QUESTION: Today, we went out and cut off (as high up as we could reach with the extendable chain saw) any limbs on this severely damaged tree that are clearly dead, brittle and no new green shoots. There's still lots more dead branches higher up, but we don't do "saws up on ladders" at our age, and a pro will have to do the rest with a lift bucket. We fully understand we're likely going to lose an entire main trunk on this tree, if not lose the ENTIRE tree above ground. But for now, we're taking it out in stages, to see if there's any hope of saving it in some form or another. That said, I'm concerned about one limb about 5" inch diameter we decided to leave alone this morning. It has a number of clusters of new green shoots/leaves out on the ends of its remote branchings, but there is a 2' or so swath where the skin/bark is cracking (see photo below) where the thin bark is, in one place, actually peeling away from the branch. The inner limb tissue, as you can see below, is brown. Like I said, it is supporting new shoots and leaf clusters farther out on the limb just fine. Do you think I should do something proactive to manage this potential virus/insect potential entry site? Can I treat it with the black spray/gooey tar-like sealer I've used for years on tree cuts and tape that skin/bark maybe with duct tape to the limb so air and insects don't get in and kill off this limb? Or should we write off this limb and go ahead and remove it. Again, we are willing to resign ourselves to losing most above ground parts of this tree, if a slow death is what we are seeing (like the Tx. Mt. Laurel I lost, finally, despite some new shoots) Attaching a few pics of the bark cracking and the shape currently, after our cutting back this morning. The trimmed out limbs generated a 7' tall 10' wide pile of debris for pick-up Monday. City is really gonna love me, NOT. Haven't noticed signs of cracking bark on other limbs after a thorough inspection once this one was discovered, just this one location on a major limb visible at the lower left in the top photo, with said damage at the elbow bend in that trunk. Not sure if it cracked during on long after the actualy freezeing temps in February. What advice can you give me here? If it were your loquat, would you just top the tree so it will quit struggling to survive way up high, say perhaps cut it at the bottom electric line in the photo, hoping the tree will regrow anew off the clearly healthy roots? Please note, the bulk of the green visible in the ball of vegetative growth in the photo is actually a neighbor's tree right across the street, from this camera perspective. If photo is enlarged, only the bright lime green shoots are on MY tree. Or would you, at this 5 months out juncture, give up on saving this tree in its current iteration, now that is it showing serious bark damage and take down the main trunk at some level? If so, would you make that aggressive cut just ABOVE the fork, where the cracking seems to begin or BELOW the fork, leaving just the erect, bare trunk. Of course, we would thoroughly treat 8" cuts with a thick. This approach, although drastic, and aesthetically unsatisfying for a long time, would basically promote a brand new tree above ground growing off the well-established root system and main trunk. The ultimate shape on the resulting 'new tree' might not be so pretety, but perhaps with some creative pruning over the years, could once again be nearly oval in its form. My goal is for it to one day be the prolific fruiting tree it once was. I see the alternative approach not so appealing: letting it struggle another 5 months and maybe, put on a bit more new leaf growh, then eventually die a slow death.

Oh…I can’t dislike Alex. I actually feel sorry for her bc she is sooooo tightly wound; she doesn’t seem like a happy person. I believe in this episode Mitch was starting to realize the enormity of his sins…last season he just seemed like he didn’t understand that he did anything wrong. And call me stupid, but I apparently overlooked so many clues as to the nature of Alex and Mitch’s relationship! Last season I thought they had been just close work friends who had been through a lot together. At the beginning of this season (with the book and her freak-out) I thought that maybe they had slept together once or something. My jaw was on the floor when she got to Italy and we heard SO MUCH about their relationship and saw how they loved each other. I teared up when she talked about thinking she was pregnant. Ugh, I found the entire episode very emotional. I do agree with some above about this episode being too introspective…I usually get bored & antsy with that, but the utter shock of everything was worth all the navel-gazing. Don’t y’all think the scenery in this show is gorgeous?? NYC looks glorious, and OMG…the Italy scenes are beyond breathtaking. It is a very beautifully shot show. I liked Cory better last year when he was cocky, full of himself, Cory. His unrequited love for Bradley, and his stress in his new role are making him a sad, depressing character.

Jen K, Austin was a lot smaller in the 1980s, and it still had a somewhat intimate feel to it. I don't know what it's like now. I also lived there Jan - Aug 1973, and it very much had a small town feel to it at that time, and many people there thought that it had already gotten too big. At that time, the only non-stop flight from Austin that left the state was to Phoenix. I remember shopping in Austin in the 1970s when I would visit family, and I went into one store where I was paying by check, and so I had to show them my California driver's license. The woman at the counter said to me, "We don't get many foreigner here," and so that might answer your question about whether it was a hick town in the 1970s. It was really backward in so many ways back then, and yet it thought of itself as a progressive city, but coming from San Francisco, I did not see that. I believe that now many people in Austin resent people from California moving there, and I see that as small-minded and regressive. I moved the other direction. In the 1970s, I got harassed by the Austin police quite frequently, even without crossing a street, and they would always want to see my ID. That has never happened to me in California.

It's never happened to me with a smaller / more intimate gathering. I have had people unexpectedly bring children when we invited a larger group for a party at our house. When that has happened before, we usually realize that it was probably an honest miscommunication between us and the guests. Though I personally consider it incredibly rude to bring any additional human or animal without discussing with the host. I love my dog but I would never bring her to anyone's home without a conversation and most of the time I would not even consider asking. About the only time I will even ask is at my or my husband's immediate family's house and even then it's a conversation not an assumption. I especially struggle when people bring children unexpectedly to my house because we are simply not set up for hosting children. People who have or at least have had children usually have furniture, decor, yards, that are designed for children running around playing, jumping on things like kids do. My house simply isn't set up for that. When we invite children over, we make certain to put away breakeables and host in a way that at least one of us can keep an eye on the kids to make certain we redirect them if they are getting into something they could damage. I'm sorry to read that 3katz and others have experienced so many rude guests!