Lillies Have Bloomed

Wow, these are gorgeous flowers!

The Calla Lily is getting larger and larger as well but the camera battery gave out before I could take more pictures. It should be recharged soon.

Flower for Mother's Day

This mother's day I am getting my mother a Camelot Rose Foxglove (Digitalis Purpurea). They are sold at Home Depot and take full exposure to the sun. According to the card they can survive winters to -20 to -30 degrees F.

It is a nice looking plant with a tall flowering stem with bell shaped flowers going all the way up the stem.

The Calla Lily we got her last year did not survive the winter though the one we got at the same time has.

Join the FREE Garden Club at www.homedepot.com/gardenclub for more information about plants.

Plants in the Yard

I took some pictures today of some plants in the yard.

Here is the Rhododren.

Here is the Calla Lily that survived the winter.

Laser Printer Cartridge

I took a HP Laserjet 6L printer cartridge to local store of Cartridge World (www.cartridgeworldusa.com) so they could refill it two days ago. I was told to come back the next day and retrieve it. Before going I looked up how much another cartridge would cost and it looked like it would be about $65 so they quoted me $45 but when I used Google Maps to find them, a coupon appeared that I could use for $10 off my first toner refill.

So returning to the store yesterday, the person behind the desk found my order and then said it will be $45 but I pointed out the coupon and it came to $35. So that was pretty good savings over buying another cartridge. After installing the cartridge and printing a test page, the print looked dark but there were toner splotches appearing every 4 cm in a column about the center of the page. I used Windows to print another test page and the toner places became just small spots so issue is going away.

I recommended Cartridge World to our purchasing person since she has a stack of cartridges in her office to take recycle. Also there is a large set of shelves full of cartridges for a variety of printers that need to be gotten rid of. So she was going to call them to see if they could process them.

Yikes, What happen to gas prices?

Driving home from work I saw some stations at $3.22 a gallon while two were at $2.83. The stations at $2.83 had cars 5 deep waiting for gas. The Wal-Mart near us was listed at $3.09 and had about every pump filled with cars taking on gas.

Why did it go up so fast? Iowa storage tank problems, Venezuela taking control of the last privately run oil field, a Chevron tanker attacked in Nigeria? Take you pick.

Solar Soda Can Air Heater

This is a pretty cool idea that uses old soda cans, 2x4s, and black paint.

I think adding a couple of solar panels and some used DC fans to move the air through the cans would be a cool idea.

Maybe use it the winter to heat air for an area and then in the summer place it on the roof to remove heat from that area to try and make the house a little cooler.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/04/26/almost-free-garage-heat-just-drink-a-lot-of-soda/

Wow, someone had commericalized this:

http://www.cansolair.com/

Someone in Hungary has built a large one of these:

http://napenergia.freeweb.hu/gyak/szp/sztgyi.htm

Another post left this website for determing what angle to place the panel:

http://www.macslab.com/optsolar.html

A beer can solar heater:

http://www.squidoo.com/beercansolarheater

Another solar heater design:

http://www.mobilehomerepair.com/article17solar.htm

Garage solar heater

http://www.instructables.com/id/EMU06ULZ1MEY95WRNU/

Painting a Gas Pipe

LG&E sent us a letter stating that our cast iron gas pipe bringing gas into the house was rusting and needed to be cleaned and painted. The letter went on to say it was our responsibility to maintain our pipes and by not doing so could lead to gas leaks.

So one of the generous residents of our neighborhood that works for a paint company gave us some gray paint even though they did not have to and we got to work. Once I had brushed and sanded the rust off the pipe, my wife painted it. I think it turned out very well.