Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. This is really a shame, though. Poor tillisandia.

According to UCONN Integrated Pest Management, Daconil or Maconozeb are the best but some resistance has developed to it in some strains of the late blight bacteria, so they recommend farmers combine the use of one of the two with a systemic fungicide and alternate which ones they use because resistance can develop in a single season. This is a very bad disease to have spreading early to mid way into the season. It goes beyond arguments for and against the use of fungicides in home gardens. If you let it get out of control in your garden you are helping the spread of the spores, which threaten commercial crops and farmer's incomes. I am certainly in favor organic options, but keep a very close eye on your plants so if they don't work, you are willing and able to remove infected plants as soon as you are unable to keep up with removing infected leaves promptly. You also could be threatening your future crops, because I believe it can winter over in the soil. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: UCONN IPM: click on vegetables then weekly pest message

Hmmm.. I certainly don't have great advice to give here, but I will tell you what happened with me. I had my first cat for 7 years (she had moved cross country, and a few different apartments with me) and she was my one and only. Until one day at work in a barn I heard a little pathetic "mew-ing" coming from a dark corner. I searched real hard (the barn had no lights, only natural daylight coming in through the door, and the cat was black and about 2-3 lbs) until I found her. Against the advice of my boss (who owned the barn) I went inside and got some food and some milk to give to the starving kitty. I kept this up for about 2 weeks, and during this time my bf (the boss's son) started to like the kitty as well and asked if we could take her home with us. I knew my one and only cat would certainly not appreciate it, but my heartstrings got the better of me (the area was well known for kitty road kill) and I agreed to bring her home. Once there my precious cat, who up until now had been queen of the castle, displayed her nasty side and I have never seen so much hissing coming from what I though was the gentlest cat in the world. I was the young PUNK then because I knew nothing about socializing cats and how to introduce them to one another. I just plunked Kitty down in the same room as Jelika and watched what happened. Lots of growling/hissing/swatting and who knew what happened when I wasn't home (working on a farm is no 8 hour a day job.. I/we were gone a minimum of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week). But when I got home they both seemed to be in one piece still and eventually... eventually the hissing/growling/swatting subsided. This was 12 years ago and up until sweet Jelika passed away in April, they still occaisionally swatted at one another, but more often than not I would find them curled up together on the bed. Jelika would always sleep by my side, in the crook of my arm and Kitty would sleep by my feet (if on the bed at all). Kitty always wanted to be where Jelika was. Even though I had 2 exact same cat beds in front of the fireplace Kitty would always wait until Jelika left hers and then promptly jumped into that one. And even to this day, with Jelika being gone, Kitty still waits whenever I fill up the food dish, I presume to see if Jelika will want to eat first. She waits until I tell her it is ok to eat, because Jelika isn't coming back. Even at the end though, I think Jelika wanted to prove to Kitty her "ownership and first cat status" over Kitty, because most times when Kitty would sit on my lap, and Jelika got wind of it, no matter where she was or what she was doing she would drop anything and come over and jump up HIGHER on my lap (she would usually end up on my chest somewhere, because one lap is crowded with 2 cats) effectively hogging all the attention/petting and cutting Kitty off. It was kind of funny and I never knew that a cat could give an "evil eye" until I saw Jelika looking at me whenever I would give Kitty a petting. She would always come over and assume that since I had 2 hands, I should be using the free one to pet HER. I certainly don't NEED 2 hands to pet Kitty! I guess I'm telling you all this because I don't think it really matters what you do or how long you separate them or leave them together. The first little while will be a little rough, but eventually they will learn to like each other, and find comfort in each other. I guess I've never done anything "properly" or to exacting standards when it came to my cats, but as long as there is enough love to go around, it will always work out in the end. Good luck, and please don't send Jayden away to a shelter where he may end up in a home that is not even half as loving as yours. Mokanee

I love the idea of sports at all levels in schools. It would be fantastic for all involved. However, it would require a vast change in the coaching staff! At present, most of the coaches I know are frustrated, washed out wanabe jocks (only one recent exception!). I have a son, brilliant boy, rising Sr. He CHOSE to drop out of track giving up pole-vaulting, a sport he loves because the head coach "sucked the life and fun" out of it. The boy volunteered to do any other jump event, offered to run hurdles or sprints if needed by the team; the head coach insisted in running him in the distance events. The boy found no joy in long distance, and the field had plenty of participants. When my son asked why long distance and not the other events he was told "because that is what you want to do and you need to learn I'm in charge". So, he ran the event once, using it as a warm up rather than trying to WIN. The next assult/insult was refusing to allow the boy to attend the study sessions for his 8 AP tests. To this he was told "the commitment to track should be before your academic goals". NO! I must say at this point the jump coach took my son aside and told him to come back next year, coaching staff would be different and he would welcome him back with open arms AND "if you need any assistance with your review or someone to go over any information with, call me". I can honestly say we are all looking forward to the next track season!