Fish fert is mostly for N and N is to induce greater vigor. When trees are small, I like to get them to size as quickly as possible but once they are bearing meaningful fruit I am careful to not overstimulate vegetative growth with excessive N- damaging fruit quality and making trees and fruit more susceptible to pest problems. Fall fertilization is not dangerous and is actually helpful to get N to the buds before mid spring and get growth to most vigorous start. It is late summer N that can sometimes postpone dormancy and hardening off that protects trees from winter damage. This danger is highly exagerated in the literature in my opinion as you get exactly the same results here when we have early summer drought and then soaking rain in mid-august. Some trees do get a late surge of vigorous growth which itself can suffer winter kill but by my observation the rest of the tree does fine. I'd be curious of the observations of others on this point. This is one of many observations I've made over the years that makes me ever vigilant to expert BS even as I continue to go to pedigreed experts for certain kinds of advice. Speaking of the advice of pedigreed experts, Cornell recommends a general application of 2 pounds N per 1,000 sq ft annually for general orchard maintenance if you are not doing a soil and tissue analysis kind of program.

Hair, you have already witnessed how fast the little seedling can grow and that should give you some kind of warning whether you should proceed. Four hundred feet from the house should be good enough to keep it out of your harm's way. You didn't say whether there are neighbors back of the tree out there. If so, please...have pity on them. Better to have good relationships with neighbors than to grow a tree just for its landscaping possibilities. As pointed out, once it begins to send out seeds, you can count on having many sprouting your yard....and not just 400 feet away. Mind you, the mower will take care of many. But silver maples are a dirty tree, always dropping twigs and branches.....and the inevitable seeds. Heck if you have the water to feed it back 400 feet, why not think birch, very attractive in 3 or 4 clumpers; or how about weeping willow--once mature it will hide a mountain. Do give the 'silver' careful consideration; the time to decide is before you plant it and get yourself into trouble.

This may sound crazy but I just got the book The Mood Cure and it is all about diet and mood disorders. I use it for both my sons. One gets depression and the other gets anger outbursts. Thankfully they both seem to react to the same foods (dairy, sugar and gluten) that when these are kept out of their diet they are balanced kids. It is a very interesting read and you can probably get from your local library. My oldest son (12) won't go back to how he used to eat as he has improved in mindset, athletics, focus and his skin cleared up so he is sticking to it. He had a major junk food addiction - well, as much as I would allow but he would always be asking for sweets, dairy and breads. I also follow this way of eating (with a few more restrictions) for my autoimmune conditions and noticed my irritability also went away. Here is a link to the book if you want to get an idea or check out others reviews. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mood-Cure-Program-Emotions--Today/dp/0142003646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364132500&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mood+cure

Stir_fryi, I'm glad your sister found her dog! I also use a tie-out, and pull the end of the lead inside, so that the clip doesn't freeze. And I am trying to yard train my dog, but since I don't fully trust her, I usually use a long leash or rope and let it drag on the ground. That way, she can run around freely, and I know that if she wanders off, I can catch her. It works for us, but my dog is no greyhound - she might wander, but not run. If she tries to leave the yard, it is always because the neighbor dog is out, or there is someone walking by, etc. And of course, we have to be outside with her (or at least watching out the window), because once in a while the long leash gets caught on stuff (like yesterday, I was out shoveling snow, and called her, but she wouldn't come to me. Couldn't understand why until I saw that her leash had got stuck on a tire when she went around the car :) Greyhound/pointer mix, though - I don't know. Yard training and invisible fences do work well for some dogs, but since most greyhound rescue organizations will only adopt to people with a six-foot fence, it may not be as good an option.