Last week he assembled the lift platform attached to the tractor up even with the roof, placed a BIG ladder against it and went on the roof to repair a shingle that had come up where the roofers left a bent nail. Everything went great, good safety measures. I didn't make photos because I was fetching things, including a brick to hold down the shingle until the black cement cured. You know how pliers, bricks and other necessary items get up there if he's on the roof and you are on the ground. In the picture, he's about to retrieve the brick with the long pole that he uses to change light bulbs in high places. I just happened to walk up, camera still around my neck from my trip to the wilds. Those of you with DIY husbands know that this is just one in a long succession of fun events, as evidenced by FlowerLady's report above. Nell

Hi Stephanie! We had hours of thunder and lighning....but so little rain. I was hoping that if we were going to have all that "fuss", we'd have a good old-fashioned downpour to go along with it. We haven't had a REAL thunderstorm in such a very long time here. We had a thunderstorm last summer, probably in late July or early August. It had been SO VERY LONG since we'd had one that we went out to the covered porch that is attached to our barn and sat in the lawn chairs and watched it rain! Isn't that pitiful? We later found out that a lot of our neighbors did the same thing. LOL It was a lovely storm...lots of huge dark clouds and tons of lightning (one lightning strike ignited a fire in a hay barn north of us)...and we had a double rainbow. We got about 3/4s of an inch of rain in a fairly short time. I really miss the rain. (sigh) During the recent ice storms we had thundersleet and that was pretty cool. And, back in 2004 we had thundersnow. Oklahoma weather can be pretty interesting, and is rarely dull. Already this morning I have started seeds in little peat pots for 60 kinds of hot peppers, sweet peppers and herbs . Now that all the tomatoes are outside for good, the lighted shelves I use for seed starting were looking sort of empty. I don't get into much of a hurry with the peppers since they sulk if planted in cool soil. I'll be mowing three acres of rye grass today! Also planting nasturtiums "Caribbean Cocktail" as a companion plant in the vegetable garden, and, of course, today the tomatoes will actually go into the ground. About that laundry and housework....do you mean to tell me that we are actually expected to do those tasks when it is "gardening time"? I ALMOST have my husband and son convinced that you shouldn't cook or do laundry or do housework anytime the sun is shining and it is warm enough to be outside in the yard. Note that I said "almost". I'm home alone today, so once I step outside in a few minutes, I have no intention of coming inside to do anything! Have a wonderful and productive day. Hope the fence project goes well. Dawn

Laurie, Thank you so much for your warm compliment about my house. As far as the paint...we used Benjamin Moore throughout. I remember the white was called "Linen White" which is on BM's website. There are actually two beige colors used in the greatroom. "#1031" is written on top of the lighter beige paint can. When I looked at BM's website it shows "Carlisle Cream" for that number but looks very lavendar on my computer. Not like the real paint at all. I wish I could help you with the name of the darker beige we used but the store kind of tweaked that color for us. It was BM's Moorecraft SPEC paint and on the top of that can is written "MC #47" if that helps. bristlingacres, Thank you too for your compliment. All of our interior doors are stained with white trim. They are knotty alder. I'm posting one pic of the stairwell door which shows color and trim pretty good. I got some samples yesterday of Hunter Douglas woven wood shades. They seem very light. I can see through them easily and they come in a host of patterns. I downloaded a picture (sorry it REALLY tiny) and a darker color than I would choose. What does everyone think of this option??? Do you think I would need cloth curtains on the sides like in this picture?

hex2006- Just 4 times a day? Is that the practice? I've heard about switching on/off every 15/30 mins and that sounded somewhat less than optimal to me... If you flood the roots for 15 mins, wouldn't that be too much for many plants? Conversely, leaving it to dry for 6 hours, isn't that detrimental or at least stressful for many varieties (and even if there is enough moisture, does the plants have enough access to nutrients)? Jeremiah- Yeah, the power consumption was high on my priorities when I considered hydroponics. It's not like I'm gonna sell the produce but I am in a dire lack of excess money to burn- that's why the pump power consumption actually did seemed important to me (unless I'm growing weed then that is a whole different matter). I calculated that if a simple 10W pump ran for 24/7, 365 days, it would amount to 87.6KW. I pay 20c for KW/h, so a yearly cost would be around 17.52$. The price of tomatoes at my local market is a little more than 1$ per kg. That means that simply to cover the usage cost of this one pump I need to grow more than 15kg. You can see why I'm not a fan of letting the pump work more than it needs to. Lol, I missed your meaning, when you said "making the box water tight " ,did you mean the timer box or the grow box? because in both cases I just use a discarded bucket/cereal box with some water proof glue on the lid. Ghetto to the max! And when you say “digital plug timers” you are referring to this type of thing?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-LCD-Display-24H-7day-Programmable-Timer-Electronic-Plug-Switch-110V-US-/361252796244 If so, then like the with my opening post, they have up to x powerons per day. Very annoying. , , , The second scenario you described is actually pretty nifty, but I fail to see the advantage if indeed rapid switching will burn out the pump. My case however is the common first scenario (mostly because of space constrictions (the sun is at the top)). I don't know if it is that 'rapid', but if the pump fills the bucket in 4 minutes (and turned off due to power conservation) and the drying occurs for another 11 mins- then we are talking about 90 cycles per day (I have no idea if that is a good growing practice, but speaking hypothetically). I took your warnings about the quick burnout to heart, but I'm not sure what's the alternative in an ebb-flow system (other than cycling it to 2 operations per hour). One thing I thought of changing is the placement of the pump. according to Kleeems explanation ,a partial cause for the failing is the column of water already present in the pipes, overloading at each start up. Seems like it can be solved by placing the pump in an upside fashion near the top... thanks guys.