Cut the ferns off near the soil(even if you have to pull the mulch back to do it),when they turn brown. Do not wait till Spring, mulch the bed at this time. The cutting the stalk close to the ground, is to stop the Asparagus Beetle(Criocerus aparagi) from finding the old stalk & laying her eggs on it. The eggs hatch & they go to an all night & day lunch.You should burn old ferns if you have a problem with Asparagus beetle, if not you can compost it.The beetle can over winter in the mulch. Here is a link that might be useful: This may help.

There is a considerable amount of energy that goes into producing fruit, and it always involves a sacrifice of the potential increase of woody mass. I often remove the fruits/flowers of blooming bonsai material to hasten its development, & it does make quite the difference. It's normal practice to remove all but a few fruits on fruiting bonsai and to only allow most species to fruit in alternate years to insure that vitality/energy levels remain high. While this may not be as large a factor with material as genetically as vigorous as the Meyer, fruiting still does limit mass increase. Al

Well absolutely no one should be online without adequate protection these days, too many scoundrels out there by far. The 2 most popular seem to be Superantispyware and Malwarebytes. Be careful installing and stay with the free version, Malwarebytes is free but does not appear to say so as you install. I run one or the other perhaps weekly, more if I feel I have visited doubtful places. That is a very smart move taking your scanner when visiting rellies, at least that way they feel safe in that the photos remain in there possession. Also you get the chance to discuss each and perhaps make notes because no one thought to write on the backs of the photos. On the printing issue have you considered having them done for you? This can be done online at a large number of places including your local supermarket and/or pharmacy. You then collect them the next day or whatever the rules are at any given location. This to me is cheaper than using your own ink and I think their ink quality is somewhat better than we get for our printers. I found scanning slides very trying but that was a few years ago and the equipment was not as good as we have now. You say the scanner is expensive and no doubt it is. But when I started the local computer joint charged $10 for the first scan and $8 for any others done at the same time. It made sense to buy a scanner and save a bundle, you have to decide how many scans you need to do then decide on which route. Photo editing for tears, bends and scratches is very interesting but time consuming and a steep learning curve at the outset. I enjoy that stuff, in fact I just removed a no longer son in law from the middle of a family group for a lady.

"What about child actors? They are "marketed" too." My sister was going to get my nephew involved but when she saw how it was, changed her mind. Have you seen how many child actors end up burnt out and depressed, on drugs or dead by the time they should be starting out their lives? I'm not 'harassing' you because I have a different opinion about something. Aren't I entitled to my opinion as well as you are? We aren't questioning her falling off her bike. My DH just called her to see if she was okay. It's BM & SD's behavior that are weird. I can see that she may be defensive. When we pulled up to pick SD up, they were standing in the driveway. SD said she had to show DH the scratches on the back of her leg to dad before she could get in the car. I didn't see anything on her hands or knees but I guess that doesn't matter, it's been a couple of days. So we leave & stop for dinner. As we are eating, SD mentions that her leg & head hurt. DH says out loud that he wonders if it's a concussion and I mention the hospital. SD's face gets a terrified look on it and she says it only hurts a little bit. She starts to minimize how much it hurts. So, DH is trying to assess if she has a head injury that needs to be looked at and asks what the pain feels like. SD starts to tell him the story of how it happened and we stop her and tell her we don't need the story on HOW she fell off her bike (which is what she was telling us) but how it feels now. She starts to tell us about her leg pain but he's only concerned with her head. She starts out saying it's throbbing but concussion & hospital are mentioned, she says it doesn't really hurt much at all. and finedreams, since your daughter had a concussion, did she go to the hospital? and what did they do for it? and it isn't 300 miles away. I don't know where theotherside came up with THAT. It's about 3 hours away. It's about 150 miles each way but we live up in the mountains and she lives up in a different set of mountains so there are a lot of slower curvy two lane roads to drive on. And yes, my DH would drive it. We drive it every week to pick her up. They would do the EXACT SAME amount of driving if she came to pick up SD instead of sending her mom. But they are both equally responsible for transporting the same time/distance. I don't know why you would doubt he would do it. When she goes over there for the summer, he will get SD the same 1st three weekends of each month. And when they had 50/50, DH drove her 45 minutes every morning to school on his weeks and I drove 45 minutes (each way) to go pick her up. BM didn't have to drive because she lived a few blocks from the school. Again, that's not a complaint, that's just the arrangement they had and DH never had a problem with it. We also never had a problem driving SD to her taekwondo classes (she took with her mom) which were almost an hour from where we live, when it was her dad's week. We also would go to her events whether she was with us or not. If her mom had her for her week and she had a taekwondo testing or tournament, we would go watch her. We sometimes drove a couple of hours. DH's parents would also go to those things too. I would have a problem with any father that doesn't see his children the way he should. I don't see different standards. Parents should see their children on a regular basis. I'm not saying what that should be but if they agree to one thing, put it in writing (or a judge orders it) and then they don't show up and the kids are upset & disappointed (or worse, sitting there waiting/canceling other plans) then there is NO EXCUSE for a parent to do that to their child. NONE. If you don't want to have that much time, then don't make that agreement. If you don't want to be tied down to it, then leave it open and say "I'll call when I have time to see them" but it's is SO WRONG to have a child that is excited they are going to see their other parent and then when the other parent cancels or doesn't show up, it breaks their hearts. That's only my opinion and it's not directed at any specific situation, not even mine. I think that is how it should be in general with ALL parents.