I find peas difficult to time just right in Wisconsin too. Too early and they rot in the ground, too late and the heat kills them before they produce. The really hard part is that the 'right' time isn't consistent from one year to the next ;-) Something that I don't do, but a friend does and he does better with peas than I do is this: Start the peas indoors in those tiny peat pots. Now, I really don't care for the peat pots, I am just telling you what he does. Let them grow to about 4" tall or so and then plant them outside regardless of weather (within reason). Have them ready to go for whatever date you would have otherwise direct seeded. Then direct seed right next to them. If the plants seem to take and are growing well by the time the seeds start sprouting the sprouts can be thinned. If something damaged the plants (stupid rabbits), then you have the direct seeded ones as a fall back. One of these years I am going to have to try this ;-)

Rereading the original post, I think the original poster DOES NOT have a heat pump, but the thermostat downstairs thinks he does. Maybe it needs to be reset and reprogrammed. I have a honeywell touch screen tstat that's capable of doing hybrid, etc but I currently only have gas forced air heat, however, I'd bought a NOMA programmable tstat which had a lot of features I liked, but when I hooked it up, it would control the fan ok and would act like it was calling for heat, but heat never happened. If I jumpered the terminals, the furnace would behave normally. Rather than persist with it when it was getting cold and dark on a weekend with no NOMA technical support available, I just went and got the Honeywell. It was fine after that.

There's a lot of things involved with laundry. There's no perfect solution for all situations. These websites that claim to tell you what things cost are seldom accurate for more than the one or two instances they show. You CANNOT say it will cost you $___ to do a load of clothes since there's all the variables. Let's start with water temperatures. How much heating will depend on the temperature of the water in the first place. Anyone who lives in a northern climate knows that the water temperature from the tap is far different on Christmas Eve than on the 4th of July! Then comes the issue of terminology. "Hot", "warm" and "cold" are relative terms. Some laundry is fine to wash in "cold" water, but not in nearly ice water! "Cold" water in laundry terms (check your detergent specs) should be 70 - 80° so many times to get "cold" water, you would need to heat it! Plus keep in mind that detergents do work anywhere near as well in temperatures below 60°. Powders especially, don't dissolve as well in truly cold water and even liquids don't dissolve as well. If they don't dissolve, they don't do the job as well. And then there's the issue of cost of heating. If you use steam, natural gas, propane, electric, wood or your mother-in-law's flaming breath, it'll have a different cost to heat it and many of them will vary from time of year. So be careful getting sucked in by these websites. They can be used as a guideline for educating yourself but don't take everything as gospel. Some other things here that are interesting: I'm always amused with people using bluing. Why? Do you know what bluing is? It's not "whiting"! Bluing dyes your clothes blue and it's an optical illusion to make you think your clothes are more white. Similar in concept to different lighting making things look different. Bluing washes out and has to be replaced to continue the illusion. As far as hot water shrinking clothes, well, that's seldom true. "Hot" water to many people in laundry is only 95°-120°! Your dryer gets much hotter than that so how can body-temperatures shrink clothes? Now if you boil your clothes, that's different but I doubt many here use near-boiling water temperatures. I think most would be surprised how cold their water temps are. I haven't even addressed heat losses in the pipes and the machines yet. Many people have their water heaters set too low. Only some washers have built-in heaters. So if you use a frontload, have your water heater set at only 120° or less, and factor in the pipe losses, then the loss in the machine since the colder machine tub will cool the water and since FLs use less water it'll cool more than a toploader, you can have some really cold washing temps. Take a thermometer and measure the water in the drum sometime. Some washers have a warm rinse option but they're fewer and fewer with the regulations now mandating energy efficiency. Mine doesn't have a warm rinse option. Occasionally I run a short wash cycle to fill the tub, then switch to rinse and spin. And my machine does a spin drain. I'm skeptical about the debate over neutral drain vs spin drain allegedly putting dirt back into clothes. After all, in a spin drain (like front loaders) you're essentially forcing the dirty water back through or into the clothes again too, instead of letting it settle on them. This is part of rinsing clothes IMO. And part of the detergent's job to lift and suspend the dirt. I'm also skeptical when people say they use so much less detergent in a front load. Look at any HE detergent and you get the same number of loads from a bottle or box. And by the comments of the laundramaniacs in the laundry forums, you need to use enough detergent to get the maximum effect from a front loader. Insufficient detergent, too much softener (which I don't use anyway), too cold a water are all contributing factors to smelly washers and mold buildup. Warmer water cleans better. That's been proven. Now there's an issue of how dirty do your clothes get as to how much cleaning do they need. Some people don't get their clothes dirty and really a rinse would "clean" the clothes sufficiently. I used to use cold water washes under the theory of saving money but after reading the science in laundry, the truth about temps and realizing hot, warm and cold are ambiguous and undefined terms, I was most things now in 130°-140° water and use a tap cold rinse (since I don't have another option) most of the time and occasionally will warm rinse things if I feel it necessary. Saving money? I laugh when I see people spend upward of $1.50 per load on imported detergents and then quibble about a few pennies to heat some water. I tend to save money on detergent and not feel bad about spending a few cents to clean bacteria out of the clothes a little better. I use Tide Free & Sensitive detergent and pay only a few cents per load for detergent. I refuse to use softener, another saving and no dryer sheets, savings again. Plus the reality is I can't really see a difference since going to warmer wash temps in my bills, but I see an improvement in my laundry.

I’m wondering if anyone out there can tell me why newer refrigerators don’t get anywhere near as cold as older units...? first a brief background as to my pondering... I like drinks COLD, COLD, COLD! This was never a problem growing up as on occasion I would have to chew the ice in my drinks. Be it milk or water... now I know what everyone is thinking... “that’s so bad for you” Well you can go suck eggs. This question ain’t for you. Also if your sucking eggs came from a proper fridge they’d be as cold as ice. Anyway... I know how to use a refrigerator thermostat and my complaint is not that these refrigerators haven’t or aren’t working correctly. I believe they’ve all been working as they were intended and designed to... I’ve had an thermometer in all my fridges and they’re all holding the temperatures they’re set at. But why does it stop at 33 degrees? My old refrigerators would be set in the middle of their range and be sometimes below 30 degrees. And rarely would things other than water and strangely lettuce freeze. But what a difference a few degrees makes in beverage temp!!! So much more satisfying to have a glass of milk at 31 degrees instead of 33