LP hit the nail on the head. It depends on what you want and what your equipment needs are. You will hear everything from turn it over twice an hour to turn it over every three hours or more. It depends on the ponder or equipment salesman. Just be careful because there is always someone wanting to lie to you and sell you their product guaranteeing results that you don't get and then saying hmmm it shoulda worked. Some are just outrageously deceitful knowing that many ponders order over the net and don't have much recourse. Here is a link that might be useful: My pond the way it was before the freeze.

I had ordered from them for the first time this spring. I really, really love helenium and they had some I didn't have. One of my plants was nothing more than a plug. I would agree that they do really care about their customers. Once I let them know I had a new plant that was a ton bigger within a week. They were super nice and never questioned my gardening skills like so many other companies try to do. I'm sure everyone has been burned once by one of those companies that sends you plants that never had a chance to survive (if they were even alive to begin with) and when you call them they blame it on your gardening skills. This nursery was not like that, and bent over backwards to make everything right.

"I realize my LTV ratio is low and my FICO is high, but you'd think they'd discourage using the house as an ATM on a rainy day." Why would they discourage that? There is nothing inherently wrong with using leverage. There is nothing inherently wrong with using your home's equity to further your financial goals. Using leverage you can't pay back is what's wrong. You sound like a good credit risk & banks are in business to "sell" money. If nobody borrowed...there would be no banks for your savings. It's simple. Banks take your savings & lend it to others...hopefully to credit-worthy borrowers like you. A disciplined investor will allow their real estate's equity to work for them rather than sit there as dead money. HELOC's did not cause the financial breakdown. Borrower's poor discipline & decision-making skills did, however, contribute to the debacle. Based on your "high FICO", you do not sound like one who made poor decisions. BTW, I also agree with your banker about the CDs rather than savings accounts. Laddered CDs works well for safety net savings & usually pays a higher yield. Why would one not take advantage of that opportunity? It's not likely a person would need an entire year's worth of living expenses all on the same day...so keep some amount in a cash account, ladder the rest in CDs, & keep rolling them. I do not agree with your banker that a HELCO is a substitute for an emergency cash fund. Doing that could quickly turn you from a credit-worthy borrower into a statistic. /tricia PS You WANT your bank to encourage credit-worthy borrowers to take out that HELCO, don't you? If not, how do you expect them to stay in business? While I'm on this toot...another thing to remember is that if everybody followed the advice on this forum & never carried a balance on a credit card...there would be NO CREDIT CARDS FOR ANYBODY because CCs are not a convenience that bank's offer from the goodness of their hearts. They are supposed to make money for the bank. Now, it's true that a well run bank can either break even or make a miniscule profit from just the fees they charge retailers...no bank would assume that risk. So, if you enjoy having the convenience of a CC...be glad some people carry CC balances. And if you like having the convenience of banking services be glad some people borrower for a new car, use their home's equity to pay for higher education, use a HELCO to purchase income-producing property, borrow to start their own business or expand an existing business, & even borrow to spread the cost of that once-in-a-lifetime world cruise over five years. "Loan" is not a dirty four-letter word. I am sick. I am cranky. I am tired of this generalized bank bashing. Let's just put all of those "banksters" out of business. Heck, we'll all just stash our cash under the mattress & barter for our food. Cash & carry all the way. That will teach those "banksters" a lesson! Since September 28, 2007, the FDIC reports closing 54 banks (www.fdic.gov). The FDIC had better get cranking...heck, they're not even busy yet as compared to the S&L Crisis. The problem with this "crisis" is that it's hitting our money-center banks the hardest. Due to counterparty risk, a pro-active solution was required. Those counterparties included many international banks, our largest institutions, & several states (CA, VA, HI, as examples). A.I.G. was acting as sort of a conduit to funnel money to dozens of financial institutions around the world. If AIG failed most banks in Europe wouldn't have gone down with them. These are mostly banks who bought insurance from AIG against the possibility of a global financial meltdown. AIG is hopelessly tangled in our money-center financial institutions' well-being. Letting them turn out the lights & last man out lock the door wasn't an option folks. ...rant spoken tongue in cheek (sort of). And, since I have just been diagnosed with Sjogren's Disease my tongue is permantly stuck to my cheek!! :( Here is a link that might be useful: Wiki: S&L Crisis

cindyb -yes, that makes sense. But I guess I'm having trouble figuring that on 12/20 when I make my payment, the principal balance is reduced effective 12/05. But am I accruing on the reduced balance from 12/05 to 12/20 when I made my payment? That's what doesn't make sense. Billl~ I agree with you. That is the way I thought the payments were being applied. My note reads that way too, but that is not the way it is being applied. I have actually been trying to get an answer from the bank (credit union) since December without luck. Nobody understands it and nobody can explain why all of a sudden my total payment goes to interest instead of interest, and then principle. It was 6 months ago that I began to see this. Yes, we are going to refinance our 1st and include this equity line to pay it off. Or we may end up selling to buy a smaller house. We have used the line to upgrade and repair which is mostly complete now. Our house was built in 1927, and while it has charming features, it sure needed alot of work! We have plenty of equity in the house and wanted to use it for repair and upgrades. We still have plenty of equity even after consolidating the two notes into a refinance. Thanks all!