Monday, March 14, 2011

Snow is almost gone

The woods are almost clear and I have been out exploring. I learned that the ticks are alive and well two days after the snow melted! Who would have thought? I made the mistake of lying down to take the photo of the tree.

As you can see by the photo on the right, things are starting to grow. The tulips I planted last fall are poking their tips out.

Mr. B and I went to BJ's for groceries and were snagged by a display of flowers in boxes. They were bulbs or bare root plants. I chose Asian lilies and echinacea. It was hard to pass up the roses, the hydrangeas and the dinner-plate-sized dahlias. I'm ready to garden!

Echinacea is in the daisy family.


After our furnace needed an emergency repair and we had to replace the burner, we realized we need a newer, more efficient furnace. But none of us like burning oil and the cost keeps going up, so I called a geothermal heating contractor to come and give us an estimate. He did come and measure so now I am waiting to hear how much it will cost. It means changing from a hot water baseboard system to a hot air system. But we need to replace four very old wall unit air conditioners. This way we put it all into one system. Will the cost be prohibitive? I thought our oil bill for this winter was prohibitive!

Friday they come to give us an estimate for a new oil furnace. We have been looking at wood pellet stoves for the living room fireplace as another source of heat. I'm not sold on a pellet stove because of the noise of the fan and the auger. I admit handling the pellets should be easier than stacking the wood and carrying for a wood stove. I'll keep you posted.

I'm joining Mosaic Monday.

6 comments:

Pondside said...

Good luck with all the decisions around heating and cooling - and have fun with planting!

Sheila said...

Glad to hear that spring is on it's way and that soon you'll be on your knees digging in the dirt. I hope the furnace repairs are not too stressful and that you will be warm enough before the work is done.

Miss Char said...

We still have snow here, the grass is showing in some places of the yard but now spring flowers shooting up yet, maybe later this week though. Hopefully you won't faint when you see the estimate on the new HVAC system. Its a good investment for your home.

diane b said...

I reckon go for reverse cycle air conditioning. Clean and easy especially with geothermal power. My human is renovating her garden at the moment too.Thanks for visiting my blog a long time ago.
Birthday Bear

LindyLouMac said...

Interesting as we researched pellet stoves this winter and ended up with a plain old log stove again of which we now have two plus an open fire.

julie king said...

so hard to believe that the ticks came out so quickly after the snow melted!