I don't know exactly how old I was, but it was definitely age 3 or less, because that's how old I was when we moved to the house my mother's still in now, and this happened in the 3-unit apartment we lived in before the move. My younger brother and I were sitting and playing in the dirt at the side of the place and suddenly realized that the dirt we had all over us was moving and hurting. We had disturbed some ants' nests and they were letting us know they were not happy with the situation. Boy, did we wail! Mom and Dad must have thought someone broke a leg. Until I remembered that, the first thing I thought of was being in the "new house" for just a few months with my brother on the couch very ill, and the doctor standing over him telling my parents he needed to go to the hospital immediately. Dad's mom came to stay with us and watch me so my parents could spend most of the next 3 weeks in the hospital with my brother who nearly died of bacterial meningitis.

No I don't have photos, sorry for that. I have been doing it like this for 3 years now with such an increase in rooting, that I was not afraid to try some hard to root ones. After the callusing and before you dip into rootone or clonex or dusting sulfur...I put on my close-up glasses :-))) .....and VERY carefully, not to draw white milk, I score so slightly all around, maybe 6-8 in total number, depends on the thickness of cutting...this is maybe 1 inch in length and all the way to the edge of the cuttings end.... Then into water with Superthrive in it (I have not been able to find Clonex) and then all over with the rooting powder of choice, I use a paint brush to get up and into the cracks and on real thick. Then into the potting medium that you have taken your fingers to widen a hole 3-4 inches deep and as wide as the cutting is. If you just jam the thing into the soil, as I have years ago, you just wipe off the rooting compound as you push it down. Hope this helps and try all kinds of methods...mahalo, roxanne

Linda, I am so sorry to hear about your bad year due to those nasty nasty birds. The year before last I had 12 of those dang birds, this last year I think only 8. Last year though down at the park where I have nestboxes, they did get to a Dees nest before I got the wren guard up. I was checking every other day, the Dees laid the egg on the day I didn't check and the wren poked the hole in it before I even knew they laid an egg Ugh!

Just did. It's just the two of us & we just bought our 2/1 retirement house. We have several years to get it ready & will use it for weekends until we're ready to go there full time. Might eventually add another bathroom, but might not. We're going to renovate the one we have with a walk-in shower to make it easier for us as we grow older & I'm sure we can live with just one. I know a lot of people prefer a bigger house to accommodate guests (& stuff) but with the money we save on a smaller house, utilities & tax we can put them up at a local B&B when they visit & still come out way ahead! My parents stayed in the large family home too long because they wanted us all to have our own rooms when we came home - even though all of us were almost never there at the same time - maybe twice a year. The rest of the year, they had to deal with all of the maintenance required on a 4/4 with large yard, etc. Our primary residence is a large 3/2 and that's cool too - just takes me longer to clean, more money to heat/cool & lots more money in taxes. We can, and prefer to live small rather than large. Our last residence was a 1/1 farmhouse & we loved that too. Had no problem selling it either.