In California you should assume the fungus Armillaria is in the soil. It is activated with moisture at a time when the soil temperatures are high. The fungus feeds on roots, dead or alive. When the brown mushrooms are noticed at the point where the trunk enters the soil, the roots are damaged beyond saving the tree. After the tree falls over and is made into firewood the fungus continues to live on, feeding on the dead roots still in the ground. We lose black oaks in our forest every year from Armillaria even though there is no summer water, only a drainage problem. Al

Thanks. I think getting the wires up out of the way would be the easiest way of getting things tidied up. Without having any of the telephone splice connectors, I don't think I could move the wires into a J-box, unless one end is easily removable from the junction block. I was thinking about a junction box because I did the very same thing about a week ago when I moved all of my thermostat wiring splices (I have three boilers in the basement) into a J-box. The splices are where the old thermostat wiring ties into the new near-boiler wiring. It really neatened things up overhead around the boilers. The splitters you see are all 3-way splitters if I'm not mistaken. I have about 5 or 6 in the basement, and there is one outside which is grounded to a stake in the ground. The coax is quite new. I believe most of it is only 5 years old or so. Cox came and ran all new wires when someone had an issue with their cable modem due to a poor signal. They didn't do the nicest job at keeping it neat and organized, but coax is easy enough to work with; disconnect it, re-route it, and reconnect it... The rest of the old coax (black in color) is running up the sides of the house to get to the 2nd and 3rd floors. The first floor wires run up through the floor, and the 2nd and 3rd floor run straight through the exterior walls. Perhaps someday I'll complain to Cox about the wires hitting the siding when it's windy and have it all replaced with new, white cable to match the white vinyl siding. Also, I made a mistake when I said telephone "protectors" outside. I checked yesterday, and I have only one protector where all three main black telephone lines go through into the house. I would've thought each floor had it's own protector box outside...

First I am assuming that you are shooting 1.4G (class C) devices in a venue in which is legal to do so. In my (misspent) youth I have done what you are suggesting. It works, but it is not very reliable. That is the problem. If a device does not fire, be very careful when you go in to check out the problems. A device can hang fire for a long time. What you really want are electric matches (e-match). They are designed to do exactly what you want to do. Minimum fire current on an e-match is about .35 ohms. DO NOT use a multi meter to check continuity or you will fire the match. A 12-volt car battery will work just fine (it is over kill) for your application. Most current generation firing systems use a capacitive discharge technology to apply power to the e-match. We are still using 48-volt systems that use DC to DC convertors to take the 12 volt gel cells to 48 volts. We can reliably fire 15-20 e-match in series through a 1500Â of 22 gauge 25-conductor cable. Unfortunately you canÂt purchase e-match without a Federal License. However, you can make them (see the link below). You can purchase lots of other pyro supplies from the same source. There are neat little wireless firing systems in the $200-$300 price range. Be safe, have fun. Here is a link that might be useful: Pyro supplies

sniffdog - thanks, that reminds me of an additional distinction I should have made. CMX (or CMR) means approved for outdoor use. *MOST* CMX/CMR cable is also going to be UV rated (suitable for exposure to direct sunlight) but I've heard of some cheaper cables *not* having the UV rating. "Suitable for direct burial" is a separate endorsement on top of the CMX/CMR listing. Some direct burial cable is gel-filled, some isn't. I prefer the non-gel kind, and completely forgot that you can get non-direct-burial CMX too.. Hope this clears things up. Here is a link that might be useful: direct-burial non-gel Cat5e (I think this is UV too but confirm before ordering)