Caring for fruit trees can be a wonderfully rewarding type of gardening. From the fragrant blossoms of pretty pastels in spring to the harvest of autumn, fruit trees provide tangible payback on time spent caring for them.

But now that their fruit has matured and their foliage has begun to fall, it is time for a few simple practices to help the tree endure the winter dormant period and make for a healthier tree ... and more fruit next year.

Controls Insects – various burrowing insects and their larvae like to winter in fruit trees. Dealing with them now is better than waiting for spring. Your local garden centre can tell you of any concerns or infestations in your area, and how best to treat them.

Don’t Prune – It’s better to wait until early spring for all major pruning. Pruning in the late summer or fall may encourage the tree to continue growing. It must stop growing for some time – a hardening-off period, to be winter hardy, and reduce the chance of winter injury.

Keep Well-Watered – apply 5-8 cm (2-3 in.) of water in late fall so it penetrates the root zone and the tree goes into the winter with a good moisture supply.

Don’t Fertilize – in most situations. If fertilized in the fall young trees in particular will lack winter hardiness because they will continue to grow.

Pick Fruit Carefully – If not all gone yet, take care when picking fruit. Grasp it from the bottom and gently lift it upwards till it is upside down; the twig usually breaks free easily. Another technique is to twist the fruit upwards and to one side.

Rake the Leaves – Keeping the base of your fruit trees clear of leaves and damaged ‘wind-fall’ fruit makes for a healthier tree by helping prevent leaf-borne diseases from recurring. It also reduces habitat for rodents that can be destructive to fruit trees.

Install Tree Guards – Mice and other vermin like to feast on fruit tree bark during the winter under the snow. If you have noticed damage like this in past springs when the snow has melted, protect trees with tree guards. Check your local garden centre for options.

Caulk and other home sealants keep the weather outside where it belongs. A properly sealed home will be more air-tight, thus lowering the heating bill, plus it will be rid of insects and safe from moisture damage.

Now is the time to make sure your exterior caulking is in good shape.  Whether you are sealing joints around windows and doors or cracks in exterior surfaces, the steps are the same. Just be sure you use a product that is designed for the surfaces you need to seal.

Start by removing old caulk using a painter's five-in-one tool, a stiff putty knife or another similar tool. Be sure to scrape off any caulk that remains on the surface or walls of the joint. For very old caulk that is dry and stubborn to remove, use a caulk softening and/or removal chemical.  Allow the joint to dry for a day or more unless the product you are applying is approved for wet applications.

Never fill a deep joint. Doing so wastes caulk and makes a good, permanent bond less likely. If you have joints that are wider than 6 mm (1/4 in) or deeper than 12 mm (1/2 in), press an open-cell foam backer rod into the joint so it is about half as deep as it is wide.

For tight spots or just as an extra precaution for highly visible areas or for surfaces that might be ruined by caulk, apply painter's masking tape to avoid getting caulk on adjacent surfaces.

Cut about 1 cm (3/8 in) off the caulking cartridge's nozzle at a 45-degree angle with a utility knife. The goal is to get a hole 5 mm (3/16 in) across to produce a bead of that diameter.

Squeeze the caulk gun handle to fill the joint, adjusting both the rate of application and the amount of pressure to apply enough caulk so you slightly overfill the joint. Some find it easier to push rather than pull the caulking gun, while others prefer to pull. You can achieve excellent results either way.

Finish by smoothing the joint with a wetted fingertip or smoothing tool.

Home-made Halloween Costumes
“It’s not just the money I grudge for those cheap costumes that you see lots of other kids wearing. They are also often hot and sweaty, provide poor visibility for the wearer, and many times don’t make it home in one piece. That’s why we go with homemade Halloween costumes. Nothing too fancy (who has time?!). Just something simple and effective, like many of the ones I found at this site.”

Halloween Home Décor
“It may only be one night a year, but the kids in the neighbourhood really love coming to our house. We used to make it really tame since a lot of the kids were young. But now that they are getting older, we’ve livened things up for them a bit more. They’re going to get a real surprise this year.
Whether you’re aiming to scare them, surprise them, or invite them, this site has lots of great ideas. Get the kids involved, too.”

Cancer Myths
“It seems like I hear every week from someone new who has just been diagnosed with cancer. I guess it’s just the age thing, but it still sucks! It also makes you ponder your own mortality and I’m sure more than just a few of us are concerned about cancer in ourselves as well as friends, relatives and coworkers.
I recently visited this Canadian Cancer Society site and found lots of interesting information that has been most helpful and appreciated by people I know impacted by cancer. And I found particular comfort in reading the Cancer Myths. It put my mind at ease for most concerns, and alerted me to one possible change I should make in my lifestyle.”

Permanent Makeup
“I have wanted to try this for years – ever since I first heard of it. I know it’s really just tattooing, but anything that will save time in the morning is of interest to me. And this site provides a simple explanation of what permanent makeup is all about.”

With Halloween approaching and ghouls and goblins waiting to hit the streets, we thought we would extol the lowly bat, long feared and deemed evil as a result of vampire stories. But bats are important for many things, from mosquito control to medicine, and even the production of tequila:

• A single little brown bat (myotis) can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in a single hour, and is one of the world's longest-lived mammals for its size, with life spans of almost 40 years.

• A single colony of 150 big brown bats can protect local farmers from up to 33 million or more rootworms each summer.

• The 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken Cave in Texas, eat 250 tons of insects every night.

• A nursing little brown bat mother can eat more than her body weight nightly (up to 4,500 insects).

