A library has many books on your topic.

If they give you the pitocin, get the epidural. I didn't want the epidural but after a while, the pain left me no choice. They gave me another drug before the epidural and all it did was calm the contractions - prolong labor for a what seemed an eternity. Depending on how much they give you, Pit, as others have said here, can be very very uncomfortable. DD was 10lbs and wouldn't stay turned. There was talk of a C-section but she eventually decided it was time to say Hi. The trend is to walk a lot even with pit and contractions going at the same time. That will help, but it can be rough too. I've never heard of any fetal distress from the pit but you and the baby will be monitored. Unless you have a strong coach, I wouldn't try the pit without the epidural or some other paid meds. You will wear yourself out - and you want to have all of your strength to hold that beautiful bundle of joy!! Congratulations and best wishes. Babies are such a joy, and bring you so much fun and love. gneegirl

I am checking into this as well. It seems some UPS, some Fed Ex stores have this. You bring the stuff, it goes into a locked container which is picked up regularly and shredded offsite. In our area I think it is Iron Mountain who shreds it. The price seems to be as best I can determine, 79 cents a pound. My dh called one place that will charge $150 to shred on location. We do live in a development, but there is minimal sense of community- but we are tossing around the idea of mentioning it to neighbors and seeing if people are interested. That could really work,and would be a lot more convenient than putting 2 boxes in the car when we got around to it. Again though, we do need to go through the boxes to make sure that there is nothing we need...........

Lisa, I think you will have great success with Lady Ashe. All climbers take their time getting going. Go with the flow. It seems at first they are duds, but watch out, they are slow to mature, like large/giant breed dogs. Climbers are famous for a huge spring flush followed by a disappointing show for the rest of the flowering season. Lady Ashe is a work horse regarding strong follow up flushes, unlike any other climber I know of. I think a strong hybrid tea presence in Lady Ashe's ancestry is why. Lady Ashe apparently has hybrid tea genes in her background. I say this because after her first flush of the season, during which blooms come in clusters of 3-4 buds, the following flushes are 95% one gorgeous bloom per approximately 16" long, straight stem. They are perfect for cutting, unlike so many climbers' blooms which either nod or have very short necks. Also, Lady Ashe has excellent petal substance, a high petal count with high centered, layer cake blooms. Her lateral flower stems are like rebar, stiff and strong. Her new basal canes are flexible when young, and easy to train, but once mature, be prepared to have a small battle trying to he some cooperation out of them. The flowers never, ever nod. They also last a long time on the bush and equivalently so in the vase. My Lady Ashe is mature now, at year 6. In my zone 5/6 garden, she has been 12 feet wide (6 feet in each direction), filling the upper half, 2 feet, on a 4 foot high fence. She has not spread much in the last two years, just hulked-up nicely. I do not expect her to get any larger. In your CA garden you can safely expect your Lady Ashe to exceed mine in size. By how much, I cannot say for sure, but I would estimate at least 25-33% more. The caterpillar damage you showed is disheartening. Caterpillars targeting rose buds is a hard to treat. There two approaches you can try. Spray just the caterpillar vulnerable parts of the bush, just the shoots developing buds, not the entire bush. Try either of these two insecticides: SEVIN - spray every 5 days. Spray the bud growing tips only, during the caterpillar season. Sevin is a nerve poison that must land on the caterpillar's body to kill it. It is not a stomach poison, so Sevin on the plant will not kill the caterpillar as it chomps on the rose buds/leaves. BAYER COMPLETE INSECT CONTROL - Spray every 7 days during caterpillar season. Just spray the bud growing tips. Bayer is both a contact and stomach poison. It is systemic, so kills the caterpillars when they eat sprayed foliage. Its systemc action does translocate to new or expanded growth. That is why weekly spraying during caterpillar season is required. Your aim is to kill the caterpillars when they just hatch and are tiny, before severe damage occurs. When tiny, they do little significant damage, but as they grow (and do so very quickly), the damage done increases exponentially. With Sevin, you hit the tiny, baby caterpillars' bodies as they hatch. With BAYER you not only kill them as they hatch by the spray hitting their bodies, but any that escape will die when they begin to eat the leaves/buds. These leaves/buds have absorbed the systemic insecticide and are lethal to the caterpillars. There are no organic, i.e., insecticidal soap, neem oil, etc., I can recommend. They are very damaging to new rose growth/foliage, especially with your intense heat and sunlight. I did not see saw fly larvae, a.k.a. rose slugs, damage in your photos. These caterpillars primarily make patterned windows and as they mature, patterned holes, in rose leaves. I have not experienced them attacking buds, but I can imagine they could. I hope your Lady Ashe exceeds your expectations as mine has for me. Moses