Hi Rosie, I'll be dividing quite a few of my iris after they bloom this year. I'll have to get out to my iris bed and make a list to send you within the next day or two. We were talking of trading up Spiny Sea Urchin and Popcorn Pete this spring anyway, so we could make it a bigger trade. I'll be in touch soon. Mary

I believe that wound will heal completely over time and is certainly no worse than the oversized branch that is one of your two scaffolds. You may need to support the leader for the first couple of crops but I think new tissue will wrap completely around that wound and it will be better than new. You could test it to see how strong it is now and even make a splint for it, if necessary. You should remove the small piece of dead wood forming a stub that is interfering with the new tissue. The only thing that can go wrong is if the branch is required to hold too much load before it's sufficiently healed. I suggest you use your fingers to pinch back shoots during the growing season to train the tree to have more small shoots. It may be too late to get that oversized branch in ratio to the rest of the tree, but if you just keep pinching it back during the growing season, you may still be able to keep it. The trick with bears is apparently to shoot a bunch of nails into a plywood so sharp ends are sticking out and put them around trees with ripe fruit. I doubt a bear will damage a tree without fruit again. Maybe it was a cub playing around. http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/pnw/pnw543.pdf This might help if you're interested in learning some details about pruning cherries.

Hi everyone. I am looking for care bear & my little pony patterns for my little girls. If anyone could help me or if anyone has any they can send me that would be much appreciated. Please email me patterns if possible. Thanks in advance. spring_boone@hotmail.com

Those are so cute! It looks like they are knit flat in two pieces and then stuffed and sewn together. The legs and arms look to be just stitched therough the finished piece. I'm eyeballing this from the proportions, but I think you could figure this out without a pattern. I'd probably cast on about 10 stitches, continue in stockinette for about an inch. Then increase one stitch at each end of the next 4 rows (18 stitches). Do 2 rows with 18. Then decrease one stitch at each end of the next row (16). 2 rows. Decrease row (14). 2 rows. Decrease row (12). 2 rows. Decrease row (10). Decrease row (8). Then increase each end for the head. Probably every other row? So it would be knit increase row (10), purl across, increase (12) purl across, increase (14), purl across, knit across. Then do the same with the decreases, so 12, 12, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6, 6. I'd probably cast off at 6. Stitch 'em up and add your ears and embroidery? If no one can find the original pattern, it's worth a shot. (maybe I'll try one of these guys) Here is a link that might be useful: craftfetish blog