Hi nguyena1- Good questions! 1.) I've found there really is no stopping blackberries. You can tip them at 3' to encourage lateral growing, but they're still going to go up and up. The top of my trellis is about 8', and I'll probably top them 4 times throughout the season... they're that vigorous. (Though perhaps not quite as much in their first year.) 2.) With the everbearing raspberries... Do not tip them. Just let them grow. You can prune them back at the very end of the fall/early winter when their tops die. (or just do that in the spring). 3.) When you prune off the dead tops is really up to you. You can do it in the beginning or end of the dormant season. For me, I wait until early spring because at that point youâÂÂll see a nice dividing line between the green lower part which is still alive, and the dead top (so I know IâÂÂm not cutting off too much, or leaving some dead cane). DonâÂÂt forget, youâÂÂll also need to prune out the dead 2nd year (floricanes) after the give their fruit on the lower part of the cane in late summer. 4.) As I understand it, youâÂÂre right on the edge of where of the climate where raspberries can grow. IâÂÂve read that the âÂÂBabaâ variety would probably be your best bet for someone in your situation. But, since I donâÂÂt live there, or grow that variety, take my advice with a grain of salt. Others here may be able to give advice on the shade. I do know, even around here in 6b RI, that I do get some raspberry druplet disorder which is caused by excessive sun/UV, etc. 5.) YouâÂÂve got some good varieties there, but IâÂÂm still worried about your climate when it comes to the raspberries. Might you want to start with some test varieties first before you jump all-in? Having grown Heritage, Caroline, and Prelude, I would toss the Heritage and put in Baba as mentioned above. I havenâÂÂt grown Boyne, but according to my Nourse chart, it (and the Caroline unfortunately) might be slightly less tolerant of the heat? You might want to put Anne on the end as for me it doesnâÂÂt grow very tall/vigorously⦠but, it probably has the biggest and best tasting raspberries that I grow. 6.) Yes, containment is extremely important. Without it, all the varieties will grow together and you wonâÂÂt be able to tell where one starts and the next one ends. That may not sound too bad, but if you have one variety that does well, and another one that does poorly, you wonâÂÂt be able to remove the slacker. For me, I get containment by mowing around all my patches. In one area, I have a barrier that goes down 10âÂÂ, and they havenâÂÂt gone under that yet. But, others have talked about raspberries tunneling down 15â or even more. For more on the varieties I grow, you can see my âÂÂMy Pageâ link. Hope this helps! -Glenn Here is a link that might be useful: Nourse Farms raspberry chart

I usually don't have that much traffic. That is the most diverse single evening I have ever witnessed in my yard. I was amazed everytime I went out I saw more critters. I have not seen the deer, skunk, possum, or owl in about a week. I saw a flying squirrel earlier this evening whenever I got home!!!!! I heard some loud high pitched squeaky chirps and I shined the light up in the water oak, and I saw something wierd sort jump from one main branch to the other. Holy Cow!!! that looked like a flying squirrel. I walked around the tree and shined up there again, and there it was, and it ran around to the other side of the tree. Then it flew or glided across right before my eyes. probably about 15 yards from the water oak to the thickett. This was by far my best flying squirrell sighting of my life time, and the first in quite some time. Really it was the only good look(actaully a couple good viewings per this one squirrel encounter) ever. This year the frequency, diversity, and quality of mammal sightings has increased to an all time high for my yard. The snake sightings were not as good this year, and I wonder if the raccoon population may be contributing to this. I stopped feeding the raccoons, I still throw out table scraps though for whatever gets them. It just seems better that to throw it it the trash. If the scraps attract the coons and the overabundance of coons decreases the snake sightings I guess this is another good reason to start a worm bend. Can you put meat leftovers in your worm bend?

