I don't know how frequently bat-houses get used, but a co-worker had success with his, so I thought I'd give it try. I live close to water in a mixed agricultural rural area. Supposedly ideal bat territory. I bought the largest model from the bat conservation people but after a year and a half, no takers. I know there are at least a few bats in the area, probably many if I had to venture a guess, I just hardly ever see them. I will be moving the bat house soon and hoping for better results.

You'll get as many opinions as there are people viewing this post. IMHO, Forget a tractor mounted unit, cost of (larger or GT) tractor+cost of wheel weights+cost of chains and finally cost of the tractor mounted snow blower. I'm guessing $4500+ for a "decent" unit. Since you're not cutting grass, tilling a garden, dragging around a garden cart, etc. the unit will sit in your garage. Finally, it snows and you discover the battery is dead, ethanol in the gas has caused fuel circuit issues, etc. etc. I'd get a walk behind, they offer electric start (plug into an electric outlet) with a back up recoil (manual) start. They're set up to start and run at below freezing temps, which tractors sometimes need a little "persuasion" to do. Ethanol gas issues can be offset by adding fuel stabilizer to the gas which will keep the ethanol under control all winter. Next spring, siphon the gas out, put it in your vehicle, run the snow blower engine dry and repeat the next fall. You can do the same thing with a tractor, however it's .75 gallon vs 5 gallons. I didn't notice, is your driveway paved or gravel? The slope mentioned would probably be easier to handle with a walk behind, going back up you might not be able to take the full width or swath, but at least half. You can get chains for a snowblower, just google tire chains. Another consideration with a tractor is weight distribution, the engine and snow blower are hanging off the front. The drive wheels which provide traction are on the back and the only weight would be you and the wheel weights, you might have to add additional "suitcase" weights back there to be able to move. With that slope, a tractor will tend to slide, particuarly if there's freezing going on. You'll find you're off the paved or graveled drive and be doing some digging and trying to find someone with a 4WD to drag it out and hope nothing gets bent or damaged in the process. I have a 1800 feet gravel drive with probably a 100 foot rise overall. Usual snow I use a 26HP GT with blade, weights and chains which does well. Occasionally we have 3-4 foot drifts in one spot and then I get out the walkbehind with drift cutters for that. You don't have a good application for either option, but I think the walkbehind would be the better, not ideal, but better option. Also, since you won't be doing your own servicing, tractors are much more expensive to service, particuarly when you consider hauling them back and forth. The good news is, now is the time to year to start looking around for something left over from last year. I got the snowblower for $350 off buyng it in June. Good luck, Ev

A very light solution of muriatic acid and water-10% acid at most. Scrub with a brush. This may also efflorescence, a migration of salt to the surface from mortars and the like in tile, stone, etc... The salt comes to the surface via water, the water evaporates and leaves the salt deposits. This is very common on pool tile. Unfortunately, it's a constant maintenance issue.

@Yardvaark It's my partner's house. I don't think he thought this through to the very end when he started. His only goal was the "cut back the hill for more flat lawn in the back and use the sand to make the lawn level up front". I can take more pics when I'm there next time. I wish I had before pics so you could see the difference. This used to be a very closed-in mostly grassless pine and hemlock grove with a house plopped down on the edge of it. There were trees everywhere, very little sun reached the back (west) or side (north) of the house. Once he got the trees removed (some of the big 100-200 yr old pines were professionally removed, but we've done the hemlocks ourselves), the grass started growing, and once he saw he could have a real lawn, he hasn't stopping digging and moving the sand around. It started as digging out the stumps, and it's been non-stop digging anything that can be dug and spreading the sand in other places for over 4 years. It's only now that he's gotten close to the line of driveway reflectors that he used to mark where he wanted to stop digging back to that he's considered that a sheer drop off of sand under an azalea that is floating at eye level (with roots sticking out at chest level) isn't going to be easy to landscape. He saved the last couple of Hemlock trunks we took down so he has 6-7' logs he can possibly use to make a retaining wall, but I'm getting the twitchy (skeptical) eye looking at them. I'll take better pics next time I'm there. It's truly a landscaping nightmare. He will not invest much money into landscaping. It took 5 years of deliberation to buy the birch trees he'd wanted all that time, and only then because they were discounted at the end of the season (the road is called Birch Lane). He refuses to buy any annuals (waste of money, he says). Perennials need to be 95% sure to survive and come back, so he will only buy 1 or 2 plants a year until he's sure it will come back (so creeping phlox, virginia spiderwort, chives, chocolate mint, periwinkle (which is invasive but he doesn't care), hostas, solomon's seal, lily of the valley, azaleas, rhododendrons, maidenhair ferns, lilacs, and day lilies are the only proven plants so far - most of them shade plants and he's reducing the shade more and more). The exception is if I can find it for free (like on freecycle) and the western red cedars he planted for privacy screening after we removed the hemlocks from the back. Something that can be started from seed would be great since seed is cheap, I can just buy it for him and he's not stressed out about wasting his money on things that won't be successful - with a caveat that he's also reluctant to water things as much as they really need because "water isn't free". So, that's what I'm working with, and I admit I am pretty over my head right now because I have no idea how to deal with the sand. The erosion problem is, in my mind, a serious one, but apparently the town doesn't mind that part of his hill (in the front, the road frontage, not back here where this project is) washes out into the road when it rains hard, so we're concentrating on making the back yard nicer since the front hill is basically impossible to fix without a huge investment in retaining wall (which he will not do - he already invested $30,000 in replacing the windows and he doesn't plan to keep this house since it is just his first starter home). I'll get more pics!