John, I have much more severe problems with borers on peaches. Maybe it is related to the kind of rootstock you are using on the apricots. When I dig borers out of peaches I notice how soft the wood is compared to my apricots and plums. I am also now painting the lower trunks of all my stone fruits with undiluted latex paint in a very thick coat, and painting 3-4 inches underground as well. If you replant I would do that for additional borer protection. The plum curculio likes all, but the apricots can get it worse if you don't start spraying early enough. Early spray is key, the cots are way ahead and there is a temptation to wait until the peaches are also ready to dust off the sprayer. Resist that urge! I can't think of any other bug problem that might be worse on apricots. Along with the Euro plums they are prone to green aphid damage in May/June, but the Euro plums get it more severely than the apricots. Overall I find apricots one of the easiest and most rewarding fruits to grow, assuming you get good varieties like Tomcot. Early freeze is the biggest issue to deal with but I have near-perfect conditions for spring weather since I am on the side of a deep river valley. I added ten new apricot varieties this spring to find some other good ones besides Tomcot. Scott

Hi Sandy, This arch of climbers were the only ones I protected this way. I have 5 other arches/trellis structures that I just didn't have the time to protect this way. Those I took the canes down (carefully and with gloves!) and laid them down on the ground, putting pine straw over them. I don't have to worry about them this winter, since there is so much snow to blanket them. They are somewhere lost in the snow. Last year there wasn't enough snow cover and many of the climbers had to be cut right to the ground. I am always amazed at how fast they rebound, and how much growth they can make up in one short summer. I do have some winter-hardy ramblers like Violette and Baltimore Belle, and climbers like Quadra and William Baffin that just laugh at the cold....but I also have a fondness for marginally hardy climbers that I am obligated to protect every winter. The arch in question is covered with a double thickness of burlap, and secured with twine. That arch is in an area that gets a lot of very cold wind but the climbers on it (New Dawn & Rosarium Uetersen) always come through with little damage. Celeste

I paid just over $4 this year for propane, but closer to $3 last year (Amerigas owns my tank). There is no chance I will ever get natural gas. My electric is running about $0.10 right now, but could get as high as $0.12 during the summer. I would love to go off propane totally. The Lennox guy said I should upgrade to a 5 Ton XP25 if I want to go off propane for better heating (which he recommended). I would also have to run a 220V line over to my furnace for the heat strips, which he said would be about $1,000. His quote was for $11.8k with the heat pump, air handler, coil, etc. installed. That doesn't include the $1k rebate, or the cost for the electrical wiring. I asked the Carrier dealer about going full electric, and he didn't recommend it with the propane already there. I did get a quote for a Trane system, but the dealer had very poor reviews online and their system was $15k for an XC95m and XL20i heat pump.

The SNA a two hour drive from my place and It's still on my to do list. Spring is the recommended time to visit there. Guessing the bugs get bad by summer. Let me know if you're in the area. We lose many pine trees from insects, the pine bark beetle for one, this seems to be aggravated by dry seasons we have regularly during the summer season which puts the trees under stress which the beetles like. This is a picture of some Pinus strobus at a city park outside of town. You can see the sickly crown needles at the top, possibly pine bud worm. It doesn't always kill the tree outright but can. Once the tree is dead, it usually rots about half way up first, then snaps off in a wind. These trees are on the way out. From what I know from their history, they are over 100 years old, possibly 150.