nosoccermom I appreciate your knowledge on the right of way laws. I tried to research them myself but couldn't find anything specifically for my township and the general rules I did find were confusing. There is no curb or sidewalk. If there was a sidewalk his tires would be planted firmly in the middle of it. I still wouldn't like his car in front of my house but I would be a little more accepting if he would at least keep all 4 tires on the road. We are at the end of a subdivision near the cul-de-sac. Their is virtually zero traffic at our part of the street except for the 3 of us who live on the end. The road is wide enough for him to park on and still leave plenty of room for other cars to safely get by. He insists on parking halfway in the road and halfway in the grass in front of my house though. No, I'm not sure whether my property extends all the way to the edge of the road or not. I do know that the only person in our neighborhood who has a fence in their front yard put it up just before the ditch leaving 4 or 5 feet before the road. Many of us who have big trees near the road seem to have them a similar distance from the road as their fence. I suspect the rude neighbor who parks in my grass was right when he said I couldn't put the rock where I had it about 3 feet from the road because no one else really has anything that close to the road. I don't know if that means that the grass up to the edge of our dirt road subdivision is our property or not. I do know that he is making muddy ruts through the grass in front of my house as he pull in and out of "his parking spot". I also have to mow around his car leaving a corner uncut because he won't move. I work hard to make sure my lawn looks nice and neat. Those ruts and longer grass where he parks don't help.

"in many cases the abuse to DH was triggered BECAUSE (his) Mom had seen a beating coming her way and diverted it with comments about something DH had done that needed correcting." I was my mother's favorite scapegoat; I got beaten when she wanted to beat me; it had nothing to do with anything I did or did not do. I am nearly 60 years old, & I still feel terrible guilt about an incident that happened when I was about 4; one 2-year-old brother was raking in the garden, & his twin & I were playing together. Somehow, I can't remember how, I hurt my brother, ran into him with a toy or something, & my mother came raging out of the house with her nostrils flared & her teeth set & her enraged look on her face, razor strap in her hand. I begged Mark to tell her that Dave did it, & he did. Dave got the beating. I was terrified of my mother until she died, in her eighties, tied to her wheelchair in the nursing home, out of her gourd. One of her favorite things to do was to beat the he!! out of all 3 of us; she'd start with Dave, yank him up by one arm until his feet barely touched the ground& whack him several times, go on to Mark, snatch him up & whack him a few times, & then turn on me & beat me until her rage was slaked. I have a lump on one of my ribs that I can't explain; I suspect she broke that rib yanking me up & holding me in mid-air while she beat me. I've seen that same sort of deflection of rage several times, once with a woman who alawys got her husband all riled up at somebody else when she sensed that he was building up a head of steam, & once with a man who goaded his wife into being enraged at somebody, anybody, else. I finally understood why he was always talking ugly about somebody or other when the wife's mother (in her eighties, had just had heart surgery) had to call the police to get away from this woman. People will do terrible things to keep from getting another beating. What is on that video is not "spanking"; the full-grown man hauls his arm back all the way & beats that girl; when she tries to get away, he grabs her & does it again. When she makes it to the bed, he turns away & then turns back & hauls his arm back all the way again & hits her on the arm & the side. That, dear friends, is called beating the he!! out of somebody. "Part of what perpetuates abuse is justification of it." Amen to this, too. It's always the victim's fault; one of the classic lies is "she kept aggravating me until I finally couldn't stand it anymore" which is similar to another classic "I don't know why she's like that." This guy criticizing & *blaming* his daughter for posting the video is the same; he's on the internet beating the daylights out of her, yet he doesn't try to defend his behavior; he blames her for posting the video! As far as beating being the norm in times past, *that does not make it okay*. It used to be English common law that a husband could beat his wife all he wanted to as long as he didn't use a stick any bigger in circumference than his thumb. In some countries, it's still legal to kill your wife or daughter if she "shames" you by, say, getting raped & thus no longer being "pure". Does the fact that it's legal & that it has precedent (that's the way it always has been done) make it right? Victims are often afraid to leave their abusers; these rage-a-holics & violence junkies tear their victims down so that the victims don't think they can possibly make it without this incredibly strong person. They think that the only way they can get by is to try not to enrage their tormentor. which of course doesn't work, because the abuser dishes out beatings beatings when he/she has built up a head of steam & *wants* to beat somebody. It's horrible & it's inexcuseable.