Hi Dan, The figures I have so far are this from their email: "Costs involved in exporting to Canada (or anywhere else) are high. Quarantine costs here would cost about $160.00 plus courier costs to AQIS for inspection about $120.00 and also export certificate about $100.00. These are approx figures but wouldn't be far out." That's more than $400 (canadian) and it doesn't include shipping yet, a figure that I should get sometime soon with more precision, so far I only have a very rough idea that tells me that the additional costs per bulb would be around $10 more than listed on their site (including all fees). I haven't had a look at their other stuff since I'm after hippeastrum only and found they had some cultivar not seen anywhere or different enough from the ones we know well, enough to be of interest, to me anyway, and may be to several other persons. I fully understand though that they may not be of interrest to many peoples, for all kind of reasons: not different enough, costs, etc. I suppose that if anyone wants anything very rare, he/she must find that one special dealer that has these items, establish a particular relationship in order to gain access to that treasure. At least, that's what I used to do when I was importing orchids for myself or for group orders similar to what I'm trying to do with this order. Say Dan, have you ordered from Maguire before or was it only from somewhere else in this country? If you have ordered from them, would you mind sharing what was your experience with them? They seem very reliable and Veronica Read only has good words for them in her book. Thank you for sharing that information Dan, and if anyone else has more to add, they are more than welcomed to do it. Laurier

I have moved all of my plants from the driveway to the front porch, where they now are just outside my bedroom window. This was certainly not the first theft here and probably won't be the last. Like Alabamanicole, I had once been waiting for some fully ripened pears only to go out to harvest them and found the entire tree stripped. We are living in curious times today, a time where theft is almost socially acceptable and even encouraged among the young. Too, between the city police, county police, state patrol, sheriffs, and school police, I have never seen so many law enforcement officers and vehicles, yet crime continues to spiral out of control while violent crime rises daily. Yes, I do see this as just another sign of the times and the police are overwhelmed. Most of the folks who come to my home have been overwhelmingly friendly and possessing nothing but good intent, but I doubt if I will be selling plants next year, it's just to much of an invitation for those with other intents. Now, when I hear folks walking on my front porch without knocking or ringing the bell, it makes me mighty nervous. The trouble is not one of whether or not I have reported this, but more an issue of our most fundamental values, social mores with family and community, and even our institutions no longer teaching or upholding the historical, fundamental values that were once the framework of our country and its people. This affects us all, but the concept of placing the load on the police as society declines and traditional constructs are lost, leads inevitably to a big brother state, not one of a country of, by and for the people. The problem is US...and has been throughout the history of great nations. The solution must come from within, but maybe things like shoplifting, thefts, home invasions, disrespect, and a generalized anger are simply a sign.

