I transformed virgin yellow/blue clay into what looks like coffee grounds/potting soil in one year using wood chip compost. I could get woodchip mulch from my county composting site for free, but I cleared land and had my own trees/brush chipped (November-December). I watered the compost and mixed in a couple of pounds of high nitrogen lawn fertilizer per cubic yard of wood chips and let it cook for a few months over winter. It was a large pile so it stayed hot all winter. I then mixed this "young" compost into the clay soil as best I could (elbow grease and a shovel since I don't have a tiller). I used about 6" layer of compost mixed into 10" of clay soil (spade depth). The first year the soil was lumpy and rough, some things grew very well (tomatoes), some things did not (onions). I mulched heavily so that the soil did not dry out, and as a result the chips broke down almost completely by the end of the season. The roots from the plants penetrated the clay clods causing them to break up. At the start of the second year the soil quality was amazing down to the depth I originally mixed the soil and I had no trouble growing anything. At this point it is a good idea for me to keep adding compost every year to maintain the soil. I have a cover crop of rye this winter hoping to break up the last of the clay clods. You really need compost humus to build good soil. This consists of bulk partially decomposed plant fibers and chemical humics (humin and humic acid). I add a good bit of charcoal to the garden because I burn brush and quench the coals rather than letting them burn down, but this just results in charcoal lumps in the clay soil when I mix it in. Ground charcoal will act (chemically) like humics, but getting humus is alot easier than getting ground charcoal. Humus (humin, humic acid) is the chemical end product of lignin breakdown from woody material. Fad additives might have a short term benefit, but if you see a benefit it should tell you that your basic soil structure could be improved. Garden and kitchen waste compost (non-woody material) adds bulk (cellulosic) organics (but little in the way of humics), which help the soil for a couple of years until the are respired away by soil microbes. Wood chip based compost is heavy in the lignin organics (humics) as well as bulk organics, and will benefit your soil for decades. I see no reason to buy one of the "active ingredients" of good compost in a bottle (humic acid, or whatever they are calling it on the lable).

I had not posted that I like the MHP grill. It will be a year this coming June and have cooked on it all year around. I have yet to empty the grease cup. There is nothing there due to the fact that the infra-red vaporizes the grease. I grew up in Antioch as a kid so Antioch was Charmglow country. I now live in Inverness and Palatine is on the other side of the Main street through here. Palatine is where Webber is located and now it is just the business end and the factory has moved a few towns West. I hated my Webber from the first day and over the last 11 years I spent well over $1,100 on that thing and I could never count on the thing to work when I was having people over. I never used it to entertain as it would not get over 350 or the Rotiss. motor would freeze and a Leg of Lamb would be toast and I was sending out for pizza or KFC in the dining room with sterling silver, fine china, and Waterford Crystal. The $1,100 was just for service calls and I replaced all of the guts in this 3 times with all of the SS replacements. It never worked in Chicago in the winter. The infra-red does not seem to be affected by temp or wind. It still maintains 1,300 to 1,400 degrees. The Webber reaches 550 to 600 no matter what you purchase. I don't have any idea what the sizzle burner is all about. I would just never purchase another Webber product. In my former home I think the grill was Broil-Master by Early-Morning. The people are still using it and that is 22 years old without a problem.

I just assembled my Char-broil Red and I can't identify three parts: 1. The chain on the left side 2. The chain on the right side 3. The large wrench-like object What are these things for? Photos of the mystery objects are here: http://frontporch.no-ip.com/heydan/charbroil/

AniaWin, That's why I love GW. You can talk to people that actually have an use the appliances you're considering. I'm personally pretty sensitive to noise. For example, our Kenmore induction range has no fan to cool the oven after use. The induction cooktop fan only turns on when using high heat, and is quiet / unobtrusive enough that I only notice it when it turns on and quickly forget about it. You'd never hear it over a range hood (and if you do, tell me who made your range hood). The convection fan in the oven, on the other hand, is relatively loud and annoying. It turns on when pre-heating the oven and when using any convection settings, and is one of my main dislikes about our range. It doesn't keep me from using the convection settings, but I will turn the oven on using regular Bake so that I don't have to hear the fan once the oven's pre-heated while I finish my prep work, and switch the oven over to Convection Bake once everything's done and ready to go in. I am, admittedly, sensitive to noise. For example, I switched all our bathroom fans out for the quietest I could find, and while they no longer bother me they're still not quiet enough for my tastes.