FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF NOV. 15, 1999:
For the last few years, our kids have spent the holidays in front of the tube, watching videos with their cousins. If you have suggestions for making the holidays a time for three generations to get to know and enjoy each other, we would really appreciate them.
Ask each family to bring a mixed-age game instead of a video, says Harriet Shaklee, University of Idaho extension family development specialist. "Sometimes kids need an incentive to hang around adults, and a game might be a good incentive." Try Pictionary, Monopoly or card games like Uno or Old Maid. Or, gift-wrap a brand new jigsaw puzzle each year and work on it together.
"People sit and chat when they’re making jigsaw puzzles," she says. "It’s a good excuse to talk–and you really do want to reintegrate human interaction into the holidays. This is your time to reacquaint yourself with your nephews, nieces and grandchildren."
My pine tree produced very few pine cones this season. Some years my lawn is just thick with them. Should I be concerned or consider myself lucky? What would cause the tree to cut back its cone production?
Consider yourself lucky, says Yvonne Carree, University of Idaho extension associate in forestry. In conifer species, cones are a cyclic crop. Ponderosa pines will produce heavy cone crops every two to five years. Spruce will go one to three years between good crops, grand firs two or three years, and Douglas firs up to 11 years.
"A light cone crop does not indicate a health problem, but a heavy crop can," says Carree. "A stressed tree will sometimes put on a heavy cone crop in a last-ditch effort to reproduce."
Tree owners more commonly ask what they can do to reduce cone production. "As far as I know, there is nothing you can do to regulate this process," she says. "Lots of folks have been working on seed production in conifers for years and would love to be the one to discover exactly why large cone crops are cyclic and how to regulate cone and seed production."
We have just bought a house and are the beneficiaries of a marvelous rear yard planted with a variety of perennials. I am quite new to gardening and would like to get up to speed on how to best tend this garden. Can you recommend any good sources that would help me identify the types of plants and how to care for them? Mark Mumford, Moscow
Your local University of Idaho Master Gardeners can be an invaluable resource. Wait until spring when the plants start blooming, then bring clippings of the flowers and leaves to your county Cooperative Extension System office. While there, peruse their gardening resources and get the names of your community’s most knowledgeable and experienced gardeners.
Other important sources are local nurseries and garden centers, where you’ll often stumble across familiar-looking plants as you’re looking for new ones. Also try garden tours, catalogs and botanical gardens. Finally, don’t forget to ask your neighbors: the plants may well have blown over, or crept over, from their yards.
Michael Colt, University of Idaho extension horticulturist, says the process "looks daunting for a beginner, but most gardens have fairly common plants." Because accurate identification of a variety generally requires flowers–both their appearance and their timing–plan to undertake this pleasant task one plant at a time as your new garden begins to offer up its splendid surprises.
Are there certain foods that people should avoid eating in the same meal, foods that may "clash" in the stomach? For example, I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to eat fruit and meat together.
Many individuals are under the mistaken impression that some food combinations "clash" in the digestive system, says Martha Raidl, University of Idaho extension nutrition specialist. Common myths include avoiding eating fruit and meat, or fruit and milk, at the same time. Fortunately, it’s simply not true that some combinations need to be avoided; the digestive systems of healthy individuals are far more robust than that.
Indeed, says Raidl, many food combinations actually have a beneficial impact, boosting the body’s ability to absorb some nutrients. The vitamin C in oranges, for instance, helps with absorption of iron in meat.