I have to agree with Jessy on this, only because of past experience. It's been gnawing at me as I got to know about you and your mother. A personal story - my parents had a cottage in Maine, we went up every summer, I loved it. (My father and grandfather built about a dozen cottages on the lake and sold all but two of them.) I still go to Maine every summer. After I married, my XH and I would go up to the lake (different cottage), and when we had kids, we took them up. My parents were there and we would all do things together, we had wonderful vacations. My kids loved it, especiallly having their grandparents at the lake for swimming and fishing, etc. When my parents got too old to make the drive by themselves, I would drive them up, get them settled, and later come up with my family. At the end of the summer I would bring them home. My sister never went back, she did not like Maine or the cottage - too rustic. Apparently, this bugged my dad. I would talk about how much I loved it up there, and looked forward to having the cottage some day for my family to use. He never really commented about it. Well, when my sister took over the financial management for my parents, she reviewed the will, and found out that my father was leaving the cottage to her, and not to me. He told her that if he gave her the cottage, maybe he could somehow change her mind about coming to Maine. She had a lot of long talks with him, and he finally undestood that his reasoning was wrong, and changed the disposition of the cottage to me. Well.......... then he started worrying about lawsuits (god, I never want to get old!?), and decided to sell the cottage to my cousin, who owns the adjoining property and cottage. He sold the cottage just when I was getting a divorce - I have to say, losing the cottage hurt me more than ending the marriage, I can't afford to replace it, but husbands are a dime a dozen! LOL Your mom my have the same reasoning - my poor son, if I give him money, he'll love me, I can win him back. I've seen this happen to friends - it destroys families.

Navy blue! Bah! I'm with you there, Rita. I wore a navy blue uniform for eight years in grade school, and I still dislike the color. Maybe take a little break from your quilting, or else, just power on through. You're so close now. Think of a gift to give yourself when you finish. Wine? Chocolate? More fabric in your favorite color? You can do it!! Go, Girl!!

I usually agree with you, Sophie, but not on this one. I have a WONDERFUL handyman - he's worked for me now for about 15-18 years. He's in great demand in my neighborhood as he's an excellent workman, is honest and works quickly - no breaks to check his email or have a smoke or a drink. Mine prices jobs only by the hour. If one wants a set price, he tells them upfront it's going to cost them more as he's going to build in "surprise" money just in case. I think he charges $75 @ hr. He is not a licensed electrician but can do lots of small jobs - he has a brother who is and for big jobs they work together. He said he'd have to give up his business and do a 2 yr apprenticeship to be licensed in my state and that's just not realistic. He knows what he can and cannot do. He's invaluable. He much prefers doing small jobs and I know he makes a good living doing this. He was at my house today to hang a new door on a cabinet in my breakfast room. He also checked my whole-house generator, which he and his brother installed - it went on yesterday during a power outage of a few hours, but I saw a light on it I had not previously seen. So he checked it and it's due for a servicing which he will do later this week. If he could clone himself multiple times, all of his "clones" would be as busy as he is. He's who I call if a fence section blows down and I need help quickly. He installed inside storm windows on my basement Crittall windows - I'd have frozen if he hadn't. He has added outlets to rooms when I've needed them. He has repaired the trellis under a small deck off my DR. I can't even remember all that he has done but I would find life in my house very hard without him. He would never be happy working for someone else, and he would never tolerate the work ethic (or lack thereof) of any helpers. He's a one man band and he plays a VERY sweet tune!

I’m definitely going to get the sunset book! It’s clear that I need to understand more of the basics and I actually didn’t know that about the USDA zones! I thought that if it wasn’t in my zone, that my zone was too hot for it! Btw, I’m fine with disclosing the trees but I’m still thinking about it and there’s a bit of backstory... We have a big yard that’s mostly dirt and a large number of dwarf fruit trees. While I love the fruit trees... there’s so many of them and they are inviting rodents into the garden. My plan is to remove some of the fruit trees and have them only in one section of the garden. Preferably far from the house! But even before I do that, we have a different issue that is the priority. We are on a slope and we currently have little privacy from our uphill neighbors. So I want to plant a small-ish tree that can be kept under 30 feet. The tree must be evergreen, have very dense leaves, not be poisonous (we have dogs) and preferably something with an umbrella or round shape (either through trimming or naturally). The umbrella shape would provide maximum privacy from the neighbors but I’m not finding any trees that I love that meet all of the criteria and are umbrella shaped. I’ve asked about a bunch of trees on this forum and I’ve ruled out many of them when I’ve gotten more information. The ones I am still considering are: Bay Laurel (Saratoga because it grows wider), Carrot wood, and Cinnamomum camphor. These are the ones that meet most of the criteria and that I can get in a large size (over 15’) that would immediately fix the neighbor issue. I’m leaning toward the bay laurel because the other 2 are such common parking lot trees in SoCal and I suppose I want it to be somewhat unique. But I’m still thinking about it and if anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate that!