slpete

I planted some apple trees in guilds with strawberries, daylillies, mint, chamomile, and echinacea purpura.

This is their third year, and I was hoping to see how they fruit, but one of them (gala) did not flower at all and one (honey crisp) flowered but much less than last year.

Last winter I pruned for the first time, and we had a pretty dry spring last year so they did not have much new growth, so I feel like that may be why. Anything I should add to the guilds to help them bounce back this year? They are due for some new mulch, so I will definitely do that this year, but I’m hoping to expand the guilds a bit, so I wanted to see if there was anything I could plant to help them out.

I

I’m not sure if this is a vent, or if I’m actually looking for advice. We just paid off our 2016 Honda Odyssey (like paid it off last Wednesday). On Sunday, the check engine light comes on and lo and behold the dealership is estimating $5000 to fix the piston rings among other things. Should I mention the warranty expired in March? Apparently this is a well-known issue with Odysseys. We have savings, but this will eat into it for sure. I guess that’s why we have an emergency fund.

We’re struggling with staying within the budget with 3 kids and a huge childcare payment every month. The wife and I are really trying hard to stay within the budget, but It’s just hard to get ahead. We have the

A little background, we had 2 large Bradford pear trees that needed to come down last year in this spot. I know… I didn’t plant them… The stumps have been ground, but suckers keep coming up. As you can see, there is still a Bradford pear there which will come down at some point, just not sure when since it’s a huge tree. I’m in zone 6a if that helps.

Is there anything I need to do to prepare the area for planting next Spring? Any resources you can point me to?

https://imgur.com/a/ZIydcXO

My water heater needs to be replaced, and I’m looking at something more energy efficient. I have all electric at my house, so I was thinking about getting a heat pump water heater. Anyone have experience with these? Do they help with energy cost? How do they do in the winters? Any recommendation for installers?

Wondering if I’m crazy here. We live in the Midwest by my wife’s family, and my family is a 4 hour flight away. We have six month old twins and a 3year old boy (he’s flown in the past and did great, but he’s definitely a toddler now and thugs may be different). We are considering traveling to my family over the holidays, but my wife is freaking out at the logistical nightmare of it all. She thinks it would be easier when the girls are a year old or so when we don’t have to deal with bottles.

I completely understand that it would be a nightmare of a flight and travel during the holidays always sucks, but i feel like it would be doable with enough planning.

Am I crazy here? Anything we sho

I have some holes in my foundation wall from an electrical line to an external sump pump that was rerouted. Not much more than 1/2 inch diameter. I recently had some unrelated work done on the foundation, but the company doing the work did not fill the holes like I requested. I wasn’t home when they did the work, so I couldn’t verify until after they left that it wasn’t done.

Is filling these holes a DIY thing? Any tips on how to do this? What materials would I need? I’d be happy to have the company come back and get it done but they’ve been really slow to respond and I just want this done with so I can finish the wall and use my basement. Here are some pictures of the holes.

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I have 2 twin daughters who are 4 months old and a son who is 2 and a half. We have been lucky so far and been able to have at least 2 adults watching the kids since my daughters were born with my wife being on maternity leave and having in-laws close by and eager to help out.

At the end of next month, my in-laws will be going out of town and my wife will be back at work so I’m in charge of all 3 kids for a day. The twins are easy enough, but one of them has reflux and is just overall more fussy, and frankly 2 babies is hard enough on its own. Add my son into the mix, and man, I’m at a loss for what to do. He can be a very sweet kid and is very bright, but he is definitely in his terrible

We have 2 twin girls about 3.5 weeks old. Both full term and fairly healthy, though twin A has reflux. She’s on medication but feeding is still somewhat painful for her (hopefully that changes with a bit more time on the medicine).

We’ve been trying our hardest to keep them on the same feeding schedule, but B has a much bigger appetite and wants to eat more frequently since she isn’t struggling with the reflux.

How did everyone handle feedings? Did you try to keep them on the same schedule? Just feed each one when she gets hungry?

My family and I are moving to your fine city soon, and we just found out she is pregnant with twins (we knew she was pregnant, but the twins were quite a surprise). Knowing that this is a higher risk pregnancy, we want to make sure we are set up with a good OBgyn/hospital from the get-go. Does anyone have recommendations for a good birthing hospital with a good NICU? Hopefully we won’t need the NICU, but we want to be sure it’s there for our own piece of mind.

If it helps, we will be staying in the Loveland area in the short term, but are hoping to settle down closer to the city in the long term.

My son (15 months) has an ear infection and is spitting out most of his medicine. Motrin, amoxicillin, cough medicine, you name it, spits most of it out regardless of how sugary it tastes. Used to love the stuff, now not so much.

Anyone have any tips on getting their toddler to swallow medicine?

I have about $91,000 in federal student loans. I have a total of 11 loans currently. 3 Stafford loans, totalling about $20,000 at 6.8%. 7 loans are Direct and Grad Plus loans, and 1 federal consolidation loan.

The highest interest rate Grad Plus is 7.9% with a balance of $12,600. Second highest is the consolidation loan at 7.5% with $23000. All the rest of the loans are at 6.8%

I know conventional wisdom says to pay off the highest interest loans first, but here is my question. The 3 Stafford loans will not qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (I work for a nonprofit) while all the rest will qualify. I have 2 out of 10 years under my belt for this program already. So it makes sense