Might i add another caveat? (Warning) If your tractor, or mower, or whatever, has louvers (slots) in the top part of the hood (engine cover, in front of steering wheel) keep it covered when not in use, as rain gets down into the flywheel/ignition coil area, and causes rust to form on the flywheel magnet, and on the feet of the coil legs! And, during winter storage, especially if in an old shed out back of the house, stuff some dryer sheets in around the flywheel covers. some folks say that doesn't do any good, but chaining a cat to the tractor is cruel and unusual punishment for the cat, especially if he only ketches a couple rodents for lunch! A lot of newbies seem to think--if it is ok to let their truck, or car, set outside, uncovered, in a driving rain, or wind, or snow, it is ok to do that with their lawn tractor. NOT SO! Cars and trucks are designed to be run in all kinds of weather-lawn equipment is NOT! So, keep it covered!

This is a great thread. I'm a teacher (though I only do long-term sub jobs right now), and also GT certified and trained. I've also raised two children, one of whom passed all the GT tests as a kindergartner and is now in college. My other child passed a few of the GT tests as a third-grader, but honestly I don't see her as 'gifted.' Part of the problem is that this school district includes achievement tests in the battery of GT tests, which is completely inappropriate, but there it is. And she is an extremely hard-working kid. Anyway, I've always been hugely interested in GT education and absolutely LOVE working with these students. But I'd like to let you in on a couple of dirty little secrets.... The first secret is that there are many teachers, even GT-certified who don't LOVE teaching these kids. In fact, they often appear (to me) to be defensive and ready to shoot down these kids at every opportunity. I think it is difficult for a parent to truly realize this because they aren't in the classroom. But I have witnessed it over and over again.... It's heartbreaking, and I try to intercede when I can, but that isn't always possible. The second 'secret' is about teachers being expected to differentiate instruction for all the levels in the room. It's a joke. Not because the teacher doesn't try. It's just a ludicrous system. It is politically incorrect to group students by ability, and no longer allowed anywhere that I've found. So a typical classroom has students with IQs below 70 and students with IQs above 125, occasionally very far above. Imagine you are trying to teach 25 children something -let's say .... how to knit. Some of your students have been knitting for four years, and some could not tell you what a knitting needle looks like. While you are trying to figure out how to group them, four boys have grabbed needles and are trying to stab each other, two more have grabbed your balls of yarn and tossed them to each other, which has caused them to unravel of course. The girls are yelling at the boys to stop it. Some are crying because they really, really want to learn how to knit. So you finally bring order to the chaos, and figure you can divide them into three groups, which does not truly correlate to the levels in the room, but is the best you can do. You truly need the entire time with each one of the groups. But you only have 1/3 of the time with each of course. And what do you suppose the other two groups are doing while you are working with one? You have given them some books about knitting to keep them occupied, but they are old and have only black and white photos so that isn't terribly successful. So you start with the least experienced group because they need the most time. After you spend ten minutes with the first group, you will barely have begun your session with the second group before a few students from the first group come running over with problems. And then that happens again. So the second group's instruction takes twice as long as it should because of the interruptions. And since the third group's time was used for the second group, suddenly, there's the bell! Guess which group didn't get attended to AGAIN?!?!? You may remember that I was fairly strong-minded in the original post on this subject -and felt you needed to think about removing your daughter from a toxic environment. If she wants to be at this school and the good outweighs the bad, okay. But from the sounds of it, her educational needs are not being met. Which might be okay if you or she are supplementing them at home. The way I see it, there are two types of needs for these kids. The first set of needs is what she needs to get into a college where she will hopefully truly have her abilities matched to her environment. And the second set of needs is what she needs to feed her hungry brain. The first set of needs could be covered in one year rather than four for most of these kids. When the information is drawn out over four years, boredom and frustration set in, and many GT kids simply begin to tune out. Some lose all of their enthusiasm and interest in learning and begin to fail. And then they can't get into the colleges where they might truly flourish for the first time. As I used to tell my son, don't kid yourself -there are some extremely bright people who never made it to college. There is a whole group of gifted dropouts, mostly boys, who didn't get the first set of needs met. And Anele -it sounds to me as if your daughter IS gifted. The sheer fact that she is interested in reading what you describe is a give away. I hope I haven't offended any one here -I am passionate about the short shrift these very top students are getting in the K-12 system, all over the nation. It is a huge loss to them, and a huge loss to our country. It's mind-boggling to me that we put forth so much time, money and energy to the first-string on the football team, but not to the academic team. Okay, stepping down off the soapbox now....

My mother in law has had issues with her house lateral clogging up holding water and overflowing out the cleanout near the house. I know there are roots in the last 10 feet before the city main. I just went to a rental store called "A Tool Shed" and rented a General Pipe Snake with 100 feet of 5/8" cable. It had a 1" spade, 2" cutter, 3"cutter and 4"cutter that came with it. I used them all one at a time from the smallest to the largest now her lateral is flowing wonderfully. The whole job took me about 45 minutes and the snake had the auto feed system on it and that cut my time in half to do the hob. The snake cost $40.00 to rent for 2 hours. It does not take a genius. It takes patience and determination to do it right. Now if you need a nozzle for a pressure washer to clean from the house to the main make sure you get a forward cleaning nozzle. This will reduce the possibility of the water jet spraying back at you. Good luck and remember General Pipe Tools and Equipment and A Tool Shed Rental...

Yes, sparky823!!! :) On the Electrolux 70 Series, if you select the Add Steam option....several cycles still offer a Warm Rinse Option, but the water levels are low!! My new method allows a deeper rinse! @suburbanmd....YES, certain cycles do spin after the wash and/or rinses. In general, Electrolux 60 & 70 washers are pretty phenomenal. True hot washes, NSF Sanitize cycle, Profile Wash (Stain Treat option), Fresh Rinse, Shrink Guard.....