Egads! Who doesn't know a Kathy/Cathy? One of my old bosses used to laugh every time he heard me tell someone on the phone that I am a Kathy with a K and a Y. I remember in one high school class, there were 3 Kathys and we all sat diagonally from one another. So the teacher would look in one direction and call on Kathy. All 3 of us would answer. I don't think I ever worked anywhere where there wasn't at least 1 other Kathy around. Btw, my real name is Kathleen too! My boyfriend Bob (another horribly common name) knows 3 Lindas. One is his sister, one his late wife and one is his friend's girlfriend. Half the time when he talks about a Linda, I have no idea who he is talking about!

do you know of any recipes (annie's salsa) that are converted to a puree quantity like the KA strainer produces? Nope, no pureed salsas. The various tomato mills and your KA attachment are just for making tomato juice and smooth tomato sauces, not salsa. There are lots of pureed tomato sauce recipes but they are usually just tomatoes and various dried spices. Salsas are chunky, not smooth purees, and are made with either a food processor like a Cuisinart that chop or hand chopping or tools like the Slap Chop or what are called "salsa makers" like the one linked below. Because salsas contain many different low-acid vegetables like onions and peppers they have to be chunky to be safe to can. Canning pureed low-acid vegetables of any kind is pretty much limited. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Salsa Maker

It appears to be surviving just fine in spite of a major loss of bark some years ago. So, just leave it be. No coatings to "seal" or whatever else might be suggested.

Forests are often defined by their dominent species in a the mature or last climax succession. For example a if a woodland site is completely burned first smaller bushes will grow then successively larger trees until eventually you get a fairly stable group of plants. It sounds as if you might be in a Maple, Cherry Beech Appalachain type of forest. If you find a forestry text ( also may be called sylvics or sylviculture) you can find a list of what types of trees grow. Usually this will include the big trees and the understory trees. It has been several years since I studied this but I think you might find. Red Maple, Black Cherry, American Beech, Tulip Popler, Sugar Maple and Hemlock as some of you dominate species. Understory might include grey birch, yellow birch, witch hazel, sassafrass. The non-woody plants and much harder to define because they change more rapidly. As the trees grow the shade conditions change and plants that grew well before no longer do. If an area loses its trees by wind or fire wildflowers and other plants which have not been there for years suddenly appear because there is more light. The seeds have been in the soil all the time waiting for the right conditions to grow, this is called the seed bank.