In response to a six year old comment on a very old thread, urine is actually quite sterile. What comes out the other end is not. That's the best thing to wrap your head around. I find that putting urine on my compost pile raises the temperature noticeably. It really does seem to accelerate composting. Urine sure won't do anything about the pH level of the bed, and wood ash is about the worst thing you can do about alkaline soil. My soil is alkaline, and I consider wood ash mildly toxic waste. (Though in very modest quantities, it is fine to put in a compost pile.) Per unit weight, wood ash is about half as effective in increasing alkalinity as lime.

It's winter and I finally have enough time on my hands to participate with this site, and the subject of squirrels is dear to my heart, so here's my 2 cents. I have sometimes gotten control of squirrels that were already feeding on fruit trees by spreading tangle trap over stretch wrap about 4' up the trunk and pulling up sagging branches with string. At other sites this has failed although I have found squirrel tails stuck in the goo. Because I manage so many small orchards I have found that what works on one site may fail at another. This is a sad fact that often escapes the reasoning displayed on sites like this. You can never assume that if something works for you it will always work elsewhere. Nor can you assume that the behavior of any species of wildlife will be the same at one site as another. I was glad to read the discussion about the actual heartlessness of Havaheart traps. If you use them to relocate them at least admit it is for your own sake and not the animal- there's nothing wrong with this in itself. Of course once you know why it is illegal it would be irresponsible not to humanely kill the animal. Squirrels die very quickly when submerged in water. I would not kill a raccoon this way however, I just can't stand how long the process takes for this wonderful and terrible pest. My raccoons recieve a single pellit from a 1,000 fps target gun just above the spot between their eyes. A properly placed shot will send them into convulsions and very rapid and merciful death. wish this site had spell check

Here is the CA state Champion Afrocarpus gracilior tree, in Alameda Park, Santa Barbara, CA. I took this picture in 2019. It is about 87ft tall with a canopy diameter of about 68ft. The trunk is over 4ft in diameter at breast height. It is about 100 years old. It is neither a "monster" nor a "nightmare". It is a happy, healthy, beautiful, drought-tolerant, disease-resistant shade tree that just happens to require more space at maturity than most residential yards have. If you plant a row of 1-gallon Afrocarpus container stock to make a hedge in a narrow space then they will oblige you handily in just a few years. But it will be on you to prune them every year from now until forever and keep them in the allowable space, because this is what they will try to become if allowed to grow unchecked. You might do well to remove every other tree after a few years to give the remaining ones more room to fill in. Removing the whole hedge and starting over every 25 years or so might be a reasonable thing to plan for. If you want a hedge that will remain bush-sized then plant bushes, not baby trees with leafy dreams of being a glorious 100 foot tall urban forest. And don't call them "monsters" if you break the pact and drop the ball on maintenance. If you have room to let one grow for several decades and begin to fulfill its genetic destiny then you will have a gorgeous big specimen tree while you are still young enough to enjoy the shade. I have a 75 year old male tree growing 3 feet from my house (yes, that is closer than I would recommend) and it has not caused any appreciable damage to my foundation. In fact, it has helped keep my house from slipping downhill like most of the other houses on my street are doing. Thanks, big tree!

Oh, I'm so jealous of your grosbeaks and redpolls, Pudge! I think my neighbor is feeding too well, because the grosbeaks are always hanging around there and I'm lucky if they pop by for a brief visit. I did get some Evening Grosbeaks in for a good feed this spring and again this fall. That was a thrill to spot them, as I hadn't seen them before. I haven't seen a redpoll for about 3 years now. I find them so cute. The last time I saw a flock of them was early in the spring/late winter. Do they stay around all winter? Someone told me once that they cycle...and I don't remember why...was it their migration pattern maybe? I'd be interested to know if someone had any thoughts on that. I also had my first White Breasted Nuthatch yesterday! Another cutie and fun to watch...very vocal. He was still here this evening. RE: salt and birds...I'm thinking they probably require certain amounts naturally and find it somewhere, but with bird feeder fast-food that contains salt, they might eat alot of it because its easy to get and therefore get too much salt. Sound familiar? ie. potato chips! Gil, I wonder if the nuthatches would like your suet bars? Toots