I don't have much to add about moving the trees. Fall is a good time to do it. I've done it many times. Usually I make cuts with the shovel straight down around the tree. With a tree an inch in diameter I'd probably make a circle of cuts about 2 feet away from the tree, a foot deep, then make a kind of trench outside those cuts, then slice under the tree. For the smaller maple, I'd probably start about 18 inches around the tree and do similar. Except for male trees (for types that have male varieties), or trees that are special clones, all trees make seeds. I wish more people would find places to plant the seedlings that come up. I wouldn't let people discourage you from keeping volunteer trees. So many nursery grown trees are clones, I worry that we are losing genetic diversity. Plus, a lot of nursery grown trees in containers tend to have girdling roots that I find hard to tease out. A local seedling is more likely to be locally adapted than a tree grown at a distant tree farm. I've grown seedling maples, ginkgos, oaks, honey locusts. It's a nice feeling to see them grow tall and strong.

Oh! How excited you must be! I used to teach a beginning quilting class and believe me, when you are learning something new, smaller class size is better. You should gain a lot of one-on-one attention which will be invaluable. Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions! You'd be surprised at the kinds of things people will ask in a class. Just know that your instructor does NOT expect you to know everything; that's why you are taking a class, right? To learn something (and perhaps many things) new? Even what seems like a stupid question to you is not stupid if it helps you to understand how to accomplish something or why it's done a certain way. I would also recommend you pay a little visit to the shop between now and your class. Explain that you just signed up for this class and you want to make sure you bring whatever is necessary. They may recommend you bring along some fabrics (or they may want to sell you more! Always a plus for the shop) to work with, and they should be able to give you some kind of handout that will assist you in packing just the right items to take with you. It's great that you've found a place to learn this skill. Good luck, have fun, and show us some progress!

I feel your pain!! I had an Afghan Hound that ate every thing! I had roasted a whole chicken with potatoes and carrots in one of those cook in bags, we ate the chicken and stuff but the carcass was still in the bag on the counter to be put in the trash, quick as a blink he jumped up grabbed it off the counter and snuck off with it. He ate the entire thing! bag, chicken carcass and all. All in one gulp it seemed. Well we were very worried and followed him around and lo and behold a couple days later he was out in the yard trying to do his business and have a bit of a problem. My husband had to put on some plastic gloves and lend assistance!! It was the entire bag still in one piece. No sign of the chicken LOL I had one of my Great Danes that would eat the rocks that were below the bbq grill where the grease would drip down on them, no matter how much we tried to cover that up she dug till she got those rocks and ate them. Never a problem she would pass them. That same Afghan hound had got loose from the original owner and gone trash can hopping, had apparently eaten a large wad of aluminum foil. Well that was a problem because it will not pass and will not deteriorate quickly. In fact this is how I became the owner of that dog, my vet called me and asked if I could take it on that the current owner traveled and just could not deal with the dog. I said sure. We ended up having to give him special digestive enzyme pills to help break down the foil, his other bad habit was drinking toilet water and I had the blue cleaner stuff in my toilets, well that nearly killed him, it ate holes in his stomach. I had no idea he was drinking in there. But to this day I will never put anything in my toilets again I had no idea that stuff was so dangerous Long story short he lived to be a very old dog and ate many more things in his long life including an entire Christmas ham and an entire Christmas Turtle Cheesecake! and a shoe or 2. And survived testicular cancer and the removal of um them. I hope that makes you feel a little better and know I am praying for you and your dog!!

DublinBay, you said you were hoping to find some rhyme or reason to the beetles population growth/decline. I think it is very unlikely that flooding or excessive rain contributes to their downfall, considering the highly conflicting reports. However, I’d like to hear more from others who experienced severe LACK of rainfall last year, as I did. It’s a fact that the grubs need the fleshy grass roots to do well, and if the the grass is brown and dead from lack of water/rain (as ours was), it is unlikely many grubs thrive. I think this contributed, at least somewhat, to the lessened quantity of beetles I have experienced this year. Granted, if one lives in a neighborhood and there are well watered lawns all about, this wouldn’t be the same. I live in the countryside, and there were no green lawns, no pastures, barely any weeds by the end of summer. Impossible to irrigate miles of hayfields. lol any of you experiencing some relief from The Little Green Devils, do you remember if your summer was rainy or excessively dry?