My cold frame is more of a mini greenhouse. It's built from a pressure treated frame, some rebar hammered in the ground, and pvc pipe shoved over the ends of the rebar. The plastic is your run of the mill 6mil contractor's plastic. I expect to get 2 years out of it. By late April, that frame will become a veggie plot. All the pipe, rebar, and plastic will be rolled up and stored in the basement. I made sure during the coldest period to close it up tight so that the heat inside would warm the soil and keep my newly rooted cuttings alive. Now that it's getting warmer, I have to open and close it every day. I have wintersown some things in there though. All veggies. I'll also use it to start my annuals in another week or two. I'll use storage totes to put all the little cups in and bottom water as needed. The wintersown containers I use are open to the elements and offer only a little protection. They don't need to be hardened off at all since I had them in the sun. I only needed to take the tops off a day or two before I planted them out. I don't think I'll be as lucky with the seedlings in the cold frame. They'll need to be given a little more care at night, but that could be the annuals talking. Protected from the elements. These didn't get babied at all. For me, the difference is in cold hardiness.

Well, today I bought an Electrolux French door counter depth. I'll let you know how it performs... but that won't be in time for you. I'm just writing because I too was hesitating between the E-lux and the KitchenAid due to being leery of complaints I'd seen online about E-lux. I went and looked at both of them in person THREE TIMES, on top of obsessively researching them on the web, and here's what made the difference for me: (1) The KA just seemed a little flimsier and less well designed inside--I didn't want to fight with those annoying produce drawers every day for the next X number of years. (2) I found some complaints online about KA fridges that were as bad--though not as numerous--as the complaints about the Electroluxes. In other words, fridges that died right when the warranty expired; ice makers that suck; fridges that have had 3 service calls in as many months; fridges that can't hold their temperature below 40 degrees; and--this complaint was unique to KA--fridges whose doors get so hot in certain places that you can't touch them for more than a second and you worry they might cause a fire. There just is no such thing as a brand that is consistently reliable. Every brand has some problems. (3) The store where I bought the Electrolux also sold KitchenAid, Viking, Whirlpool, GE, SubZero and JennAir, and we looked at and asked about all of them, so theoretically the salesman shouldn't have cared which brand I chose (though it's true that I don't know whether some of those brands give him a higher commission percentage... although either way a more expensive fridge, such as a Viking, should net him more). He had good and bad things to say about every brand, and he knew about the various issues I brought up (Viking reliability problems, E-lux temperature and ice maker problems, etc.), but he said the E-lux problems had finally been resolved about 3 months ago, and he also said that E-lux had been a lot easier for him to deal with when he called them complaining that his customers were having problems. "I might be on hold with KitchenAid for four hours, and then they're like 'Whaddaya want?!' whereas Electrolux is like 'What can we do for you?' and I got things resolved with them a lot faster and a lot easier. They would send out new boards, new ice makers, whatever, with no problem." He was resolving things for his customers because this store is a little family-run appliance store that's been around for decades. Not a Lowe's/Best Buy type place. So basically his message about the E-lux was, "I'm pretty sure the problems you're worried about have been resolved, but if you have problems with this fridge, it'll be easier to resolve than it would be with a KitchenAid." It is an unfortunate truth that there's no perfect refrigerator. There's not even a super-expensive fridge that I think is perfect but don't want to spend that much on. Subzero is famously less reliable than a lot of much less expensive fridges. If they were tanks, if they lasted 15-20 years without a hitch, I would've considered one much more seriously; I probably would've ended up with one, on the rationale that it's better to spend $6000 on a fridge that lasts 15 years than to go through the hassle of buying three or four $2500 fridges over that same period. And there are complaints about everything. I mean, here are some about the Bosch model one step down from the one you're looking at: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/B22CS30SNS.html#BVRRWidgetID It's the same as all the other complaints about all the other fridges: the ice maker sucks, the control board went on the fritz, yada yada. I don't know why that is the unfortunate truth about fridges, but it is...

Likely only talking to myself here in this old thread, so here goes anyway: amazondk, I do note much nuanced thought in your writings and I applaud that, but a few discrepancies have easily been spotted. First, way back up yonder, you speak of the methodology of a "sustainable" harvest, whereby only trees of large size are removed, the rest being left to grow on. Well, many decades ago here in the US, this was recognized for the mistake it is, and is known as high-grading. It can amount to the systematic removal of a given stand's best genetics for profit, leaving the weaker and less vigorous stems behind. Then, you also speak of how in the US PNW, there is so much replanting post harvest. Sure, sure, but it's all one species, so where you had doug fir, w. hemlock, w. red cedar, perhaps grand fir, etc. you now have just doug fir. That's hardly environmentally wise and is certainly not preserving the previous forest genetics. Also, in speaking of, for example, ipe's rapid growth, you do not mention that it is precisely the huge expanse of time which has allowed that and other species' gradually slowing growth rate (As they near maturity) that allows for such high-quality product. Finally, you repeat the long-discredited notion that it is young forests which are sequestering the most carbon. This erroneous thought came about when researchers initially only measured height increment in determining overall use and hence, sequestration of carbon. In fact, the old-growth tree is still, by dint of its immense overall size, still growing "faster" than the young pup, its growth simply being spread all over its many growing points. I learned that 20 years ago. All that said, I do certainly agree with some of your other points. For the best example, the often erroneous portrayal of a logged-out stand as a ruined one. If that's the case, I sure do wonder where all this great woodland here in Wisconsin came from! We supplied half the country with the wood to build this nation, in the case of a little town called Chicago, twice! Yes, nature is resilient and it can bounce back impressively. It is too bad though that your buddy seems to only want to hurl names and stereotypes around in this thread. Everybody else had reasonable things to contribute.

I looked at all the vinyl window options and came across energy wise manufacturing out of Schullber, WI. I could not be happier w this product! I have been wanting a screened in porch for many years, but could not justify the cost if it was not used "most" of the year. I live in Richmond, VA where we have mild winters and it is not uncommon to have sunny 60 degree days in Dec/Jan/Feb. These windows create a "greenhouse effect" and allows me to enjoy my screened in porch most of the year. Alot of people thought this idea was crazy - but I am glad I stuck with it and found a company that makes them and was willing to ship them to me. Besides for retaining heat in the winter, I really enjoy the fact that the room stays clean from dust and pollen most of the time. Some people balked at the idea of taking them in and out, and also storing them. But for me it’s worth the trade off. The shipping cost is high ($300.00) especially in my case bc my window openings were SO LARGE (60 X 66). An added bonus is that the shipping container acts as a heavy duty storage container for the windows when not in use. I store the container under my deck. Eugene is a great guy and extremely responsive to his customers! This a unique product and for people who don’t mind the effort, it is the perfect solution to get more use out of a screened in porch. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND!