I think I get what you're saying. A rose can live with RRD for a while. I know some rose exhibitors who have roses with really big crowns and who have kept roses going for as long as five years with RRD in the bush, but they were still getting a few good canes each year. For them and probably for you, the mite population was low so spread within a rose only happened when phloem moved within the bud union to other roots and then up to the canes that they supported. I've seen a puny plant of Nearly Wild survive with RRD for five years. Until the fifth year, it managed to keep a cane that looked normal. But the rest of the plant declined into RRD ungliness. When you say that a Tamora cane curved in a circle, that happened because one side of the cane was growing faster than the other. (Alfalfa tea would have affected all the roots pretty much equally.) The hyperthorny part that you see is soft because it has grown so fast; it will harden up with time. But THAT cane will be sick. I also have a friend locally whose husband took a chain saw to the base of a climber because only the south half showed RRD: the north side survived, but they took the south side off, at first and the uglies only came up from the isolated southern root side. You are in Wiscosin and aren't getting the many months of growth that some of us get. It may take longer for RRD to start affecting your roses in spring. You growing season may also give the vector mites a shorter season to mature so your conditions may mimic southern Iowa where the mite populations only spread in huge numbers in fall. (I think in my part of the world there's a short spread in spring, as well.) Right now, I think you've got plants that aren't totally full of RRD. I think that's why you're seeing some good canes and a few bad ones. I've never let the disease go past the first cane in my garden, well, not intentionally, sometimes it has spread really fast into a second cane while I'm still trying to be in denial. Hope this helps.

shark, The hickory nuts won't be harmed by a few weeks at ambient temperatures, but the white oak acorns, in a bucket may dry out enough to lose their viability - and if you have bunch of them in there, they might even 'go through a heat', and you'd lose them all. The acorns need to be collected as soon as they are ripe and drop and stratified 'til you get ready to plant them next spring - they may germinate and begin pushing a taproot radicle before you get them out, but I've planted thousands that had already sprouted - if you handle them gently, they do just fine - I often pinch off the tip end of the radicle so that it will begin producing a branching lateralized root system from the outset. The hickories can wait a while, till the main crop drops. After removing the husks, I'd 'float-test' them - place the nuts in a bucket/pan of water; viable, well-filled nuts will sink. You can leave them overnight, and some of the drier viable nuts that float initially will eventually sink, but most that float would be better utilized by cracking and eating. Check out the article linked below -should have good detailed instructions on how best to collect and store nuts & acorns for planting. Here is a link that might be useful: Containerized planting of oaks & nut trees for outplanting

Honey, Salt and Milk are listed in the top 10 bad foods to feed to birds. I know it's a hard decision for you to make between giving the bird feeds to your pet since it was a present or throw it away to avoid anything bad to your birds. If I were you, I would not give the feeds to your pet since it's so dangerous. Anyway, it's still up to you what you are going to do. It's just my advice.

In my area, better feed = more squirrels. I can't even put out suet anymore for the flickers and woodpeckers because the squirrels will obliterate an entire cake in minutes. I recently discovered that straight safflower seems to be unattractive to squirrels but the birds seem to be eating it. So I may permanently switch to that. I put out mealworms occasionally on my deck railings when I see the birds coming to the waterers. I think the birds grab a few before the squirrels gobble up the majority. When the Eastern Blue Jays are around, I put out a few peanuts at a time for them and wait until they take them before I put anymore. This thwarts most of the squirrel action on those.