Our hammock has always been attached to an eye bolt screwed into a tree. When we took down the hammock this fall, we discovered the eye bolt has been completely engulfed by bark. Just swallowed up! We barely got the hammock off. How do we cut (drill?) out the eye bolt?
Leave it in the tree. The tree has already compartmentalized the wound caused by the eye bolt. (Trees don't "heal" like humans. They wall off foreign bodies.) Removing the eye bolt would create a new, bigger wound and possibly leave a permanent hole, which could lead to real problems. The eye bolt causes a relatively small interruption in the bark's cambium layer, which transports water and nutrients up and down the tree. A small vertical interruption is better than a rope or wire encircling a trunk for too long, cutting off flow around the entire trunk and killing the tree.
Which types of cucumber, pumpkin and zucchini are recommended as resistant to powdery mildew? I had powdery mildew issues last summer on all three types of plants.
Sanitation is important for this disease because the spores overwinter on infected plant leaves. Clean these leaves up at the end of the planting season and dispose of them off-site. Powdery mildew usually hits at the end of the season and weakens plants, but its not a killer like downy mildew. For powdery mildew-resistant varieties, refer to Cornell University's disease-resistant vegetable list. Also, search our Home and Garden Information Center website for more about powdery mildew on vegetables.