Hello Renee, I live in southern Cal. Sunset 19 as well, perhaps a bit hotter and colder than Simi Valley but very similar and have been trying different Conifers to see what did well and was less commonly planted. I have lost many more than have made it. The following is a list of what I know does very well and looks good year round. Many are not normally planted but are very choice. Not on the list for the most part are ones which rapidly grow to large trees. Cedrus all types of Cedrus do well as do their selections. the dwarfs do very well. Cedrus libiani 'Green knight' & 'Green Prince' Cedrus deodara 'Descanso Dwarf', 'Devinely blue' Firs Abies pinsapo - Spanish Fir slow growing,like a hedghog. Abies guatamalensis - Guatamalan Fir looks more like typical fir. Pines many types of pines will do well ,these are less common and are exceptional. Pinus bungeana - Lace bark pine, from asia slow, small tree,very nice colorfull bark. Pinus flexilis 'vanderwolfs pyramid'-great color, structure. Pinus heldreichii - Bosnian pine,small deep green, great form,like a xmas tree,white bark. Pinus lumholzii - weeping Mexican pine very pretty. Pinus maximatinezii - Mexican nut pine,big cones, blue when young, thrives. Pinus mugo - the dwarf ones, great around rocks. Pinus pinceana - weeping mexican pinyon small, nice form. Pinus quadrifolia - blue/green nut pine, nice pyramid shape. Pinus thunbergii 'Thunderhead'- deep green color,large white candles, makes a neat large Bonzai. Low Growing. Chamaecyparis obtusa'Split Rock' - small,blue and round. Cryptomeria japonica'koshyi' - a small round bun Juniperis horizontalis'Limeglow' - Limeglow juniper. Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star' - Blue ,Star Juniper. Taxus cuspidata'Monloo' - Emerald Spreader Japanese Yew. Sequoia sempevirons 'albo spicta' - Dwarf white tipped, Redwood. Upright narrow Thuja plicata'virescens'- bright green medium size. Juniperis comunis'Gold cone' - small ,gold tipped nice. Calocedrus decurrens 'veriagata' - Verigated California Incense Cedar ,medium size upright,giant splashes of bright yellow color. Spruces, do not be tempted though commonly found in the nursery during the holidays, if they survive it will look bad compared to what they should be. Two more places to visit to look at Conifers. Descanso Gardens in La Canada. San Diego Wild Animal Park in Escondido has a very good and unusual conifer collection, take care not to wander to far off the paths, one area is up against the Lion enclosure and when they roar it will scare your pants off.

Sounds like a few possibilities- if daughter/grandkids moved in recently there must be no father on a continual basis. The boy may not understand that your house is no longer 'his' home. He may have witnessed/lived with a defiant/violent/drunk male in the past where this type of behavior is all he saw. Monkey See- Monkey Do. He may be ADHD. ADD. Fetal Alcohol Sydrome Disorder child. - 91-94% of ADHD/AUTISM is later diagnosed at early school age or adolescent age as FASD. ... It IS his mother who needs to set boundaries. Grandma already raised her kids- it is not her responsibility. Is the mother an alcoholic? Drugs? Physically or mentally abused and does not have the capacity herself to guide her children. You may not know these answers yet but dig. Ask grandma over or out for a hamburger. Discuss your worries with her and she may shed some light on the situation. Or not... It is not the child's fault, as much as it puts stress on you. Be proactive- lock your garage door. Lock your home doors. Ask a legal person if YOU may put a lock on the gate. Look at your County Clerk office tax assessment/file to see who legally put up the fence- you may be surprised to find out it is really your fence. Talk to your insurance company- they will have suggestions about how you can cover yourself. Most of these things are private and the neighbor's will not know of you trying to figure out the situation. Sometimes it DOES take a village to raise a child- especially a mentally affected child. I am blessed- I too have a connecting yard because two sisters and their husbands lived side by side. Then they were widows. I was able to know/visit the sister that previously owned my house for a year, before her death a few months ago at 100 years old... Her sister is my neighbor at 90, who is a wonderful woman. Don't dispair- there is a reason you are there. Figure out why as exhausting as it is right now. Chin up!

Beth H. : thank you. He made the countertop himself out of 2 3/4" plywood and we bought formica 180fx laminate for the counters (and done the ideal edge) and used the same 180fx for the backsplash. I know alot of ppl don't like laminate, but I actually do and I do alot of food preserving and canning and the backsplash washes off so easily. With hubby doing all the work and making everything himself the total price of our whole house remodel came to $20,000. And that included, 6 new windows, 2 full baths, a kitchen, and flooring.... (during covid with prices more than double on alot of things. So we saved quite a bit! Overall, I love the way it turned out! And I'm extremely proud of my hubby!

Hello Lily, I agree with Tiffany that "Letting plants wilt on purpose is a dangerous plan." Frequently we overlook the importance of the water we provide our plants. Our tap water is not necessarily the best thing for our plants. Most of the plants on our planet are watered by Mother Nature with rainwater, which is essentially distilled water with a trace of Nitrogen Oxides from atmospheric lightning (and hopefully NOT a lot of industrial contamination. ) Fluorides in our drinking water may be good for our teeth, but Fluorides are not something that is good for our plants. And, although plants need a very small amount of Chlorine, it is questionable whether the amount of Chlorine in our chlorinated drinking water is harmful to our plants. Our situation is not typical. We live in a rented farmhouse in a rural area, and our water supply is from an open well (a hole in the ground about 8 feet in diameter) so Chlorine and Fluorine aren't an issue. But various forms of agricultural contamination are a serious problem, including various drowned creatures that manage to fall into that 8-foot hole. I refuse to drink Possum juice, so we buy drinking water by the gallon from Walmart to drink and cook with. But my indoor plants were a problem. (I grow more than a few zinnias indoors as part of my zinnia breeding hobby.) For my indoor plants, I considered installing a tank to catch rainwater from our gutter downspout. But that scheme had its difficulties, including the fact that rainwater would be contaminated with bird poop and squirrel poop from the roof. I ruled out buying gallons of distilled water from Walmart for our plants, based on how much that would cost. So I considered distilling our possum juice to get purified distilled water. Hospitals, laboratories, universities, and such find it economical to distill their own water and various water distillation units are commercially available. I did some calculating and estimating and concluded that the cost of electricity per gallon to produce the amount of distilled water I would need would be only somewhat less than purchasing distilled water by the gallon. So, back to the drawing board. Some homes find it feasible to install a Reverse Osmosis unit to purify their available water supply. The Reverse Osmosis units (sometimes referred to simply by the initials RO) use only a very small amount of electricity to power an ultraviolet bulb that kills any kind of bacterial contamination. The water from an RO unit is very close in quality to clean distilled water but can cost a lot less. I purchased an RO unit online from a supplier named Perfect Water. My current indoor zinnia project uses about 10 gallons of RO water per day and that will probably at least double as my plants grow in size and number. My current RO unit will be capable of supplying a considerably increased water usage. I do need to purchase a new Reverse Osmosis filter about every year, but I am getting the equivalent of distilled water for my indoor zinnia hobby at a very bargain price. My outdoor gardening has no problem with rainwater supplemented with some of our Possum Juice. For a limited amount of indoor plant watering, you might find Distilled Water by the gallon to be a practical solution, and possibly better for your plants than the tap water from your local city or town water supply. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)