Thanks. You make me feel like an even ruder toad, as I'm unable to individually thank those for the cards and seeds. The last few months have been a whirlwind of envelopes, bubble mailers, seeds, packets, addresses, cards, wish lists, etc... scattered about, lost, found, misplaced again, under piles and piles of the above. I haven't been able to sort things out here, I can only somewhat organize what goes out the door. ;)

I also loved A Town Like Alice. It’s the only novel by Shute that I have read and have been meaning to try some others so with your recommendation, Bunny, I will look for Trustee in the Toolroom. I have been taking my time reading Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. It’s a coming of age story of a girl growing up in the Appalachian foothills in Ohio but it’s full of dark, depressing events so I have been reading in small bits. I went on a college visit this weekend with my son who is graduating. It was a long road trip which ironically took me right through the area in which Betty is set. It was very stressful drive, especially when crossing the mountains, as it was pouring rain the whole time. I downloaded Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlin to listen as I drove. It was perfect for the drive with an interesting story, albeit somewhat predictable. It held my interest and kept my mind totally preoccupied, making the weather/driving much less stressful. While I did enjoy it, it would make a good beach read but it’s not a book that I would go out of my way to recommend to friends. I’d give it 3.5 to 4 stars for its genre, which I suppose is a mystery of sorts. Edited to add, I just checked on Libby for Trustee in the Toolroom. My library has the audio version but not the kindle copy. I actually have a 4 hour road trip again tomorrow (going to get my first vaccine dose 2 hrs from home!). I’ll give the audio version a try but may look for a readable copy also (some books I prefer in print or kindle).

I think it depends on the tree. Alas for conifers, I truly believe you are better buying bigger 1) if you can - a lot of rare stuff isn't available bigger at any price and 2) if you know it was grown correctly with no circling roots, which is a HUGE if. Because they are just so darn slow until they are about 6' tall. I can compare the firs I got as 5' footers to those that were liner sized. And "there's no comparison"! You have seen pics of my now medium sized A. firmas - both around 35'. If those had been liners in 2010, I am sure they would just be getting to 20' now, at best. BUT REMEMBER (or maybe u didn't see those posts LOL) I had to very, very extensively work with the roots of them, and detangle them. I even dug extra trenches to contain the unfurled roots. If I hadn't , I could be in a worse place. because they could have pancaked and fallen in a storm or whatnot. So like so many things in life, it involves tradeoffs and being prepared. (And those were much easier than if they'd been B&B'd, because they were in somthing like a big air pot. I could see that they were circling without doing a lot of close inspection.) It's different with most angiosperms that grow faster when young, I think for some of those you can really make a case "size doesn't matter as much as you think it does", especially, since again, you might get something plopped from a container into a B&B production field and grown with circling roots. In that case you are better buying small, because you can at least assess the root system and fix it while you can. Do you remember the story of the Fagus 'Rotundifolia' I drove all the way to upstate NY to buy? It was about 5.5', could barely get it into my sedan for the drive back. HUGE B&B rootball. Super heavy. Had to scooch it out of my drunk into the FEL and drive it to the place to plant it. But it died after about 10 years. when I dug it up, the poor root system was basically a big bowling bowl with a few sad little feeders trying to come out. It was hopelessly doomed to die the day I bought it, probably, because it had moved from liner to container to field without its roots ever being untangled. OF COURSE, there are exceptions to conifers = slow, like my crazy 'Ogon' that went from a 24" grafted whip to 50+' since 2010.

The stock markets can go to zero, but how low can they go before moving back up? It's been a while since my trading days but checking a few charts and indicators I'd say 30K on the Dow before a bounce, then much lower and closer to zero than the previous high. Margin Debt has nearly doubled since the 2020 covid sell off and Margin Debt started to unwind around Nov 2021 which coincides with the markets topping, and with the margin debt still unwinding 30K would of been my target as a normal retrace. This pull back had nothing to do with the Ukrainian war and seen well in advance with money flow indicators suggesting money was flowing out of equities since mid 2021 as a leading indicator. But a few black swans have changed the playing field. If I was playing today I would of flipped my positions late 2021 with a target price of 30K on the Dow as a safe bet but not now. Now I don't care because the Dow is going to 23K, then 18K, 12.5K and may a stop at 7K. I wish I was dreaming and knew nothing but 33 trillion dollars in stock market value is about to evaporate.