ohiojen... When I first started reading and posting on this forum, I also knew next to nothing about figs. Stay with us. Everything you need to learn about growing your new tree will be found here. Welcome to the Fig Forum. The price for the Celeste tree is reasonable if it is at bearing age, but save your money...there are better varieties. Besides, Celeste is known from shedding all its figs if challenged by cultural stress, weather, water/dryness, etc. That's my opinion. Others will swear that its a great variety. Before you spend a ton of bucks on a larger fig tree, consider, what will you do with this tree come winter? I assume you live in Ohio. Your fig will need protection. If you have an unheated garage, grow your tree in a large container, and store tree in the garage. If you plant the tree in the ground, it will need to be protected from severe weather. But how, you ask? There are many ways to do just this, and a quick search on this forum re: "winter protection" will give you some alternative strategies. Search for containerized figs, and you'll get tons of info about container culture of fig trees. You will be reading for weeks. That's good...and growing fig trees is really easy. Basically, you buy a tree, you plant a tree, grow it, eat figs, then, store it/protect it for the winter...then, grow it again the following season.... blah, blah, blah...That's it. Done. I, would personally buy the largest tree(s) that you could afford, and not waste time growing rooted twigs until they start bearing. Bearing-age trees are a bargain, and will give you figs THIS season.... instant gratification. Your biggest problem will be your winters. Find a solution, and you'll be hooked. Be inspired! You will be eating figs for a very long time. You will love your new tree(s), and growing figs is probably one of the most rewarding things that you can do, botanically speaking. Hope this will help you. If you have problems, post them, and we will help you raise your new Chicago. Frank

Well, an update and an obsevation. I had taken a break from setting the traps, since I do not like the task, but had to resume when the skunks began doing damage again. Last night, I caught two more. I awoke at dawn, performed the necessary unpleasantries, and they were carried away with the weekly trash by 6:30 a.m. . So far, in six total days of trapping in my small lot, I have eliminated seven skunks. I had also gotten a raccoon,but after it chattering all night and keeping us awake, right as the sky began showing light, its' partner figured out how to release it, much to our amazement. My observation is this: the animals are strongly attracted to the fish emulsion that I feed to my vegetables. I feed everything once per week, a bit of the garden nearly every day, and those were the areas being dug up. I had determined to only fertilize early of a morning, then thoroughly water in the evening to dissipate the scent. Alas, we went to bed early, I forgot to water my new plants set in that day, and the skunks scratched them to death before they were themselves trapped. I am hopeful that by careful attention to my applications of the fish emulsion, and watering in well, I can cut way back on the trapping/ euthanizing.

"He had the same conclusion as yours says it is short cycling due to leaking of freon." I did not say the short cycling could be due to a freon leak. I did say it could be due the condenser being increased in size. I don't understand how a loss of freon could cause a condenser to short cycle. Perhaps you misunderstood what the contractor said. But if he made that statement then my confidence in his ability continues to go down. What exactly was replaced? So far I know it was the condenser. I hope he replaced the coil in the attic. Was the furnace also replaced? What about the line set (the copper tubing running from the attic to the condenser outside}? Normally on an attic installation that is not replaced since it is running inside walls. The old line set can be reused but it must be flushed out properly. You can't mix the old and new refrigerants. But, if the condenser was increased in size, the line set may be too small (diameter) to work properly. This is another reason not to be increasing the size of the condenser. Has the contractor returned yet? If there were air flow problems while running the AC, then there will be air flow problems with the furnace. Those have to be fixed. Make sure the air flow works well in the spare bedroom. Just because you rarely use it does not mean it should not heat and cool properly. All bedroom vents should have approximately equal air flow. This should not be too difficult with the furnace installed in the attic.

Stush, I love your photos of the Aloe Christmas sleigh -- love those red spines! We have a LOT of the Christmas Carol aloes here in Florida.....they show up regularly in big box store and they are sooooo pretty....but that RED Christmas sleigh is rarer, harder to come by and truly beautiful. Now and then I must give thanks for living in FL where -- I don't have to move my plants in at all! There is a woman and a nursery about 30 miles north of me who does mail order via Etsy. It's NOT an open-to-the-public nursery, but she has some fascinating aloe varieties. It's on Etsy at ParadiseFoundNursery. I really want to order a few plants from her and see if I can drive up and pick them up personally, rather than having them mailed....maybe get to nose around her nursery a little....I hope..... Have never seen anything like your Tulista. Hard for me to get used to those new names, and I'm challenged to get used to the "new look" of that as a Haw. But they are fascinating to see for the first time. You are a "master grower" in my opinion, so I always read your posts and pay attention to the plants you introduce us to. Thank you!