PART I "I said, you are about to hurt yourself silly. And don't forget your necklace on the way out." I turned around, startled "Huh?... What??" I sorta said out loud to the chilly, golden light of the early Spring morning. I wasn't aware that a tree could sigh and speak in the same moment of time, but I experienced it in this way. "You're sweet, but go home to your kid and make yourself a nice cuppa joe, cuz It's not gonna happen". Just then, the 20 year old, 7 foot tall , Contorted Filbert Tree did it's best Guido - "ForGEHT about it". As my thoughts scrambled to present a solution, it became clearer to me while I dug a radial trench around the drip line . The careful work of my shovel was revealing a 2" thick root system, and I thought, the answer to today's transplant/relocation endeavor might be; "Damn. You're right. I know your probably right. I need to take a break and think about this. I'll be back in an hour. Don't go anywhere..." "If you say so..." "But believe you me, when I tell you, I'm not going anywhere today." Three yellow finches flitted as they merged within the inner canopy of this otherworldly specimen, this magnificent Hazelnut, who's future was on the chopping block of it's existence. The new home owner's botanical sentiments being, "Curly whatever's just not our thing, ya know? " No. I didn't "know". "We want it gone because we are going to put in a fabulous stone stairway from our front door to the sidewalk, and that helps keep the carpets cleaner." I literally bit my tongue and flinched from the pain. I needed a quick mantra before my tongue recovered enough for ego to make a bigger mess than this pile of dirt I'd been digging up. "Focus on the tree, the tree is your focus. Focus on the tree, the tree is your focus." How do you make it your goal to stay in the good graces of someone you don't agree with or hold respect for? By remembering they are you. If I pick this battle, I am jousting with an aspect of myself, albeit one I may have grown away from. Somewhere in my shadow is the quality of preferring nice carpets over sacred old growth trees. Not today. Invoke love, not ego's spite - thoughts of being better for experiencing reverence for this living symbol of life's bridge between worlds. I did some affirmative nodding while projecting a thoughtful countenance and said, "Yes, yes. Let me see what I can do - the root ball is getting a good soak, so I'll be back in a bit with some help". I left with my necklace still dangling on one of the tree's lower limbs. Earlier that morning, when I first arrived, I offered my respects and sought the tree's permission for the task at hand, offering a bit of brown bread and ale, and hung my stone on it's branch as a calling card. Now, I kinda felt silly for the whole thing, because I could have just asked. Who knew? Wood could talk. PART II When I returned to the site, it was not with help and it was not with cakes and ale and a reverent attitude. I plopped down under the branches atop a large, well established ground root, which had surfaced itself long ago into just the right shape to keep my backside from slipping off down the slight decline of the current landscape. A landscape scheduled, soon, for sheer destruction. A little flock of purple Crocus shuddered together in unison, causing a usually cheerful patch of Forget Me Nots to worry that their namesake would be for naught. "Pull up a chair. Talk to me". Why did I get the feeling I was the one being comforted? I was curious about the calm demeanor emanating from this non-human entity in the face of it's hingey future. I thought about this Filbert Tree being felled for selfish, cosmetic purposes. "..but, you're so beautiful... you're - so beautiful", was all the internal language I could come up with. Could I really get teary over this? "Hey, I brought espresso, biscotti, pears, and a cheese c.., canna, cannelloni." I said, in a morning-breakfast-picnic-voice. "Would you care for any?" In the original draft of this writing, the spell checker went off on me as I typed this last line, listing the goodies. So did the tree, right then. "Holly Saint Julian, no, It's, ... CAHN-uh-LOWWW-nee. Bees-CAA-tee." "What do you know of St. Julian?" I asked, between cookie bites. And without saying so, I understood the tree to take it's coffee with 4 packs of sugar, and that the Finch Clan would have a bit of the ricotta filling from my pastry-pronunciation-disaster. "She was a dancer." Right, no. I was expecting anything but that misinformed answer. But, to remain respectful, here...I responded in the least patronizing tone possible, "Okay, - really? She danced?" "Yup. That is just exactly what I originally meant to say. She- was- a -dancer. And, she IS the patron Saint of all things Hazel." Okay. I thought, now I'm talking to a Catholic tree. Maybe the original owners of the property were Italian Roman Catholics, which could then do my needy, pitiful, Gemini mind a favor, and throw me a bone. That info could wrap me up one clean, tidy, logical explanation of this Goodfella sounding Filbert with it's East Coast pizza-pie accent. So I asked. " I was wondering about the other family, if they....." "Nope. Not even close. And no cigars from Cuba, either. Atheists. They was both of them math teachers, no time for the Who-What-When-Wheres & Whys of 'Thee Uni-verse'." Awesome. At this point, I just wanted to munch on my pear for a minute, and process my head. I flashed to the other night, in my son's room, helping him with his homework. "Mom, do you hear that?" "Hear What?" I said. "That really fast piano music, like a chase scene in a cartoon?" He explained. "You don't hear it?" He was asking, worriedly. I said, "Well....not right this minute, but if you give me a chance I might hear it..." His eyes started to water up as he asked, "Mom, am I crazy for hearing music by myself?" I said, "Not even a little. I think you are ready for piano lessons, that's all." I promised him, "Hey, everyone in the world hears someone saying their name just before they doze off. Just ask around. Its very, very, common." I thought, now would not be the time to share with him about these tree talks. Later, for that. So, I took another bite of pear. "Yup. A- tee-yests." ...cont'd (c) E. Wyndrose

