Your site by the retaining wall and among the groundcover sounds pretty ideal for daffodils and arum. Daffodils like full sun while they are above ground (your tree will be bare of leaves then). They don't mind the shade during the summer, because they are dormant under the ground. You need to know that Arum Italicum Pictum is grown primarily for its beautiful, white veined foliage in the winter. The flowers are brief and not especially showy. It goes dormant, completely disappearing, shortly after blooming in the spring. A seed stalk appears in late summer to early fall that has bright red berries, followed by the big leaves that last all winter. I love it. I am NOT certain it would be winter hardy for you. I'm also not certain the leaves would be tall enough to show through your ground cover. The bulbs are not cheap, so be sure you know before you order them. You will have no problem finding white and orange daffodils. I cannot recommend varieties for you since you are so much farther north than I am, but this information shouldn't be hard to find. A free source would be your local Cooperative Extension Agent, or the website of an agriculture university in your state. When you choose the right kinds of daffodils, they will "naturalize", which means not only do they return faithfully year after year, but they multiply, so you have more and more of them with each passing year. You can let them clump up, or, you can dig them up every so often, break the bulbs apart and replant them. When you are just starting out, try to plant at least fifty. More is better. Don't plant them in straight rows, and don't spread them out too far. Plant them in groups of at least 5 to 7 bulbs, about six inches apart. After they bloom, LEAVE THE FOLIAGE ALONE. It needs to grow for a couple more months or three, so that the leaves can feed the bulbs underground and form the baby blooms for the next year. This is why the groundcover idea is so good. The dying foliage will be much less noticeable. There are many reputable bulb dealers. I use Brent and Beckys alot, plus McClure and Zimmerman. Old House Gardens has varieties that can be extremely difficult to find. They are also extremely expensive. Always see if you can find what they have somewhere else before you ante up. (You can find at least some of what they carry other places. And for MUCH less $.) You can also buy bulbs very inexpensively at Wal-Mart and their kin in the fall. As long as you know what varieties are good in your area, there's no reason not to. You will save a good bit of money, although mail order bulbs are usually larger. REad up on when your best planting time is, and buy your bulbs as close to that time as possible. Early is always better than late. Your bulbs will be fresher. Watch this forum come fall. There is always alot of activity as people swap information and advice on good varieties and good companies. I expect that people in your zone start planting bulbs in September or October.

Sandy, Some ramblings FWIW... Just because these folks are going through the USDA APHIS permit process to obtain the leps doesn't mean that the USDA knows what they are doing with them, or would approve of it. The USDA has specific guidelines for leps that are used for public display. From what you've posted I doubt they are following them (at least not the requirements for an approved facility with public access). A search of the APHIS web site will direct you to those requirements if you want to compare them to what they are doing. As suggested a call to your local USDA would put the ball in their court to check it out. As for the livestock being wild collected instead of specifically reared for this purpose, good luck. Very few countries are governed with specific regulations like we are, and even if they do have regs in place they don't police them. With the increase in value of lepidoptera to collectors (some species bring sevral hundreds of dollars or more per specimen), many people in foreign countries make 100% of or at least subsidize their income by collecting wild leps and selling them to anybody who will pay the price. Even our own US Customs is a joke when it comes to lepidoptera as most agents don't know the specific regs as they pertain to leps, and all of them are uneducated in the species determinations of leps. They simply go by the inventory on the import document, and if none of the species listed is on their list of protected species they will simply pass them through. I doubt they even take a head count to match even the number in the package against the permit. You mentioned Costa Rica as the source of many (most) of the species they have in this display. FWIW, customs in Costa Rica is a division of the countries Department of Treasury, so their main purpose is to collect taxes on imports into the country. I doubt they would pay much attention to a non commercial package shipping out of their country. And like our own customs their agents probably have no clue about lepidoptera anyway. Way back when I actively did foreign species they were governed by our US Fish and Wildlife Department's Law Enforcements Division. They had very specific regulations for the import/export of lepidoptera that included all the "acts" to protect them (ESA, CITES, Lacy Act, etc). Even so as long as a package contained an approved import/export permit our customs portals would pass them through without question, even if the species were mislabeled or had been collected illegally, and it mattered not if they were papered adults or livestock. So the introduction of an invasive species was not a concern of customs. Has the USDA improved on the system? I doubt it, because it still comes down to the knowledge of the specific regs and species recognition of the customs agent who processes it at our customs portals. Selling leps is a big business worldwide. Is it exploiting a natural resource? It depends on if they are coming from wild collecting or from butterfly farms IMO. If wild collected stock is being sold for profit, yes IMO. If reared from pairings of farm raised adults specifically to sell that's not exploitation IMO. Are "legal" living butterfly exhibits exploiting a natural resource either way? Yes they are in the sense that a zoo does the exact same things. Only you can decide for yourself if the educational good of either out weighs the bad. Larry

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that the output of the proposed furnace will be less than that of the current Trane furnace? I notice on the carrier website that the Infinity 80 (which I think is what the #58CVA070-12 is) is not Energy Star certified and does not have a media filter cabinet. Is this important? It seems like most people think it is better to change everything at once. If I do pay $2,000 more to change out the furnace for the Carrier, it is only $450 more to upgrade to the two stage Infinity 17 AC (#24ANB724) or $1,250 to upgrade to the Infinity 21 (#24ANB124). Are they basically the same, but one has a higher SEER? I would probably go with the Infinity 17 if that was the only difference.

Well of all things. I, too, thought you were wrapped up in all your projects. I think of you soooo often. So glad to read that you are back at work/play, and w/the determination and drive you have, it won't be long until we see that wall covered. Yes, Mapei Ultra Flex 2 is my recommendation for the wall - for the adhesive and grout. I am still working on my brick workshop mosaic, little by little, and if I had it to do over, I'd thin-coat it in the mortar before mosaicing. It would be much easier. Your handyman can do that for you and leave the fun stuff for yourself. Mine offered but noooooooooo, I was too anxious to get started. The mapei sticks immediately, and I had very little taping to do to hold the larger pieces on. Sooooo glad to see you back.