From one enthusiastic apple guy in Wisconsin to another -- welcome! And don't worry -- as you see here, I know all about being long-winded! Pruning is a great first step for getting your old trees into more manageable condition. I've heard it said that there really is no right or wrong time to prune -- you can do it this time of season if you like and the tree will have plenty of time to recover over the rest of the summer. The only questionable time to prune is very late in the growing season or immediately following growing -- say in September through November or so. Otherwise have at 'er. I've also heard it said that you shouldn't prune off more than about 1/3 of the total wood of a tree in any given year. This is a rough guideline but will minimize the shock to the tree and allow it to continue to fruit (well if not this year then next year) in addition to development of youthful vegetative growth. If on the other hand you just lopped the whole trunk off at like 5 feet high and left no branches, it will take many years for that tree to recover and resume fruiting. The tree probably wouldn't die, but it would be a major shock to the tree and send it into a major vegetative growth mode. So 1/3 is a good balancing point of "a lot, but not too much". You can continue pruning from year to year in this manner over the course of 2 or 3 years if necessary until the tree takes the shape and size that you want. Be aware that any named varieties of apples do not grow on their own roots. They are all grafted onto selected rootstocks, with weird names such as Bud 9 or MM 111. You can research rootstocks that are good for your soil quality and your needs for disease resistance, the final size of the tree that you would like, etc., and then purchase trees grafted to those rootstocks. Soil amendments are not at all a bad idea, although I'm honestly not certain how big of a deal it really is for apples, which it seems can grow well in all kinds of different soils, especially if you select a proper rootstock for your conditions. Careful evaluation and selection of good candidate apple varieties before going out shopping will also be beneficial. The more homework you do up front, the more happy you will be several years down the road when your trees finally begin fruiting in earnest. Developed in Minnesota, Honeycrisp is a fantastic option for Wisconsin's climate, and it so happens that it is as excellent for making cider as it is for eating. Very juicy and chock full of sugar. If you are very interested in making cider, you will probably also want tart varieties to blend in with the Honeycrisp, Red Delicious, and any other sweet varieties that don't have a whole lot of tartness to balance. I'm not very familiar with Wolf River but if memory serves, this might be a good tart variety? Personally I'm grafting a number of branches on my trees over to old English heritage cider apple varieties such as Foxwhelp, Kingston Black, Ashmead's Kernel, etc. These all have good tartness as well as some bitterness, or what some might call "snap" or "bite" beyond just tartness. Of these, I am having the best success so far growing the Foxwhelp, but who knows what the future holds. Of all my other trees, I am happiest so far with the Honeycrisp and the Cortland. Cortland is early bearing and is just a beautiful tree I think, although it tends very much to be tip-bearing on last year's wood so you must be very careful not to over-prune it or you'll be snipping off most of the fruiting wood! It is a delicious apple to eat and excellent for pies and sauce, and suited perfectly for Wisconsin's climate. Personally I do not care for Red Delicious, but I have heard many say that when eaten ripe right off the tree, they are indeed delicious. And I know they do grow well in Wisconsin, as my grandfather had several trees and they produced heavily at least every other year (biennial bearing). As for trees to avoid, I would look up the USDA Hardiness Zone that you live in, and stay away from any varieties that are intended for zones far warmer than your own. For example, I enjoy Braeburn and Granny Smith apples, but as far as I know, we haven't had a lot of success growing those types here in Wisconsin, as they originated from warmer climates and seem unable to adapt well here. Your trees can definitely produce fruit of superior size and quality if you take an active role in their care. Untended trees may produce many bushels of fruit, but it may be very small (i.e., mostly core, and therefore not so much to eat!), full of worms or other disease, all green rather than red or yellow due to excessive vegetation and shading, etc. If you can remove much of the vegetative growth each year leaving most of the fruiting wood, and perhaps thin out the fruits and/or fruit buds each year, your fruit will be larger (less core and more to eat!), more colorful, easier to spray, easier to reach from the ground or a short ladder, etc. No matter what you do, have fun with it. That is what it's really all about. Enjoy.

