Pat R Mann

I'll give another vote for the All American pressure canner - no rubber gasket that needs replacing. Been using it for going on 15 years now and really happy with it. We use it a lot for stews and soups. Really love storing food without the need for refrigeration for years.

Botulism spores are killed by boiling for 5-10 minutes (more at altitude). I don't think you can smell them. And you certainly shouldn't taste something that is suspected of containing botulism.

Consider battery-powered pruners. There are quite affordable models these days that really speed up the work and help avoid RSI.

That is my understanding - this is called "buffering".
It's been a while since I did high school chemistry though

pH does not equal total acid content; and the two value are not always well correlated either.

pH measures how many H+ ions are currently available; total acidity measures how much is potentially available. As available ions are bound, more become available until the total acidity is finally depleted to 0.

I don't know how the canning recipes are formulated. But it would be important to understand which measure applies.

That said, considering that tomatoes are considered sufficiently acidic for water bathing, it doesn't seem to take a whole lot of acid to make things safe.

We had a mild winter and wet spring here in Seattle as well, and I've also got beginning rust on my garlic.

I remove affected leaves, since the rust can be transmitted from current infection sites.

It overwinters on volunteer / wild allum plants, so you can try and remove any of those in the vicinity of your next year's planting site.

Jeremy, can you explain your strategic pruning approach a bit more? Since peaches only bear on last year's growth, I don't see how any pruning could result in more fruit in the same year - though it can stimulate growth that will result in more peaches the following year.

Peaches and apricots are dicey in this area. Cherries also increasingly problematic due to Spotted Wing Drosophila.

I'm also trying to grow peach in the PNW and am experiencing the same symptoms. The tree was super vigorous and healthy last year, now it's really sad looking. I blame it on the rain during blossom.
Definitely not curl; maybe brown rot or some other fungal infection.
I'm giving it a bit more time to see if it bounces back. If not, I think I'll replace it with a tree that does better in our wet spring climate.

Walter's system makes sense to me, since it avoids the potential pitfalls, i.e.
- smothering existing roots
- raising the soil level around the trunk
- cutting the shallow feeder roots

I wonder if this constrains the growth potential of the tree, since feeder roots often grow well beyond the drip line. But in a backyard situation that might actually be desirable to limit the size of the tree.

You have to have bats in the area to start with ... then placement seems to be very important in getting them to accept your house.
I like the Dourson/MacGregor bat house:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/178384835212813768/
Easy to build and easier to mount than the older style boxes.