Wow, wow, wow, Larry, I love your ideas! I do hope you keep us updated on them as you work through whatever issues pop up. I, too, want to keep a "permanent" mulch cover but still be able to grow cover crops. And I'm trying to go as no-till as possible. I don't want to have extra equipment to keep up and, eventually, I'll get older and not want to manhandle a tiller. We're only in our 40s but time sure flies so we're trying to look far, far down the road. Do the work now, enjoy the ease later on. Carol, those are cool! I'd not seen those before. This year, we're on a shoestring budget (like most of our lives LOL) so I didn't want to add anything to the purchase list that we didn't absolutely need. (We only had to buy Quikrete and the nylon cord. Everything else, we had on hand.) I was going to spend this winter clip shopping and seeing what was out there. In the back of my mind, I was debating between those little velcro ties and a different type I had seen -- both of which are more expensive, at least where I've seen them. But those clips you linked? Cheap! And, if you say they work good, I'm pretty sold. Diane

when your pc shuts down in an abnormal method like a sudden shutdown from a power outage or if you had to just hit the power button to do a hard shutdown with out following the normal shut down protocol, windows is set up to run a check disc or scan disc program to see if any damage was sustained or any sectors lost or corrupted. So it sounds like you had some type of shut down on your system and it was doing it's normal check list to make sure everything was ok. If it did not mention bad sectors or ask if you wanted to try to fix or repair or anything like that then you are probably ok. I have no idea what the $130 stuff is.

First you need to see if this is a legit program called System Mechanic or a virus called System check - from what I have just read. What are you trying to achieve? What operating system do you have? Only you can decide if you wish to spend the money, I like free programs personally. This is one of those cases where I advise something I always fail to do myself. One should create a Restore point prior to installing stuff so they can revert if the new software does not live up to expectation.

no my tank definitely needed replacement. the output baffle was gone (corroded, dissolved). that could've been replaced with PVC, but the 2nd chamber manhole rim was also gone/corroded. so the lid fell in. at that point there was no effective way of keeping surface/rain water from flooding the tank and hence the field. ironically, my county health department did not require me to replace it. they flushed a dye pack, ran 50 gallons of water, and when the dye didn't surface in the field they said it "performed satisfactorily". of course they weren't here whenever we had heavy rains and effluent surfacing in the back yard. technically speaking, since my tank had no output baffle for (years maybe?) my field lines are probably clogged with debris to some extent. I'm keeping an eye on that. I have 9 lines each 100ft long. the first two drop boxes i opened and found what I can only describe as giant "sludged hair balls" clogging the lines - I could only clean out as far as I could reach (a very nasty job). the other 7 boxes were clean. with the new tank in place the last 5 lines stay completely dry all year whereas before they were all full of water all the time. in your case I'd put a hose in the tank and fill it -- this may take all day. then see if the water level drops back down - and how quickly it drops. measure the levels with a long stick. this will give you a sense for how much water may be leaking. if its a slow leak and not a big breach of the tank they can actually repair it - although that may not be a good long term fix. but replacement is a big nasty job that will destroy your back yard -- just know what you're getting into before you do that.