Hi all! Sorry I didn't get to join in on the conversations earlier today-had to work :( The rooting hormone I used was some Walmart cheapie that has been under my sink for 2 years. Must have worked though! My problem is that my friends don't really care much for plants. Especially plants that have to be brought in over the winter. I don't think I have one single friend with a basement. Now, another question, since these are already growing in pots, can they be removed and shipped bare root this spring? Is that safe to do? If so, I will have plenty to send out. If not, this Illinois weather isn't the greatest for setting around brugs. They may like full sun, but the 95-100 degree days we got were rough on them, so I kept having to move them. If I can send these out safely in the spring, I think that would be my best bet and learn my lesson for next year! Joyceann

I am not an 18 year veteran of the solar attic however I had a PCS3 from 2002 till last year. I have owned a Solar Attic system. I purchased it from solar Attic directly around 2002 I owned rental property so I had the advantage of having the maintenance people to assist me in the Installation. I talked directly with the engineer/owner/designer of the system. He was and has been very helpful over the years. As a matter of fact I emailed with him just a few day ago. OUR INSTALLATION We build a pan 4 inches deep and 6 inches larger than the PCS3 system all the way around. We equipped it with a 2 inch drain which we eventually put a cut off on in that we had a float switch system cutoff that was in parallel with the emergency cut off in side the PCS3. The reason we put a cut off and an additional emergency float switch was that the longer I thought about it having the system pump 25000 gallons of water into the catch pan with a two inch drain would not be able to remove water fast enough than it would be better to just have the system shut down so the issue could be corrected. We mounted the unit about 5 feet off of the attic decking to get it as high and in the hottest area as possible. That installation we did with rigid 2" pvc We had 2 90 degree elbows and a total of 5 joints that got the water out of the attic. In the beginning I had some of the same concerns that have been brought up here about a possible leak however considering the fact that almost all of the water pipes in this house are PVC as are 99% of all of the water pipes in all of the houses built in america are PVC and the fact that the water pressure in the solar attic system is as I understand it less than the pressure that your home water system has a leak is not very likely. OK, so here we go. We had to pump the water up 2 stories. In that this was a close loop system with strategic check valves our concern for the 1.5 HP (up rated) pump being able to move the water was quickly retired as soon as we started the system. No problem. Great flow. The quality of the product was good. The unit was well designed, thought out and put together. The only moving part on the system was a GE electric motor that could be manually adjusted from low to medium to high speed. This would change the flow of the air over the heat exchanger. I came set on medium an after 5 years of messing with the speed it is now set on medium. We used their electronic control system which consisted to a electric control valve and an electronic controller that detected the temperature in the attic and the temperature of the pool water. If the attic got to be 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the pool water the unit would come on and stay on till the water got warmer than the set point. We had system on a time and regardless of how the system was set we turned the pool pump off at 11PM and on at 9AM In 2015 we sold that house and the solar attic system went along with it. Our new home has a slightly smaller pool and an electric heat pump from heat siphon(325Kbtu) system. We are thinking of installing a solar attic PCS3 in conjunction with the electric heat pump. The cost to run the PCS3 is about $10 per month for the GE Fan motor. My electric bill for the Heat Siphon is $300 plus per month. As I am writing this the time is 2:36P EST in Atlanta Georiga. The outside temperature is 73F Degrees and the attic Temperature is 105F. At this rate we would have in our house that had the Solar attic system have turned the system on at this point. This would have started the heating process. Unlike electric or gas systems where the heat will start immediately the solar attic system will raise the temperature however this is over a period of time. If you installed a solar attic system in July and started it up on July 4th you probably would not see the water temperature rise quickly. I would say it would talk a week or more to bring the temperature to its set point. My current pool is a free form pebble tec with about 15,000 gals of water. With a solar attic system if it operates as my last system did I will have the largest hottub in the north Atlanta are. It can and will bring the water temperature to 95 degrees. My wife likes warm water. As I see it the biggest draw back is the price. If the system were priced in the $2000 range, for the basic system and $2500 range for the full electronic system this would be a product everyone would have like a salt system or LED lighting. A $2000 adder to you Aquilink system is small dollars with a great reward.

"The trust is over $1 million. Will this invite a closer look at the 1031 portion? When you say the estate will pay taxes due, are capital gains on this property part of what's due? (Because the title changes?)" Estate taxes are not the same as capitol gains. They are a separate part of the IRS code. I have not had to deal with estate taxes in about 5 years, and there have been some changes. The estate will pay taxes on the fair market value of the assets. The 'no tax' value for 2009 is up to $3.5 million. "I'm happy to think that the 1031 property can go on and on, with DS holding or buying and selling but never paying capital gains on that miniscule basis, but...isn't that too good to be true?" The estate will pay taxes on the assets and the cost basis carried forward will be the fair market value that the estate tax was based on. You should talk with an attorney experienced with estates and trusts. There are a lot of pitfalls and planning can reduce (or even eliminate) some of the taxes along the way. Here is a link that might be useful: IRS Estate tax info

Livnlife I admire you for tackling such a small ball and I love it with the iridescent glass background. Eklypz, I can't believe this is your first Van Gogh glass!!! Diamondjennie, your ball looks so dainty and elegant. Flagtruck, using cup handles to make a built in stand for that gorgeous ball, was absolutely brilliant!!! Ahem...I can't believe that the person who ran this exchange and told everyone to make sure they took a picture of their ball before they sent it, failed to do that with their own ball and is going to make us all wait anxiuosly for Momof3 to find her camera! LOL Hey momof3...did you find that camera yet? Barb