T, You know I've been using the eBucket that Gessieviolet designed with the overturned colander that forms the built-in, one-bucket reservoir. The soil packed around the edges of the colander are in constant contact with the water underneath the colander, and creates a wick to the soil in the top of the bucket. The plant draws water up as needed. There's an overflow hole to create an airspace between the soilbed and the top of the colander. I have several questions. 1. Since your 5:1:1 is designed for aeration and drainage, I'm thinking I won't need the colander/reservoir, especially since at some point I'll be hooking all the eBuckets up to an auto drip system. I could do an experiment and keep 1/2 as is and do 1/2 with a full bucket of 5:1:1. LMK. 2. What would happen if I used the 5:1:1 recipe in the eBuckets with the colander design as is? 3. If I don't go with the built in reservoir, should I drill additional drainage holes? 4. The "fines" part of the pine bark is the crumbly, soil looking part, right? Should I sift this out to ONLY get the dime-size flakes or use it all together? I see that there needs to be careful regulation of the MG potting mix (peat component) if you keep the "fines", since that's a smaller fraction than the dime-size pine bark. Too much of the "fines" & MG could set up a PWT, correct? 5. How do I determine when I've reached "good" drainage? What IS good drainage? 6. Finally, how much moisture retention should I be shooting for in the 5:1:1, or is this relative to the particular plant's needs? My cabbages are heavy feeders and WATER HOGS, which is probably why they do so well with the built-in reservoir. They can drink at will. Thanks in advance for addressing these questions. Linda

I've read that you are not to clean the fiilter media...ever. I built my own biofilter...not a skippy but I am about to add one due to all the good things I have heard about them. My pond is in the stage of green pea soup also. I have heard it is a stage that ponds go through this time of year. I am trying the quilt batting. I have it in the top layer of my biofilter and it is catching quite a bit of the algae. I purchased mine from Michaels. I also am using it around my pump. I am letting it run two hours around the pump because it gets pretty dirty quickly. This works great to catch all the small algae. You have to be careful to not catch the batting in the pump. I guess we will see how good it works. I'm thinking about building something that would add some type of barrier between the batting and pump to avoid this problem. Probably a project for tomorrow. Good luck! If anyone has good ideas to get the pond clear I am open to the hints as well!

Not only can the HOA fine an owner if short term rentals are prohibited, but the city may as well. In our resort area, a short term rental permit is required and the city tightly controls short term rentals. Code enforcement is good. In addition, if the covenants of subdivision disallow short term rentals, the city will not issue a permit. Our current small subdivision does not allow short term rentals and, in 11 years, I only know of one homeowner (a builder) that violated the covenants when he couldn't sell the newly built house during the bust. We turned a blind eye and didn't complain given the circumstances. It turned out not to be a problem. The nightly rental was very high, which kept the usage down, and the house sold at the end of the season. However, although our little subdivision does not allow short terms, they are allowed in neighboring areas, so we do get some short term rentals nearby and have had a few noise issues. The subdivision where we have bought a lot to build does not allow short term rentals and is, for the most part, geographically protected from surrounding neighborhoods that do by green space. The few lots that do back up to another neighborhood were priced lower and still slower to sell. At the annual meeting of the HOA last year, a realtor proxy moved to amend the covenants to remove the short term rental restrictions. The motion was withdrawn when it became abundantly clear that all owners present bought, at least in part, because of the restriction. In resort areas, most folks (or their realtors) already know that you really need to read your subdivision documents closely for this issue. In fact whether short term rentals are allowed is often disclosed in the listing. Some second homeowners may want to rent out their home to defray the cost of ownership, while others want to be away from the bother. With this new phenomenon in other good-time cities, I would expect that a wise buyer there would also check the subdivision documents carefully and also check in with the city.

So much creativity and so many good ideas. And I love seeing pictures. Susan Davis's of the way the orange was pulled throughout the room was helpful. On that note, her comment made me realize how much the rug in that room has faded. The rust used to be more red than it is now! I love the idea of moving a shelf. Never occurred to me. And the suggestions of where to look for art and rugs. I hate to confess this, though — this morning, before I went to work, I moved the sofa back to original position. Please don't hate me! I think Anele's comment about her living room arranged that way looking better in pictures than it did real life points to something. I thought the pictures of with the sofa floated made my living room look the best it ever had. The reality, not so much. From the pictures you just can't see the broad green Berlin Wall the back of the sofa makes. But don't give up on me! I may even float the sofa again before I go to work tomorrow at this rate. I'm mulling curtains (keep or change?), rug and art ideas, and maybe something less boxy that I could use as a media stand.