Sounds like you have a good handle on the conditions of your property. When referring to hydrangeas, a "well sited" location usually entails: morning sun/afternoon shade, good drainage, and wind protection. Usually the east facing side of a home. Snow cover is good as the snow serves as an insulation of sorts. Having said that...many of us grow them just fine in 'not so perfect' conditions. You just may have to accomodate extra sun/wind with extra water for example. Or choose cultivars that prefer more shade or more sun than normal. No substitute for good drainage though! Beware of windy locations, wind will dry out and beat up your hydrangeas in a heartbeat. Sounds like your first priority should be to find a wind protected site and then worry about sun tolerance as a second priority. If I were you, I would stick to the "new wood" varieties. It is highly unlikely that you will reliably enjoy blooms on "old wood" varieties in zone 5/6 without serious winter protection. Another alternative is to seek out the most cold hardy cultivars like Blue Billow. Hope this helps.....yg

Hi Jerry. Looks like the hook is set.. :) Trying to understand exactly why certain things happen is what keeps me studying and reading everything I can. It also keeps me asking questions when a further solution isn't really necessary at times as well. Thats why I'm an automotive tech, there is so much to feed the curiosity beast. Alternators in general use a delta or(triangle) or "Y" shaped stator. The stator is the wires that are visible just inside of the case of the alternator. The ends of the wires that make up the stator are connected to the diode bridge. The bridge typically consists of six diodes which allow the current to flow to the alternator output, and of course from the alternator case. If someone does not really understand how diodes work, they can do some web searching on the subject, or just accept the fact that they act like a one way valve. The diodes are connected to allow electrons to be pulled from the + (positive) side of the circuit, and then pushed onto the - (ground) side. Inside the alternator there is a component called the rotor. Basically it's a coil of wire that has a current flowing through it to create a magnetic field. The rotors ends are designed to pull the magnetic field around the sides of the coil, and into a series of + and - magnets as viewed from the side. The rotor is connected to the pulley and is turned by the belt. This "series of magnets" rotate inside the stator, and the result is electrons are pushed and pulled in the stator creating an AC voltage. This AC voltage is rectified by the diode bridge, and we see it as DC on a volt meter. But looking closer with an ocilliscope we can actually see something else. The DC voltage isn't steady. On a normally operating vehicle with little electrical load (low current flow) there will be small humps as each diode begins and stops conducting. Charging systems also have a capacitor across the output of the alternator. The capacitors job is to slightly charge up higher than the present system voltage, and then discharge when the voltage it stored is higher than the system voltage. This effect is used to smooth out the humps from the alternator. There are two things that happen when a stator or diode fail. The diode failing can either short, or open circuit. If it shorts, generally the result is an alternator that drains the battery and is pretty easy to diagnose. (I'm not going to be real specific here, there isn't enough time but there are other possibilities as well) When a diode fails open though what you get is a space where instead of overlapping diodes conducting, there is a conductive hump, a period where the capacitor has to discharge longer, and then another conducting hump. I have seen situations under load where the AC voltage on top of the DC output gets up between 2 and 3 volts. (A shorted diode could have an even more dramatic voltage change) Now take a sensor where the output is an analog signal, and allow the system voltage to vary like this and you can get a computer reacting to inputs that are not really occuring. One such example would be false cylinder ID pulses, or incorrect crankshaft speed calculations by the computer. To an inexperienced tech, they pull the car in, it's running erratic, missfiring, maybe an incorrect idle speed. The use a volt meter and see the system voltage around 14v where they expect it to be and they end up running around and testing, and maybe even replacing all kinds of parts trying to fix the problem. It's added a whole dimension to testing when it comes to todays cars. Things like diode suppression when solenoids are operated can be really important to prevent voltage spikes on the system voltage. Getting used to looking closely at voltage waveforms has been really important when it comes to sensors like a wheel speed sensor. Litterally the difference between a sensor that is working, and one that the computer thinks is not can be 1/100th of a volt. With an AC voltmeter, it's impossible to interpret this change in the signal, heck it's hard with a scope by eye. I end up relying on trapping the waveform and using cursers to provide the voltage measurement. (Ahh the luxury of a digital storage ocilliscope) With an alternator I do exactly the same thing. I trigger my scope off of an injector current, or secondary lead if available, and then set the scope to 100mv/div and position the voltage line on the display and look at it between 2ms and 5ms/div. (Sometimes faster, sometimes slower depending on the needs) Here is a link that might be useful: A tutorial on alternator ripple, not just my rough interpretation

Okay. Ruffled sock pattern. This is for the ruffle. The line in the pattern says: K1. (yfwd) twice. *K5, slip 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts over first st, (yfwd) twice. Question One: *YFWD(Yarn Forward) also means YO(Yarn Over). So if you havn't done that before it does mean to wrap the yarn around the needle twice. Question Two: K5. Slip 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th sts over first st. WHAT IN THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN? I have done a slip, knit, then pass the slipped stitched over the last knit and off right hand needle before, but nothing like this. What needle am I slipping these stitches from, and am I slipping them across to another needle or am I dropping them off? *This is like the slip passover BUT you are going to do 4 in a row. If you want get a marker to show where the first stitch (of the K5). I like a small scrap of a different color. Someone once told me "Don't think about what it's telling you to do, just do what it says." So K5, take S(titch)2 slip over S1, S3 slip over S1, S4 over S1, S5 over S1. Question 3: Pick up and knit stitches along the side of the heel flap. I am assuming that I insert a single DPN (as a right needle) in the edge of the flap, yarn over, and draw the yarn through to stay on the right needle even though there is no left needle involved. Is this correct? *There is a great sock demo that shows this every well. I think I have the link done right (http://www.royea.net/sockdemo1.html). Page 3 is picking up the gusset. That has been one of the best explainations I've seen on the web. I hope this has helped you some and feel free to ask anything eles if you need too. Here is a link that might be useful: Sock Demo

LOL. Getting back to fuel, I do wonder about diesel. Wonderful engines etc and probably the go-to for commercial power backup but I wonder about the fuel life in terms of standing....it does go off after time, and I suspect the standby maintenance is bigger - and maintenance is something many probably don't factor into costs. I wonder if you can get the special diesel that doesn't include the road tax and is cheaper? The gas equivalent here in Canada is called "purple gas" but don't know if there's a diesel equivalent. If it was legal to do so and you were committed to having the tank topped off regularly, or had two tanks, I suppose you could, theoretically, have a diesel vehicle and use the fuel from tank A) when it was getting old, keeping tank B) full, then swap and use up tank B) - I believe you can have such fuel tested too. Reading the Costco fliers I thought the Natural gas gensets sounded appealing - no dangerous fuel storage, no old fuel to get rid of, but then you are reliant on the outside gas supply. I suppose propane beats this, but how long does IT keep?