I have a pump ready if I need to pump down some, another hose ready to top off. Now I add extra care looking for ice dams forming, thinking of measures to protect against freezing if I lose my power--and that is probably the short list of what I should know--the unknown awaiting. It is thawing now, almost back to "normal" conditions. You can bet I am saving this post for the next freeze. The die is cast this time, better informed or foolhardy as I may be. Hopefully smarter when I re-vamp in the spring? Time for a swim-the microbes must be inactive right now, right Sandy? Mike

Hi again Fred. First, do you have auto dimming headlights? If so, unplug the connector from the rear the rear view mirror and see if your lights go out. Now that's the last "silver bullet" that can be thrown out. All too often I see people make light of what a tech has to do today to repair someones car. You don't have to read too many threads right here in this forum and you will see just how rare it is to get respect for what we do. We DON'T just swap parts as you did by playing musical relays in order to figure out a problem with someones car. You should have noticed though, that when you were plugging the relays in, they probably clicked because they are "being commanded on". This command could be a false one such as a grounded wire. We don't actually call that a short because shorts blow fuses, that's not happening here. Looking at the schematic, and not knowing for sure which system you have (there are two designs, one with auto dimming, and one with just Daytime Running Lights) makes it impractical for me to type out each step to lead you to diagnose this thing. Seriously, it would take me about 1/2 an hour to diagnose it, and three hours to type it all out. Average pricing for a tech/shop to diagnose this issue around here would be in the $100 range. Keep in mind things like "Flash to Pass" and the fact that the multifunction switch is a significant part of the circuit. Any aftermarket alarm systems, could also be in play. I'm not going to be able to go into great detail, make sure there are NO blown fuses in any of the vehicles fuse blocks. A blown fuse would of course be evidence of a short occurring somewhere, and this can result in a back feed which can command a relay on. Later today I can look closer at what you have written here again. But if you don't have the skills to do the diagnostics on electronics at this level you should plan to have a tech repair this. JMHO.

Thanks everyone for the best shot and trouble shootin....i have been trying to keep track of whats happening. Here's what I have noticed---Sometimes it just freezes, mouse, keyboard-does not respond to control-alt-delete at that point. Then I push button for off. 2nd-the computer goes off but the blue light is still on and can still hear running, The monitor is blank though. AGain the off button to make it go off... RAn thorough test on drive and ram-still checking out okay. Anything else I may be able to use for further testing??? I check device manager and event log. Only event log has yellow exclamations...I check out the event online but it just brings me to a generic page-then Im lost.... Will keep eye out on this-I think I read somewhere that the video card with same symptoms can cause what it does. I guess I just don't understand. It can stay on for hours and nothing happens... Thanks though for all help you have offered!!!