Slugs are out at night. Need a flashlight and a salt shaker to sprinkle them with. Major infestations of slugs call for Slug-B-Gone or Sluggo or one of the slug killers. huge green worms/caterpillars Define "huge". Loopers are only about an inch long or less. The only "huge" green bad guy caterpillar is the tomato/tobacco hornworm 4" or so and have a horn but they prefer tomatoes. Then there is cabbage worm - green and llok like loopers but a bit bigger 1 1/2", not huge. The standard treatment for all caterpillars is Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis). Lots of discussions here about it. But use with care as it will also kill butterfly caterpillars. You can Google any of these by name and get all sorts of pics to compare with yours to ID them. Dave

I did dry some Liberty this year, but I don't know how to rate dried apples for taste. I dried Liberty first as that was what I had and I wanted to dry some apples :). Then I dried some Gala and Golden Delicious because I had so many and SWMBO told me to dry some apples for a stack cake she has planned for Christmas. As I recall, the Liberty tasted better than the Gala, but that was both fresh and dried. Now I am debating whether to dry some of my Enterprise and Granny Smith because again I have too many. I have all my apples crammed into a fridge in the basement and opening the door invites a deadly applelanch. Drying apples is so easy, and it ensures I'll have something to show for all the apples I harvested this year if it turns out my cold storage is less than successful. As to the quality of the Liberty apples, I don't think I can evaluate that based on this year's crop. My Liberty tree was blown almost flat in August by very strong straight winds, which actually broke off a four year old William's Pride at the graft line. The Liberty survived and I got it straightened out and supported, but I suspect the stress on the roots was why the apples started dropping fairly early. They were still quite tart, but it was pick them or lose them so I picked them. They were very good for cooking at that point, if you like tart apples, and we do. However, I think I did not get the fully ripened taste from them. Chuck

The Giants are not as classy as the Red Sox. In the last season, the Red Sox represented the heart of Boston recovering from the attacks at the Boston marathon (not the fungicide). They are highly professional, and don't have a lot of personal ego. In comparison, the Giants seem like a bunch of overgrown kids. We also have the Oakland A's here as well. They are AL, Giants are NL. As a former new englander and new yorker, i know more about the AL than the NL. Al are overall stronger performers. Joanne

Lily, Every grub knows that sepals tickle the roof of their mouths, then the sepals get stuck in their throats going down, so they leave them alone. Grubs know the heart of the bud is the best part. After the heart is all gone, the sated grub will snuggle up inside the nest made by the sepals, and sleep off the feast, cradled in safety from predators by a sepal barricade, and that's an entomological fact I just made up! Moses