Albert, It sounds like you are describing a "soil moisture meter" alright. Some also have a switch to read soil pH & ambient light, and they don't even require batteries. For soil measurements, they use dissimilar metals in the probes and measure the electrical potential between them - very small levels of voltage/current. While you could experiment depending on the lowest range of your meter, you probably have to do a large sampling of measurements and create some sort of reference chart to interpret the results. Considering you can buy these soil moisture meters from home-improvement stores in the garden department, for $5-10, I'd be more inclined to buy one!

Yes, jerzeegirl. I tend to kneejerk negatively against the whole term "out-dated". I think the bones of the house should dictate whether you go more traditional, modern, cottage, farmhouse, industrial, etc. To me, if the general style fits the style of the home, you're golden for decades. Of course, then your own personal tastes come into play as well. If you combine those well, I think a kitchen should stand the test of time quite well. I've been in homes with 80 year old kitchens that look fantastic. Sure, there may have been appliance updates and other tweaks over the years but if the original materials were good enough quality to still be in good condition and, of course, the layout is functional, and it suits the home and owner's tastes, why update just because of trends and fads? Of course, if the kitchen is crumbling or has a dysfunctional layout, go ahead and remodel but choose items that fit the house. Of course, I'm assuming here that someone bought that Victorian because they appreciate that style of architecture and so their tastes will match up with the types of kitchens that should be in a Victorian or Cape Cod, or Tudor or Ranch or MCM or whatever. When I say this I'm not really speaking about appliances. An electric stove with coil burners might be age appropriate to most homes but I doubt any of us lust for one of those anymore. And the last time we had this discussion, someone popped in with amazingly modern kitchens put into centuries old European buildings. OK, that contrast was striking and those types of structures were never built with any kind of kitchen as we know it today. so I'm not talking about those kinds of extreme situations. Getting back to farmhouse sinks, whether it's a good choice for a particular kitchen depends on the style of the kitchen and the owner's taste. And in 20-30 years when you redo your kitchen or someone buys your home and remodels, the farmhouse sink may stay or go. Don't worry about it. Do what you like and works for you and your kitchen's style.

another test @Nicholas Robinson

Very happy. Mine arrived on Monday from QVC after ordering on Thursday evening. That’s fast! It came with about a 40% charge. I really like it so far, but I haven’t really tested it much except to run it around the house on Eco and Auto mode to get a feel for it. It was much quieter than my old one in those 2 modes. I doubt I will use boost mode much, but maybe so with a couple of attachments. The housekeepers were coming today so I’m sure I will be using more later.