I got my Meyer from Four Winds Nursery, and am very pleased with their quality trees and customer service. I want to pass along to you what their website states about twig dieback: ----------------------------------------------- Leaf Drop/Twig Dieback Leaf drop and twig dieback can be caused by lack of light. Citrus trees need a minimum of 6 hours of full sun to grow. If growing indoors, it's possible that your trees will do better with a grow light for the winter. A sudden change in lighting or humidity can cause problems, so be sure to move your tree gradually from one spot to another, or from inside to out. If your tree receives adequate light, and experiences leaf drop, improper watering is probably the culprit. A lack of water can cause the tree to dry out and lose leaves, while excessive watering can cause the roots to rot, so that they lose the ability to take water and nutrients up to the leaves. If you modify watering to provide even moisture, often the tree will recover, albeit slowly. A moisture meter is useful to be certain that watering is necessary, and can help you develop an appropriate watering schedule. Should your tree lose all its leaves, don't despair. You can prune it back lightly to help push new growth; then, with improved growing conditions (adequate light, correct watering) it should recover. Remember also to feed regularly with a good citrus fertilizer (3:1:1 ratio or similar). Check your tree regularly for pests. Severe infestations of scale insects, or mites can cause defoliation. Regular monitoring will help you to take action in time, before severe stress (defoliation) occurs. -------------------------------------------- Your trees roots dont look dry, so you may want to consider you have over watered while using the wrong soil. I use a moisture meter to be sure (was only $4 and free shipping on amazon). I really feel for ya cuz many of us have been there! Keep your head up! I have picked 3 fresh lemons off my tree in the past week :) (even tho its 15 degrees outside!) You will have success if you meet the trees needs, and in my experience, it took a couple years to learn how to meet those needs. Good luck, and please post updates.

I have always done quite a bit of canning at peak times and I haven't had it cause any burner problems or anything, but then I don't can CONSTANTLY like some of the folks on the Harvest Forum do. On the old stove, it is only the oven that has gone out, so we are going to hang on to it a while....just put it out in the garage/barn. I am not sure about canning on the new stove, and need to do some research (and quickly!). I've thought about getting a big turkey fryer and using it to do my canning....lots of people do that so they can do the canning outside and avoid heating up the house. Speaking of not heating up the house.....one of our neighbors lives in a home his relatives built in 1912. I love that old house! The kitchen is so large you could live in it alone! They have a separate "summer kitchen" about 60' from the main house, and it is the only home around here with a summer kitchen still standing, although I don't think they've used it as a summer kitchen in many years. I'd love to have a summer kitchen. I AM real excited about the convection oven. We never would have spent the money to get a stove this fancy at regular retail prices (living on one income, we've learned to be pretty thrifty). Getting it at the outlet store, though, saved us about 30% and it was brand new--not used/returned/repaired like some of them are (described on their tags as "reconditioned"). It had "damage".....a scratch on the side that you won't see because that side sits next to a wall, so it was a terrific deal. That scratch was the only thing "wrong" with it, and I can't believe a 4" long scratch saved us hundreds of dollars. I suspect the new stove is smarter than all of us humans. For example, I can set it on the convection mode and tell it I am going to bake a cake at 375 degrees (the temperature given on the cake recipe). The stove then will automatically adjust the temperature downward as needed since a convection oven cooks more quickly. I also could adjust it manually, but will just let the stove's brain figure it out! It also has a warming drawer which our older stove did not. While we were at the Sears outlet store, I was drooling over some of the French Door refrigerators with the freezer compartment on the bottom. I also saw some new ultra-modern and gorgeous stainless steel freezers. Now, I don't need a new refrigerator or freezer yet, but I know what I do want when (and if) either one of them ever die. Dawn

One of my old computers, that has no case cover on it... i always have to reset one of the cards that has come loose from flexing the case while moving it around, or one of the hard drive cable connectors has loosened or pop the CMOS battery in and out before it will boot the first time after a long hiatus. There's always something that fixes it that you usually can't tell what it was. Its the win 98 original edition that has had many motherboard/cpu combo's in it.. last one was AMD 450, I think. Actually for browsing and downloading its just as fast as anything,, maybe faster as it has an expensive video card(for its day) and nice fast hard drive. Web pages/graphics paint instantly.

The question of whether or not auxiliary heat is called for with recovery from set back is very important to your electricity bill. Auxiliary by electrical resistance is at least several times more costly than heat pump heat. You can't use large set-backs with a very simple set-back thermostat. Your thermostat needs to manage the warm-up period. In addition to that, by manually setting the thermostat, you can invoke the electrical resistance auxiliary heat if you are not knowledgable. What kind of thermostat do you have? You have heat pump only, no gas furnace? If you post the make and model numbers of your heat pump and thermostat, you will get the most help here.