josh, I water the old fashioned way -- by hand using a watering wand. It's not so bad in the Spring after everything is planted but by late June when the plants get big it becomes a huge PITA. My sister watered the three weeks when I was gone and she wasn't a happy camper and was glad to rid herself of that task. By the end of August it took me an average of 90 minutes to completely water the garden each day and I estimated that on average I used 150 gallons per day. On heavy watering days I used 200 gallons and on light watering days I'd use 100 gallons. By late August I'd spend a minimum of one hour and a max of two hours with most days in between that. Now that we're in late September we're getting more rain and it has cooled so I'm not watering that much any more. This year was a lot worse for water because I'm using that pine bark mix in most of the containers and they drain very quickly requiring more water. The upside is that the plants did well and I had for the first time a tomato crop with decent yields and nice looking tomatoes. I still made mistakes via not fertilizing right and hope to do even better next year. I don't know why it took me so long to realize this but next year I'm installing a drip irrigation system. I've been doing google and found a couple of sites that seem to be decent. It does seem kind of complicated but there's all winter to figure this out. :-) heebiejeebie, the honeydew melons are in a tall wastepaper basket that I gleaned from the alley and made into a container. I estimate it's more like 10 to 15 gallons of container space but its narrow and tall. The honeydew melons were an experiment for me. I wanted to see how they would grow in a container that was narrow but deep. I put two plants in there and so far they've yielded 8 melons and the plants had tons of flowers and looked really healthy. I wasn't expecting much out of this but I think that having deep containers for the roots to grow down might have been better than a wider, shallower, larger volume container. It might have something to do with the Perched Water Table (or something like that) per Al's dissertation in that other thread. I like these deep narrow containers since they take up less space and allow the vines to cascade down the sides. I won't know until I dig them out if they became root bound but I suspect they did. The plants still look healthy and there are two honeydews still growing late September here in Chicago. People around here are always throwing out those tall plastic wastebaskets and I already have two more stored for next year. I'm thinking of trying cucumbers or cantelopes in those containers next year and see how those do.

"I was thinking induction but I read many complaints on the ticking sound, and now I'm "on the fence" about it. Unless I see a really great review on induction, I think that's pretty much over for me." From reading just about "All" the posts here, (GW), there is just one, or maybe 2 manufacturers that make induction units that "tick", and this is usually at low (Simmer) settings. Those companies are turning the induction unit on/off, trying to maintain a low temp. Most manufactures don't use this method, they just feed the induction "Less Power" in order to maintain a low temp. My Elux icon is such a unit, Dead Silent whether on boost or simmer (119 F). You can verify this for yourself by watching the "Great Race", on Utube. The camera which is very sensitive as far as picking up sound, is placed right by the induction cooktop, and as you will see, there is no buzzing on boost (even with Cheap Emeril-ware--which we love) and no clicking during the 119 F simmer which went on for about an hour. I can't recall any complaints about Miele induction units clicking either. You will find many positive posts here (GW) about the satisfaction users have had with their induction units, Even former "Gassers"--usually a "Hardcore Crowd" (LOL)! Wife made tacos last night, covered the cooktop with paper towels first---so cleanup was "Toss The Towels"---how can you beat that???? Our last Electric Bill was $47, and I'm told $150 is pretty much a "Normal" Electric bill in Yorba Linda CA.---so much of this is due to the induction units efficiency, as well as our oven and speed oven and fridge and our "Energy Efficient House" and of course the climate. So don't let a "couple of clicks" scare you off from a great technology--Super fast boiling, Incredible controllability, Ease of cleanup-(Nutin come close)! Clicks are "An exception to the rule" rather than the "Norm" , for Induction. Good luck with your pending purchases! Gary

The 10 year labor coverage is a worth a lot in my opinion if there are no strings attached. I assuming the Bryant dealer provides the labor coverage. In nearly all instances I've seen the 10 year labor is used as a selling tool to sell equipment. Until you read the fine print you won't know and many times the fine print isn't known until after the coverage is bought and system is installed. State laws typically prohibit the dealer from getting into protective type arrangements in which their own company is on the hook for labor covered repairs. The reason for this is that if the company fails for whatever reason the labor warranty that is held is worthless. If it's a big company this could amount to 100's if not 1000's of people with worthless labor warranties. This is why there are third party insurers that issue these kinds of coverage. In fact even the manufacturer developed extended labor plans are typically out of house of the manufacturing realm. AIG is probably the biggest labor warranty insurer. There is oodles of fine print, in these arrangements. These contracts are designed to make money for the insurer. So you should consider this carefully.

My sister has a different approach. When our mother died, she left behind a few boxes of old (and I mean old) family photos from both her family and my late father's family. She also left behind albums of her own RCAF service in WWII, and some photos and a scrapbook of a couple of my dad's voyages (he was engineer on an ocean-going tug). Sis took photos of my mom's younger brother, killed during WWII, to the tiny local museum where they grew up. Uncle Stuart's photo is now on their War Memorial wall. She took some photos of Mom's air force service to the aviation museum at the airport where she served. She took photos and memorabilia of my Dad's historic tugboat trip (yes, don't laugh, there are such events!) to the Maritime Museum in Vancouver. And she sent photos of my grandparents' homesteading days on the Prairies to the local museum back there, as well. All were delighted to have them! I've passed on some photos she gave me of our maternal grandparent's earlier years in England to a local historian back there who has an interest in the historic house they lived in, and had previously written about the family. He's now added a bit more to their story on his blogsite, and even dug up some information we didn't know about, including a couple of photos. So, while I may not have my grandparent's wedding photo up on a wall, it and they are memorialized on line in an article he wrote about them!