Wow...that definitely looks like it. Since it was growing in the sand at the waterline I looked online at the emergent plants rather than floating ones. Plus, none of them were blooming so I didn't consider the photos with blooms. I see on another site (a TAMU sponsored site) that I need to report it to Texas Parks and Wildlife. Thanks for the replies! Who knew we were photographing an illegal plant?!

Thanks again for the nice comments! Yes, red_lover, we can see the car ferry come and go and hear her horn from our house.The ferry is certainly a big draw for our area, and it's fun to walk out on the breakwall to wave to the passengers. Autumn, I'm listening to the crashing waves now. We've had a gorgeous, sunny, quiet few days on the lake, but there's a ton of surf this morning. Hoping it dies down by this afternoon because we're having several families over for a cookout, beach games and bonfire later. Mtn, I did post here about the pendants and really like these whitewashed baskets I found from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child. I still haven't found the perfect bulb for them, though. I think I'll try large, clear bulbs next. I love my range! I had planned on the larger, two-door 110 model but changed to the 90 rather last minute; it's still so pretty and offers all the cooking space I'll need.

The guy at Wittus is very nice and helpful and will happily answer questions. You do not need to have a full masonry chimney on the outside. We have brick/granite on the front, wood framing and insulated pipe out from the firebox through the roof. The firebox is zero clearance, but there are requirements for intake air and the heat vents. Our heat vents go into the next room over and to our 3rd floor office/bedroom. Ours is a center chimney, so we had to jump through some hoops for intake air. I think it is easier if you are on an outside wall. My husband says the firebox and insulated pipe was around $10,000 several years ago, but a large part depends on how much you save by not doing the full masonry chimney, construction, shipping and other variables. It was cheaper for us than a new center chimney fireplace, but we already had 1700’s ballast brick for the front/sides and found a young mason to do the interior ballast brick very reasonably. Our contractor had no problem figuring out the specs and getting it ready for the mason quickly. Check it out. We absolutely love ours.

I am looking for some general advice and confirmation on a few aspects of my design for a new shore well I plan to install at my house this spring. A little background on the project: My house is on Lake Ontario in Northern NY. The house is situated roughly 45' above the water on a steep hill that terminates into a 20' vertical cliff down to the shore. The previous owner had a small pump house at the top edge of the cliff with a shallow well jet pump servicing a cistern in the basement, but it gave up and the flow was also not great due to sucking near it's max of 25' head. My plan is to replace the entire system with a design that in the short term will make it easier to winterize, and in the long term be able to operate it in the winter. Here is the equipment I have tentatively selected: Pump: AY McDonald 8611 1 HP convertible jet pump Deep Well Ejector: AY McDonald 7903JP Tank: A.O Smith LPT 86 pre-charged pressure tank Piping house to shore: Anjon Manufacturing Freeze Flex 1" & 1 1/4" PVC (150ft') Piping shore to water: Fastenal 1 1/4" black steel pipe (2x21') Fittings: All Camlock stainless steel connections outdoor & underwater Pipe stand (underwater): Roll-a-Dock submersible plastic 27” wheels & 7’ Axle Pre-filter: Big Foot 80 GPM intake filter There are several other smaller fittings/piping/items needed to actually hook the system up, but right now I am looking to make sure that conceptually this combination of equipment will work with my design. My current plan has the convertible jet pump mounted on top of the pressure tank inside my basement. The twin pipes of Freeze Flex PVC will exit the basement at ground level and be buried 4’ traveling down the hill until they reach about 15’ from the edge of the cliff. Here they will enter a buried valve box/access point. At this time, the Freeze Flex PVC twin pipe will run straight through, but the access box is for adding a heat line in the future. At this point there is about 75’ linear of Freeze Flex PVC run and 25’ of vertical rise from the cliff edge to the house. The Freeze Flex PVC will then travel down the vertical cliff 20’, making the total linear run of PVC 95’ with 45’ vertical rise. In my current plan, the deep well ejector is installed vertically at the base of the cliff with a 90-degree elbow thereafter into a single “tailpipe.” The single 1 ¼” Freeze Flex PVC will resume after the elbow and run through a series of cinder blocks that will be buried just under the surface of the shore. The reason for this is due to the wave activity I see on this part of the lake when a storm comes through. The Freeze Flex PVC will run approximately 48’ linear from the elbow and well ejector terminating in approximately 4’ of water (at mean water level) and traveling 10” of vertical rise. A stainless steel camlock will connect the PVC to a 41’ run of black steel 1 ¼’ pipe mounted on wheels (for easy removal) and will terminate into a foot valve and large format 80GPM intake filter. At this point, the intake is approx. 10’ below water and has traveled a further 6’ of vertical rise. The total vertical feet or suction head for this project, intake to pump is approx. 60’. The total linear feet of piping from intake to pump is approx. 185’. The suction head from well ejector to intake is approx. 16’. The pump and ejector combination are rated at about 10GPM at 60’ head on a 20/40 pressure setting. A few questions I have aside from the obvious “is this going to work” are: My understanding about using a tailpipe is that the principles of a shallow well jet pump apply: as long as you are sucking under 25’ head, it should work. My design has 14-16’ head after the well ejector. Is this thinking true, and is the 45-degree elbow going to impede suction at all? Do I need a check-valve in between the well ejector and the tailpipe if there is a foot valve at the end of the tail pipe? Could the well ejector sit horizontally and is it better situated underwater before the Camlock disconnect (if twin pipes ran down further). I’ve attached some drawings for reference, hopefully they make sense. Any feedback is appreciated!