well...I went out to the pond today as most of the ice has melted. Unfortunately, every critter that was unaccounted for is dead except 2 frogs I havent found yet. I'm sure they are dead somewhere. I am def investing in a net this year. So much crap found its way into the pond..turns out the white stuff was a piece of newspaper, a piece of burger wrapper, and what looked like a wet napkin. I'm pretty ticked..none of it was from me..was all stuff from litterbugs. There is also a plastic bag stuck way up in a tree where I cant reach it. The house next door has been vacant, and I suppose some of the crap came from over there. So much litter is in that yard, plus their garbage cans blew over awhile back into the backyard..guess they didnt take that last haul out b4 they moved. I hope there arent any bags in my pond!!! God, people really p!ss me off. Someone threw an empty vodka bottle in my driveway the other day..what is wrong with people??? I need to move out into the middle of nowhere so I dont have to deal with this anymore. Sorry about the rambling..guess I needed to vent. BUT white stuff mystery solved. No fish living. I have decided to empty & clean the whole thing come warmer weather, and start all over again. Maybe I will take some algae mixed with wet leaves from the pond, make balls out of it and whip it at people as they litter by my house..right at their heads..that could be fun. I could wear camo and hide in the bushes, lmao. Sorry to hear about the fires..kinda odd it happened twice. But I'm not gonna get involved in all that lol.

Thanks, Mad, that's what I needed to understand. I'm in zone 6 and it gets pretty darn cold but winter is our driest time of the year so I don't have that problem. Even the snow is dry as weird as that sounds. The thing that is worst for my roses is the fluctuating temperatures. It can be 40 in the daytime and below zero at night. Or we can go a week or ten days in the teens and then have a week in the 30s and 40s. The roses get confused, try to bud out, then freeze, then thaw, back and forth. I've found that they can only do that so many times before the stored energy in the roots and canes just gives out and they die. Mulching them insulates them from that yo-yoing effect to some degree. I look for a hard freeze to get them dormant and then winter protect to try and keep them dormant until I know the temps will stay warm enough for them to start growing. Yes, Natural, you can winter protect pots. I have 30 (it was as high as 60 last winter) in pots that I've been winter protecting for 6 winters now. If you have a garage, and with only two to protect, I'd say put them in the unheated garage for the winter. Put them up on pot trolleys or blocks off the cement floor (Michaelg thinks I'm nuts about that BTW, lol) and remember to give them a little water every month. It's doesn't have to be a lot but they're dormant, not dead, and need some water. Desiccation will kill a rose quick too. A lot of people I know who garage their pots will take a shovel full of snow when they shovel their driveway and put it on the pots to water them. I do that with the one and only rose that will fit inside my shed, the tree rose. It gets the prized spot because I can't winter protect that top graft in the pot ghetto. All the rest of my pots winter outside on the back, south facing, wall of my house. I group them all together, drive in wood stakes, surround the whole thing with burlap and then pack it with leaves. In 6 years I've lost way more roses in the ground than in the pot ghetto. And those were usually sickly going in. And don't do it too early. I don't do mine until after Thanksgiving usually. Like I said you want to make sure they're completely dormant and then keep them dormant until night time temps are consistently above freezing. So don't get itchy in the spring (a bad habit of mine) and pull them out too soon either. Hope all that helps and if you have any other questions, ask away! Through trial and error I've done most everything you can do wrong but eventually figured some things out, lol!

