I have a Brown Turkey next to my house(6'-7' away)..It was here when we moved in 5 years ago. I LOVE figs. However since it is next to the house/foundation I am a little concerned as this tree is growing huge!! If I trim it hard I get no breba crop cuz that grows on last years growth..the second crop usually never has a chance to ripen. I could pull all the breba crop but what with trimming this is becoming too much work. Allowed to grow it would be over 25'..the figs however ARE delicious!! Even if they are the breba crop. I harvested all the crop when we had a good breba..no splits.. did well. I live in Willamette Valley and have had no problems with this fig. It is in a heat sink being next to the house though. I am probably going to pull it down..UGH I hate killing plants :( I am going build a 8' corner wall away from the house and plant another....I do love figs! There probably are better tasting figs..but I take what I can get!! I won't replant the Turkey..probably a Violetta. I think a heat sink helps ripening in this region. Zone 6-7. As far as I can tell roots can be a problem..I know our Mission fig in San Diego had huge roots all over the place. Some people say no and many say yes..not worth the risk.

I am a long time CU subscriber who is currently trying to buy an 18,000 BTU AC. Aside from the fact that CU doesn't rate anything that size, what I find, time and time again, is that user reports don't match the ratings. The same is true on refrigerators. So let me talk about what I we going on - CU has often used oddball criteria to evaluate products. Back in the 70's, water usage was key to a washing machine's review. I am sure this sill goes on. They are, after all, engineers. -no one looks at the long term. If you think this is a problem with appliances, think about what has been going on with pharmaceuticals. - CU doesn't realize that style or design exist, therefore, you cannot sort refrigerators by counter depth or near counter depth - you can select by size though. For stoves, you can't sort by slide in. This is really annoying if you need a specific design. -Perhaps the most famous example of CU calling a product wrong was a top ranked American Standard toilet, which became a class action law suit and which on, I think, Terry Love's plumbing site, there are an unbelievable number of negative reviews and criticisms. None of these guys could figure out why CU doesn't ask plumbers for their experience. I can pros and cons to this, but they have a point. - there is no question that appliances are made more cheaply than in the past, so they don't last anywhere near as long. Parts that were formerly metal are now plastic, often cheap plastic. Add to this the fact that appliances often aren't packed with sufficiently strong materials so they often arrive damaged. Repairs of any type are out sourced, so they are not do e properly and are a major source of hassles. - It is hard to evaluate user reports, because of all the fake reviews, positive and negative on sites. Also, many products have few or new reviews on line. In the end, I found it impossible to figure out which AC to buy because the reviews and the rankings didn't agree. I planned to go to some privately owned stores, but THEY all had reviews that were as bad as the big boxes. So I went into the ONE store that had good reviews and bought what the salesman recommended, a GE, despite all the comments about the quality of GE products. One review said the store pushes cheaply made GEs - but everything is cheaply made. So I decided to trust what the salesman said "In this neighborhood, we wouldn't dare sell anything that isn't good." Now THAT is true - Park Slope, Brooklyn is famously whiney, entitled and quick to complain. It is also quite affluent. Did I make the right choice? No idea. But I need an AC and this is as good a way to decide as any. Good luck!

"WRONG, water should NEVER come out of the overflow on the brine tank... never ever. Something is wrong! " justalurker, I agree with you that there is a problem with the softener! I was referring to the immediate problem being resolved - namely, the almost ankle depth water in the utility room that we had to deal with when we first discovered this issue. As I mentioned, we have switched the softener to bypass mode now so atleast we dont have to deal with overflowing water in the utility room, but like you said we still need to fix the root cause with the softener. The documents and links you provided gave pretty good overview of how the softener works and how it can be serviced. I also talked to the softener dealer I had purchased the softener from and they advised me to try some things: 1) Confirm that the PE brine tube connecting the control valve and brine tank is connected securely to the control valve. (verified this is true) 2) Remove the air check valve from the brine tank (BTW, is the "air check valve" the same as the "safety float" you keep referring to in your posts?). Clean out the air check valve to remove anything that might prevent it from sucking the brine from the brine tank back into the control valve. I tried to pull out the PE tube from the white plastic elbow (see photo of this in the link below) so that I can lift out the air check valve from the white cylinder in the brine tank and clean it, but it seemed quite tight (maybe its supposed to be this tight) and I didnt want to yank on it too hard and cause further damage (just playing safe due to my inexperience dealing with softeners). Will it be easier to remove the PE tubing from the white plastic elbow if I turn the control valve to "Backwash" position manually and remove some water from the PE tubing first? If so, when control valve is in "backwash" position, would the water from the PE tubing flow out the "bypass outlet" (and hence require me to turn off the bypass) OR would it flow out the "drain line"? Basically, I am trying to figure out the right way to remove and clean the "air check valve". 3) If cleaning the "air check valve" does not help, the dealer advised to remove the control valve and bring it in because it would probably still be covered under warranty. Per the dealer, since the softener was purchased and installed in late summer of 2006, most of the repair costs should still be covered under manufacturer's warranty. As I understand they would send the control valve to the manufacturer (Water Right) and get it back within 7-10 days and I would be responsible for 25% of the cost. So if it comes to this, I will need to figure out the right way to remove the control valve - I understand it should not be too hard and the control valve can be "twisted off" from the top of the resin tank (how do i disconnect control valve from the bypass or the water meter before twisting it off the resin tank)? As you quoted Clint Eastwood, I can and prefer doing the "basic" troubleshooting (i.e. cleaning air check valve and, if needed, remove the control valve) but since its under warranty, it might be best to have it fixed by the pros (in the case the manufacturer themselves). Would appreciate help with these "basic" tasks. Thanks again, -Topper Here is a link that might be useful: PE tubing connected to white plastic elbow

"She couldn't stand the cold, the dark, and the isolation..." You home is what you make of it. I don't think the state has much to do with isolation, and as far as minutes of light per day, we're not much higher in latitude than the rest of the country. Cold? Sure, it's cold, but I haven't felt isolated ever. Take a look at those nuts in the end zone of a Lambeau Field Packer game - do they look cold, dark, and isolated? [Instead of those games, however, I would recommend a football Saturday at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, which was rated the #1 College Sports Town by SI (see http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/sioncampus/09/10/top_ten0916/index.html)...none of those stupid cheeseheads to be seen.] "...schools are very backward and there was little to do there besides play in the cornfield." It may come as a surprise, but there are very few cornfields within the City of Appleton proper. As far as things to do, there's football, basketball, swimming (my former sport), hockey, soccer...everything! Appleton has a great minor league baseball team with a great stadium (http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/index.jsp?sid=t572 ). Further to the south (about an hour) is Milwaukee, home of the largest outdoor music festival in the United States, Summerfest. A hour further is Chicago, which makes for a great weekend trip. An hour north from Appleton takes you into the Northwoods, home of some of the best fishing, hunting, etc., in the US. As far as the schools being "backward," I guess they are when you compare them to Virginia and Georgia. Wisconsin is consistently in the top 5 states for both SAT and ACT scores, while both Florida and Georgia are in the bottom 20. Thanks, Wisconsin Shill