2) but it flocculated the dissolved solids from the water in the collection buckets too, leaving semi-clear water with a bunch of snowflakes on the bottom. Do you think that lime adversely affected the worms? Caused floculant to form??? Very interesting. Means unequivocally that something in the the leachate reacted chemically with the lime. It quickly ends the anaerobic smell, so I suspect that whatever organisms were making use of those sour conditions may be impacted. I don't want sour conditions in my bin though. I haven't limed my bin in a long time, but as far as I remember, the worms looked more active after the liming. I got the idea to lime the bin when I read that worms breed more in bins with higher available calcium, and the first thing lime does when it hits water is separate from its calcium ion. I suspect the snowflakes are a result of unspent calcium ions attracting any molecule with a negative charge, becoming heavier than water, and sinking. Since acids have negative charges, flocculation may be the visual evidence of excessive pH buffering. The problem with using too much lime in the bin is that the plants I used the juice on gained symptoms of high pH nutrient lockout. I was in a sort of "lime is cool" phase at the time, and also limed the plants directly though, so I ended up with double too much lime. I don't recall miraculous plant performance before I limed the bin either, but with the extra calcium I did notice increased leaf durability on my trees. The Japanese beetles around here need dentures now. I apparently didn't harm the worms as much as the plants in that period of time. It should be noted that the active ingredient in lime is calcium carbonate, which is in nearly every sip of water you've ever drank, and is in most food products and vegetables. It is quite safe, but potent. Don't use too much, less is more, etc.. 5) some dry leaves I put in the first summer never broke down. AMEN to that! A lesson I have learned. I think the leaves need some kind of forest fungus to prepare them for worms to eat. I have some packets of ZHO, but never had the guts to put them in the bin... probably a scam anyway. I have found that worms will become highly active in the top layers if I put fine wood chips on top. They seem to respond well to fresh or old chips. The dominant (observed) mushroom that grows in my bin seems to be a white inky cap mushroom. It seems to bloom excessively in response to fresh grass inputs, but will also bloom in its absence.

Lots of good ideas here. Thanks! Joann - thanks for the picture. That is what I was envisioning, but I like having an example. I never considered green as the main wall color, but I like the idea. I'll have to find a subtle green though. I don't want the color to be too loud. I love the image of the stripes provided by dawnp. That is very do-able for me. I will involve my son in the selection, after I've narrowed down the choices. He picked the bedding, but has told me that he wants rainbow walls (not gonna happen!). I think he'll like the stripes in the example from dawnp. Maybe I can find some nice tans and greens for the colors. Les - we originally had the furniture as you suggested, but when you entered the room the edge of the chest made it feel blocked. But I do like the idea of creating a space in the corner for activities. Once we paint I'll play with the furniture arrangement again. Maybe it would be better if I placed the chest against the wall to the left of the table, rather than on an angle. What do you think? I'm on the hunt for a small book shelf. I'll also look at removable decals that would be fun for the next few years, but can be removed as he gets older. I'll look at shagreen once I find my samples. Thanks bestyears. This is why I love this forum! I've been looking at his room for a year now without any direction. Now I have it! Thank you everyone. I'll keep checking back in case anyone else has further ideas or opinions.

Mat, yeah I have 2018 and 2019 to write up. I have all my notes. Just have to find time. I checked out Pepiniere casse noisette website. They do not list their rootstocks anywhere that I can find. What rootstocks are your pears, peaches, apricots on? Honestly, a lot of what they are selling, at least in apricots, peach, nectarines seem to me to be VERY marginal for their climate. In many case they mention useful for growing in pots but if that is the case how are they propagating for sale? I don't want to disparage them without information but my impression is they might be reselling . You absolutely need to be buying based upon root-stock. For apples I am not only buying on Bud118 as it has best cold hardiness and is vigorus for our short seasons - Bud9 is just too slow. Train and prune to keep the size you want. Pears on OHxF87 or 97 and prune/train. I have found PAW-PAWs to be marginal in 4b - still 3' tall after 5+ years. Blueberries don't like my soil so Haskasps and Currants are much better. You have better options than Indigo Gem, Aurora is good though. Pink Lemonade is like a zone 5/6 plant, I see little chance of it surviving. Both Whiffletree and vigneschezsoi are good options. Be aware that a 1-2 year old bare root grape vine will bear fruit 1-2 years faster than the same year rooted cuttings you will get from vigneschezsoi. If you are only buying a couple might want to spend a couple extra $$ to get fruit a whole year or 2 earlier. Somerset and Trolhaugen are good. Had a couple Brianna this year, not enough to really say. Get Bluebell as well. I suggest 10-15' between vines. Can go closer but I am of the hack back 90% every year and then let grow. Trollhaugen can put out 12-15' of growth in 1 year alone - plant closer and you have to keep on top of canopy thinning to avoid overgrowth. Apples and pears will benefit from bagging with ziplocs. Grapes I bag with Organza bags when starting to turn color. So far I am loosing 99% of stone fruit (plums) to plum curlico and the rest to birds/racoons (can't bag plums - they rot). All peaches die. Trying apricots but no fruit yet. Don't get too caught up on types of fruit. Buy something disease resistant on a hardy, vigorus rootstock then topwork as you get enough branch structure. You will then be able to test fruit to see what you like or not within 3 years of grafting. My crabapple is now up to 65+ different apples grafted to it.

The Serial number of the unit in question doesn't lie, but those offering up excuses after the fact probably will. Either to save their own face, soothe your feelings or a little of both. Bigger companies with ample warehouse space often times buy up large quantities of equipment. America is currently built by selling as much of a particular item all at once instead of 'one at a time'. They do this because they marginally get better prices than buying just one thing at a time. Why every time you see an infomercial selling something they tell you can get 2 for the price of 1, for an additional fee. You buy in bulk and you get a marginally better price for buying more. However, this isn't as great as it seems when it comes to HVAC equipment & warranty related trouble. The more space you have the more over head you have so unless you are actually moving the equipment (which often times does not occur) you wind up with a warehouse full of old equipment. Hopefully this doesn't mean used or some other situation. Plus on top of all that taxes on that in stock equipment take a good bite out of what kind of deal they think they are getting by buying in bulk. If they are moving the equipment (only then) does it work. People see this type of thing a mile away... (when it becomes all about selling new equipment) then everything and any thing becomes a case for replacing the equipment instead of repairing it. While true the warranty would still be valid, in theory you can read any manufacturer warranty fine print and 'if' a start up date can not be determined said manufacturer will only give you probably not more than 90 days from the date code within the serial number. It might be as little as 60 days from the date code. So as an example: if the unit was made in April 2015, was properly registered and installed in 2019 the recorded time is in the hands of manufacturer and their validation systems. If you lose that start up paper work, you could get swindled out of it. Because the serial number doesn't lie, that is why. If the unit was not registered and installed in 2019 the warranty is reduced to 5 years which should be 2024, but because the serial number doesn't lie and there is no record of when the install occurred other than paper work. Well this is how people lose. Under this possible scenario the unit would be out of warranty by the end of this month. (Unit made in 2015, installed in 2019 and not registered... good luck trying to get that honored by Carrier. I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole.) Due to the serial number, they would likely claim you are lying. Carrier equipment is a pain to do any warranty claim for. So the odds are you lose, by default. This is how it works from someone who actually files warranty claims on equipment failures. Circa 2020. I buy equipment only after you put a deposit on it... in most cases 99% of the time it is fresh off the factory floor. On rare occasion it might be 1.5 years old. Meaning instead of current year, it's previous year made. I service the Katy, Texas area.