Honda has the inexpensive GC series engine that is offered on some of the department store push mower equipment. This model is well know for easy starting. Honda also offers the GX series on more expensive push mower equipment. This engine does everything well. The Briggs Quantum series engine is the most common push mower engine. This is a good engine, but usually requires more servicing than the Honda's. Starting is usually easy, but probably not as good as the Honda. Parts are cheap. A five year old department store mower with the Briggs or Honda GC would probably sell for $50 - $75. I suspect any mower with a Chinese engine would sell for less. The better mowers would have a cast aluminum deck with rear drive. On example is the Toro Super recycler. The Snapper hiVac is a steel deck, but nevertheless, a great mower. My guess is these would sell for $200.

@Bob... You're VERY knowledgeable, sir. I was going to correct you about always needing a tripod for >10x zoom, but then you realized that Panasonics have image stabilization (which has been a god-send for me, believe me, because tripods/monopods are not always convenient). Question for you: would you agree that as often as not, it's the photographer more than the camera? As in, knowing how to frame a shot, knowing your camera, knowing your subject, etc. matters as much or more as having bigger zoom/higher megapixels? It's a trick question, because it's a pet peeve of mine. My first digital camera was a 2.1mp Olympus that most folks would have written off due to its lack of megapixels. But it had a Canon lens, 10x optical zoom with image stabilization, and I got fantastic pics with it, many of which I printed at 8x10 or higher. For instance, this was taken with that old Olympus (Callaway Gardens, 9/12/02): This one is from my front yard in Aug 09 using my FZ20 (replaced the Olympus in 2005)- the swallowtails loved my Buddleias. Is it spring yet? Mary

I have a Kodak something or other, but wanted to mention that it has a Sports mode on it. At Grandparents Day at my GD's school, I was able to take freeze photos of the kids playing on the playground, and they came out beautifully! I love it. I will have to employ it now in the garden in that mode to see if it will do the same with butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. This camera was about $150 and has a 10X zoom lens as well. It's not great at stablizing images unless you have a tripod, though. I think the Model is a Z950 or something. It is a larger camera, which I like as an older person. Much easier to handle. With the smaller models I always find myself hitting the wrong button. Susan

Busy day - Macbook has been crashing, got that post out in between crashes. Worked with Apple Care on the phone, think they fixed it. So yes, IR Scan during blower door test. I'm sure I will get all the details, but he said it's not uncommon, but because of the drafty house, he could not get the fan up to a certain level. Forget what that number was or the value of that number. So the house did not get that cold either. The blower was running for a long time, and the house cooled down from 70 to about 63. I expected much worse after you guys wrote about it in here. I think I expected the inside to feel like outside. Anyway, he pointed out the edges of all walls, at the corners and top rails where you can see there is no insulation. I think you can clearly see that the walls are insulated ok. Attic access panels are killers. We dont even try to fake it here, just a thin wood or sheetrock panel, we have 3 access points. He suggested buying a can of Mastic, spread it on the back and press on insulation, it would help. He suggested sealing any recessed lights, and using the spray fluffy insulation in attics. For one of the attics that has an air handler, he suggests creating a conditioned attic space by insulating the walls, but I dont think I agree with that. For the Crawl, he first suggests I stop any water entry, yes there is right now, might be hard to fix. I have two Sumps down there, but somehow water gets in, and just hangs out on the floor, never more than 1/16 inch deep, but spreads out. Then he says insulating the walls of the crawl to make it air tight, no venting. Or the other approach is to insulate the ceiling or main floor - floor. It's insulated now, but he says it's not doing anything, Its installed backwards, and only a few inches thick . He said I could go with a spray foam, a little pricey, or a real thick high R value insulation. I will share the report when it comes. Was nice having the house warm over the last 24 hours, but I used well over 300 KV in that time.