We have no shortage of either crows or blue jays here in the Laurel Highlands of PA. I put bread, pasta or other goody out in the morning and within minutes there are crows in the yard, they must post a sentry to watch for me. The jays love peanuts, we put them in the platform feeder each day and they are gone quickly. I love having the crows around, they act as the guardians of the feeder, chasing squirrels and making sure that the hawks are held at bay. I enjoy watching and listening to them interact, their society seems to be highly structured with many different calls and duties assigned. I love the crows, they are welcome in our yard. We have ponds and water gardens, I also have several lotus pots with standing water in them. I too am concerned about mosquitos and have used dunks for the almost 10 years that we have had the ponds. They won't harm birds or critters sneaking a drink but they will put an end to the larvae.

First make sure you have Virginia creeper. What I have good luck with is layering. This way it is still attached to its mother plant, it’s well established before cutting loose and you get better success. I do a lot of this with shrubs using a low lying branch, and with all kinds of vines. Also layering with all kinds of trees like magnolias but it’s done a little different because you want to have a straight growing tree so once rooted, you cut loose and put in pot. But you can find lots of information on all kinds of layering. Get a large wide shallow pot (like a bulb pot) or a deep potting tray and some u-shaped hair pins or some type of horticultural pins so you can pin the vine in place. You can even get a low gauge aluminum wire, cut them the right length, bend and make your own. Even rocks can hold the length in place. Mix up 50-50 or 75% construction/river sand (not beach) with 25% Miracle Grow or my favorite is ProMix basic potting soil. I like the ones with biofungicide and mycorrhizae but no fertilizer. ProMix I know has been pH adjusted to around 6-6.5 which is typical for many plants. Miracle Grow probably has too. The two items in potting soil besides a little perlite is bark and peat Moss — both are highly acidic so decent companies will pH adjust the mix with dolomite lime (provides calcium and magnesium). 6-6.5 is too high for blueberries (like 4-4.5 and lower pH), and too low for asparagus (like 7+,pH) but will work for most anything in between. Put in a bucket, mix and add water little by little until damp - not soggy just wet that sand gets dark and packs. The moistened sand helps hold cuttings in place and the potting soil hold a little moisture. Drainage is important. If you tend to forget watering, use 50/50 mix. If you can remember to lightly mist the tray once a day use the 75/25 higher sand. Fill your tray or pot 1/2-3/4 full. The location in terms of hot and sunny, or cool, shady and damp will determine how often you need to water or just mist the tray. Remember it’s still attached to its mother. You do not need fertilizer as the plant is being fed by the mother plant. Fertilizer may even burn where the roots form along the stem. Normally these would be growing up on a fence or along a tree providing support. Do feed and water your mother plant however you normally do. In the case of Virginia creeper, you won’t need to worry about fertilizer if it’s already growing well but don’t forget water if it’s dry. Never use a sick or unhealthy plant to try and make cuttings or for layering. If using a deep (3-4”)tray, fill the tray half to 3/4 full, take a long piece of the vine with foliage in place and lay it out the length of the tray on the mix and pin in multiple places. The node areas need to stay close to the sand and once rootlets start to appear, misting is helpful so they don’t dry out. The rootlets form anyway with Virginia creeper unlike other plants are vine that don’t usually root along the stem. So as long as they are touching the soil, they should be okay but it’s best if they aren’t flopping around, etc. and once they are rooting, staying moist keeps them growing faster. Put the rest of the potting mix in and don’t cover your leaves, just use your fingers to work around those and firmly press the sand in place over the vine area. Note, if the length of vine you choose has lots of long offshoots (more than couple inches) pinch them back to around 2-3” so the energy can be forced into the stem making new roots. Once the length of vine has firmly rooted in the tray where it doesn’t shift or move around, you can let the off shots grow a little longer and pin those in place too so they begin to root in the soil. You can also use small rocks to help hold the length of vine in place if the pins aren’t holding. You can place one length of vine in the middle longways of the tray or place two lengths evenly spaced. I like to do one down the middle so I can leave it in the tray longer to get established before cutting and moving to a pot or even a planting bed so there is more room to pin offshoots. It won’t take but a 4-6 weeks for the length of vine to start rooting along the length and then it will start to stay in place well. DO NOT CUT IT LOOSE FROM THE MOTHER PLANT. This is what keeps the vine alive and fed and growing. Instead of rooting to the ground, it’s rooting in your tray. You will have better success if you keep the sand mix misted especially if you don’t get rain on a regular basis. You don’t want to rot it but letting the new forming rootlets dry out will delay healthy plants starting. It will eventually