"Returning to training,I thought I remember a discussion a while back about the difficulty in getting peaches to push new limbs low even when quite young? Or was that a few years out from planting?" Rob, My experience has been normal buds form on new peach growth only. Adventitious buds will sometimes later form on more horizontal growth (like scaffolds). However, on vertical growth (like the trunk) I've had practically no luck getting adventitious buds to form. I've not tried anything radical like cutting the whole top of the trunk off (thereby trying to force the trunk to form adventitious buds) but I know of one commercial grower who's tried that and he said it simply kills the tree. Because peaches won't grow new wood on the trunk, I've always had to pick my scaffolds the first season, and at times the pickings have been slim. I like to start my scaffolds low but there are times no live buds exist on the lower portion of the trunk. I also like to keep at least two inches (vertically) between scaffolds and keep them evenly spaced around the tree, with good crotch angles, and a diameter no bigger than 1/3 the diameter of the trunk. Trying to find the scaffolds that meet all that criteria can be difficult if there isn't much down low. I've been known to try to find at least one live bud down low, cut the tree off right above that bud and grow a new trunk to get some good scaffolds. I've also had some luck notching above a dormant/sleepy bud to get it to sprout. But as I say the problem is sometimes finding any live buds at all down low. I have a couple trees out there with only two scaffolds (those were the only buds/shoots low enough to choose as scaffolds at the time of planting). Of course this problem is worse when ordering/receiving larger trees. Many times these are two year old trees and the lower two year old wood won't have any live buds/shoots left. It wouldn't be so bad if the nurseries would start to train the trees for production at the nursery, but they simply prune off everything down low, so that you're forced to start the scaffolds higher up. For the last few years, I've requested smaller peach trees from nurseries to avoid this problem. Sometimes they send smaller ones, sometimes not. This year I've ordered quite a few trees and requested them as small as possible. From the confirmations, it looks like that's what I'll be getting. Quite frankly, I don't know if there will be any negatives (other than maybe less early production) from such small trees, but perhaps I'll know more after a couple years. In a cold environment like yours, extremely small peach trees may not put on enough growth the first season to be adequately hardy. I've heard small peach trees aren't quite as hardy as larger ones.

Page seven of the second link refers to a troubleshooting noise section. There's a section for "pump makes noise" and that section refers to pump pressure and a plug cock and other parts related to pressure. I found the pressure to be about 9 pounds. I did not find any kind of plug cock etc, but right after the check valve there was a gate valve. I closed it until pressure went to 20 pounds, as called for in the specs and the pump clatter instantly vanished!! Wow. Now I need to clean out or replace the check valve. It appears that the Hoffman is feeding the boiler, and that the water fed is seeping through the check valve back to the condensate tank and then it's turning on (maybe for 5 seconds every 10 minutes) and pushing the water back into the boiler. Seems straightforward. I think I need to drain the boiler because of a lack of shutoff valves to the pipe I need to clear muck from, open the union and flush the line best I can. Any words of wisdom for that part? I uploaded a photo of the area. The check valve is the green thing in the photo. Thanks zl and Paul.... Here is a link that might be useful:

That's so funny because I, too, was looking through old posts this morning. My DH is out golfing and I thought I would work in my paint room. Problem is there is a sale at Hobby Lobby and Michael's has American paint on sale - my favorite so I have to take a little trip. I use a rake or comb brush. Michaels has them - Soft Grip - $2.99 each. They come in several sizes, 1/4", 1/2". The trick for me is to thin the paint a bit, load my brush and touch lightly on a paper towel. Then start your beard. I usually start at the bottom and work my way up. Press lightly to begin with and reload as necessary. I always undercoat with a darker shade, i.e., dark gray base, medium gray with the rake brush, then white with a very little amount of gray for the final. Sometimes I will come back in and pull in a few curls with the liner brush. With the flamingo I used the angle brush to stroke in the basic shapes, the rake to put on the really thin feathers and a liner to complete the single thin feathers. With the flamingo I started with a mix of alizarin crimson and white to make a dark pink, added more white for the next layer and finished with very thin lines of white. The flamingo was on the cover of Paintworks in November by Willow Wolfe. For roses I use an angle brush which was actually called a rose brush for a long time. The angle makes it easier to stroke the petals. I have containers full of brushes but I find myself painting with the same ones all the time. Soft grip also has angle brushes for the same price. Granted, they may not last as long as others but for the price I think they do a great job and I really have not had a problem with mine. I double load a lot but for the Santa I side load when doing the shading and again when applying a highlight. After washing my brush thoroughly (I use lava soap and water), I will dip them in alcohol and pat them on my palette to see if there is any paint left in the ferrell. The alcohol will break down the acrylic paint. I do this several times until I am sure I have a good clean brush. I then wash it again with soap and water, blot it and run the hairs across the soap. The soap will dry on the bristles and help keep their shape. Make sure to wash rinse your brush before painting your next project. I am happy to give you any help I can. My husband says I have so much information in my head that I just can't contain it. Maybe that is why people run from me when I go into the paint section of Michael's. I am always trying to get people interested in painting - if I could just get them to understand that this is something anyone can do, like most things it just takes a little practice.

firsthouse--I'm confident the new owners will appreciate our kitchen. We've met them briefly and they said they knew what we had put into the house and appreciated the care we had taken. greenhaven--I will love the new house in a totally different way. The current house had its issues so I'm welcoming a clean slate. amck--So miss Accent! We will plan to have you over once we've settled. We're talking about having an open house. Just need to borrow Bee's plexiglass for the island! romy--thanks for the kind words. I'm so thankful to have discovered GW and this amazing forum! Lynn--I'm so ready to have this behind us. Wish I could wave my magic wand and everything would be packed. I guess that would be called movers! Alas, the movers will only be dealing with furniture. The rest is up to me. steph--I never did post a true reveal of our current kitchen. Is it too late? oldbat and Ellen--hope I have the same sentiment after we move in! westsider--I was so thrilled yesterday when our KD forwarded me the link. She told me today that she had submitted photos a few years ago. She is one of their largest sellers, yet this was her first kitchen to appear on their site.