Thanks alot for the advice. I'm just beginning to learn more about plants and the greenhouse. I feel better knowing they'll do good without dormancy. I didn't think about all the moisture that a covering would hold in either. As fast as these multiply I'll be able to afford leaving some in the ground, so I'll see what happens. As for the citrus, I had asked in the citrus forum. They weren't sure how the citrus would do with the wide temp. swings in my gh. They thought the lows would make it want to go dormant and the high's would not. Basically they made me think I had to have either a dormant range of temps. or a growing range of temps. I also believe, from how my EE's overwintered, that cold in the gh isn't nearly as devastating as outside. I think alot of that has to do with heat retention in the plant's soil. I just built my pvc tunnel in the fall, and didn't get my inflation and water barrels in until Feb. We haven't had many cold nights since, so I don't know exactly what it is gonna do in the coldest weather. I would love to here how your citrus do. Do you get year round fruit with the cold temps, it doesn't go dormant or have leaf drop? I know I'm a bit colder here, but since I put in all the water barrels my temp. hasn't dropped below 40f, even with mid 20's outside. The banana is a dwarf cavendish, and I have read that if they go dormant in the winter, the main plant dies, and they need more than a seasons growth to produce fruit. My house doesn't have any southern windows and my west windows face trees so I can only get a few hours direct light in the house which isn't enough for either the banana or the citrus. I think that if I can at least get the EE to go dormant that their soil temp. in the gh should stay low enough that they will stay dormant. Especially if I keep em in the shade. Thanks again for all your help. This is a great site and it's nice to talk with someone who has done similar to what I hope to do.

When my father worked for Rheingold beer in Brooklyn NY in the 60's a copper tube came from a refrigeration unit which dripped mercury into a floor drain. That wasn't bad enough, after learning that this stuff could be sold for $90/lb. at the scrap yard, he (and I a 10 year old at the time) took home tons of this stuff to sell. Of course I played with it, submerged my arm all the way up to my elbow, a container fell over in the station wagon, vacuumed up most of what we could get. The rest remained there for a while until it all evaporated. To make matters worse, my father coated our silverware with the mercury and all 6 of us kids ate with this stuff until it finally returned to a dull silver color again. I can�t say that anyone really has any ill health effects from this exposure. My mother was even pregnant at the time. This is pretty amazing considering the exposure had to be pretty extreme for most of us. Though I don�t doubt Mercury�s hazard to human health. I wonder how much of this stuff ended up on the floor of NY harbor since this was a common practice back then.

Not sure if it's practical for this property but you might be able to size and situate the wells, electric, and septics to handle the small cabin now and then be used for the main house later. Would still have to deal with the sulfer in two locations but might save a considerable amount of money. May not be doable depending on your plans. Until the well is drilled, you may not know what you're getting in to. As an example, our well is spring water with a very low flow (5 gallons per minute) but on the adjoining properties (2 wells), they get over 30 GPM but the water is very hard and full of sulfer so had to be treated. We also had to drill much deeper. I didn't see where you are located but the cabin pricing sounds high- here in West Virginia it was closer to $80-100 but you might be able to take on some work yourselves in a small place like that and save money. Having a hard time figuring out how a 500 sq. ft. cabin on a concrete block foundation as an example could end up costing $150 per sq. ft. Buying an existing property will most likely be cheaper but if this property is the one you want, that has to be a consideration. We paid a premium for being where we wanted to be and for being able to make our own build decisions. BTW, is the creek a year round creek? We have some really nice flowing water for a few months of the year but it is seasonal. With only a foot or two of water in the rainy season, the creeks may be very small in the middle of the summer, just a caution. May not be an issue but if you're buying the lot partly for the water, you'll want to make sure it's there all the time. I think it would be worthwhile to get some additional estimates in the area you're considering related to the well/water treatment costs and building a small house. Have you talked with the potential neighbors about the water and their wells? Like others have said, only you can decide but it's worth the effort to spend the time up front on research especially if you are looking at only 2-4 years to get everything fully developed.

I used sillites and checked with my municipality's electrical inspector beforehand to make sure my applications followed code. One I set into the end of a stud wall behind my fridge to avoid placing it smack dab in the middle of my peninsula's end panel, ugly for the whole world to see. (It still needed a longer screw to pull it tightly in when I took this pic.) I used another at the back of my island to satisfy code for outlets on both sides of my island's prep sink. The footprint is much smaller than a duplex outlet, and works well for when code dictates an outlet but you don't want to use a large, duplex outlet for aesthetic reasons. Code can be so frustrating sometimes!