I wash my dishes the old fashioned way by hand also. I don't have a dish washer and honestly I just don't like them. If I wanted one, I would get one but I don't have many dishes anyway and have just washed them myself all my life.

I think some modern conveniences are fabulous. I could never do without my microwave for instance. And a dish washer is probably a real time and work saver for anyone with a large family. But it is just not so here. I know I am an old fashioned fuddy duddy about some things. I mean I have a wash mashine but not a dryer. I just hang up the cloths on a line the very old fashioned way. I never ever wanted a dryer. Oh well.

My exorbitant bill doesn't even include sewage. We're on septic out here and have to pay for the maintenance of that separately.

We use our dishwasher but only need to run it every few days and use the Water Miser feature, so it probably uses less water than washing dishes three times a day for several days. But in the summer I do use a lot of water just to maintain my gardens. But I can tell that this is going to be a bad La Nina drought year for us, so I may have to half-starve my plants and shower every third day or something -- yikes!

Toni, I recognize that spot! We just had amazing rains here this morning so it may be like that all over the area.

As for water bills: I am on a well but I own suburban renthouses whose water bills are routinely over $100 so you live in the right place.

I now have a dishwasher and use it about once a week. Previously I washed dished by hand - my hands have never been so clean since!

Hello Peeps!
Popping in to say hi!
Very mild winter here in Michigan so far.
No snow cover at all.
Not going to be good for roses and other plants.
Wonder what the rest of winter will bring?
Any other cold climate foks having the same mild weather?

Hey Sue...do you recall that website you gave me a link to
that covered info Canon Rebels?
Its was some guy that had alot of cool info.
I cannot find it in my favorites.

no snow here either and not very cold out there comming to put my CITY water in today !! but I'm keeping my well for out side use : watering gardens and car washing things like that I 'v never had a water bill so we will see .
Very conserned about the roses and other plant

Gloria - You will probably see some of your plants suffering or not performing as well w/the chemicals in the water. I hate being on city water, but local water is too sulfuric to be of use and has to be treated. And I'm looking out the window at a very pretty white landscape!

thanks Toni I will buy bottled water for my orchids but I'm keeping my well for outside or I can use lake water I would not water with the city water my neighbor guy hooks me up to the lake water ever summer

It's supposed to rain today then turn to snow . Guess we will see if winter is realy going to come this year ! It would not hurt my feelings if it diden't . I'm not a big fan of driving on ice !!
I guess we have to wait till next Thursday for our inspection !! he only works 2 days a week so hes a bit behind I'm not sure he will like crawling under the house in the snow but oh well !! hope every one has a great day sure miss all the pics of flowers

Gloria - I'll trade ya.. you have have my snow, I'll take your rain, how's that sound? we got about 3" yesterday, but it's the super dry stuff that has no moisture.

Plenty of moisture here. I have been running my dehumidifier again. Outside is solid mud. I have to carry Winston the pug inside to wash his feet after we go outside. I made him little booties, but he doesn't like to wear them. Besides, they are harder to wash than his feet!

Its snowing and raining now I guess we are supposed to get a couple of inches if the rain dosen't wash it away first

It's so warm and dry here that we ran the sprinklers today. My roses are still fully leafed out. Tomorrow is supposed to be 60, then maybe colder after that. i found a bag of bulbs I forgot to plant, so hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow. Should be easy digging. The pond freezes at night except where the geothermal pipe dumps in. The geese and ducks love having some open water when it's frozen every place else. Our paper said we're ahead for the winter on moisture since we got 5" inches of rain the week before Christmas, but we haven't had but a tiny trace of snow, so we're 3rd on the all-time least snow list. Really would like to get some snow for insulation from the bitter wind.
I sure didn't expect to be painting outdoors in January! If I had known...I would have asked for that Palatine order to come in November. My luck, we'll get late season snow and ice when they do mail them in March. The roses I brought back from San Diego in December are doing just fine, planted and covered with bark mulch. I lucked out there, big time!

It's been a mild winter here in New York's lower Hudson Valley - until this weekend, that is. We got down to 8 degrees last night, and only got into the mid teens this afternoon. And we haven't had a bit of snow since that freak storm we had back in October, when we got 8 inches of accumulation much too early in the season. As a transplanted Southerner who has never gotten used to New York's winters, I'm all for global warming!!!

we went from warm and rain to freezing and butt deep snow in 2 days 64 days till spring

It's supposed to be in the 70s today and tomorrow - then colder again. Over all we've had a wonderfully mild winter - so far.

Got all the ice off my driveway & walkway. In some parts of my backyard it's only about 8" deep but that's in heavy-shade. Rest of the back yard is only about 2-4" left. Was supposed to get snow today, but the weather people changed it so we *might* get some snow tonight, but it's not looking like it. Little bit of snow left on the roof of the house. Should take a pic tomorrow morning when I leave for work. Was an absolutely magnificent day on Saturday.. mid 50s, just perfect. Then the wind picked up in the evening & yesterday was too cold to go on the bikeride I had planned. My trees are all looking pretty good, just waiting for spring (like Gloria, counting down..). Most of my lilacs are all got nice big fat buds, so should have a good season with them. Irises are still under snow, so dunno about them yet. Forsythias haven't started to swell yet, which is fine. Don't want them to start yet, I'm not ready! But my honeysuckle is still green & I saw that my creeping phlox is bright green too (finally saw it for the first time in months.. the snow's melted enough off of it to show).

We are having wintery mix here - rain/sleet/snow. It shouldn't amount to much accumulation. I would prefer plain snow to mix. It finally feels like winter now. I could probably start winter sowing seeds soon. I was afraid that they would get confused by the unusually warm 50 degree days we were having in December. Hope this means we get an early spring and along rose season this year.

I varnished trim outside in shorts yesterday...today the windchill is 3. Guess I'm working indoors on taxes today! We have a few more days of bitter cold, then back up to 60s next weekend. Tomorrow's a chemo day, so I hope it's cold and windy so I'm not missing a good outdoor day.

Snowed last night, got an inch of the "Colorado Gold" (white powder). Hope the mountains got hit hard, some of the ski resorts are barely open due to lack of snow, versus 2010-2011 where they were open until 4th of July!! Got pretty cold last night too, I think it went down to like 5 degs. BRR!