SolarPowered is exactly right. The steel has two conflicting properties. One is hardness. This is the ability of the knife to hold an edge. The second is ductility. This is the ability of the knife to withstand flexing or impact without breaking. These things are created by both the chemical composition of the knife and how it is 'worked', forged to harden it then heat treated (annealed) to soften it a bit. They try to keep the edge hard and the spine softer. Some of these components can also help the steel restist corrosion (nickle, cromium, moly etc). Hence the term stainless (which really means stain resistance). You will typically find a hardness indication of the edge as a rockwell number. You'll see a little dimple near the handle where they test the blade. Values of 57-60 are pretty hard. You are less likely to find any indication of the amount of annealing done but the major manufacturers do a good job of this. The most common problem you'll find is over annealling which makes the edge too soft. They try to catch all of these by doing the rockwell test after the annealling is done. Simple carbon steel can be sharpened to amazing sharpness. Stainless will typically not be able to be sharpened to quite the same level but because it is harder the edge lasts longer (but again, it is harder to sharpen) Other things that affect a knife are feel of the handle. Edge geometry. Blade thickness. Balance of the blade. And general aesthetics. Anyway, after all that (because you asked) I agree with SolarPowered, get a good sharpening system and I think you'll find your current knives are just fine. Ken

To my knowledge the preferred series will be a little louder but not as loud as the Trane and it's not truly communicating. The Bryant furnace is starting to make me nervous because of the electricity specs. I posted above for the V21. The Trane doesn't have the high electric specs and will work on the 15 amp breaker. I was primarily going for the Bryant because of the evolution control and the noise. The HP sits right next to my back porch and there is no where to move it. The Trane is 5 years labor and the Bryant is 10 years labor. However the Bryant is $1300 more with the 10 year warranty or $500 or more with a 1 year labor warranty. Yes, I always overthink everything! The blower is my confusion. If I knew the right size then it will dictate which one I should purchase. 3 ton is Trane and 4 ton is Bryant.

One of the bigger problems (among many) in my old kitchen was drying plastic bags hanging from two round plastic lingerie dryers on towel racks. It made for quite the mess. I now have so much counter space behind the sink that this process goes much better. I leave the bags propped open on a wooden "V"-shaped rack with just two levels and sometimes once they've dried a bit just on the counter. I can do that; there's space to. They dry fast and then they go away fast because there is a place to put them. The pots and pans are supposed to be going away more because they too now have a space. But as before, they get used almost as fast as they get cleaned, so they're starting to sit around more and more. There's more stovetop for them to do so painlessly now. The new DW definitely using less water than handwashing, at 0.7gal per load, means that I run the DW more frequently. This in turn makes it easier to put away because there is less inside. I used to hate emptying the DW and it would sit, sometimes until nearly everything just got used again. It's so easy to swivel and pivot everything away now, this happens and then guess what? There's a place to put the dirty dishes in the sink: into the DW. This is kind of like a revelation. I thought I was so inherently messy I could never have a clean sink. In actuality, I abhor emptying dishwashers but this new system permits throughput: very nice! There's also acreage above my DW (which at 90-degrees to the sink turns out to have been a stroke of brilliance. I was *really* nervous about this configuration but it turns out to be better than any I've ever had before). I use the acreage to ... air dry all that !#$^ plastic that came out of the DW! I never use the heated drying cycle which is no problem at all for ceramic and much problem for sure for the plastic. Now I have room to set the whole load, one-piece-high, across the top of the DW on the counter. It's dry very quickly this way and then ... I've actually been putting it away. Don't know how long this will last, I think I'm still in the novelty-honeymoon. But things seem promising to me. Acreage is key for me, as it turns out. I hadn't realized this before, but with it the contrast is striking.