The lily beetle is alive and kicking in the Calgary area. I was already battling them last year, and this year they are again proving to be very destructive. In my experience the beetles do not go all the way to the top of the plant without chewing up the leaves from the bottom up first. So I don't think your problem is the lily beetle. Since the lily beetle is alive in Manitoba and Alberta I don't see how it would have skipped Saskatchewan. I think that some areas have more trouble than others though. In my garden only one of my lily areas have the lily beetle and not the other. Go figure? I have been dilligently picking and drowning both the adults when they first appeared and now the disgusting slug looking young ones. I hope you never get them.

I'm having a very similar issue with my floor tiles. My builder stated that a tiler was unavailable during the construction of my house and said that his builder will do my tiling. He reasurred me that he was very good. Well job is done and there is lipping everywhere. He has tried to replace the worst ones (6 tiles.. making no difference) and regrouted everything but I'm still not happy. I haven't tried the card test yet but I will. He just keeps telling me "my tiles may even be worse then these, they are within standards" (he does not have polished porcelain with a rectified edge!) Its also the reflection that bothers me. I had an expectation that any reflection should be almost mirror image, but my reflections seem to jump all over the place, which is what alerted me to the lipping in the first place. Is this normal?? Do I have an unreal expectation that he should rip them up and start again? They are not all bad, but by replacing one, I feel it will cause lipping to the one next to it etc. Please help :( I dont know what I should accept and what I have a right to demand.

It sounds like the tree will be all right then. Thanks for posting the link as it was an interesting read. As with toronado3800, my eyes were drawn straight away to all the mulch under the canopy of the tree. I don't think it's leaf mulch though. Looks like the kind of stuff that is bought, rather than accumulated or even collected. (I myself am a leaf collector.) It is just a guess but I would suggest that the oak doesn't think much of the mulch.

I'm not a big fan of oversizing the coil to increase SEER (that's why they do it) as it actually impairs dehumidification. It's not necessarily done to increase SEER, but to reach the rating that AHRI matches the equipment to. Ironically, this rating is just a number that if you use a certain set of equipment parts and pieces you 'should' hit the SEER number. It doesn't mean you 'will' hit the number, because proper installation is always the elusive variant. No matter how much or how little you want to realize this fact. A nice pretty install picture doesn't mean the system was 'installed properly'. But people, God bless them, don't look at things this way. They say 'company A' uses xyz brand and 'company B' uses xyz brand so it's the same brand so the outcome will be the same as in a 'properly installed HVAC system'. However, it doesn't work this way in the real world. You're not buying a toaster. Having a larger coil does not necessarily hurt dehumidification either. The whole purpose of dehumidification is removal of water from the air. A larger coil has more surface area in which to ring moisture from the air. BUT, the difference is proper to improper. As if there are condensate draining problems with the said coil, it can reintroduce the condensate (humidity) from the air that was removed back into the air from whence it came. So if this thread is good for anything, it's to show that what I mention repeatedly about 'proper' versus 'improper' goes much farther than most people understand. ---------------------------------------------- Deb, hopefully this time you get what you paid for. Good luck.