Chas...I'm with you on the algae. I think it looks more natural...and well established. We used a scrub brush with long handle to remove a bit here and there as you say disrupts the water flow. Other than that I'm happy we're leaving it be.

1) When you're hungry and wanting a snack, are you more likely to crave a sweet or salty/spicy snack? if it's the daytime, something salty/spicy... late at night after dinner, then usually something sweet. 2) The 3 junk-type foods that are hardest for you to resist: doritos LOVE tostitos with either a good con queso dip or guacomole-i can eat many calories with those! chewy candy--swedish fish, twizzlers, gummy lifesaves, etc. or peppermint patties. 3) Complete the following sentence: Do NOT bring any ________ into this house, because I can (will?) personally eat all of it . . . or at least waaay too much! i'm really good if it's in the house UNOPENED! lol. i usually can resist opening something, but once it's open, forget it-usually doritos, etc. 4) Although you may not eat at fast food restaurants a lot, what are your 3 favorite yummy-but-not-very-good-for you foods and from where? i really hardly ever eat fast food, but if i do i tend to order the 'wraps'... mcdonalds have them and wendy's have the chicken caeser wraps which i'll eat. i'm not big into burgers and only like the fries if they're HOT and CRISPY, which is often so hit and miss that i don't bother! 5) At nicer restaurants, what 2 or 3 foods do you have to force yourself not to order? i'll often pass on the french onion soup and choose something healthier even though i LOVE a good french onion soup crock with melted cheese and crusty bread!! i love all pastas, but will steer away sometimes to order something lighter. i love a really good carrot cake and if i see someplace has one that looks REALLY good, it's hard to pass! 6) Favorite comfort foods at home that are (sigh!) yummy but fat and/or calories-wise not that great for you or your waistline? i love making/eating pasta carbonara, but only do so occasionally. love creamy soups---buying fat free half and half makes me feels better but they still often have butter...(currently have broccoli and cheese soup leftover in the fridge--YUM!!) LOVE fruit pies/cobblers. 7) Favorite drink that you wish was "no calorie"? sweet drinks like margaritas sweet wines, like white zinfandel-love it! love chocolate coffee creamers---would be great if they were 0 calorie and still tasted great!! 8) What are 3 of your favorite "more healthful foods" to (try and) fall back on when the cravings hit? i guess popcorn is better than chips, but i usually don't really fall back on it... i buy those mini flavored rice cakes and feel better about those! i often will order fish or salad in restaurants- to either avoid fat or increase my veggie consumption! will order sorbet at the end of a meal when i'm really craving a dessert, but don't want the calories. 9) Favorite more healthful drinks? peppermint tea (with honey), icewater.

I don't think so. Even if all is well at The Treatment Plant, there is so much that water can be exposed to between there and your kitchen sink. Especially if your home, or the water lines that deliver the water TO your home, are older than just a few years. We cannot afford to depend upon the EPA to protect us from water contamination, or anything else for that matter. There are so many contaminants in our water that they don't consider to be unsafe. But, here in America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, shouldn't we have the right to choose? If you do much reading about things that are done "for the public good", you will soon run into many who consider the addition of fluoride into our water supply as a bad thing. Here is a link to some interesting information about that, presented at Dallas City Hall by Dr. Paul Connett in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xguPD85-BH4 Not to mention how difficult it is to find toothpaste or mouthwash that doesn't contain fluoride. Not to mention that fluoride is not the only intentional contaminant in our tap water. There's chlorine added to kill bacteria. When we water our garden from our home's water hydrant, we are contaminating our soil and therefore our plants, with whatever's in that water. We are also discouraged from disposing of any of our pharmaceuticals by flushing them because it has been found that some of these drugs do not process out. It is folly to trust that NOBODY is flushing drugs. Seriously, there is a large population in America that either doesn't know, doesn't believe, or doesn't care. Even if you have a septic tank, where do you think the septic tank truck goes when it's full? For a long time, we felt safe drinking water that was filtered. And then, we found out that there are not many filters that can remove anything beyond particulates. So many of us started buying bottled water. Now, we are hearing that certain elements of the plastic that the bottles are made of are getting into the water that's in the bottle. Not to mention that our landfills are now littered with them. Also, not to mention, that what's shown on the bottle label as "spring water" is now said to actually just be tap water from some other place, we know not where. When we lived in town, I bought a water distiller. This was because the small town in which we lived was in the habit of flushing the lines every now and then. We'd do a load of wash and find our white clothing washing in rusty-looking water. We'd fill a glass with water at the tap and it would be brown, sometimes with stuff in it that would settle to the bottom of the glass. And I still use the distiller, now that we live in the country. When the distiller is finished, I find about a tablespoon of dark brown liquid in the bottom, and it stinks. And there's a coating of lime on the whole inside, where the water boiled as the steam fed into the evaporator coils. I've read that the only way contaminants can be dependably removed from water is via steam evaporation or by reverse osmosis. Even this is not a perfect situation. It takes time to do. But at least I'm not lugging home case after case of bottled water. There's the cost of the distiller, but it pays for itself eventually if it replaces bottled water. There are some who say that, once it's distilled or "osmosed", the water is "dead": devoid of any of the trace minerals that we need to have in our water. So what are we to do? Why, we buy Trace Minerals, and we put 20 bitty drops of it in each gallon. Can we trust the efficacy of these Trace Minerals? I don't know. It seems like everybody lies to us now. And it is sold to us in a plastic bottle. *Sigh*.

Hi Little Bird! How was your trip? Fabulous & a grand experience I hope! Did Libby have a spa vacation while you were away? 😊 Her ears are huge on that little body! Her ear fringe is so pretty. She looks camera shy - a book I have on ”dog language” notes that most dogs turn away from a camera - interesting - how do they even know what it is? Unless it’s the attention focused on them while having picture taken. Missy Bee - your Chi does look part Pap! It’s her markings - amazing. Her tail looks quite full too. Does she carry it curled over her back? That’s a Pap trait too. We were often asked if Ginger was a long haired Chi by those unfamiliar with Paps. We thought the guess was due to her size - tiny like Little Bird’s Libby - and also her ears. I found a forum with a long discussion about the difference in their ears - how the hair grows on each breed’s ears & the position of the ear set on each breed’s head. Interesting - maybe only to a person have one of either breed though! 😁 Whisper’s hair is growing out - I’m thinking of trimming a bit around legs & her ears which seem to be different lengths. I have to admit that it’s much easier to keep all the fir tree needles out of her shorter hair & she’s such an explorer in back yard that she’s under & behind every shrub so she picks up a lot of debris. This pic looks like she’s having a bad hair day too - she’s been out in wet yard. Her new trick - standing on top of her sleep crate to look outside. Perfect height for low windows. I now have to raise the blinds daily so she can see outside better. She’s so much bigger / taller than Ginger was & so has a higher jumping range - something we’re getting used to.