Hi Chris Well, thanks for the kind words! I do have to say, in an act of full disclosure, there are a few other kind souls who post here too, who have a much different view on pushing somewhat cold-sensitive / less hardy, or non-native plants and trees in Albuquerque. And I can, while respectfully disagreeing, see where they are coming from, and to be honest, they likely are (as is nearly everyone who posts here!) far more experienced and knowledgeable than a layman like myself. However, having said that, there are several others who post here (or just who live around Albuquerque Metro) who seem to share my enthusiasm for pushing items like palms and cacti, and more than not, at least in my experiences, these plants seem to do pretty darn well (given the proper care, attention, etc.). A very knowledgeable, great poster here who shares most of my viewpoints is cactus_dude. He knows a lot about items like palms and cacti growing around townif you see his posts, youll enjoy them too, like I have. I have learned a lot from them! If you get down to Albuquerque at some point from the Capitol City, offhand I could direct you to at LEAST 50 different locations where palms generally T. Fortuneis (Windmill Palm), Washingtonia Robusta and Filiferas (Mexican Fans and California Fans) are growing in yards or businesses and doing great! Robustas and Filiferas here WILL have their fronds die off and burn in the winters here it is just a fact of life if you want to grow them. However, this does not seem to hurt the trees in our climate permanently, as by March, they are very rapidly starting to sprout off new green fronds like crazy again. With Windmill Palms, they actually depend largely on where they are growing and how big they are. Many, many here (generally bigger and more established ones) actually have no frond damage or burning / browning through the winters at all. In fact, for example, I know of two that are northeast facing (pretty much the worst exposure for palms in our city you could have), freestanding (eg: no walls to protect them) in a yard in the Far Northeast Heights (well east of the "Banana Line" of Eubank west), that never suffer an iota of burning to their fronds in winter, as they have been there for decades and are really well established. Many will say as conventional wisdom "palms are impossible to grow around Albuquerque"however, just going for walks through neighborhoods would indicate that just simply isnt the case. There are just too many large palms around town (admittedly, you do have to look for them) that have been in their yards for a few years (or more) that show that they do actually grow here. You just have to realize, again, that their fronds will burn off for a few months. And, you this is my opinion have to give them some protection in winter. As for your question regarding any fruit the Washingtonias would produce, that is a great question, and one for which I have no answer. I know mine does not, but mine is still very young. The fronds grow like gangbusters in the spring, summer, and fall, but no fruit. I would guess but this is simply a guess that perhaps youd need to go to a warmer place like El Paso to see that from a Washingtonia. But truly, I have no knowledge there unfortunately. But as it relates to your situation in Santa Fe, I think you and I share a very similar attitude! I wouldnt try to grow a palm there, however, for within what is conventional (overly conservative?) plant wisdom in SF, I see no reason not to push up there with care and consideration plants that otherwise might be more suited to a high 6 or a low 7 climate zone! As you have observed, some folks would be amazed at what items are able to grow and do well in the very high desert climate of SF! I keep using Albuquerque examples (sorry), but conventional wisdom would state that there is no way a saguaro would ever make it through even one Albuquerque winter. However, folks on this forum directed me to a very tall saguaro in the South Valley of Albuquerque that has been there for years. So again, when it comes to pushingwhy not try it? You enjoy the rest of your winter tooin the Santa Fe / Albuquerque corridor the last few weeks, with temps in the 60s and even 70s, it sure feels like spring is here (knock on wood)! Let us know how things continue to go for you up there!

Havent seen one you can down load for the popcorn but heres the one for a candy bar, saw a photo of one done for popcorn but no printable for it, should be easy to make one useing this idea since all the paper would be white, except the snowman part, if you need help makeing the size let me know and I will see what I can do. Happy crafting oddie Here is a link that might be useful: snowman wrapper

I can't wait until dcarch post a thread on sharpening knives. I have an electric knife-sharpener but I lost the instruction booklet ... I will post pic. and ask folks here for help. Santa didn't bring me what I want for my entire life: socks that are loose on my ankles. I have skinny chicken-legs and they are still tight even when I dropped down to 110 lbs. I can't cook well when the socks retrict my blood vessels. Tight socks reversed the blood flow so I screwed up on my cooking. LOL! I don't have elephant feet either, I wear size 6 woman. So it must be a conspiracy between Hanes and Fruit of the Loom to make socks that shrink to infant sizes in the dryer, so people have to buy more. Yes, I stretch these socks on top of every cans, including oatmeal in my pantry. People would open my pantry and exclaim, "what's this, a socks party?" My 10-years old, who's under 75 lbs., complained that even the men's socks are tight for her. So I chopped off the top "prison-ankles" off, or buy low-cut socks for her. My husband, who is a skinny-marathon-runner, gave me all his size 11 socks which shrank to size 4, and I still have to cut the tight-top off. Straw (Strawberryhill in Chicagoland)

Haha, a lot of guessing from afar. I lived in Santa Mo for many years. I'm a bit north now. I've owned several houses and have done remodels a few hundred miles to the north. But I haven't built any houses. A close friend did a massive remodel of a 3000 sq ft house on the Balboa Peninsula a couple of years ago and I talked with him a lot about what he was doing along the way. But my advice is that of a former neighbor and homeowner, not someone with firsthand experience. I think building to code should be just fine. As for "leaky", no. I wouldn't allow your contractor (or the architect) and their work to be sloppy but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Tell him you're looking for quality work but it doesn't need to be as if it were in the Midwest or East. In the design, be sure to have enough west and east facing windows for cross ventilation. A few opening skylights can be useful to vent out hotter air. A heat recovery ventilator is overkill, you can open windows the majority of the year, even on heating days, as you know. My friend in Newport uses his A/C pretty regularly and he's got the beach one block in one direction and the bay one block in the other. so I think you would use yours too. I don't think having a minisplit unit for 1000 feet downstairs would give you the kind of air circ you'd want to have. I'd opt for conventional heat and A/C, and make sure you have enough return air coverage upstairs, that will be your real cooling target and you need enough ducting and airflow there and back to the hardware for it to work well. Good luck.