I think that a lot of times it is more vandalism than actually someone stealing. When my older son was in HS he went to a party on a Thurs. night and when he came home early, I asked if he had a good time. Turns out, the boys (mostly 'good' kids in the top of their class) would go riding around and vandalizing property. It was a regular thing on Thurs. nights. Kind of like a scavanger hunt.... We had a "private drive" sign at the end of our dw which cost me a bit because it was custom made. Someone came and bent it trying to get it off the pole, then a few weeks later they cracked it into pieces and left the pieces. I replaced it with a cheaper one, they bent it on two different occasions. My husband fishes and once when he was back in the woods at our local State Park, he found many mailboxes piled up along the road. Most were in perfect condition, just off the poles.

Continued (I upload photos with the Browse Button and whenever I tamper further with the message - the photo disappears). The 4 bare roots were grafted - probably on rosa Indica (nursery doesn't divulge this secret for some reason). The colour of the blooms was such a sickly mauve I couldn't stand it anymore, plus the petal blight made it worse. a week or so after the blooms started opening en masse, the plants lost most of their leaves. At this point I chopped all the blooms and hoped the plants will refoliate by was of giving them a second chance. I was really looking forward to this rose. Last Friday I SPed all four because the new leaves were showing signs of disease before reaching 2 cm length even. As i said, it's an amazingly vigorous plant and it refoliates pretty quickly but apparently it just can't take the humidity. Lynn - many thanks for your help. I thought you might like an update. BTW, on HMF it says this is an almost thornless rose. All 4 of mine were armed to the teeth. Michael - thanks for your warning. You were absolutely right. I join you in warning anyone living in humid enough areas - SB really doesn't like it.

Hi Ken, I'm in northern MO. The trees came from Home Depot in ball and burlap. I cut the wire frame out and stripped the burlap off the top half of the ball. I then cut four strips in the remaining burlap down as far as I could reach to the bottom of the ball to let the roots grow out. The remaining burlap still held the ball in shape but the slits exposed the roots. I did not amend the soil but simply dug holes about 8'' past the edge of the root ball and back filled with the existing soil. The timeline as I recall was the first two weeks I did not cover the base of the trees and hand watered them every day. After two weeks I sprinkled some Shake N Feed over the soil and then mulched them. It then rained quite a bit and the tree changed color. I then took the mulch off and scrapped away the Shake N Feed. By then the color had faded to what it is now and has stayed that way ever since. The tags did not indicate the exact variety, and simply stated 'Colorado Spruce', but based on the expected height and width ~( 6-10'w x 30'h) I would assume they are some kind of hoopsi. I've stuck my finger in the ground several times. Right now its wet and muddy, but this will be the first dry spell we've had in about a month. I'll get a closer picture and post it.

I'm not going to defend the quote you received as I don't know the present condition of your pool , the access to the property, etc..- a 20x40 pool is big. Please understand the scope of the requires time to remove old material and dispose of it and replace it with new material and fixing issues along the way. A new pool is a lot easier. Basically work is being twice. On the surface, the pricing does not seem too crazy. After all, your adding a new spa to an existing structure, an auto cover, which is generally expensive on new construction, to an existing pool. The plumbing, equipment, the full length bench, etc.. carries a fee. You should get 2 more quotes minimum, to compare. Ask for references and look at the contractors past work.