get there but just a little slower. But overwatering will cause the stem to rot and you get nothing which is why I say misting. Depending on whether you are doing this from a vine growing along the ground or up a fence will determine where you set the tray. Just don’t put where there are dogs, critters to dig up or at your tray. Put stakes around the tray if you think critters may run through it. Once the nodes have put out good healthy root system and don’t pull loose from the mix, you can then (if you are ready), cut the stem from the mother plant. At this point you can place it in a shady place but up where it’s easier to water because now it’s dependent on you. You can leave it connected to the mother for 5-6 months or more. I have left for a year or more, covering with pine tags (not mulch) in the winter right down on the ground. It might start to root to the ground but you can cut loose easily enough. But once it is firmly attached and each node is pushing new shoots you are ready to cut the length of vine into individual plants or plant as a whole section. Note, when you initially placed the length of vine, leave the tip alone until it starts to put out rootlets at the individual nodes. Then keep the tip pitched back to force the growth into the nodes between the tip and the mother plant. Just pinch it out. When you are ready to make individual plants, you have a couple of choices here. You can figure how many nodes have rooted well and use one-two sections in each pot to let them continue to grow on until good and bushy and healthy and plant as typical if you bought in a nursery. You can let them grow in the tray until it has filled the tray up and then just take the tray and slip the matte of rooted plants out in one piece and lay into a well prepared bed where you want new vine to take hold. Don’t cut it up, or disturb, just jiggle down into the freshly dug soil, firm up, and water. Lightly, lightly cover with soil - don’t cover your foliage and don’t rot your stems with mulch or deep soil. If you keep it watered (based on its location, temps, soil type), it will take hold and roots will go deeper in the ground and if you have given it something to climb on, it’s off to a good start. Come late fall, early winter, cover with pine tags to help protect from cold. After a year or so, it will be just fine on its own. If doing your initial layering on the ground, you can use a basket type tray one that doesn’t have solid sides or bottom, it’s open weave type. You see these at nurseries holding small 2-3” pots and the water runs through. These are different than trays with holes in the bottom, these have slats or like lattice type sides and bottom. You can set it on the ground where there are a couple of good lengths of vine to layer. Fill 1/2-3/4 way. Place the length of vine, finish covering, etc as above. But just let it grow until it has started to root to the ground. DO NOT CUT LOOSE FROM MOTHER PLANT until ready to move. Once it is rooted through and filled up the tray with offshoots of vine, then pull it up (you may need to use a bread type knife to slice the roots from the earth the tray if it won’t gently pull up. I prefer to gently work it loose so I can keep as much root as possible. Sometimes it’s so full and so well rooted you can’t. It’s best to try and every moth or so move the tray around so it doesn’t get a firm grip straight down in the native soil but just along it. When ready to plant elsewhere, cut loose from mother plant, just take the whole basket tray and set down in the well prepared area, jiggle around in the fresh soil, firm up, sprinkle a little of the soil on top and between the foliage and water. Because there are no solid sides or bottom, there is no reason to disturb, plant tray basket and all. The vine will continue to grow and root until the tray is firmly in place and in fact covering the tray til it disappears. You just leave it in place. This process is similar when you have ever set a pot down on the ground and come back months later and find the roots have gone down through the bottom of the pot and are growing into the soil, or have grown daylilies or seedlings etc in a tray, set it on the ground, forgot about it and the plastic has broken up and the plants just keep growing into the dirt. I have a daylily was in a 4-5” pot, I set it down by the front porch, hadn’t decided where to put it and before I knew it I lost the pot in the jungle of other plants and forgot about it. Several years later, I was pulling some weeds, and hit a large piece of the pot still there. I was like well you were determined to grow - it grew off the walk into the soil next to it. The hardy geranium had spread to the walkway and around the pot. Just lost it in the jungle. It’s a very large plant now. If I move it, it might decide to die out of spite.😝 You can also do pots the same way, using a 6-8” shallow clay pot so it stays in place. Pin a length of vine across the top, do as above lightly covering the stem but leaving the foliage uncovered so it can photosynthesize and continue to grow. Again, leave it attached to the mother plant. I have done one section across the top, and took another vine and gone across the first one (think of a cross) and pinned in place several places so firmly in place - attached to the mother plant off two stems. You can actually do multiple pots all around the mother plant layering them in pots. When ready, just pull up, cut from the mother plant and put where you can tend them until ready for their new home. Good luck.