I installed a tankless 6 years ago and will never install a tank again. I did it myself and will do it again if I am ever in a new house. I have a 120k Noritz unit that performs flawlessly. I just don't get it guys. Installing a tankless without recirc is like trying to start your car with a half dead battery. Really! "Your builder is right, it defeats the purpose of tankless" nonsense! I did not have recirc initially. I learned by experience you do not just replace a tank with a tankless. It is a bad result for hot water supply. Slow and inconsistent. Internal recirculation tanks might help but never having used one I have no opinion. But unless you circulate water and insulate your pipes to maintain the heat you are really missing the boat. Recirculating inside the heater means your pipes are cold and it takes longer to get to a tap because unlike a tank there is no pressure in the lines to radiate towards the taps. Why store water inside your heater when you need the heat in the pipes for faster delivery? That is just a limited solution to the issue in my opinion. How much does it cost to keep the lines hot. Depends on heat loss and vol. of water in the lines. Insulate!!! I would say my pipes take very little in cost to keep hot. Maybe $5-7 a month. I used 3/4 inch pipe for recirculation to store more water for start up and to feed 110 degree water into the heater. I do not have a timer to shut off recirculation at night so I could save a few bucks if I did that. Its a simple thing to lay out. You go to the last tap in the system and put a return to the heater from there. You need to have a cold water supply for the recirculation. A one way check valve between the recirc and the street supply prevents hot water from pumping back to the street as hot water pressure rises. A second check valve goes between the last tap and where the street supply feeds the recirc line to prevent cold water pressure from the street from back flowing through the hot water lines. Why any builder would not just put a return line back to the heater is beyond me. Its really not a lot of extra work. Especially with all the cheap Pex being used now. A small grundfos 1/25th hp pump is all that is needed in most cases. I use a Honeywell aquastat to trigger the pump. The pump engages maybe once an hour for maybe a minute to raise the water temp from 105 to 110. Heat loss? Did you insulate the pipes you say are losing heat from? You can lnstall a timer to turn off recirc in the night so you use no energy at all. You can do the same during the day when you are not at home. For some families you could have a daily timer that changes recirc to match your schedule. The hot water works with the recirc off, it just does not work properly as iz well known. Tankless is a superior technology. I did not think the endless supply would matter to me, its noticeably better. A tank cools as soon as you start using water out of the tank and cold water replaces it. The temp drops and drops the longer it flows. A tankless heats water on demand and it is maintained at the same temp. Its really is an advantage. But, as has been stated here by users, un managed hot water supply sucks and who cares if it costs a little bit of money to heat and pressurize your pipes so hot water is instant. Its way less expense than keeping 40 gallons of water hot in a tank. I would never heed the advice by someone on this thread that you don't need recirc. Have your builder install a true full house recirculation system. Don't pay attention to this "you don't need it stuff." If the builder balks or talks down to the idea get someone who knows what they are doing to come install it and over ride their obstinate attitude. Just do not listen to the talk of having a better system is not needed. You are going to great expense to have the best hot water supply you can have. Don't let someone with out your best interests in mind wreck your enjoyment of a great tankless system. Recirc all the way!!! Gee people, why would anyone not do this in new construction when its way easier to do.

I'll try to keep it short, not something I do well. The term for pattern learning, which is also affected by system performance too, is called adaptive recovery from setback. It's also something I also have no need or use for. I do use scheduled daily daytime and overnight setbacks but I got thermostats on which adaptive recovery is an option that can be turned off. I put in two new internet accessible thermostats when I did a two system equipment replacement a few years ago and I got Honeywells (on the recommendation of my HVAC contractor). I'm very happy with them. I need to do a system replacement on a second home in the next few months and I plan to get Honeywells installed there too, so that I can use one app to control both locations. I've heard that some HVAC contractors don't like the likes of Nest and Ecobee. Maybe because some of them are knuckle dragger/Luddite types and feel more comfortable sticking with brands known in the industry, I don't know. I have to say that even with my new Honeywells (the best known name in the HVAC industry and a company that manufactures many OEM branded models - for instance things like Carrier thermostats, Trane, etc) , I had to help a tech program them. The contractor's team did the wiring and of course the equipment install but, frankly, I understood the setup issues better than they did. No problem, we worked together, and the outcome was fine. If your upstairs system is vanilla - single stage gas furnace and single stage air conditioner, a system that doesn't need a communicating thermostat, not a heat pump with backup secondary or emergency heating, maybe an Ecobee or Nest might be fine. If it's other than vanilla, maybe not. And if it's installed or set up wrong, you'll have problems. I'm a person who tries to do things well, which is not always the cheapest way. I like being able to rely on the expertise of others. If you know and can afford to pay an HVAC contractor maybe a few hundred dollars (not counting the cost of the thermostat) for something a DIY person might try but screw up, have one come out to assess your situation and recommend what to use (and what they can install). Most modern thermostats do offer Wifi access and with Apple and Android apps. It shouldn't be too hard. You might even wind up having them install two if you can afford it. Do it at the same time. Your sprinkler controler sounds awesome! Good for you, you old dinosaur! You're an inspiration and excellent example for others, including younger others, of being adaptable to new things and using technology as a tool to overcome a disability. In your case, a visual disability, something everyone of Social Security age has to deal with.