^ dan, I'm not going to pretend to give a hoot about attracting wildlife. In reality, I want most wildlife to stay pretty far away. Rats, snakes, deer, woodpeckers, coyotes, foxes, skunks, insects, rabbits and stray cats are not things I want in the yard. Sure some purty butterflies and certain birds would be nice but you have to take the bad with the good. Right now we have these certain territorial birds. In the morning when the dogs are let out the birds fly over and peck at them, sending the dogs running for cover. Mean birds that we could do without. We could also live without having our deck destroyed by woodpeckers. I also think it's highly hypocritical to live in a tract home 35 miles outside the urban core and act like I give a crap about wildlife, but that's me.

You might want to look at cankers and root rot for honeylocusts. I don't have much experience with honey locust but cankers can cause the open dead spots on trunks and branches, and I see sprouts coming straight off the main trunk, that's usually a bad sign on a tree that hasn't been pruned lately. Also check around the base to see if the bark down there looks normal. Here is a link that might be useful: Cankers on honey locust

OK, I will relate my tale as it was quite a joke on me and others can benefit from my folly!LOL What happened was this: I had gotten my worms the winter before a bumper fall tomato harvest. As usual, I was using my Villaware food strainer/mill to process a 5-gallon bucket of assorted tomatoes for sauce. This great little machine only requires the raw fruits be washed and cut into quarters (or eighths for the big Brandywines, etc.) before feeding into the hopper--no blanching or cooking rnecessary. The machine separates the pulp and juice from the skins & seeds, each product going into separate containers. Very efficient! (And even better--that happened to be when my then-8-year-old grandson was visiting. He thought it great fun to do the cranking!! Shades of Tom Sawyer and his whitewashed fence...But I digress...) So here I was with a big pot of juice to simmer down for lovely sauce and a large bowlful of -- everything else. Well, of course, I says to meself--a treat for the herd!--so I spread the waste into their big Rubbermaid home, crooning lovingly to the lot as they seemed to wriggle in thankful ecstasy. I suppose the seedlings first began to appear a couple of weeks later... and kept appearing, and appearing... Even after changing the bedding and sifting the compost for use in my houseplants and seed-starter, those &$^%#@* tomato seeds kept on appearing! For more than 2 years --all through winters, springs, and summers, I have had to weed my houseplant pots! Seems no matter how deep they were planted, the determined little seedy bastards eventually found daylight! I start a lot of veggies, annuals, and perennials in pots & cell packs each spring, using my own blended seed-starter that (of course!) has Black Gold mixed in. Fortunately, tomato seedlings are so easy to ID (they certainly became VERY familiar to me!) I am able to rogue them out quickly from the desired seedlings. But what a pain in the neck! So, fellow composters--be sure you treat your guys only to cooked tomato seeds and toss your raw canning waste into an outdoors bin for redworms do not eat tomato seeds!!

Yeah, I was going to say shred it. I burn a lot of wood and I collect up the good solid bark to use for starting the woodstove. Big sheets can be broken lengthwise by hand and added in narrower pieces to get the fire built up without smothering it.