A forest will choke out a thicket, I often recomend that fruit and nut trees be planted on purpose, so that we lock up carbon and produce food for ourselves, and chocke out the brush plants that are unpleasent to walk through. When you go on a hike along a tail it seems that you are always either bordered by clearing/lawn or by a thicket, but once you break through that thicket you can useually travle quite quickly and easily and have plenty of space to move about. The main reasonfor removing trees and brush historicly wasn't to make things more pleasent, it was to open up land for agricultural use. with a field we can grow staple cerial grains, or legumes, or use it as pasture for animals, while some trees may provide seasonal food for some critters it takes alot of work to survive off of them year round (and trust me when I say thing, willow does not taste that good) . Our modenr day lawns were not contrived from thin air, you need to look at were they came from to understand how they fit in. Lawns are popular mainly in the south (sure, lots of people like them, but in the south they are sick for them) the south had a large portion of its caucasian inhabitants come from scotland (the southern drawl is very closely related to the scots accent) in schotland they have huge green field that are kept down to a few inches all summer long, this is because there is alot of rain and people raise sheep. Now, in the south there isn't as much water in the summer, and there aren't as many sheep, but people still liked the look of home so a lawn with mowers and irrigation is what they came up with.

Mdashali the locking system on a lot of these real flimsy products is horrible. Get you a product that locks more like a laminate. Core Tec ,happy feet,shaw florte ,smart core are the products I've seen even ordered the core Tec for my own mothers house.

Yes, they had to sand it lightly and then carefully remove all dust and residue. I don’t get why you are buying this flooring to begin with though. I would never have bought it if I had known how poor the finish was and that the company didn’t care or stand behind their product. In the end, we spent much more than we would have if we had just bought a better product. There are quality wood and engineered floors out there. Why don’t you give them your business? I posted my experinece so that people could learn from my mistakes, not repeat them. 🙁

I'm with you, +oM. It's a huge pleasure to watch a woods fill in and change over the years. Our woods burnt in '45, and 10 years later, my dad took me planting acorns. At that time, there was a lot of assorted popple, white spruce and balsam fir (Var, my Dad called it). Over time the dog berries (mountain ash), red spruce and white birch came in. The tamarack had survived in the wet spots the fire had not burned. Wasn't long till some of the tiny red maples started to get big enough to be noticeable, and the acorns had become trees big enough to mast. The squirrels planted oaks all over the place. Bog birch showed up recently. Beech came in, probably via the squirrels and jays, from the seed source across the road. I mouse guard them when I find them. The elms lining the brook caught the DED, and most died...not all though. I am planting more elms too, from local survivor elms that have either not been exposed to the dutch elm disease, or survived it. I have planted american chestnut, and soon they will be old enough to mast too, and the wildlife will spread them too. One year I dumped a bucket of acorns in the path, and the squirrels had a planting party. There are red oaks all along the paths, none more than 50 or 100 feet from the paths. Some of those are over 20 feet now. The grouse have come back, and the eagles. It's a lot of fun.