A View From The Garden

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3 possible coffee tables for the Welcome Center

Filed under: Uncategorized | on September 15th, 2009 | No Comments »

OK – I know this is a bit premature since we havn’t even broken ground yet, but we were talking about it, since petfriendly hotels are very hot right now, and someone asked me “would The Green leaf Inn be pro-pet?” I thought about this a long time – especially since I have three dogs of my own, and two cats, who are as close to actual human children as I’m going to get and I do miss them terribly when I travel.  I researched the heck out of this, looking at web sites of hotels who allow pets, their contracts and descriptions, fees and rules.                                                                                                                                                         Bottom line, The Green Leaf Inn is pro-pet, but they will not be allowed on campus or in the suites. There are so many good reason why they should not be allowed, damage and insurance being some of the most important – but also consider room air quality. The rooms will be as allergy free as possible, with quarterly allergen tests to keep the rooms that way – and everyone by now knows about pet dander and how difficult it is to remove from a room once it is there. That being said, we will help our clients who are traveling with their pets as much as possible. My personal vet who does boarding is close by and I am going to set up an agreement with them to house our client’s pets during their stay. Even better, our neighbor – as in right next store - wants to start a kennel, and we have already spoken about an arrangement and possible discount for our guests’ pets. She has lots of land and wants to set up visiting hours and a dog walking area on her property too – something that we have no room for at our location. I want to have lots of dog-friendly information at the front desk too – places to visit that welcome dogs, parks in the area for walking and directions, etc. So, even if we are saying no to the pets presence, we will try to help out as much as we can.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on April 21st, 2009 | 1 Comment »

At 6 PM, Fritz and I will be sitting in the town hall of Delavan, WI waiting for the vote to approve our request for a zoning change on our property. The Green Leaf Inn needs to be on commercial land, and so we are asking to change our 5 acre’s agriculture zoning and residential zoning to B4 zoning. The town planning commission approved our request two weeks ago, and the next step is to seek final approval from the Town Board. The new president will be there, but she is familiar with our story as we see her every week at church. So…we are hoping for a speedy, positive vote tonight. Of course, as soon as the land becomes commercial, Fritz and I will need a special “manager’s permit” to continue to live in our house! That will have to be requested along with the other conditional use permits (including the wind turbine) and that will need a separate approval process – and I’m sure a bit more debate. One step at a time…we have excellent representation in the persons of our architect team, and our attourney team – who have become experts in the re-zone process, so we are in good hands.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on April 21st, 2009 | No Comments »

I received a Sun Oven from my husband as a gift this year. www.sunoven.com He had actually owned one years ago when he was a teacher in Illinois – he has been tuned in to this green stuff far longer than I. I look forward to some of WI first sunny days this spring so that I can “play” with it. The instructions say that after a few times, I should feel like an expert! The oven does not burn anything, and if you are cooking anything besides baked goods, you will not need as much moisture, because the oven also doesn’t dry things out. the trickiest thing to learn is focusing it so that it is in sun, not shadow for the entire cooking period – so you need to think ahead and plan for the shade progress across the cooking area. On a sunny day, the oven will reach 300 degrees in 20 minutes. The sun oven web site has recipes too, which I will check out – but here’s my goal – I want to be able to make muffins and breads for The Green Leaf Inn’s breakfasts and add them to the menu so that our guests will be able to experience solar baking. On sunny days, they may also see me using the oven to bake some muffins for the next day’s breakfast. I will be selling them too, so they can purchase one to take home. Each purchase of a Solar Oven helps support Sun Oven’s outreach projects in deforested countries on 5 continents. As the population grows, this way of cooking will help to save the forests we have left. I’ll be back to let you know how my first cooking lessons go!

Filed under: Uncategorized | on April 21st, 2009 | No Comments »

Last night was the second open town meeting at the Elkhorn Courthouse. The ordinance that the land use committee has created is for all intents and purposes anti green energy. The seats were full, but I was disappointed first of all by the lack of attention this issue is getting from the county. I recognised the same faces that were at the first public meeting last month. I was also disappointed by the growing feeling that no one on the committee was really listening.The townspeople who spoke were all very polite and each made good points, but it felt like decisions had already been made – and not what any of the audience had in mind. What is causing this fear of green energy here in this county? Why is there this “not in my back yard” ignorance about something that has to do with saving our country and our planet – something we must accomplish or face extinction?

Filed under: Uncategorized | on March 20th, 2009 | No Comments »

Dear Sir;

I know it is obvious to you that we are not happy with your company’s work this summer.

This letter is to inform you of exactly what issues remain incomplete from our contract this summer, in the hope that as an honest business person, you will correct this situation, so that all of us can move on from a very disagreeable experience, and we can finally enjoy what we have paid for.

Your crew either performed their work not to their typical professional level or the work they did was good, but the direction and design they received from you was flawed. Either way, we want the problems corrected.

Problems #1 and #2:  When your crew was here, he mentioned that the current level of the pond was what you designed, but this is not correct. While I was present, you and another crew person lowered the rocks in the bog from your original bog installation height so that the plants would not all die. After weeks of trial and error – a huge waste of our time – and living with a failure instead of a very expensive but beautiful ornamental pond, we isolated the leak to actually be the tear in the liner that we in fact informed you about and you marked with white paint, but you decided was not necessary to take the 20 minutes to patch before rebuilding the wall. It is this unpatched tear that is the reason the pond water dropped by 6 inches at least – and why you offered to lower the height of the original bog so the plants would find water. The original pond has no other leaks and is as sound as ever.