It was 30 years ago in the 70's and 80's the solar market was saturated with fly-by-nigthers taking advantage of incentives. You can read about it from Mother Earth newshere under the section SMART SOLAR SHOPPING. It also brought some gems and innovative technology as well, which my in-laws were one of the first to get an award winning Hybrid system. That link explains it and that company is the one who installed my in-laws solar back in the early 80's and still in business doing solar and radiant heating. That's who I'm going with. I live in Zone 5, the in-laws who have had Solar since around 1981 live in a colder Zone 4 (Mid-North VT) and I've been hanging out for weekends at their solar house for the past 6 years. Their system is closed and glycol so it can't freeze. When I'm up there, this is what I see. When it's 40 outside, they engage the slab. They have to open windows during the day as the place warms up to 80's inside. I get up in the morning, the house is 75 or so and the windows start to slowly open again if the sun comes out. When it's 20+F they shut the windows and their house holds 73-80 through the night. When it gets cloudy their slab will maintain temps over 70 in their house for a couple days afterwhich they fire up the small wood stove until the sun comes out. For the past 6 years I've seen them heat their house with 20+ year old solar panels using 1/2 a cord of wood/year in mid-upper VT and more often than not I watch them opening windows. They like their solar, but don't brag about it. They pay $120/cord of wood so if you figure that they burn 1/2 cord per year and the solar pump uses my guess $15/month on average they heat their house and hot water for $240/year in mid-north VT. I am not going to be able to get as much out of it as they will. My house is not built around Solar, theres is. I got to the 60% for heating and 90% hot water by the solar analyses. Someone actually went on top of my roof with I think it was called a Theolodite and spun it around marking the location of obstacles on a sun path chart for my location. They then showed me things like, in December that pine tree right there will block the sun hitting 2 of the panels until 10:30am etc. They deamed that I will receive 86% of the sun available. The sun chart being for my area. They then got the sun data for my area available freely from the government who records per month since the 60's how much sun hit a particular solar panel at a particular angle, in my area. Your area as well. You can see which months were cloudy in 1965 and which weren't in 1981, from that data they were able to average the sun by each month for the past 40 years, and come up with how many btu's the solar panels on average will give me for each month in my location compensating for loss. I then gave them my oil bills over the years and saw, that my house in Nov and Feb I will occasionally need so supplement the solar else my house will be low 60's, and December and January more often than not will need to help my solar. It will still be saving me on heat, but it will need a boost. However there should be enough for my hot water use nearly year round. That's how I got the 90% hot water and 60% heating, no opinions or people guessing it was all professionally done from a solar analysis. In the end, I think it's a no brainer like meghane said. If I wait until I have the $, I'll have wasted at least $5,200 paying for oil on heating to save me $600 of interest. Or, I can purchase it on my credit card for $7000, and start saving $1,300/year+ on my fuel - $600 for interest. It's important that people don't think they can be like my in-laws, their house was built around solar first and foremost back in the early 80's. FYI Solar is a low energy form of heat and only applicable to well insulated and tight houses with radiant floor heating. If you want to do Solar with an old house, you need to insulate your walls, replace your windows, add insulation in your attic, air seal, insulate your floors, convert over to radiant floor heating, add insulation under the radiant floor heating, THEN you can think about adding solar panels. It's like a 3 cylinder engine, if your house is very efficient you'll get along just fine. If your house is like an old gas guzzling 8 cylinder Suburban you can't exactly get away with putting a 3 cylinder in it. I don't want to mislead, I have gone through most of the steps necessary for Solar which is why I can consider it.

I regret that some of you understood my post to be a slam against the U.S. There was no way that such was part of my feeling. I was doing some surfing on Yahoo and saw that headline, then followed it up and the message troubled me. For years I have worked as a personal financial advisor, and one of my major purposes was to help people understand more of how money works, and to build up a cushion so that if their income were to be interrupted, they could float for some time without sweating blood. So I came to make that post, meaning it as a warning to people to prepare ahead, and if caught short, to try to find less hurtful ways of meeting their current needs. I did refer to what a shame it is that, in one of the world's richest nations - and Canada is in a very similar position, but the Yahoo article did not make any reference to that - such a large proportion of the population is living so close to the line that they cannot pay for a basic necessity from current (or former) income. And following the course that was referred to would mean that they would have even greater difficulty in making ends meet in the near future, due to the high cost of the credit that many would be using, according to the report (whose source was credit card-related). Perhaps almost forced to use, lacking alternatives. Canadians are in an even more difficult position, for it is colder here than in a large portion of the U.S. It is the understanding of a number of us that we have made agreements with the U.S. that, if they are using, say, 60% of our oil production in times of sufficient supply, that in later years, as supplies run out, that we have agreed that we will continue to provide the same proportion of our total production to them. Even if, due to our colder temperatures, some Canadians, unable to pay the higher prices in future years of scarcity, come close to freezing in the dark. Not a pleasant prospect ... just ask some of our currently homeless people. Also, to more or less put my head into the lion's mouth, do any of you believe that the U.S. would be willing to commit themselves to making such a generous agreement with a foreign country, whether regarding a strategic resource or one less so, even if it were to cause major difficulty for their own people? Would it be fair to ask that you discuss the issues, in preference to shooting the messenger? ole (most of the time) joyful