Noogy: Some type of pipe is worth considering. It could serve as part of my trellis and support system. I'd like to widen the trellis for more yield potential. But spreading it out would make it even harder to keep warm and cover. I'll have to give it more thought. Bamboo: Damaging spring freezes are the norm here. We usually have bloom starting in early March and have never failed to have an April freeze in the 10 years I've been here. But it could have been colder. It's been 29F as late as May 3 and this officially was only 31F. The amount of damage says it was colder than 31. Everyone else: I hope you warm up soon. This very late spring should make a spring freeze up north very unlikely. But you never know, because yes, nature can be cruel. As they say: If it was easy everyone..........

lots of reasons. some you can solve by lateral moves, others not so much. so think of this. you work at pizza hut. a customer comes in and wants to eat there, but brings their own pizza. offers to pay you to cook it..but minimal payment for use of your tools expertiese ect. sounds crazy doesn't it. but to the pizza hut worker/mgr..it is insulting, cheap and not something they would be willing to do. so how to get them to do it...overpay them. where is your profit from what you saved online now? and hopefully, before they slid your pizza into their pizza oven..the didn't spit on it. why...cause its human nature. think about some wisea$$ comming to your job and expecting you do do whatever you do..for lesser cost, cause they got a deal. people want to save money..we get it. and online prices look so much better than actually paying for the things you don't see when you purchase your equipment from hvac installer. we have experience, insurances, support if things go wrong. even then for you online shopper... who warranties the equipment? sure you can go online & warrenty with mfg but that leads to second question...who services the unit? the guy you hired to install it? see...when you 'think' you know more than the company you hire..it leads to some very human responses. hvac company will charge you a premium price to install equipment you purchase from someone else. they will hesitate to do the work..then as things go wrong..you'll pay over and over for undercutting them in the first place. so..think it would be simpler to hire one company to do the discounted profit install and another to do any work later? ahhh in a perfect to you world. we talk to each other..and in my area we all know who will jack us, pick apart every move we make..and who has the faith in us to just let us do our jobs. we charge them accordingly. ever wonder why one bid is $xx higher than the other one..your personality tips us off. so we know going in..that it will take longer than usual due to interference. so pita charge is added. we call it different things, but it is the cost of doing business with someone questioning every move due to some half baked idea that they know more than us. sure you can hire some hack..save a few more bucks..but we make really good money going back and straightening out these jobs. really good money. what you save upfront...you pay in the long run times 2 or 3 times more. this company who agrees to do work on the side is stealing from the company owner by doing work on the side. want to hire a crook to do your install? think of what they risk by doing this..losing their job..and having a hard time in the hvac community cause now every owner knows they can't trust them.. hey but you got a deal! good techs, are paid well by their employers and would NEVER do this. a company that agrees to do an install of online equipment..is either the low ball guy who does it fast bad & cheap..or you lucked into a good company going through a slow time who needs the work. the latter being about as common as wings on a pig. install is as important as equipment. you'll read us commenting upon that over and over. good equipment & bad install..you get crap. problems over and over. I'm in the trades. While I don't do hvac, I am licensed and have experience. Even went to school for it. I go to heat pump association meetings & know all the players in my area.and how they all gossip like a bunch of teenagers. so last summer...I was ready for my central install. ran all my duct, inside conditioned space, built fur downs for duct. converted my linen closet into heating closet. platform installed & sealed, supply plenum ready to be installed. Return sealed & filter rack installed. I had heating system(ahu) delivered & we sat it in place, did all the electrical. did electrical & pad for condensing unit. ran copper lines. ran wire for tstat and had tstat installed. condenser delivered. because I can buy from my local supply house, the first company I called to do the start up was realate to supply house manager. (and start up was ONLY to braise the copper lines & check refrig charge..sub cool & super heat) first cost quoted to me for this hour and a half job $1000. break down that cost for two guys. next price..$1050 getting the picture yet? and keep in mind this was just for using torch, gauges & maybe a little 410. so I did it myself. took me an hour. in the rain. borrowed torches & tank of 410, used my own gages. paid my friend a couple of hundred for use of torches & the lb of freon I didn't use. but..see..I know what I'm doing. you..you really don't have a clue. folks will always buy online, but if you check back with them..or read posts later from them...then you hear the issues. we hear them all the time. but..do what you will..its a free country. I'm not losing work on this...just giving you the benefit of my experience with this. best of luck

