Waiting for Spring

Clocks move forward 1 hour tonight.

Daylight Savings Time begins.

I'm going to do my best to get this newsletter back on a regular schedule. Usually that works pretty well, but this year, for some reason(s), it's been a struggle.

Well, okay, I admit it - traveling on a cruise ship is not much a struggle at all! We had a 10 day cruise, plus a couple of extra days in Florida. In the Everglades, we took an air-boat ride and saw quite a few alligators.
I was able to do a day's bicycling in Grand Cayman, where we visited a "Turtle Farm".
In Panama, Dorothy and I left the ship at Colon (Caribbean side) and traveled by bus to Panama City (Pacific side). That only took about an hour.
In Colombia, these beautiful birds were fighting over scraps of fruit.

Do You Know A Buyer For This Home?

The Wedgwood Manor, located on 6+ acres at Crawford Bay is a 100 year old mansion, presently operating as a Country Inn. It has a commercial kitchen, 6 guest rooms, all with private baths and separate owner's quarters. This is truly an outstanding property. For additional photos and details, please check the web-site: Wedgwood
Priced at $825,000 for a sale of shares.
After spending a couple of weeks with tropical-type weather, I'm certainly looking forward to the end of winter.

Water Saving Options
In a typical stand-alone home, study
findings indicated that the majority of
water consumption is used in the following
ways: 31 per cent through toilets, 25 per
cent through washing machines and 19 per
cent through showers.
Homeowners can replace large-volume
toilets that use 13 litres per flush with high
efficiency units that only use 4.8 litres or
less per flush and reduce water usage by
roughly 63 per cent. Well-designed low
flush toilets can retail for as little as $100
and dual flush toilets that give the user the
option of a three- or six-litre flush are also
available. Installing a water-saver flush kit
in a toilet can also save thousands of litres
of water per year.
For washing clothing, efficient front load
clothes washers provide the most effective
way of saving water, using only 40 to 50
litres per load in comparison to 100 to 150
litres per load for top loaders. Possible water
savings from efficient models can be as
much as 73 per cent. Look for the ENERGY
STAR label as an indication that a model is
water efficient.
Among the least expensive water conservation
options, homeowners can invest in
low flow shower heads with flow rates as
low as 5.7 litres a minute compared to the
average Canadian showerhead with a flow
rate of 9.5 litres a minute. This would result
in a water and energy saving of 40 per cent
and would save the average BC family of
four $50 a year or more on their hydro bill.
Other ways to minimize a home’s water
consumption include high efficiency dishwashers
and bathroom faucets, as well as
investing in the use of rain barrels, rainwater
harvesting systems and domestic
greywater systems.

Water Conservation Benefits
Domestic water conservation not only
provides a range of values such as reduced
energy consumption and cost savings, but
also important benefits for protecting ecosystems
and watersheds and for building
better communities. Thinking about these
broader reasons could provide the additional
motivation that an individual needs
to make an environmentally-friendly
investment in their home.

Exam By Chance

A young student reports for a final examination that consists of only true/false type statements. The student takes a seat in the hall, stares at the question paper for five minutes, removes a coin and starts tossing the coin and marking the answer sheet. Heads means true, tails means false. The young student is all done in 30 minutes while the rest of the class is sweating it out. But, suddenly, during the last few minutes, the young student is seen desperately throwing the coin and sweating profusely. The moderator, alarmed, approaches the student and asks what is going on. "Well, I finished the exam in half an hour," says the student, "but I thought I ought to recheck my answers."
*Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!*

And so, another month is gone. The market is acting in a positive manner and we're looking forward to an active spring. I'll have the first quarter's statistics available next month.

Thanks for reading.

Lorne & Drew