• Many important agricultural plants, like bananas, bread-fruit, mangoes, cashews, dates and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal.

• Tequila is produced from agave plants whose seed production drops to 1/3000th of normal without bat pollinators, such as the Mexican long-tongued bat.

• Contrary to popular misconceptions, most bats have very good eyesight and excellent echolocation so they do not become entangled in human hair, and seldom transmit disease to other animals or humans.

• Desert ecosystems rely on nectar-feeding bats as primary pollinators of giant cacti, including the famous organ pipe and saguaro of Arizona.

• Bat droppings in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving detergents, and producing gasohol and antibiotics.

• An anticoagulant from vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human heart patients and stroke victims.

• Bat houses can help build the populations of many valuable bat species that eat many crop-damaging insects, such as cucumber and June beetles, stink bugs, leafhoppers and corn worm moths. Bat houses provide places for bats to roost, hibernate and raise young, at a time when the number of natural sites available to them is dwindling.

'A stumble may prevent a fall.' 

 ~ English Proverb

Most of what makes the Internet slow for people in their day-to-day activities resides in their systems, not in their ISP. It's pointless searching for a high-speed ISP if you're connecting to it with a modem over a telephone line. To get a fast Internet experience start with your own hardware. Ensure your computer has enough memory; with today’s computers this is more of a bottleneck than speed. Get a relatively high-speed connection to the Internet like cable or DSL, and then ensure your computer is ready for the load. Connect to the modem via an Ethernet port, not serial, parallel, or USB.

Spooky Pumpkin Silhouettes
Susie, age 12, says, “These pumpkin designs are a little different than the regular jack-o-lanterns, but not much tougher to make. And they really look great! I made two last year and all the kids and their parents loved them.”

Christmas Crafts
Samuel, age 9, says, “Mom loves to do crafts with us, and asks us to come up with our own ideas for things like Christmas. So I checked out this site and found all sorts of really cool crafts. We’re starting some right after Halloween so we have time to try lots of different ones.”

Game Cheats
Seb, age 11, says, “This site has wicked information on all online games. I like going on it to see if there is something I’m missing about a game or something. And most times, I am missing something. So I find out from this site.”

wOne Wheel Game
Nicola, age 8, says, “My brother thinks he’s such a cool racing guy, but I started playing this game when he wasn’t looking and got better than he is. But he’s still pretty good, too. It’s fun and easy to learn and play.”

After cleaning out and carving your pumpkins, sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon on the inside of the lid and around the bottom. Then when you light your candle, your jack-o-lantern will not only glow, it will smell great, too!

Does your garage look like a war zone? Now is the time to get it organized and cleaned up - before the snows flies and finding room for the car is a must. Don’t despair.  The task may be less daunting than it appears.

Many garages are simply taken advantage of - over the summer in particular. Floor space disappears. Care must be taken when opening the door for fear of being crushed by the ensuing avalanche of kid’s toys, balls, sticks, garden tools, bicycles, etc. But an afternoon spent applying some organization to the space will clean things up in a hurry. You will even be able to park your car with room to spare.

Location
Where possible, provide a place for items that must reside in the garage near where they will be used most. For example, garden tools are ideally located right inside the door of the garage where they can be easily taken in and out of the garage as needed. Hoses are best hung between the faucet and the door.

Hooks
Many items that are used infrequently and just hang around most of the time should do that just that – hang. Consider choosing one wall for all the stuff that can be hung up and out of the way. Don’t try to make do with unsuitable hooks. That can lead to broken tools and possibly auto body repair bills. There are a variety of hooks available, even specialized ones for large items like bikes and wheel barrows.

Shelves
Using vertical space always make sense for storage, and particularly so in the garage. Shelving can either be stand alone units you purchase or built and fastened directly to the wall. If using store-bought units, ensure they are securely anchored to the wall and that the unit is strong enough to support what can often be heavy loads. When securing them to the wall, make sure they are anchored to studs or other secure surfaces.

Bins
With a wide array of shapes, sizes and colours, bins are ideal for many storage needs. If you are planning to build shelves and use bins, buy bins first and build shelves to suit. Consider bins that breathe. And use colour effectively; to identify one child’s items from another, or for the different categories that are involved like gardening supplies, auto-related consumables, etc.

Move it!
Some items are best located elsewhere. Consider moving items that are not used during cooler weather to a shed, basement, or even outside under a tarp.

When building shelves and storage areas in outdoor spaces, including garages, be choosy about the materials with which you build the actual shelves. While OSB (oriented strand board), particle board and other man-made boards used for shelving are ideal for many uses, when used in areas that have fluctuations in temps and humidity, and placed horizontally, they tend to sag with any significant weight.

Plywood works best.

Avoid back strain when raking by getting a comfy fitting rake; one that’s not too heavy and with a handle that is the proper length. Stand straight and rake with a sweeping motion.

If bagging your leaves, don’t over-fill the bags so that transporting them to the curb isn’t more of a chore than it already is. Watch for pick-up dates so that leaves aren’t left out too early.

Raked leaves can be added to the composter or shredded and mixed with finished compost for the perfect mulch. Small quantities of leaves can be put into a big garbage can and chopped with a string trimmer. For large quantities, rent or buy a chipper/shredder. Be sure to wear safety glasses and ear protection when using these powerful, noisy contraptions.

“A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.” ~ Fred Allen

“You can't have everything... where would you put it?” ~ Steven Wright

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” ~ H.M. Warner of Warner Brothers (1927)

“I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.” ~ Charles Swartz