You informed us that it was not necessary to patch the tear, because you were able to pull excess liner up higher and the tear would not be below the water level. We do not remember seeing any excess liner in that area when we were pulling invasives, but we trusted you since we were paying you to complete the project. You apparently thought the level of the water – by your design – would never reach it. However, it obviously did reach the tear causing the water level drop from the design level you originally planned to the lower level it is at now. Because the level of the water is so low, the buckets in the bog are never completely filled and there is insufficient water available to run the waterfall, creek and bubbler simultaneously. The original pump for the water fall – which we purchased from you five years ago, is at most 2/3 covered with water, and over heats, causing it to stop, popping the electric circuit. Even the smaller pump that we purchased to try to remedy the situation is still only 2/3 covered with water, as your crew saw the last time they were there.

As I’m sure you know, these pumps must be totally submerged, not only for the cooling properties, but also for sound attenuation. Unfortunately, both of these things are compromised. I told you my concerns when you were still present at the site, and you told me that the pump was old, and noisy, and I simply needed to build up rocks around it to cover it.

The tear in the liner must be patched so that the pond can be filled 3-6 inches higher, helping to cover the bog buckets properly with water. Jason is aware of the tear and also knows where it is in the wall. The bog height must also be restored and replanted to the original height that you designed. 

Problem #3 is the new creek itself; it took us weeks to finally figure out that part of the water loss was the bad design and installation of the creek bed. A few weeks ago your crew had to pull the liner straight up so that the creek could run (even with the present low level of the pond) without losing water over its sides. Our question is why weren’t the sides of the creek liner made higher  to protect against any over flow of water? Surely the cost of three to five inches of extra liner along the sides when it was being constructed would have been worth it rather than the skimpy – and now unattractive – sides that we are left with.

 The creek design and installation needs to be corrected to handle the new appropriate water level of the pond without overflowing. A poor creek installation is not to be corrected by simply lowering the water level in the pond. We can only assume that your crew was following your instructions. If not, why did you not correct it before leaving the project? As the project stands right now, the tear that was not patched the bog that is too low and the poor creek design has not fulfilled our contracted agreement. We expect these errors to be corrected before this season’s end.  

Some years ago, your company built a creek and water fall as the focal point of this pond, and I would like you to know that it has never given us any trouble, has never leaked, and has been well worth the considerable price you charged to construct it, even now in its sixth year of use. This is why I was so adamant that we use your company again, and why I am so shocked and disappointed with the quality of your work this summer, not to mention your unpleasant and unprofessional behavior throughout the entire process. I believe that your lack of care and focus on our project is the reason the contract is not complete. We are of course, hoping that you will correct these problems, so that we can continue to be proud of your company’s work as we have been in the past.

We request your response within ten days of your receipt of this letter.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on November 3rd, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I didn’t start off wanting to learn all about the ever-changing technology of pond building. As it turns out, unless you have more than enough money to burn, owners must learn about the technology and the up-keep of this rather time consuming seasonal hobby themselves.

And if they do employ a vendor and there are problems – any problems – it gets set squarely back in the owner’s lap anyway. Unless you have money to burn, that is.

Problems can range from: the realization that the vendor they have selected to guide them through this hobby (or rather, a labor intensive add -on to the work day) is not the responsible, quality vendor they thought they were. Or, the problem “why is there a leak in my pond and who is responsible?”. Or: why does the money I am throwing at this thing not equal to the value I am seeing – and that I had been promised I’d see?

Do I sound a bit jaded? Perhaps.

I have learned a lot about ornamental ponds, and looking back over the past seven years, there has been more pain than pleasure associated with the experience. If I could have chosen instead the new technology of the pondless waterfall – especially for the Green Leaf Inn, I would have. But of course, that technology has only been created in the past few years.

Bottom Line, if you want a pond in your back yard, find some property that has a real one. It’s a lot less trouble.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on September 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

I don’t suppose anyone has ever has a vendor promise to do something and then not follow through…it doesn’t happen to me a lot, but when it does, I am always left with the feeling that there is no one as naive as me on the entire planet. This got bad, and it is only today that I have decided not to take the vendor to small claims court in order to recoup enough of the money spent in order to do the repairs and complete a badly mis-handled project. We have an ornamental pond in our back yard – we debated filling it in and growing a lawn instead what with the public possibly arriving on our doorstep as Inn guests in less than a year’s time, but then, decided to leap into improving the pond instead.  Choose your vendors wisely – have you ever heard that said? Of course, I had worked with and paid this vendor in previous years, and liked his work and I thought he would be consistent. he wasn’t. It was a nightmare. And now I am finishing this project – and repairing it- by myself.

Filed under: Uncategorized | on June 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

No, really, where DO I begin…each day I see the immense amount of things needed to be done for our project to become reality and I wish I had begun the preparation and research years ago…but years ago we didn’t know we were going to build a bed and breakfast on our property – and a green, sustainable one at that. I know that there are people who have experienced this adventure and have even survived and succeeded in creating their own bed and breakfast – your feed back would be very welcome. I probably have some of your books on our table in the study – just no time to read them yet. I will, eventually – I hope in time to avoid the most basic mistakes. My husband and I are what I refer to as “leapers”  – we leap into something and ask questions later. Most of the time – through sheer luck- we have accomplished what we set out to do with a range of moderate to great success. Other times, we have spent a lot of time and money and grief getting educated about what we did wrong and how it should have been done right. True to form, I have leapt into some landscaping decisions that I felt were necessary in order to spruce up our curb appeal for investors , potential vendors and future guests. Some are working out  fine, others not so much…

Filed under: Uncategorized | on May 29th, 2008 | No Comments »