It was a busy day at work trying to tie up everything before abandoning ship for two weeks so I couldn't write much earlier. So now I'll address individual suggestions... Glenda I'm not sure we'll be doing the lumberjack show, I already feel like I've met them all through you and it's quite evident they have been spoken for. ;-) No Talkeetna so I'm sad to say, no moose poop :-) Talkeetna is one of the checkpoints on the Iditarod so I'm sad we're not going there. Nanny You and others have suggested Mendenhall and White Pass et. al, so they are a definite consideration. The idea of seeing the suburbs really appeals to me too. I agree, museums in AK are quite well done. Interesting, one of the most impressive museum-like exhibits I've seen was at the Alaska Native Medical Center. Happyladi I like the idea of renting a car in Skagway and taking that drive to Emerald Lake unless the train goes that way as well. I love trains. I subscribed to cruisecritic.com about a month ago to learn more about different cruise lines. I've been so busy at work that I barely had time to read it. I'll go back there tonight and take a look. And I'm all bummed out ... because of my busy schedule, I wasn't able to dedicate much time looking for my new frames/lenses until just this last week. I finally found frames I loved. After the eye exam at a place that doesn't honor VSP, it was determined even with short lenses, my script would not fit. I found another pair at another optometrist that does accept VSP. I go for another exam tomorrow morning and will see if they can fit my new choice. Why am I sad? Because of course I've sat on this project too long and now I will go on vacation with old glasses which no longer work for distances. Hmmm, maybe I'll pay for the $100+ exam for contact lenses and just wear my sexy new frames without any lenses at all, I hear it's all the rage in Asia. :-) Carol I sure wish DH and I liked salmon because people rave about the barbecues. I do love just wandering around places I visit. Sitka was my favorite stop last time because my travel friend booked a tour and I did not. I just wandered the shops, streets and neighborhoods. The glacial silt soap sound interesting. I'm a real sucker for unusual soaps. Cherbo Have not been to Denali yet, but one day. Kat Fortunately I have family in Seattle to ease the pain of not meeting you. :-) Socks We rented a Netflix documentary last night that talked about Haines so I jotted down the name. While walking around Sitka, I found the Sheldon Jackson Museum but didn't go in. Can't remember if it was closed or I just decided not to go in. The school next door was all boarded up and made the area feel kind of ghost-town-like. The Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary sounds just up my alley! The ship we're sailing is the Celebrity Mercury. I was born in Seattle so family is meeting us down at Pike's Place. Where we're going from there, I'm not sure. We might drive down to Gig Harbor to see a friend of mine and my sister who probably won't be going to Pike's Place. Jodi-

3katz, I get Botox 4 times a year, 1/2 syringe I think, mostly in my forehead, between my eyes (those two vertical lines between my eyes, know what I mean?). It runs about $300 a session because there's a points program you can apply to future costs. Where I go this would cost Ida $600 since she gets Botox twice a year. I don't color my hair. If I did, I'd need a touchup at least every 4-6 weeks. I'd want it done well. How much do I save not having to do that? I just looked at prices on a couple of invoices I saved. With discounts, I paid $875 for Voluma and $495 for Restylane. The Voluma lasts a year or so, fills general low spots and deeper lines. I don't use it to inflate my cheekbones which are fine. Restylane is for my undereye area and will last 15-18 months. It's the difference between a hollow, haggard look and a smooth area that doesn't look "done" at all. So, based on my usage, it costs me maybe $200/month, although I don't get stuff every month. As others have said, we all have things we care a lot about, that others would consider nonessential, even frivolous or shallow. Why shell out money for new bedding? Who's gonna see my bedroom anyway, and why do I care what they think of it? My car is 15 years old and it drives just fine. If I were unable to afford groceries or pay my utilities on time because of my vanity expenses, I would have a problem. I have enough of what I need. I can even give some away. If someone wants to feel better about their appearance (hello, makeup? haircut? laundered clothes?), go forth and do so.