I would say the most important thing about growing figs in the U.K in ground is they need full sun and good drainage, also I would make sure the variety is early main crop or breba crop (fruit on last years wood). Because you may have to wait 2-4 years to get fruit from a cutting and if it doesn't ripen in your climate it's a big waste of your time.

I agree that the alarming thing is that he went to his friend's mom with the problem. It's one thing for a 10 yo to play one parent off the other, but to turn to a third party adult is another situation entirely. Kids are told in school here that "If someone is hurting you or being mean to you, talk to a trusted adult" and if my BF's son or one of my N&Ns ever did that, I'd be very very worried. I think I'd side with with poster who said to talk to a school counselor (etc) before calling CPS, considering since you've never seen any physical signs of abuse... I personally would be hesitant to jump straight to CPS, but it DOES need to be brought to someone's attention who is trained in this sort of situation. My BF's son is 8, and he'll often tell us "Mom said I wouldn't live to see nine if I keep leaving my Lego on the stairs" (obviously she's not serious)... Last week he told me "Grandma is sooooo mean, she gave me a spanking this morning when Dad came to get me" (I asked BF about this - it was at pickup time, so he saw it - she smacked him on the butt for talking back as he walked out of the room. Perhaps not the best approach to deal with sass, but certainly not the vicious beating A__ made it out to be) I don't worry too much about that sort of thing, but I WOULD be worried if he had bruises that certainly weren't from playing soccer or tobogganing, or he told a friend's parent, or he had a large-scale freakout about going back to his mom's. You're right for being concerned about this!

Ordinarily, when you wire a dryer for a 3-wire cable, it needs a jumper from the neutral/ground connection to the frame ground of the dryer. Your dryer doesn't appear to have it. The jumper may have been included in that little plastic bag of extra hardware that the installer threw away when he or she installed the dryer in your old house, which presumably had a 4-pin plug. You could try to make a jumper, or maybe you could get a jumper from the dryer manufacturer. But the right thing to do in this situation is to install a 4-pin receptacle with new homerun to the panel, refit the old 4-wire cord, plug in the dryer, and have confidence that the installation is safe.

The white plastic bags, scarecrow and garlic/egg mixture worked well on my upper level, but I resorted to large cages around each bed on the lower level as spraying that was too time intensive. This past spring I fenced the majority of the perimeter including access to my upper level, only to find they were now entering through my "back forty" where the split-rail seemed to have a welcome mat on it. I'm currently working on fixing that 5' fence to which I'll scab posts to attach chicken wire. Fortunately it's not too visible. Of course, now they'll just entire my parking area and front yard, so I'm not done with the fencing yet. My perimeter fence ended up cheap, but it's hidden by a hedge. I really feel with a lot of roses and little time fencing is the only way. Some people have made a successful one out of metal posts and heavy fishing line. Good luck, summersrhythm. Maybe they won't find you. : )