Cris Fellows

So if your adult son is visiting from Minneapolis or other place that they ride bicycles regularly all year long, and he says, "C'mon down here"...you should not assume he means you can do this.  At the time I had a bike with coaster brakes, got really scared and put my feet down which effectively meant I had no brakes.  I ran into a short rock wall and broke my elbow.  My son days, "I meant get off your bike and walk down here."

Here is a good place to start in making your neighborhood nontoxic.  https://www.instagram.com/nontoxicneighborhoods/
I am just getting started by trying to get herbicides banned at my workplace.  I drove in to work (children's hospital) one day and directly beside the sign cheering our champions for children was a guy with a sprayer loading the lawns with toxic goo.  I emailed the hospital president that day.  Since I have not heard back, it is now time to revisit.

Scott Stiller wrote:Have a picture of it?

Here is one like mine.  My daughter in laws is a far lovlier antique version.

Lorne Martin wrote: The one that doesn't ripen is from the hardier root stalk below the graft. The one that ripens is the grafted intended tree. I would heavily prune (40% ish) the one that doesn't ripen after leaf drop or late winter about a month before the buds swell. This will encourage the good tree to grow. Do this 2x and then the following year you should be able to remove it totally or just keep it very pruned back. Most of the tree's energy will go to the unwanted side if you let it.

Thank you so much!  That makes so much sense.  I will prune it back this winter.  

We bought the 3 abandoned lots behind us and garden them.  The center strip where they buried houses and covered in fill dirt are too hard to sink a shovel or pitchfork.  I smothered the grass and used a blend from prairie moon nurseries.  All of native meadow plants have deeper roots than grass.  Yellow dock, burdock, thistle and mugwort have also volunteered.  My happy finding though was that I could dig a hole for elderberry (with much difficulty) and they completely thrived.  They went from bare root to 15 foot monsters in a few short years!!!

Hi, I have three peach trees and only one of them does this.  It pretty much has a double trunk because the split is so low, but one arm of that bears lots of fruit that will not ripen.  The other arm bears a small amount of fruit that ripens normally.  Last year I thought it was because it was partially in the shade of a big old pine, but we took her down this year and it is the same.  Last year the fruit never ripened, remaining green until fall leaf drop.

Beth Johnson wrote:

If you are not a person of color, please read how BLM requests allies to act, and read BLM's initiatives that go beyond the the United States. It is a global movement for freedom, liberation and justice. https://blacklivesmatter.com/resources/

Beth, thank you for the resources and more importantly your life and shared stories.  We will continue to do all we can to make this a place where your son can be safe and unafraid and supported.  ❤❤❤  Cris

"We don't have to manifest love, in fact, we cannot manifest love.  All we can do is see beauty and react to that.  Through that, we will be a vessel of love and we will pour love through ourselves, not because we know how to love but because we can recognize beauty."  
Dr Zach Bush
I think that even more than speaking up, recognizing beauty and having true reverence for life second by second (whether our own life, the lives of our racist friends...which I honestly have the most difficulty with, or all of the people of color we find in our lives) is where we start (and end).
And even though it often seems the easy way out, we can support change from the sidelines.  The National Lawyers Guild is AMAZING (personal family experience), Equal Justice Institute too, and welovelakestreet.com for direct aid to small businesses in Minneapolis (my youngest lives there, it is a beautiful place and worth investing in).  Follow Shaun King on social media since he seems to have eyes and ears everywhere.

This is my new favorite tool!  (Technically it is called a 4 tine cultivator, but we prefer rake hoe.  😂).  My daughter in law found a used/ antique one and I used it to clear sunflower row, a long 2 foot wide raised bed that had been overrun with creeping Charlie, dandelion and grass.  It made the job so easy!  I bought my own, but the tines are not sharp, as hers was.  I may have to rework it.  It comes to the garden every day now along with the hori hori and primers.  

Yay!  You are back!!!