I have only seen one solar water heater, used for horses. It worked OK. Downsides were it did not hold a lot of water, like 20 gallons. Good for one horse, not for multiples. It has a floating ball cover, which got frozen when horse dripped on it. Some vegtable oil is supposed to help prevent the freezing problem. It also was pretty expensive for a plastic unit. The person who owned it, was satisfied, only had one horse. Another idea to consider would be a propane water tank heater. Also rather expensive, but appears to be a well thought out idea in several designs. Do a search for sellers. Lots of cattle and sheep owners who pasture animals where there is no electric available. Those who owned them were pretty happy with the heaters. You could resell it when you didn't need it anymore, probably get most of your money back. Not sure how fast heaters go thru fuel. The livestock owners did protect the fuel tank and heater unit, so animals could not reach or rub against it. Cows are so ready to break things rubbing on them, that good protection would be important!! We insulate our tanks inside wooden boxes. This does hold in the heat, keeps water from freezing quickly. We have electric heaters, so it saves us money not running heaters all the time.

they definitely sell topsoil around here...by the bag or by the truckload...it sure looks pretty but it's definitely garbage. don't throw things at me though...because i just used some in my mom's yard. her soil was too rich for the type of garden she wanted...xeric. she had added so much compost over the years..i just knew the heads of all of her echinacea would be flopping over in no time! so...i had to basically cut the quality of her soil a bit. sad..huh? i added only 6 cubic feet...i'm not sure if it will make a difference or not..but i wasn't going to add compost! when i put in my raised beds, i ordered something called planter's mix. i think it was a 70% topsoil 30% compost mix...and i STILL had to add TONS and TONS of compost and manure to get that soil fertile enough to grow good plants. the soil was horribly hydrophobic too! anyway..in horticulture class..my professor warned everyone against "topsoil." he said it has no organic matter and will not support plants on it's own. in my soil class...we learned that silt makes great soil! so edie...just start adding compost and you'll be happy with your soil in no time!

T-bird, IIRC, you and I crossed paths on the 4 seasons gardening forum last year, talking about growing tomatoes and other veggies indoors. How did those turn out for you? Sorry to hear about your thyme...it may come back. Mine froze last winter and was looking dead at the start of the season, but it it is all thriving now. I was once a serial killer, too and over the years I've garnered lots of relics to mark my failures. There's the aforementioned strawberry pot collection, and the half dozen WM 'window box' shaped planters...long and 6 inches deep, which were intended to be for cut and come again greens. These have now been repurposed as plant starter boxes, as they are just deep enough for 3" cuttings to take root and survive until i get around to transplanting them. I just have to keep reminding myself starting plants is the easy part and that every start is going to need up potting once or twice more later this summer. Also, your question about soil for your herbs. I think the main thing to worry about is whether of not they have good drainage. If they do, I'd go ahead and plant them and not fertilize them any more. If they don't, mix in lots of bark, which will also help steal nitrogen from the soil for the rest of this year. Jan

Chloe that is just beautiful. Your crown moulding really sets it off. Thank you for posting your picture. ttodd, I think you may be right about them being too alike. I seem to always pick too light a shade for the ceiling and it ends up looking white and I was trying to avoid that this time around. I really like how the Limestone looks in Chloe's pic, so I think I will sample with that!