I would take apart that branch and start a new pot. The main plant probably needs to be repotted. Clean out as much as the old potting mix you can, trim the roots a bit and put it in a new fast draining mix. You can search 5-1-1 mix here and repotting. There are lots of explanations. If you are on Facebook there is a group called Holiday Cactus Lovers group with lots of helpful people. Most of them prefer to repot using a fifty fifty mix of potting soil and perlite. If you repot, tale your time and read up here. I'm happy to answer specific questions if you need it. My weekend will be busy so it might take a bit before I respond. If the clades on the fallen branch are withered, sometimes they can be saved by putting them i a ziplock baggie full of water for a day or two. Just flip the bag every day. I actually forgot about one for about two weeks and it had sprouted roots. Good luck!

I'm a 60 year old woman, we have a LARGE, old (read, much heavier than the newer models) snowblower. We have 2 houses. So far this year? I've almost exclusively cleared both houses. The big machine is no problem to operate, and I can almost always start it with one pull. The timing of the snow this year has been overnight, with DH having to go to work the next morning, so once he's gone, I'm up and out, and clearing our shared driveway, the front walks of about 5 houses and a couple of other driveways. THen, as soon as we're able, we've headed to the country house, where I've cleared the huge wrap-around driveway. DH DID drive to the country alone this past Friday after work--and cleared the driveway. But that was only because my aunt had died Thurs evening, and I had to stay home to make the arrangements and to start cleaning out her apts. Interesting question, though--just this past Wed, when the snow stopped, a former neighbor who works for the town drove by. Some of us (women) were out clearing our walks. He wanted to know where our husbands were. It occurred to me, I'd only seen one man out shovelling that morning--but I'd seen at least 6 women. So around here, the guys either sleep in, or go to work, while the women (some are housewives, some are school teachers and get 'snow days') do the clearing.

Unless your state is much more well off financially than most, it's highly likely that even if social services decides his mother isn't the best caregiver for your grandson, they will try to place him with a family member. That's generally what happens around here, at lease, if there's anyone at all in the family who is remotely interested and capable of caring for the child, so I wouldn't be overly concerned that a call for a little help would necessarily shunt him immediatley into the foster system. However, it probably would be a good idea to check around to make sure how things work in your specific jurisdiction. What about calling a home health service? Explain the situation to them and ask what help they can offer and what it will cost. After all, young mothers sometimes need to have medical procedures, so I'm sure the appropriate temporary help is available--you just need to find it. What about hiring a responsible babysitter? Will your medical 'time off' be in the summer? you might be able to find a teacher or responsible college student who might like a couple of extra weeks pay during her vacation. If you belong to a church or other group, you might find a few women there who would be happy to pitch in. The one thing I wouldn't do is force your dd to take care of a child she has no interest in. I know it's an extreme case, but wouldn't little Kaleigh (sp?) Anthony have been better off if her mother had been allowed to put her up for adoption, rather than being forced to keep her by her mother? I'm definitely NOT saying your dd is like Casey, but I also don't think it would be in your gchild's interest to have an unintersted mother caring for him. Sorry to say, but her behavior is very symptomatic of a person with an addiction. there's plenty of help around for you--I'm confident you and the other grandmother will find a way. One solution might be to put the child in daycare during the day (M-F) so the other grandmother only has to watch him a few hours a day. There are child care/day care facilities that will take short term cases like this, but you may have to do a little digging to find one. Good luck

Hey walkin -- I'm *far* from an expert on this--people here helped me on the one I've done. I bought a kit of the precut wood and MDF parts, complete with screws and such, truth be told, just because I didn't want to have to do all the measuring and cutting--sometimes I hit "tilt" and have to take the easy way out. The kit was from eBay. We did buy better foam, however, than the kit came with. And we also wrapped it. Probably way overdoing it. It wasn't hard at all, in fact rather enjoyable in an instant-gratification kind of way (esp. since I didn't have to do the cutting :))--we did do two rows of staples, alternating spaces kind of like sewing stitches, because the fabric seemed to pull between the stitches so I wanted it anchored completely. We didn't edge it with wood, but we could--we just did a simple rectangle which extends 24" above the surface of the mattress (we have a high mattress--if you were to purchase the same set and not have as high a mattress setup, it would be taller unless you cut it down). We love the simple lines. It would be easy to put wood around this if we chose to, or to make a slipcover for it down the line.