KYgirl - you didn't read my post in the spirit it was intended. Yes things happen that we don't like along the way. But it is always a good thing to realize that it is not the end of the world when something does not go perfectly in our build. It's just part of it. It happens to everybody. I have yet to see a single person say that their build went 100% perfectly from start to finish. So we pick our battles, cross our fingers,say a prayer and hope for the best and most definitely don't do things to bring the drama to us. It has a way of finding us all on it's own. I've fretted over really stupid decisions and already look back and laugh at it. Did I really need to lose 2 nights sleep thinking of tile color. Did I really need to argue w/ dh over brick color.....NO! I've changed my outlook and now I'm having more fun than ever. BMH - If my post sounded like I was making fun of you, I sincerely wasn't. I was just trying to add a little humor...

Is it safe to come back in the water? I've been around since the days before you had to register to post and it was free, 1998 or 1999 maybe. I have done a few spins in the teacups in years past. I have also been banned twice. I have a mind and I speak it. I have since been far more restrained. I was once Browntoes, then Browntoestoo, now BarnMom. The first two were references to gardening in sandals the couple of years I lived in Napa where I first discovered Garden Web. The last one I chose when Alice gave up gymnastics and took up equestrian sports or I would have been GymMom. The irony is that I have not a rural bone in my body. I am an urban woman to the core. I am a good sport about Alice's FFA animals but really, I do not like flies or manure or dust. I remember Roger and the cornbread discussions. Because of the grits debate I also went and bought a box of grits to try. They were okay with lots of cheese and butter. I think it's one of those things one has to grow up eating to truly embrace, like pickled pigs feet, or biscuits and gravy. I also remember Janet and Marlen, BethinTokyo, Mique, Ryder, and some others I miss. This a community with its own culture - a culture of loyalty, kindness and good natured tolerance 99.9% of the time. Eileen

what is going on is the system is going into defrost which is normal operation of a heat pump. when it goes into defrost what happens is the system actually reverses and goes into the air condioning mode but the heat strips are suppose to kick on to keep cold air from blowing in the house. it sounds like your heat strips are not turning on and it is blowing cold air in the house. they need to check the strips and see if they are working properly. then they need to make sure that the strips are calling during defrost. the heat strips are deffinately your problem. the only thing is that if the unit has not been running and as soon as you turn it on it goes in to defrost something is wrong there too. it should run for a little while before it goes in to defrost not right away. you could have a bad board or defrost sensor also. or the board could be your whole problem it is going into defros to much and the board is what turns on the strips during defrost. teel the technician exactly what you told me and they should know exactly what to check. good luck