Wow, for a daughter that wants to be with nature she sure is acting like her zen is being lazy on the couch. Sorry, I'm not sure how to put it more politely. It's lazy parenting to let the children rule the roost. Being a nature geek or free spirit, doesn't mean the kids get to run free to destroy grandma's house. Now that you've mentioned your medical predicaments, she should be even more mindful of your simple wishes. Sure there will be times the kids might run, or take food into the wrong room or even forget and jump on the sofa but she should be thoughtful of your desires as you are of hers. Your following her vegan rules as far as the kids go. Your doing what should be her share of the house work it seems. It's time for her to grow up and respect your space. It sounds like your willing to be a super grandma if she would only respect the house rules. Being safe from falling objects, respecting your property, I don't see how she can argue against this. Sounds like your in between a rock and a hard spot right now. I suppose it would be good if you could get her to return and implement your rules on your own. When they bring food into other rooms,quietly tell the child to return to the room where the food is eaten. When the run tell them the rule politely with the suggestion of a time and place they can run. After dinner in the back yard. I personally think they should follow your rules without a reward, although a reward for another reason might tempt them and be acceptable to you. They can be the one who picks out the movie or the one who picks out a game first or a walk to the park. Maybe make smores for a really good day of being good in the house. Your pick of rewards but they have to behave (most all of the time) to get it. Stick to your guns but do it yourself. Quietly, sweetly, & use lots of honey. Mom will have to see, that's the way it is. And the deployment excuse doesn't cut it for me. If anything they need more structure and order. (with out a doubt all of this has crossed your mind, so good luck these next few months)

I want to hire fsq4cw. But unless he lives in Denver (do you fsq4cw?) I can't. We had our system redone 4 years ago. Just last week I went downstairs and found zero pressure on my radiant floor heat. I hunted around and found the Amtrol Ex-30 tank had rusted through and was leaking. I called the installing company to come replace it under warranty. I sent pictures of the rusted out portion and the whole tank so they can bring it and replace it in one visit. So they didn't bring it and it takes 2 visits. This always happens so I should not be surprised. When they finally bring the tank I reminded my husband to have them fill up the pressure from the air valve to 20 psi which is what the system is pressurized at and it is clearly labeled on the dial. The tech tells him that they don't do that, they just put them in and it isn't needed. My husband says he doesn't want to argue with the professional. After he leaves and I found out the tank was not pressurized properly I pull the instructions for the Amtrol Ex-30 that shows this must be done. I download a youtube video showing how to do it after it is installed. We isolate the tank, depressurize it by draining the system, pressurize it and then refill the system. In finding the instructions I find out there is the Amtrol RX-30 that has a plastic liner that is to be used for radiant snow melt and non-oxygen barrier tubing applications. I order two of them and we will be replacing both our EX-30s (one snow melt and one radiant floor heat) with the RX-30s ourselves. If you look at the Amazon reviews of the EX-30 there are other people with them rusting through in 1-4 years. Ours rusted through at 4 years. I don't know if they all have them on snow melt or older non-oxygen barrier tubing like us. But I can say that even after a short time the EX-30 is loaded with rust. Our contractor also installed the wrong size Amtrol EX-30 on our boiler system that is 225 btu and had to pull it for the Amtrol EX-60 since the pressure was all over the place. Even though it was only on for a short time we can see it is loaded with rust as it is still in our basement. Our old boiler had a Honeywell expansion tank that lasted over 20 years so not impressed with the Amtrol EX-30. Will your contractor buy and replace both tanks? Probably not. But you should get at least the snowmelt one replaced because it is the one for snow melt. He may buck against the other one. And I'm not sure that will even be a good part. I don't know how long it has been in their line-up but it was probably introduced due to the failures of the EX-30 on snow melt and non-barrier tubing. Hopefully Amtrol did a better job on the RX-30 than the EX-30. Edit: Just reread your post and you have a grey expansion tank on your side arm. That needs to be a potable water expansion tank if it is on the potable water side. Otherwise it will rust into your potable water supply. We also have a sidearm hot water tank and there is a check valve on the supply from fresh. That is why we have the potable water expansion tank on that line. The heated water from the boiler is on the same line as the boiler expansion tank so does not need it's own.