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General discussion

Happy Days Are Here Again!

Mar 11, 2015 4:30AM PDT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH01FhqMdc8

Finally!!! Yesterday we hit 60 and today we will top out around 65. Snow still on half the ground, but all should be gone sometime tonight or tomorrow. I even put fan in window to get first big amount of fresh air in a couple months (other than going in and out doors). Of course when it's really cold and the house is really warm, a swift draft happens each time a door is opened, so a lot of heat goes out and a lot of cold air comes in, to freshen up a bit. I am so glad this winter seems to be over.

Global Warming, bring it on!!!

Discussion is locked

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Poor people in Virginia
Mar 11, 2015 5:56AM PDT

They have at least another 45 days of winter.

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First sprout this spring
Mar 11, 2015 7:34AM PDT
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pansies already?
Mar 11, 2015 9:31AM PDT

Here it's usually the crocus.

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ornamental onions too
Mar 11, 2015 10:10AM PDT

things are weird this spring
Digger

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We have snowdrops
Mar 11, 2015 9:47AM PDT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galanthus

They will bloom with snow on the ground. The snow cover disappeared this past week and we have a few spring bulbs that are just emerging. My wife was afraid there would be no flowers in the yard for Easter but we may be OK. She can enjoy the flowers while I get the lawn mower ready.
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I always thought
Mar 11, 2015 10:25AM PDT

that was a white crocus . I had them at a different house and just assumed they were the same since they grew right next to each other.

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These hang down and crocus looks up toward the sun
Mar 11, 2015 6:26PM PDT

There is another variety that I think is called the snow bell that also hangs down but it has larger petals. I've seen large area of snowdrops on some of our metro park hiking trails. They come up before the crocus and we sometimes have them in late February with snow still on the ground. I expect we'll have crocuses (sp?) soon but they always take a pounding by rain or an unexpected hard freeze.

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yep, and soon....
Mar 12, 2015 4:15AM PDT

...an Irish import here will come up and cover yards and woodlands with a sheet of yellow even before the trees start to put out their leaves. It's called Lesser Celandine. I never use weed killer in my backyard since I also garden there and it's covered in April with this.

I had the same situation as this person, since it wasn't native, I searched many pictures a few years ago to find out exactly what it was.

The poet William Wordsworth was very fond of the flower and it inspired him to write three poems including the following from his ode to the celandine:

I have seen thee, high and low,
Thirty years or more, and yet
T'was a face I did not know.


Maryland considers it an unwanted plant and I think is trying to eradicate it, but I like it.

Right along with the celandine comes a native plant here, the sweet violets and their heart shaped leaves. You can eat every part of the plant like any cooked greens if you want. The flowers do have a very slight sweet taste, but probably called sweet due to not being tart or biting like so many other edible greens. Some pick the flowers and make or add to a jelly. Never done the latter myself, I have eaten them before, thought a bit bland compared to other greens. Not bad added to a salad though, along with a bit of onion grass (aka garlic grass).

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found the poem to celandine
Mar 12, 2015 4:19AM PDT
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California
Apr 15, 2015 4:32AM PDT

I'm guessing a lot of you guys are from the East Coast? I'm from California and I feel like we never really have winter or spring hahaha Its funny that a lot of us complain that its too cold when it reaches 50 degree F. Yet, other states and countries reaches 10 degrees or even negative!!

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On the good side though...
Apr 15, 2015 10:18AM PDT

...we have plenty of water. Oddly however, my water bill is a bit higher than those in California who get it for $35 per month. How can it be so cheap in a drought state? Also as water use here per resident increases, the cost per cubic yard increases, so water abusers pay more and more.

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In Wales we have...
Apr 15, 2015 10:24AM PDT

many reservoirs where the water goes to England and they pay less than us.
Dafydd.

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Wow, that is cheap!
Apr 15, 2015 2:52PM PDT

That's $2.25 for 1300 cubic yards, and I pay that for a single cubic yard of water. This isn't new though, even California does this for industry.

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We pay more for sewer than for water
Apr 15, 2015 7:53PM PDT

We pay quarterly and my water usage charges average about $15 per month. Sewer usage averages about $26 per month. We also pay a stormwater charge of $14 per quarter and pay $10 into a "clean river" fund. Of course there are flat fees just to have water and sewer connected which is about $35 per quarter. My last quarter's bill was around $170 of which $45 was for the water we actually metered.

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I have septic
Apr 16, 2015 5:49AM PDT

Cost me about $100 per year to maintain. Pump every 3 years for $200 and put $110 (about 100 pounds) of crystal lye in it after pumping, to help clean the drainfield. That's about 1 pound for every 10 gallons of water once it's full again, but enough to eat out the scum, open up drainage better, kill any tree roots that grew over to it.

Sewage charges are based on water usage, so if I faced that I'd collect my roof water from gutters for garden and lawn use. We get over 40 inches rainfall each year, my roof is gable, each side is 14x40=560 sq ft. Every inch of rainfall is 161,280 cubic inches, or 93.33 cubic feet, or about 700 gallons (7.48 gl per cubic foot). So for 40 inches of rain that is 27,924 gallons per year off the roof.

I'd need an in-ground cistern as big as my septic tank or larger to capture just 2-4 rains that dropped 2 inches of water onto my roof. Sure couldn't get all from just one rain using those 50 gallon used food barrels or would need two at each corner of the house! Nah, just don't see doing that, at least not in front yard.

A roof here last about 20 years, LOL, not as long in less rainy areas. I managed to get 30 years out of the last one, had it replaced last year with new one.

With that, I could put an inch of water across my 20x50' garden each year 27-28 times, but I usually only need to add water once per week, if even that. Last year was wet enough I maybe watered it twice per month, so I could save more water from roor than I could use on my garden and usually my yard doesn't need added water.

Water rates are by cubic yard, or 100 cubic feet, depending on where you live. Just figure how much that roof water used on yard or garden could save by lowering potable water use which saves both water charge, but more important those higher sewage charges (often double the water rate).

Here's mine

Consumption Rate:
Water - $2.76 per thousand gallons
Wastewater - $4.85 per thousand gallons


That's $7.61 every thousand gallons someone who also pays sewage can use rain to save instead of paying the utility supplier. If I also had to pay sewage, and I was able to use all the rain water saved from roof instead, then my savings would be $214 per year. However at $78 per year with my septic tank setup, it's probably not worth the effort to save the rain and use it.

Capturing roof water on an RV would make sense! If your collection area was 8x25' then you'd collect 125 gallons water for every inch of rainfall. That's enough for 3 long showers. In California though I'd put in a MASH type shower with a pull chain. Wet up, soap up, wash off, done.

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test
May 28, 2015 12:42PM PDT

testing new posts in old thread to see if it comes back to front or not.

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Doesn't appear to
May 28, 2015 1:48PM PDT

and neither did it note anything about new activity since last check.

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It's moved up now
May 28, 2015 1:53PM PDT

This will take some getting accustomed to.