Planning a garden

Well, this weekend we went plant shopping. Or I should probably say browsing.
We went to one of our local nurseries in the attempt to get som plant ideas. Something we decided to do to help choose plants for the yard and open discussion of where they would look best.

To keep the plants straight I took a picture of each with my phone and then emailed myself that picture with the name of the plant in the subject head. Which would have been great if those emails had actually gone through and my phone had a larger memory. As it stands I have only one remaining picture on my phone as it complained of having a full memory, and none of those emails went through. I thought this would have been better because there would have been no doubt behind what picture was what plant as what often happens when taking pictures by camera (which I had forgotten to grab before we left) and thought this was a good and even better idea. Guess that backfired. So, thankfully I was also keeping notes of how big each plant got, what kind of sun it liked be it full, partial, or shade, and other tidbits the tag may have given like if it was hardy or what moisture content it liked.

Now comes the hard part of going through my notes and finding picures online of each of the plants we looked at and thought would be good in our garden somewhere.

Something already planned that I'm also working on is finding more information about each of the plants. I said I took down what notes I could but let's face it; those little cards on the plant don't tell everything. So I'm sorting through information overload, and underload in some cases, trying to find if my two brown thumbs would be able to grow these plants.

One thing we are focusing on is perennials so that we aren't buying new plants each year. Hopefully this will help save some money each year.

We have air!

That's right, we have air. As in air conditioning! That is what happened Monday and we are really enjoying it. We can leave the house if we have to and not worry about our dogs boiling to death, or getting stuck in the basement where it's cool. Although we've discovered, even with the air, they still like their hidey holes in the basement and can be found there if and when you can't find them anywhere else.

In addition to the new air conditioning unit that sits in our backyard, we also had our furnace replaced. We felt the previous owners did not take very good care of it and felt it beginning to fade. Where this past winter it was basically always running even though we didn't have it set that high.

In our hallway, is a nice new wireless digital thermostat. That's right wireless. It communicates wirelessly with the furnace and air conditioning units. How cool!

Our dehumidifier has also gone silent. Becuase there is one downstairs hooked to the furnace. According to our silent dehumidifier, the humidity is pretty level at 40 - 45%.

We also were able to find a company to clean our the air ducts and they had a special offer going where we were able to have them cleaned for free. That's right free. Otherwise our sales person informed us it would have been around $300.

Overall we are very happy with our air conditioner and can't wait to see what the furnace can do in the winter. And very happy with the timing as it looks like in our area, temperatures are on the rise.

Recouping

It's hard coming back from a vacation and getting back into the groove of work and life. After getting back from our camping trip I've already taken one nap and could use another. Putting everything away and doing laundry from the trip, shopping for groceries that couldn't be bought for our return because they would have basically expired, and preparing for the return to work tomorrow. We are also making notes of things we missed this time as it was our first camping trip planned ourselves taken with a friend. Making note of things with the campground, like they have a spot to play horse shoes but the horse shoes galloped off, so we've made note to bring our own horse shoes if we want to play. We are also getting ready for something exciting happening tomorrow. Stay tuned to see what it is.

Choosing a cordless Weed Whacker

So recently we purchased a cordless weed whacker. I'm not talking about one that runs on gas, I mean one that runs on a battery. It was hard choosing but our budget helped limit some. Plus we wanted a good name. We ended up going with a Craftsman.

It was hard finding some at first, until we learned that the name they were going by in stores was line trimmer instead of weed whacker. Once we knew that we had no trouble searching out our options. We looked at Ryobi, known for their battery powered tools and my Dad loves his Ryobi tools, but they were on the upper end of our budget. Although we did like that we could get say a cordless drill by Ryobi and the batteries would be interchangable.

After looking at all the options we went with the Craftsman. It had a good name behind it, interchangable bettery should we purchase other cordless tools, and the right price for us. I've used it a few times now and I'm very happy with the choice.

When looking at any new tool it's important to do your research to see what is out there. What materials are the tools made from and what is the best. If you can't afford the best, what is next best. Read reviews with a grain of salt. 100 reviews on a product and 5 talk about poor shipping times...shipping times don't affect the products performance. And if of those 100 reviews there is one talking about an actual defect, like used it once and then a piece on it broke. Consider that that one person just got a bad apple. As hard as companies try to avoid these defects they do happen and they do get through. If the review goes on to say how the company then gave them the run around for a replacement then I'd be suspicious and probably avoid them. Basically you should get the product that best fits you, your use of it - maybe you prefer the thicker handle, the best materials, and the best price for your budget.