While searching for ideas on the net (also see post "off my rocker") I had come across a neat contraption someone had made. They built a box with a water tank inside, and a "clean water" tank on top. They placed a single solar panel on the ground, leaning agianst this box that was higher than the panel. He had a water line coming up from the ground, feeding into the system. The water fed through copper pipes inside the solar panel, circulating the water as it heated up. I may have the set up described wrong but it sure looked interesting in the picture. He used this for warm water to wash up with, and he made it himself. Can't for the life of me find the site now, but i did print it out at one point and will look for it.

Note that there is a special place for non-garden questions - up on the top before the beginning of posts there is a blue "Conversations" tab to click and to post under for this type of non-garden question. I'm not the police, just want to help you find out that there is a lot of information on this forum and a wealth of information on the rest of GW, which are organized quite well, although sometimes not really very obvious where, to new members. As you can see though, it's not cast in stone because you did get many answers here and you will elsewhere on the GW, so you will never be ignored. I am retired and the pay I get for sitting is in hugs and wet kisses and good times to remember when the house is quiet again. It would be nice though to get paid a little for milk and cookies (child or pet types), or that they would bring some treat with them once in a while, or a treat for me even. As for the price for paying non-family to sit for your children and pets, take the info from those above and start asking around. It is a big responsibility to sit for triplet toddlers who go in six directions at once and the price you pay should be commensurate with that level of responsibility. As it has been said - you get what you pay for. Pay 'em $5 per hour and you get $5 worth of inattention. Pay 'em $20 per hour and you can go do what you have to away from them with an easy mind. Childcare can't be a cut-rate proposition since they are the most precious things you have. Pets on the other hand are not quite as precious, but they can't get their own dinner or water either and you do need someone dependable to show up when they are supposed to. Since you live far away from the 20-mile tripper, you should compensate them for their trip time and their gas in addition to their on-the-job time. As for baby-sitters I only asked those with their own car to come sit so that if there was an emergency they would not have to wait for their mom to come get them (we lived far out in the country when mine were small) and since this was before cell phones, they wouldn't have to wait for us to come back and get them, if they could reach us by phone at all. As to where to find these sitter types, I'd recommend contacting some of the local churches. Many have youth groups and keep lists of young people who need some spending money, and as I've found, were always dependable. In my church we have some people (in all age ranges) who have lost their jobs and would love to do something, anything, for any fair amount of pay. Hope you have good luck finding just the right match for your needs! Nancy the nancedar

We get holes in the yard, too, and sometime get curious enough to try filling them up like you did. And like you experienced, they never do. Hopefully if there was a snake in there, the flood encouraged him/her to go out another hole and never come back. Probably not but clinging to this thought allows me to get to sleep. I don't really care who/what dug a hole, as long as there are no snakes in it! This may help you discover why there's a hole in your yard: what dug this hole?

Hi there! Although I don't have years of experience (only 1 yr w/frogs) my first suggestion would be to go to your local library and read up on any possible animal you may be considering keeping in a terrarium. Each animal (even each subspecies) has very specific and sensitive needs. Frogs of different species should never be kept together. I have three frog terrariums right now-one is 60% water 40% land with fire-bellied toads in it. These are a great beginner frog. If you've never dealt with amphibians before these guys are fairly hardy, active during the day and, well, ACTIVE, so they're fun to watch. My other terrariums have white's tree frogs, which are also relatively easy to keep if you meet their environmental and dietary needs, and mantella croceus, which are small frogs native to Madagascar. If you are considering any animal it is best to try to find one that is captive-bred, rather than one captured from the wild, as it will not be under the additional stress of adapting to life in captivity as well as moving to a new home... Basically, just make sure you do TONS of research and take the needs of the animal seriously-otherwise it will be an expensive dead animal. Set up the terrarium well in advance of purchasing a frog etc., e.g. have it running successfully and maintain optimum conditions for a few weeks before introducing animals to it. You'll read all this over and over again... Read up, enjoy and good luck!