Toofast, I'm over to the other side of London,Ontario, so not so far from you and our winters are much the same. I don't run the main pumps over winter, I'm wary of ice dams being created and water being diverted away from the pond. I shut the waterfall and statuary pumps off for the winter, but, because of where my bottom drain sump is located,I run a small 500 GPH pump all winter to circulate the pond water and create a vent opening in the ice. The 500 GPH pump is located in the 50 gallon bottom drain sump, and pumps water through a 1/2" hose to the pond, where it keeps the surface water moving and allows for gas exchange. I have a 1200 watt deicer as a stand by in case of pump failure. I also totally cover my ponds over, first with a leaf net for a month or so, then with a translucent tarpaulin supported on a frame, for the winter months. That keeps the cold winds from blowing across the water surface. Your plan to use an aerator and a small deicer, with your large wattage deicer as a stand-by sounds great to me. As far as keeping your pump in a bucket of water, there is no need to do that, as mag pumps,unlike oil filled pumps do not have seals that will crack, if they are allowed to dry up over winter. But that is up to you. March would be a tad too early for start up,I should think. I push the envelope a bit by getting going at the beginning of April. And that is dependent on weather conditions. The main clean out the pond, I do in the Fall, rather than in the Spring. That way I'm not stirring up the "nasties" from the bottom of the pond, when the fish are still very susceptible to disease after going through a hard winter. You mention a check valve "sticking out of the water". As long as it is not filled with water, that could freeze and cause the valve to split open, it should be okay. If you could remove it and take it apart for cleaning and then store it, that would be a safer solution. Check valves should be cleaned out at least once a year, as the are a real collector of gunk and that can cause them to stick open or closed. The same goes for your pump. Take the impeller cover off and clean it out before storing for winter, whether it is kept in water or not. The gunk inside the pump can [and will] set up like cement over winter and cause the pump to overheat and possibly burn out when you try to use it next Spring. Hope this helps. "Horton"

I have used both Crown Point and Wood-Mode for projects and they both make good solid cabinets. Crown Point is a smaller company than Woodmode. I have now found a small company in Chicago that has earned my business, "Best Cabinets". Best Cabinets is a small custom manufacturer of custom cabinets and custom furniture. They own their own Sawmill and Kilns and have very good quality. They Bookmatch and sequece match their lumber for better quality than many of the larger companies. Also, the construction of their cabinets is supurb. There standard drawer boxes are Solid Maple Dovetailed and they install a Walnut Face to their drawer box which looks awesome. They build Inset, Framed and Frameless Cabinets. All 3/4" Maple Plywood Construction for their cases. They will custom match any paint or stain color for "no extra charge". They will "measure" and or "install" anywhere in the USA. They hand deliver all their cabinets in a blanket wrapped truck anywhere in the US. I like their hinges better than "Crown Points" and the Quality of the cabinets seems better than Wood-Mode. They are also great at servicing clients both locally and out of state. They have award winning designers and one of their kitchens was just selected for the front cover of a National Magazine, "Signature Kitchens & Baths".(Winter 2011) Here is a link that might be useful: custom kitchens

I am also in the process of redoing my kitchen, and I'm having the same problem trying to decide between Nordic white and bright white in Brookhaven Edgemont. What did you finally decide, and are you happy with it? We are in the process of installing Brookhaven bright white cabinets in our beach house. We were initially going to do nordic white, but our trim is BM distant gray, which is a very crisp white and the nordic white looked dingy next to it. I was really nervous that the bright white would have blue undertones but in our space, it doesn't. Having said that, we're going for a cooler palette...gray stained oak floors, BM sea salt walls, colonial white granite. If you want warmer tones, nordic white would be better. Hope this helps.

Your trenched in bottom fence sounds like some serious work. I would still suggest that you might want to try for an electrified fence. There are some serious heavy wired cable that can be used instead of the standard fine wire if one wanted to pull the wires extra highly tensioned. I just use regular wire every couple feet up to 9' high. I am now using four foot posts and extending the height with rebar. 12' corner posts aren't that expensive and would look better. The regular fine wire is not all that visable. The deer certainly respect the hot fence. I am so lazy and originally had wires very close to the ground where they could get shorted out. That sometimes led to a non-working fence for extended periods and I would find deer hanging out in the garden. Similar failures were from wires landing on rabbit fence like your plan and that led to immediate shorts.