The Latest Solar Powered Devices Print

Live from Prescott, AZ for The Arizona Historical Preservation Conference.  Discussion of some of the topics how preservation benefits communities even with its challenges.

History of The Parker Dam and our Staycation of the month in Lake Havasu, AZ.

Discussions about mushroom hunting, balloon festivals, Arizona State Parks and Lake Havasu has the second most visited attraction in the state.

More discussion about the historical conference and what it means to a town like Prescott and other Arizona towns who participated.

Romey details the history of the sheep industry including a remote spot Sheep Bridge.

Conversation with Lake Havasu Mayor Cal Sheehy.  How he got to town and became mayor.  Known for its outdoor recreation on the Colorado River but its also a town of 50,000 residents.  He describes his plans to attract families and businesses.

Notes from the garden start with summer lawns.

Jay Harper discusses the winter lawns that were left in for summer now hard to maintain or dying from the heat. 

Methods like aerating, dethatching and verti-cut can bring the summer bermuda grass back.

Adjusting and maintaining sprinklers for watering the lawn.  New low volume heads can be directed where it needs to go and not waste water.

Mentions SprinklerLift.

Oh those pesky WEEDS!  Wet winter produced a mess of weeds.  Jay has some thoughts on how to control or eliminate them.

Control the growth with use of pre-emergent in the spring and fall.  

Getting rid of ragweed.

CALLER:  Has a smart irrigation controller thats not working properly.  Suggestions to fix it.

Discussion of core aerofying a lawn.  The machine used is heavy but the results are very good.

TEXT:  Used a pre-emergent called Weed Stop for many years but recently wasn't as effective.

CALLER:  Black irrigation tubing always breaking and wants to know if he can replace with more rigid PVC.  Jay has 3 options.

Bonide's Burn Out mention for weeds.  Bloodmeal repeals rabbits.

Recaping watering schedule, fertilizing and some things you can plant now like okra now and pumpkins soon.  Also good mulching to cool the ground and control weeds

Romey says bees are stripping his peaches?  

Jennifer's takeaways from The Arizona Historic Preservation Conference.  Revitalizing historic places and downtown areas.  Including the Arizona cities who found success.

Dave Barrett of Barrett Propane discusses propane!  A big commodity in rural areas.  And considered clean burning energy source.

Beside use for heating, propane can be used to power refridgerators and propane generators can produce electricity.

Propane use just requires a tank.  Unlike natural gas or electricity that connect from an outside source like pipes and wires.

Dave's experience as a Hotshot Firefighter.

What defensible space needed by a propane tank to protect against wildfires.

Dave explains where propane comes from and distributed.  Stored in salt caverns and distributed by trucks.  

Dave talks about a program to get residents to stop using wood fire pits and switch to propane in Maricopa County.  Results have improved air quality.

Propane has turned into a net export product.  Demand is high in other countries.

Propane is a byproduct of natural gas.  And never goes bad.  Tanks need to be certified to keep in shape.

CALLER:  Confusion about information he's getting about the size of a tank he can use and where to place it.

Out Weekly 'How To' on cleaning grout and grout sealing.  

Discussion of the state champion juniper tree that was saved by The Hotshot Firefighters before the Yarnell Fire.

Discussion of a listener e-mail that was confused about our past opinion on Arizona power providers with our look at where our power comes from.  Rosie addresses some of the confusion on using power at a lower rate during certain hours.

Tom talks about his accredited certifications in sustainability construction.  And his experience living in Acrosanti and what he learned.

Discussion of the 'throw away' mentality of society approach to building and the practical solutions to sustainable building materials that stay up longer and use less energy.

The key is time.  A building that can last over a century versus one that lasts only decades.

Discussion of the architecture of Michael Goodwin who designed the inverted triangle building like Tempe City Hall.  Designed to shade and cool itself.

Discussion of rammed earth construction and materials.

Tom talks about the most popular projects he is constructing today.

Discussion of the differences in energy use between Phoenix and Prescott which is higher in elevation.  It plays into why certain projects want to be done.