Iowajer: You do not need Orbit or Bumper or much of anything else to successfully grow tart cherries in Iowa. I am from Iowa so know the climate, and believe me Virginia is worse for just about every insect and disease. Yet I have grown tart cherries for 35 years with no problems -- except for the following: The normal lifespan of a tart cherry tree like Northstar or Meteor is about 20 years, give or take 5 years, but it is not age alone that kills them. It is the bacterial disease that develops with age that does it. I have had 2 Northstars, 2 Meteors, and 1 large Montmorency, all planted in 1979. The Northstars were finished before 20 years, one Meteor lasted 22 years, the Montmorency about the same, and the last Meteor was removed more recently at the ripe age of around 25 years. All of them were victims of bacterial disease and nothing else. All of the symptoms you describe can be attributed to one or another of the signs of bacterial disease. In advanced stages, the disease, which develops cankers on the limbs, eventually kills those limbs which should be cut off promptly. In the meantime, cherries become smaller, and often rot on the tree, though the trees will continue to produce. Leaves begin to look punky. At 15 years of age, and showing the symptoms you describe, your tree may have about 5 years of useful life left. None of the cocktail of chemicals you applied to your tree would have much, if any effect on bacterial disease, even expensive products like Orbit, and most particularly the useless combo sprays sold by Bonide. The best tactic against bacterial disease is to delay its onset, and that is done with one or two thorough dormant sprays of a copper product like Kocide that has some real copper strength. You should begin dormant spraying with copper while the trees are young, well before any evident signs of disease appear, just as you would with any stone fruit tree. With foresight, you may be able to hold off this disease for an additional 5-10 years, and you should apply dormant copper to your existing tree as well, although you are conducting a rearguard action that cannot cure the disease at this stage. Rather than putting a lot of money into expensive chemicals that will do your tree no good, I suggest you put the bucks into a new Northstar or Meteor tree that will be ready to take over when your existing tree checks out, as it surely will do. I planted a new Meteor 5 years ago when the handwriting was on the wall, and a new Montmorency this spring. The new Meteor is covered with fruit and ready this season to take over from the last old tree I removed. Both my climate and yours, BTW, are ideally suited to growing tart cherries. Some years I have had so many that I made 20 gallons of wine from pure juice. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I was in the Marine Corps w/ a woman whose infant daughter was killed by the day care provider. It was horrible. As if that weren't bad enough it was the 2nd baby that died (was killed) in her care. The death of the 2nd child was exactly 1 year to the day following the death of the first child which was also the 2nd anniversary of the death of the PROVIDERS OWN child! And the state actually let her have a license! I do believe that God has a plan for everything I just wish I knew what the plan was/ is in certain situations when something so tragic happens but I believe and have faith anyways. DS1 was in daycare when he was born but I was fortunate in that it was a daycare across the parking lot from where I worked and my job afforded me the opportunity to leave my desk and go over whenever I chose. When DH wanted to participate in the daycare situation more he found a daycare across the field from where he worked. When the Dr. I worked for opened up about his son's suicide it coincided w/ my MIL retiring. Over the years of working w/ his elderly patients 2 recurring themes came up: The biggest regret that that any of them had was not spending enough time w/ their children when they were young. The 2nd was how quickly time goes by and to seize the moment. I radically re-arranged my schedule after that. Boop - I'm the same way. Our children have only been in 1 other persons care - our dear friends who have children the same age. I count my blessings each day and I hate the fact that there are sooooooo many parents that want to be able to do the same thing but simply can't do to their individual situations.

Listen to Wildchild. You need to clarify your legal rights, but even in the most landlord-friendly states, a landlord can't evict without proper written notice, and a tenant can make things very difficult for the landlord. Have you seen an attorney? I'll bet there's a legal aid in your city that could help. I agree with Wildchild, the pets aren't the issue, so don't treat them as if they were. I'd spend the weekend gathering up documents you'll need. Get your original lease, if you have it, and any subsequent leases. Sit down with a piece of paper and summarize your dealings with this landlord. When did you move in, when was the rent increased, did you ever have discussions about the pets before this, and so on. Then, on Monday, go talk to an attorney. I'll tell you, if you lived in Massachusetts, you could drag this out for six months with very little problem. I know that Massachusetts is very tenant-friendly, so you might not get as much time in your state, but don't make it easy for her. Don't just up and move out when she tells you to, unless she's crossed every T and dotted every I.

At the holidays, we always feel great sadness about the ones who are no longer with us. But it should be short, not for a month. You are wise to seek therapy for this when it starts interfering with your daily life. My heart is aching for a family I know who lost their 16 years old daughter to suicide (hanging - just gruesome) two days before Thanksgiving only last year. This will be a very hard holiday for them. She was a lovely, lively, charming girl, but she had rapid-cycling bipolar disease and had first been diagnosed at age 13. The risk of suicide in such situations is very high. I was reading an article in the NYTimes today that had a picture of handwritten recipe cards, and it made me think of my own mother who has been gone since 1993. And on Thanksgiving, I'll think about my father, as he was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1901. It doesn't fall on his birthday this year, but we always celebrated it on Thanksgiving. And I will deeply miss my beloved late husband, gone now for over 13 years, who always did a superb job of carving the turkey. Of course, I miss him every single day. He was the love of my life.