I so agree. The cats outside cats, I used to keep, were much more of a problem for myself and my neighbors. They bothered the neighbor's landscaping, One of them howled outside of my neighbor's windows, during the early morning hours, they came home with parasites from the birds and mice they ingested, My black cat was stollen over the holloween holiday, and the cats often came home bitten and scratched up from fighting with other cats, along with one of them coming home injured so badly from a car hitting it that it suffered greatly and died. For way too long I believed it was cruel to keep a cat indoors, I am very sorry that it took me so long to realize that it is much better for all concerned to train cats to be content indoor pets. It took me much less time to learn how to keep them from stinking up the house and or causing damage to the drapes and furniture. I have not quite learned how to keep them from damaging the foliage on my indoor plants, which are looking pretty sad now.

I have found that this far north I can often push the envelope with sun requirements. I grow several dogwoods in full sun, although they tend to be trees that prefer to grow in part shade. I have 4 Cornus alternifolia (pagoda dogwood, a native) and a Cornus kousa (kousa dogwood) all in full sun along with some in part shade. The full sun plants tend to be denser and have more flowers. The kousa won't be hardy enough for you, but the pagoda dogwood will be. It has a lovely winter silhouette of dark gray, layered branches, creamy Queen Anne's lace type of flowers (not what one normally thinks of as dogwood flowers) in spring, and clusters of small berries that ripen through red to dark purple with bright red stems that the birds love. Fall color is yellow and pinky-red, rather like an almost ripe peach. It can be multi-stemmed or single stemmed. Truly an all-season tree. There are some with variegated leaves (both green/white and green/gold) but I wouldn't recommend those for your location since they would probably burn. From garden photos 07 From garden photos 07 Other possibilities to research that I've seen growing near me or have grown myself: smaller disease resistant crab apples, the hardier strain of redbud from Bailey's nursery, Hawthornes such as Crataegus viridis 'Winter King', Yellowwood (Cladrastis kentukea). Remember that since you are so far north, many trees such as the yellowwood may not reach their maximum possible size for many, many years, if ever. Regardless of what you plant, I'd give it a good layer of mulch (though not right against the trunk) out to the tree's drip line to keep the soil cooler and more moist to mitigate the baking sun effect. Proper watering will also be needed for a tree to thrive on a hot slope. I've linked the Missouri Botanical Garden's search page as another good resource in addition to the U Conn hort search linked above. Here is a link that might be useful: Missouri Botanical Garden search

Yours were not the only weather bones making complaints. I told several people that this was not going to be pleasant. We had a forecast of over 1/4 inch rain today, getting icky tonight. Well, it was about 35F, raining, soaking everything thoroughly after lightning and thunder and a good bit last night. Next thing I know that rain was WHITE! Over half an inch of white rain later, it decided to get "clear" again, and now it's coloring up again. IT IS APRIL darn it! All my daffodils are lying face down in their beds! Now that I think of it, I might go bry my head in my bed too!

>The ultimate size estimates have been all over the place in my searches< Crabapple cultivars vary tremendously in vigour, just as do regular apples. Variability of tree size is seen even when crabs are on dwarfing rootstocks. This fact makes it more difficult to manage crabs interplanted between regular trees in the orchard. In separate hedgerows or rows, the variability in vigour is not as much a problem, and can be dealt with by means of mechanical pruning. Crabapples vary enormously in growth habit, just as do regular cultivars. The preferred growth habit is upright, in which the crab tree naturally assumes a columnar canopy shape. This canopy shape requires less space and is easier to manage. The spreading and/or weeping types should not be excluded on this basis alone, but will be more effective in planting systems where they can be mechanically pruned. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-011.htm