I don't like gravel around the beds that you dig twice a year. The soil is going to be on the gravel, doesn't matter how carefully I dig. And it most likely will stay on top of the ground where it fall or slip to the lowest point of the path with rain water and will make weeds breeding ground. Also, if weed seeds managed to get between gravel and grow, when you pull it the roots either stuck in very hard path soil or takes soil up with them and makes a mess. I use wood chips. I have an agreement with local tree company, I call them when I need more, and they drop them off for me for free from their next job. (They need to dump it somewhere!) if you plan ahead, you can find wood chips from evergreens, they are the best in my opinion. So you add them fresh every year, while the height of your beds allows you, and when is too high, you put them in the compost pile - they will be almost ready compost on the bottom in 2-3 years and start fresh. Removing occasional weeds are easy from the wood chips - the root comes out more easy, as it prefers to stay in rotting chips, then go into hard ground.

Lots of things don't bother me, but there's some. Greedy people.... especially ones that take advantage of elderly and vulnerable people. And there should be a special place in Hell's hottest spot for those who take advantage of their parents (well, and family). Bicyclists and motorcyclists who figure look out for me... I wouldn't feel bad seeing them crash. Parents that let their kids scream in public places and make others have to put up with their parental incompetence. People with SUVs and, well any 4WD or AWD that figure they can drive faster than everyone in the winter because they have 4WD/AWD... and never learned that they can't stop any faster. Don't they usually have a bumper sticker that says something like My other car is also an overpriced 4WD that has never seen so much as a gravel road! And pickup owners in the snowbelt who won't put weight in the back so they're sliding around all over the road. Schools sending kids out to sell overpriced junk to raise money for various things and of course most any door to door solicitor. I had so many people wanting to put a new roof on my place after a storm. Handicapped parking at lumber yards. Just once I'd like to see someone in a wheelchair rolling out of there carrying a 12' sheet of drywall. Political campaigns that start years in advance. People who put dogs/kids outside to bark/scream and just close the door so they don't have to listen to them. People who have had their turn signal on continuously since 1984. But the WORST? People that criticize MY driving! Don't they realize it's not easy to eat a McMuffin, balance a roll and hash browns on my leg, sip my coffee, talk on my cell phone while I'm reading the paper, tie my shoes, finish shaving and take notes for the day's projects! I'm under STRESS people!!

yes. There was a news item on my local ISP site. It was said that most of the probelms were fro houses siting on mostly clay soils. Not a lot of detail was given, but I know rom expereince that clayey soils do shrink a lot u pon moisture loss. I don't think that houses with deep foundations such as those with basements are having as much trouble. Those houses are getting some crack from normal minor settling. I envision real problems developing from the following conditions: 1. No bsement, houses on slabs. Often, these have shallow foundations, and some inexpensive slab buildings depend a lot on the slab itself for support. 2. Soil unde a slab not consisent from end to end, for example, all clay at one end with a mix of clay ans humus at the other end. These two soils will shrink at different rates and bend/crack slabs. 3. You can expect trouble if a slab foundation is placed on fill that has not been thoroughly compacted. Making a significent depth fill and then compacting only the top surface is not adequate. The fill should be compacted as fill is added in layers, say no more than 3 to 4 inches deep. Effective fill has to be compacted as it is built up. 4. Building codes around here require that excavation for footings must go below the frost line and reach undisturbed soil, whichever is the deeper. If this is not done, footings can settle unevenly. The goal is little to no settling. 5. Footings can settle differently if one end of a building is much heavier than the opposite end and this was not accounted for in the footings. For example, one end of a house could have a full masonary fireplace and be two to three storeys tall while the other end of the house is only one story.

I can totally sympathize. On top of the fact that unlike you, I am not a night owl and never could sleep soundly in the daytime, I also had a manager who would call at noon, knowing that I had probably been asleep only 3 hours. And my mother in law! I wonder if she was just being perverse. I would just drift off to sleep, aannnd.. the phone rings, it is Vi: "What are you doing still in bed?" "Vi, I was at work all night, remember? I just went to sleep!" "oh". More than once! Yes I started leaving the phone off the hook (back then no ringer off switch) Still had to contend with a landlord who would show up to do maintenance chores when I needed to sleep. He was an older man who never got it either. Just find out when my day off is, and come then, okay? My daughter worked an overnight job in college, and had the same problem with her housemates. Inconsiderate, and I think just truly couldn't grasp that she wasn't sleeping at work and had to sleep in the daytime! And they also couldn't seem to grasp that she needed just as much sleep as they did (I ran into that too, with family, who also didn't understand that it wasn't easy to flip back and forth for social occasions, so I wouldn't be spending the entire day...)