I can relate. I will paraphrase since I told my story in the "Tell me about your SFG" post. I turned a blighted area of my yard into a beautiful raised bed area with gravel walkways. I can't wait to get dirt and plant a dozen or so veggies for my family. I'm so excited about using the ugly space for something useful that I can't stand it. Anyway, to cure my bug, I started broccoli and cauliflower in cool whip containers so I can transplant them in April. I hope you can find a way to pass the time until the ground thaws and is ready to plant. I plan on trying winter gardening next year when I have a season under my belt and dirt (always helps). Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's Garden

We replaced the aging water heaters in our home just over a year ago. The plumbers working on the job were very keen on Rinnai, so I spent a lot of time reading up on performance, cost, etc. Bottom line: with luck, you might break even, i.e. get the same performance for the same cost, after about 15 years. But most people think that overall tankless systems are still too expensive, and the costs remain higher than traditional tanked systems even if the tankless heaters work exactly as advertised. The main advantage is if you have a high demand for hot water at specific times. So if you have a houseful of guests who all take showers at 7am, tankless ensures you don't run out and have to wait. Friends of ours installed tankless water system for just this reason. Note that with tankless, you can sometimes wait for a couple of minutes for hot water to reach your faucet or shower. Our friends installed a small electric water heater to avoid this. We went with conventional water heaters this time around. In 10 years things may be different. Cheryl

Thanks, all. The market here is quite hot, though I suppose it could cool in the next year. I doubt it, though-- it seems like more people want to live closer in and have shorter commutes and we are within a couple of miles of a new high-tech employment area, near the university, and not far from downtown. I talked to a neighbor recently with a very similar house. She has a realtor (lets call her Realtor #1) she's worked with for decades who only works in this area. Realtor #1 gave her very specific recommendations for what to do in advance (she plans to sell in August), and told her that her house would probably sell in 3 days. So I'm thinking we won't list until we are truly ready to go, which depends mostly on precisely when we decide to retire. I think we will probably wait a month or two and get some "known" issues taken care of, then set up something will Realtor #1. Then I suppose to be responsible, we'll have to find Realtors #2 and #3 as well. Although to be honest, I wouldn't mind skipping that... I guess I understand the criteria for selecting someone with a good track record of short times on market, etc. But when inventory is low and demand is high, what do you look for in an agent? Is it different?

Bestyears, I was keeping it vague because discussing dog training methods can be equal to politics! Try telling some of the militant rescue groups that you will be using a different training method than the one they strictly follow ... you will never get a dog from them! Here are two articles from two opposite theories that gives you an idea of how they think. 1) https://positively.com/victorias-blog/balanced-dog-training-theres-nothing-balanced-about-it/ 2) https://www.nitrocanine.com/blog/2015/06/12/in-defense-of-balanced-training/ With my rescue I started out with a purely positive trainer. It worked great in the house and yard as the dog is very food motivated ... BUT outside none of the training made a difference. Critters and the chase were a much higher reward than anything I could offer. I even tried carrying filet mignon! I was being dragged around town by a crazy dog ... even with the easy-walk harness the positive trainer told me to buy. The dog just walked sideways and pushed into the harness. The last straw was when on a walk the dog nearly knocked me, and my father, to the ground when trying to get a squirrel. I had to kick the dog to stop her lunging and get us untangled (my Dad also had our smaller dog on leash). I looked for a different approach and found "balanced" training. The trainer I found is slightly different from #2 above in that they do use food rewards. Happy to message you a link to the training program website and the actual trainer I used. We now go on off leash hikes and I get stopped regularly by people who comment on her behavior and level of training. I got so many questions that I started carrying business cards for the trainer!! One of those people actually contacted and used my trainer, even thought she isn't local. Do your research and choose the trainer and method that best works for you and your dog. The best method will most likely be a combination of several different ones.