Im tempted to squash the first seedling already =)... I hate that color! Too bad, becuase the plant habits and form doesnt seem bad, im always a sucker for daylilies that pass on fragrent genes as well. I will keep it until something better blooms. Im hoping the second will show better form and more of a white edging later, will see. The second bloom on the first seedling looked even more washed out today. Its not pretty in my eye. Oh well, tommorow I should have a homemade love X berry patch to bloom, Im hoping for a bright pink or a lovely shade of pink anyways. Im not into the muddy (washed out, unclear) hues, like that first seedling at all...It probable wouldve been prettier even if it was lighter or something, ug... Silverkelt

If you are reasonably handy, yes, you can plumb a water softener. One issue is what type of piping (copper, PEX, CPVC, etc.) to use to make the connections. CPVC is probably the easiest, soldering copper takes a little skill but is doable (it's all in the prep work), and PEX requires tooling that you probably don't have and don't want to buy ($$$). You've run conduit as an electrician, so you should be able to transition to water-based conduit. lol! When you buy the softener, be sure to know what the pipe fittings/connections are going to be. Probably most accept threaded pipe or adapters, some are sweat-soldered. Plan for a bypass valve setup either on the softener or in the supply lines. Do the softeners come ready to install? Most don't, which requires one to assemble a few items and put the resin in the tank. It's not hard. You only need a twin tank softener if you will be using soft water in the middle of the night (when a typical softener regenerates). The computerized on-demand control valves can predict water usage and maintain enough reserve that you won't run out of soft water before the unit regenerates. Do get a softener that regenerates based on gallons of water used (demand type). It will save salt $$ in the long run. A good valve to consider is the Clack WS-1. Just google it for some softener vendors. It has a computer chip that does a lot of nice things for the softener. Fleck has a model to compete with the Clack (Fleck 7000??). A big issue is how big a softener do you need? Most softener vendors figure on 60 to 70 gallons of water usage per day per person. You will have to use some sort of adjustment factor to estimate your dog water usage (based on people). You probably want to bathe the dogs with soft water,but if you can replumb and use hard water for the dog drinking and kennel washdown water, I think you would be way ahead.

The painter I hired to paint our kitchen cabinets suggested this paint. I was not very impressed. The first night that I came home after he had worked, I noticed tons of runs and drips under the chair rail on the wainscoting. He looked at it with me the next day and said it was a problem with the paint, it was "drooping". He bought another gallon, same stuff, it did the same thing. Finally, with lots of care (and sanding off the drips and repainting), he did get a pretty good result, but given how much all of this cost, I was disappointed. Now that it is dry and we've been living with it for about 9 months, I have found that it chips pretty easily, and have had to do many touchups. To be fair, these surfaces were previously painted, so I don't know if this is a result of the new paint or the bond to the old (he did use XIM sealer/primer as the first coat). I used the leftovers to paint a few bookcases and trim in another room and I found the odor from the paint to be overwhelming. It made it hard for me to breathe. It is super thick, and hard to smooth. It does have a warranty, and I was tempted to take it back to SW, but with all of the labor costs I'd already paid, getting back $40 for the material didn't really seem worth it. Just a contrary opinion. Sounds like the previous poster really liked it - maybe I just got part of a bad batch?

All these replies and I am the first to say born in Louisiana? Moved to Texas at 3 months, so I am more Texan than Cajun. 49 years old....dammit.