Around here the corn burning stoves went into houses like crazy. Corn seems to burn well, much less work than wood, little mess left for cleaning out. Takes small amount of corn to keep the WHOLE house warm. I was rather surpised at how enthusiastic the new owners are over corn stoves. Transportation may not be the whole cost, but tractors are fueled with gas and oil, to work the soil and bring in the crops. Tractors are not especially efficient in fuel usage, cost a bunch to produce those crops. Costs that farmer has to pass to buyers so farmer can at least pay his bills. Hay is supposed to be costing more, I know the truck to go get it runs on fuel that has more than doubled in cost since last year. Much equipment is diesel powered, even costlier than gas. Diesel has always been cheaper to produce, now they just WON'T produce it, keeping cost high. Bush and his Oil friends are making plenty of money. Keeping cost of doing business for truckers very high. Consumers pay that extra. I don't know if Ethanol is going to be cost effective as a fuel. We have a local plant being built 5 miles away, 60 new jobs in a very hard hit job market area. Everyone is excited, but for corn fuel to be useful, it can't cost more to produce than it costs to sell. At least the farmers can sell their product, so many were just losing money planting corn. Prices just never got where you could turn a profit. I buy our grain, mixed at a local mill. No commercial bagged food for the animals so I am not seeing those costs. We use quite a bit of corn in the horse feed, prices seem to be staying higher than other years. I think the oats come from Canada. Not sure why they are not local, we do have oat production. Dry dog food prices are higher, even on the junky stuff. Again, I would point at mostly fuel prices to raise a crop, then transportation to get products to market.

I cut the 2x4 in to the desire length, stack them up on both side of the seed trays and place the light corsswise, starting low (maybe 3) add more to increase the high as the seedlings get taller. 2x4 is rather inexpensive from HomeDepot. Hope this help..Happy seeding...

Oh boy, this ia a hot topic in my house lately. I'll try to keep it brief but I could go on and on. My DH is and was one of those ultra responsible types. Had a job every summer from the age of 13, got straight A's, never gave his parents any crap (though he did his share of drinking/drugs in high school and college), put himself through college with no financial assistance from his parents, and so on. Now has a great job and provides very well for us. Totally burned out now at 50, but that's another topic for another day. We have two teenage boys (and a DD who is 11). Actually older DS just turned 20. The two boys (and yes, the 20 yo is still a boy) could not be more different. Older one has some special needs. Way too much to go into fully but basically he has ADD and extreme executive function issues. We found out the extent of the EF problem too late, after he had already dropped out of college and was not really willing to accept help that we, his parents, were willing to pay for (we tried, he had several sessions with an "expert", but then refused to go any more). Anyway, point being, some of what looks like lack of responsibility/maturity is not his fault. However, it still drives us crazy. This kid will walk right by the empty trash barrels in front of the house on his way home from school. Younger DS will pick them right up and bring them in the garage. Doesn't even have to be asked. But the older one? "Oh, sorry, it wasn't on my radar." (This is actually what he said to me the other day.) The only jobs he has ever had were the ones who fell into his lap for one reason or another. Anything that goes wrong, it's always someone else's fault. He has no regard for authority -- which, I have to admit, sometimes serves him well because he is not intimidated by authority figures so he will talk freely with them -- he has become friendly with the head of the college he attends -- when I was that age, I would sooner die than start chatting up the president of my college. He is super bright and has a lot of talent, but he is not proactive and we have to prompt him to do almost anything. I keep thinking and hoping that a lot of this is because we have made his life fairly easy -- he has no bills, has very few responsibilities, etc. -- and when he is actually on his own, he will rise up to the occasion. I know this can happen because it happened to me! I was a lazy slob as a teenager, and I am now super organized, my house is clutter-free, I run a 5-person household and I have a part time job... I know lazy teens can grow into productive adults! For him, because of his issues, it will be more difficult, and I think he is going to learn some very hard lessons. Our plan is for him to move into an apt. in the fall, and we have told him we will pay for his rent for one year, but he must pay all other expenses. I think we're going to get a lot of desperate phone calls during the first year (at least) but I hope it's a learning experience and that he will be able to handle Real Life eventually! But this is a topic of almost constant conversation between DH and me these days. Our younger son is the complete opposite in every way, but they are both really good-hearted, smart kids with strong consciences. Older DS never drank or had sex until he went to college. Then he experimented with all of the above, but always in a "safe" way (you know -- had beer but didn't drive, smoked some pot with friends in dorm rooms, had sex with a girl with whom he was in a committed relationship and was "in love"). Younger DS is 16 and is still not really ready for girls and has a very nice social life playing sports and video games with his guy friends. I am very happy that my kids so far have been "late bloomers"! Younger DS actually said to me last year, when I was asking him about drinking in his age group/class, "Mom, I'm surrounding myself with friends who are good for my education." I thought OMG, who is this child? Oh yes, he is DH's son! We always say our DD could run the house better than any of us, though! ;)

I think you have to canvass on the price of the materials needed in the raising up of your house. You can ask them the estimated cost of materials and labor. At least ask 3 to 5 person so that you can compare how much will it really cost you.