We live in Columbus OH and while mowing our hay fields unfortunately hit a mother mallard who had built her nest in the hayfield. The 9 eggs were not damaged so I put them in an incubator. Nine days later, 8 of them hatched. They are now just 2 weeks old so I have a few more weeks with them. From what I have read on the internet, their instincts should take over and come Fall, they should fly South for the Winter as nature intended. For now, they are in a large blow up baby pool in our home office with another one just like it outside with shallow water in it for swimming. For now, I carry them to/from the house in a big box so they can play in the pool outside. I put a board in the pool so when they are ready they just walk up it and jump out of the pool. Since they have imprinted on me, they follow me around our yard foraging for bugs and whatever else they find of interest. Since the pool wont keep them contained for much longer (I dont want to come down one morning and find them all running around the office leaving their calling cards)we are in the process of modifying a 10x10 dog run in our backyard for them to move in to. We fashioned a floor from plywood so predators cannot dig underneath and get them and are putting on a "roof" along with a tarp to protect them from rain. We also put up a 2.5 foot barrier around the edge attached to the walls for extra protection. We will most likely put in some sort of "house" or box for them to get into at night for sleeping. The plan is as they start to grow their adult feathers and attempt flying we will allow them to come and go from the "coop" during the day at will and will lock them up at night for protection. Then, when it is time Im assuming they will leave. I bet they will come back next year though; hopefully. It would be nice to see them again and see how many were able to avoid the hunters.

abbysmom, I agree with your suspicion that the HOA is just messin' wit' you. What I would suggest is to find a contractor that will do the fence that you want which complies with the govt. code, arrange for installation, and have an atty draft a letter to the HOA (AND copy the state govt dept which oversees this) stating that "In compliance with state code blah blah blah, my client will be erecting a 5' tall (or whatever) pool fence." I also agree with the other poster who said to include in there that the HOA would be liable for legal fees and damages in the event you are found to be in the right. A $150-200 attorney-generated strongly-worded letter will hopefully make them back down without the need for litigation. What a bunch of morons. Perfect example of "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Your situation is exactly why we refuse to ever live in a subdivision. Best of luck to you, and keep us posted.

This is a common 'trick' for large loads like motors. By bringing out more of the motor windings from the stator the device can be used at more than one operating voltage. It increases the complexity of the windings though since they must be divided into appropriate sections and then the terminals made available. The same thing s done with motors designed for 120/240 V operation (not "high voltage" at all). It has littler to do with branch circuit wiring topology. You will notice we do not have 120 V bulbs and 60 V bulbs. This is what would be required to have some portion of alighting circuit in series and some portion in parallel. I personally do not do production wiring and use crimps for much at all. You will learn to dislike them when you start doing remodeling work and are no longer doing all 'new work'. I do charge extra when I am forced to deal with remodeling that has crimp connections. Simply cutting them off is often not an option since the remaining conductor length often then violates the minimum length required from the face of the junction box. I am sure it speeds up the 'production' installers though. Right now I have a house with a built in on one side of a wall, and a tile backsplash on the other in a kitchen. I need a couple new circuits for under-cabinet lighting. It looks like I will have to go through the back of the kitchen cabinets and fish upwards to the new junction boxes in the back of the upper cabinets. At least there are no crimps present in the boxes already containing some lighting switches.

Okay, great - hmm, I am wondering why it can't be used to ground both outlets, though. I'm reading that sentence as "a ground wire coming from (these sources) is permitted to be grounded to (the ground bar in the main panel). That is, I thought 250.130(c) primarily dealt with where it's OK to ground to, ie, the whole grounding-to-a-water-pipe debate that I don't want to get into, but you know what I mean. Certainly, if I was installing an all-new circuit, that's how I'd do it - pigtail into each outlet - so I'm not 100% sure why that's not OK here? It's fine if it really isn't okay - I'm only REALLY going to be using one of these outlets, but since they're so close and it would be so easy to connect both outlets to this ground wire, it's tempting, for future flexibility. Definitely since I don't think we have any real means of getting a new ground wire up to the second floor, at least until we maybe gut the bathroom! :) I'm going to go ahead and drill my holes in the studs and knock out the spot for the outlet, at least. It's exciting to get some progress!