Watermelons! I never would have thought they could bother those. I am surprised they aren't eating your wife's tomatoes. Maybe the hot peppers being next to the tomatoes is deterring them. I did try making a garlic and hot pepper solution that I sprayed on the onions and soil. I think it worked for a day or two, but after that the voles were back at the onions. They are eating my onions, potatoes, and asparagus. I expect they will get into the sweet potatoes too. I never expected anything to want to eat the onions, that one surprised me!

I planted Sea Holly from seed, thought it looked nice in the picture, and of course, the name, Sea Holly, sounded nice. I was standing near the flower bed where I had planted it, one day, and I thought, did an animal die under my giant hosta, or something? Couldn't figure it out, until I finally went over and smelt the Sea holly, OMG, it really stunk. And it's not that pretty either, I'll soon be getting rid of it, I hope!

Model 3100-I -Late post- Well let me start by saying it is a very great heat producing unit. The Window doesn't go black; the new air flow design will clean the windows as it burns so glass cleaning is minimal... As far as air tight...HaHa Don't be fooled they are not. I don't think any are air tight. You need inside air for combustion thus making it not airtight.... Air can back draft down your pipe and back into the room. Making it smell/smoke... This is seen from running a dryer/bathroom fan/kitchen stove vent/furnace anything making negative pressure in your home. Only an outside air intake pipe and sealing off the bottom of this unit from the inside can make it airtight. So looking at it as air tight... Air from outside comes in a vent-helps burn the fire and goes back out the chimney.... Air from your room is sucked by 2 fans around/though the unit- heating up then back into your room...

Update on my experience. About two weeks ago I had my chimney cleaned and a "Lock Top" damper installed on the top of the chimney. This is a brand name, and it is installed with a sealing grout and has a heat resistant gasket such that when it is closed it seals like a well fit storm door, being closed by a pull chain hanging down the flue to the fireplace opening. The chimney person said my cement crown for three flues was badly cracked, some cracks as wide as his finger. He said he could get me a price to repair, but didn't know it that had anything to do with the problem. Then some rain came and the smell came back. As "Luck" would have it I also had an appointment with my roofer to replace a shingle the wind had blown off and to check my roof. I told him about the chimney cap and he said he could repair, they did it with a repair cement/plaster. That was three days ago and the smell is slowly going down, but we haven't had any rain yet either. I am hopeful that the repair of the "crown" will turn the table on the smell. I'd like to use the fireplace next winter once and a while, but I will not if we can't solve the smell problem. Yes, an airtight insert with a stainless steel liner with insulation mortar (or something like that) to fill in the space between the liner and the tiles would fix the problem, I'm told. This looks to be well over $3,000, maybe $4,000, a bit more than I'd like to spend for the joy of a warm hearth.