I have an acre which consists of 40% beds and the rest lawns. I need to see if I can get the maintance under control like the weeds, mowing,trimming, fertilizing and mulching, but then I need help with the creative things. the pond, creek and planting. Like 4 herb beds app 20'X 20'. thanks charlene

Hi cheery one, I'm pleased that you're happy with the "pro"s of your retirement. And somewhat sad that you're feeling that you're not keeping up to the mark of what you'd hoped/planned to do. If you feel the need to beat yourself over the back about that - make sure it's with a wet noodle ... and only five strokes, O.K? As for the "average" retiree, I don't feel that I have too much of a handle on that ... and wonder what level of expertise you may claim in that department? I think that it's important to do things that we can be pleased with ourselves for having done, at the end of the day ... week ... month ... year. Something that I note to have been scarcely mentioned in this thread so far is the need that all of us retirees have to concern ourselves about (as well as people in the workforce) is the erosion of the value of our income (and, for us retirees, our assets) due to inflation, every year for about the last 80. There hasn't been much increase in incomes in recent years, except for the wealthy few ... but the prices keep going up ... and for most of us, those prices of much of the goods and services that we buy have been and are going up faster than the official rate of inflation. When we put money in the bank, or buy bonds, etc. which pay us the same number of dollars after several years that we gave them in the first place, apart from the "rent" on the money, it isn't only taxes and living expenses that much come out of the earnings ("rent on the money"), but an allowance for inflation, as well, in order to keep the purchasing power of those assets equal in ten years to what it is now. Good wishes to you for dealing well with the days ahead: may they be as many as please you, with good health, friends, enough bucks to meet your needs, things to do and a few challenges, here and there. ole joyfuelled

Actually, accomodating different sleep schedules is much easier after retirement than before. One rule: If its sleeping, don't poke it. LOL. You both can enjoy different interests, so long as you have a few things in common like taking an annual vacation trip, or visiting the relatives. There are times when you both need to be awake and dressed at the same time such as visiting, traveling, etc. The main friction is who gets the TV controller. This conflict, too, can be reduced. One way is for hubby to get a smaller TV that he can move around to his "roon of interest" at the moment. You will need to come to an agreement on the division of labor around the house: Who cooks, washes dishes, laundry, sweeps the floor, etc. One way is each one to clean up his own mess. At our house, we do our laundry separately. We each have different preferences and each doing their own laundry keeps us out of each other's hair. I don't much care how my laundry is done so long as the dirt gets gone. I separate my laundry into 2 piles: general stuff such as underclothing, socks, towels, things that need a vigorous washing with some bleach thrown in sometimes; The second pile is all the wash-n-wear stuff. When sorting the laundry, I will include my wife's socks. I rarely use the 2md rinse - she often uses the second rinse. She also has fabrics that need gentle care - I make sure that when I buy my clothes that I don't get any of those fabrics. By separating the laundry, we stay out of each other's hair. The solution seem to be: keep from irritating your partner too much. If you can do that, then eveything else seems to fall into place.

For me, the key difference between Rebecca's experiences and mine with CPM are the words "snow cover". She had total snow cover and total winter survival, where I usually have no consistent snow cover and no cane survival (though it's root hardy for me). That's why my CPM never blooms. The temperatures below the snow never get below 32 degrees F so that's why the air temperature can be well below zero and the rose survives fine. We're too dry to get consistent snow cover in the winter so my CPM never has surviving cane. I agree that she's not a rose for a small space, though she grows well on a obelisk. If you get consistent snow cover and/or bring it inside for the winter with the obelisk you might get blooms. Sorry to hear about JD, Carol. My John Davis only hangs in by a toenail every winter in my zone 4 pocket but isn't quite dead after several years. I've never gotten him big enough to bloom though. Cynthia