Governor Dayton declared this to be emerald ash borer week to increase awareness.   

Ash tree

Will the ash tree be around for our children and grandchildren to enjoy?  The ash borer had been found in St. Paul and they kill ash trees.  You may have seen the purple triangular traps in some of the trees.   This particular tree has a bat house in it which has nothing to do with the EAB but the bats like it and they eat mosquitoes so we like them. 

Here is some information from the DNR:

What you need to know

EAB kills ash trees, and it does so in great numbers. Already it has killed millions of ash trees in North America . EAB will have a huge effect on Minnesota's landscape and the 998 million ash trees that grow in our cities and forests.

• Recognize the signs and symptoms of an EAB infested tree: heavy woodpecker activity on tree, dying branches in the top canopy, sprouts around the tree base, vertical cracks in the bark, S-shaped tunnels under the bark, and 1/8 inch D-shaped exit holes in the bark.
• If you think your tree is infested with EAB, complete the steps outlined in Do I Have Emerald Ash Borer ?  and refer to the Signs and Symptoms of EAB in Ash Trees slide show for more examples.
• If your ash tree is showing other signs and symptoms, visit the What's wrong with my ash tree?  online diagnostic tool to help identify problems caused by insects, diseases, and nonliving factors.
• To report a possible EAB infestation, contact the Arrest the Pest Hotline atarrest.the.pest@state.mn.us or 888-545-6684.
• Consider insecticide treatments only when your property is within 15 miles of an EAB infestation.More information  
• Do not transport firewood, even within Minnesota.

Trees, especially disease free trees add to the value of your home. 

Not sure if you tree is an ash tree?  Check the Minnesota DNR web site.

From this week to the end of the month is the perfect time to start a vegtable garden.  Gardening is a great hobby and popular too. It is nice to grow fresh vegetables and I can grow an impressive amount of produce on my postage stamp sized city lot.  Gardening is like real estate in that it is local. If you are new to gardening here are some local resources that I think you will like.

The university of Minnesota extension and they have classes too.  The site is worth exploring it has a lot of information about plant care and can help with identifying weeds.   Gardening can be social and here is a local site called Garden Guides where other gardeners hang out. Who knows they may be able to answer questions or give advice and there is a section on urban gardening.  For people interested in community gardens see Gardening Matters there are community gardens all over the twin cities.

I learned about a site at yesterdays social media breakfast called plantjotter where gardeners keep online garden journals. For new gardeners that may need advice on plants you can't beat going to the neighborhood garden center. I go to Leitners and they can answer most any question about plants and gardening.  They may be able to help with plant identification too.  If you have are a new home owner and you can not identify a plant ask your mother or a neighbor with a garden for help. 

If you don't want to grow your own veggies or start flowering plants from seeds I highly recommend the St. Paul Farmer's Market.  You can't beat local Minnesota grown food including meat, cheese, honey and those wonderful fresh eggs.

Did you know that landscaping is a home improvement that can give a 1000% return on your investment when it is time to sell?   Maybe something worth looking into this summer. 

It is nice to see homes being fixed up.  There is a low interest loan program through Historic Saint Paul for people who want to fix up homes built before 1940.  There are guidelines and rules but it is worth a look.  

fixer upper

There are also some city Living home improvement loans available through the City of St. Paul.  They like to move the links so if you are reading this six months or so from when it was written follow the link and it will take you to the city web site where you will need to do another search for the loan program because the page will say that there is no page matching your entry.  They even use the word "sorry" which they could not possibly mean.   I  think the city has one full-time employee responsible for moving things around on the web sites so the links won't work anymore.  I would be good at a job like that and next time they have an opening I plan to apply. 

There are targeted loan programs available to home owners in parts of the city. The Targeted home rehab loan program.  There is also an emergency repair loan program that is 0% and does not have to be paid back for 30 years or until the home owner moves or the home is sold which ever comes first.  

These programs have geographic and income restrictions. 

In St. Paul we tend to want to save houses instead of demolishing them.  Most of the time that is a good idea but not always.  

 I have been gardening most of my life in St. Paul Minnesota.  Sure were are having a super warm and early spring but starting a garden now is risky.   Twenty years ago the common wisdom was to put the plants out and plant the warm weather crops at the end of May.  

For me the date for planting has crept up to about mid May, and I have noticed that even though I live in zone 4 some zone 5 plants are surviving  the winter.   I have a lavender plant growing close to the house that is now three years old as it has survived the winters even though it is a zone 5 plant.

Even though it is warm out it may still be too soon to plant the vegetable garden because the soil is not warm yet.  Seeds may survive but they won't thrive and we could still have several hard frosts.  

Enjoy the apple and crabapple trees as they bloom for us over Easter and it looks like the lilacs may be blooming for then too.   I found the spring beauties in the picture just starting to bloom at battle creek regional park. I also found bloodroot in full bloom.  Gardening is local and the University of Minnesota extension web site is a great resource. 

. . oh  I forgot to mention the weeds they are already plentiful. 

 Making resolutions for the new year is easy but sticking with them isn't so easy.  Again this year one of my resolutions was to get rid of stuff that I don't need.  I have been making at least one trip a week to the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store on West 7th street and have been dropping off a few items each time.

This week in addition to some coffee mugs and kitchen utensils I dropped off a bunch of ethernet cables, a hundred miles of phone cable and a grip of USB cables.   They will be sold for twenty five cents each.  

I took the picture before I found several more cables but you get the idea.  Some were in the original  wrapper because every time I buy a new USB device a cable is included.  I am not sure where all the phone cable came from.  I saved one ethernet cable and a phone cable just in case and I still have more USB cables than USB ports even though I have a seven port hub. 

cords and cables

One of the disadvantages of having a home office is that it is super easy to accumulate stuff.  

Also see Out with the old and in with the new

Only in Minnesota do we include photos of the new furnace when we list a home for sale.  The weather has been wonderful these past few days but we know we are living on borrowed time and today is the first day of winter. 

I wrote this post in 2008 and it continues to get traffic during the colder months when Minnesotans have to deal with the cold and the beast in the basement.  

Like a trip back in time.  I found these furnaces in some of the homes for sale.  I encounter a few  each year, usually in the older neighborhoods near downtown St. Paul. 

Some people call them octopus furnaces because of the way the heat ducts take up the whole basement.  They are called gravity furnaces. The unit in the first picture burns heating oil. Most of the gravity furnaces were converted to burn natural gas when the prices of heating oil went through the roof in the mid 70's. For those who are too young to rememebr the oil tank was in the basement and a truck came by on a regular basis and filled the tank.  In the 70's there were price increases and a shortage. The trucks stopped coming on a regular basis and it got cold.  

The gravity furnace is like a forced air furnace except with out the force.  The air is heated, the hot air rises up through the duct work. These furnaces last forever but are often replaced because they are not energy efficient as forced air funaces and they take up a lot of real estate in the basement.   The large asbestos wrapped duct work makes home owners a bit nervous.   Handling and removing the asbestos is best left to a professional and cost a couple thousand dollars.

The pictures were taken with my phone and I have quite a collection but these are my favorites.  The furnace in the middle was particularly frightening.

If you live in the city of St. Paul and need a new furnace we still have the city fix up fund. There are income restrictions .

faucet

This is probably mostly for new homeowners or for people who are new to Minnesota. 

It is time to turn off the water to the outdoor faucets.  Disconnect the hoses and put them away.  

Easy to do:

1.  Turn off the water from the inside of the house. 

2.  open the spigot on the outside.  

What happens if you don't turn the water off?  Pipes can freeze and faucets can be destroyed by ice.