And evergreens are also wonderful for us in landscapes, especially because they stop those winter winds. That's why they're so popular. But also, they provide nice beauty all year round. They give us privacy. They're very useful in the home landscape. And they're really fortunate tonight to have an expert on evergreens with us tonight. Greg Morgensen is a Woody ornamentals researcher on the NDSU here in Fargo. He's one of the leading Woody ornamental researchers in the Midwest. He's got a lot of great practical knowledge for us. And he's going to share with us the best evergreens or sometimes referred to as conifers more technically, properly. The best conifers for North Dakota. So let's welcome Greg. OK, thank you, Tom. I said conifers because not all evergreens are conifers. You have broadleaf evergreens. You've got rhododendrons, boxwoods. So when I talk about conifers, I usually talk about evergreens. I talk about conifers, which are evergreen-type trees. So I'll mention I work with the NDSU Woody Plant Improvement Program, where Dr. Todd West, who replaced Dale Herman after Dale retired. And we just kind of taken off from that and kept the program growing and on to new and higher things, I guess. So with that, I could have the lights over here. How many of you have been after the Absaraka Horticulture Research Farm? We have an open house every year. I'd certainly encourage you to come out as you come in the gate. We've got what we call what used to be the dwarf conifer and mixed conifer planting. Some of them are getting fairly tall, but we have many, many deciduous and coniferous plants planted at the Absaraka Research Farm that are there pretty much for people to view. White conifers are evergreens. And pretty much in North Dakota, we go seven months without a leaf on a tree. So it's nice to have conifers in our landscapes. They give us colors year-round. Mini green, of course, the blues of Colorado spruce. And then even some of the Arborvita and some of the other conifers have a yellow to gold foliage on them too. So it provides winter color for us. They provide a backdrop for smaller growing plants. A lot of plants do well in the protection of larger plants for any old small shrubs. So they work well in that area. Hedges and screenings, nosy neighbors. You can put Arborvita hedge in there and you'll never know they're over there. And they can be utilized in many forms. We think about conifer as a large tree, which is what I'm going to talk about tonight. But they come in very, very many forms. Pyramidal, columnar, weeping, some are shrubs and some are low ground cover. So there's a lot of conifers to choose from. And as Tom had mentioned, we need to use them to provide winter and summer windbreaks for our home areas, garden areas, orchards, ornamental plantings, wherever they may be. And I'm just going to talk about some of the different groups of conifers in the state. This is just a non-technical run-through of some of the conifers that are commonly used in the state and a few that maybe could be used a little more. So the pines, there's two native species of pine in North Dakota, I don't know if you guys knew that. Of course, in the western part of the state, we've got ponderosa pine and limber pine, both native to the area. Scotch pine from Europe and Asia is used across the state, hardy across the state. And then we have some Asian and European white pine species that do very well here. And those are what are called the stone pines, and I'll talk a little bit about those later. And then I just wanted to say that eastern white pine, which is native to Minnesota right next to us, is generally not adapted to North Dakota conditions. I usually do not see good examples of white pine in North Dakota, so I'm sure that they are out there in some places. Ponderosa pine, as I said, is native to the western Dakotas, western Nebraska, clear out into central Nebraska, and it's the variety scopulorum, which is very important to us. Ponderosa pine probably has one of the largest native ranges of any conifers in the US. It goes from the west coast, clear into the plain states. But we can't bring those sources from California and Oregon and Washington and even Idaho into this area and expect them to live. They are not hardy here. They have not evolved with the climate that we have here. So our variety is variety scopulorum, which is on the plains in the front range of the Rockies, which is extremely hardy, 30, 40 below, and that's very well to our conditions. Needles are in twos and threes. The cones are kind of a little smaller than a fist size to about a fist size and end in a sharp prickle on the end of it. So if you pick up a ponderosa pine cone, you can feel it as soon as you pick it up from the prickles on there. I put in my obligatory baby animal picture for everybody to see. So if you can pick the baby birds out there beside the cone. Ponderosa pine, as I said, is very, very adaptable to North Dakota conditions. Very drought tolerant, very pH adaptable, which is important in North Dakota. We have high pHs here and able to stand our winds and our winter sun on them and they do fairly well. Mature height, depending on location, 35, 45, up to 65 feet generally, depending on the conditions that they're growing in. This is the other species that's native to North Dakota, it's called limber pine. This is actually a white pine species and this is way out in Bowman County and Southwest North Dakota. In the Southwest portions of three states and plains, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, from there it goes west into the Intermountain region and occurs in the foothills and up to very high elevations. It's called limber pine because you can take those branches and bend them clear to the ground. You can, in fact, you can almost tie them in knots or so limber and so they are not damaged by snow load on them. But they grow very well here. It's just not utilized in our area. It's one of the trees that you don't generally go to a garden center and they have one in stock. You're gonna have to look for it a little bit. But they do very well. The one in the picture is this one I grew from a seed. You know, some of these I grew several actually. Some are about 30 foot tall now. So they do very well here. Scotch pine is pretty commonly known to everybody across the state. We use the Northern European and Northern Asian seed sources. As I said, ponderosa pine is very widely distributed in North America. Scotch pine is very widely distributed in Europe and Asia. So again, there are certain sources that do best for us and those that do not do well for us. If you brought Scotch pine from Spain or France or some of those areas, they do not do well for us. If you take it from the Northern areas across Europe, Russia into Mongolia, some of those areas, those sources do very well for us. So again, it's pretty much source dependent. And most of the Scotch pine sold in our area is adapted to our conditions. There's very short needles, couple inches long, very small rounded cones. And it's got an orange exfoliating bark, which is kind of neat. And they can get either as broad as tall in an open location or very tall and narrow in a tighter situation, you can see here. So the ARS station in Mandan. And you can see how the bark exfoliates off those trees in that orange pattern. It's very attractive trait of the tree. A tree that is now gaining in popularity is Swiss mountain pine. Everybody's familiar with mugo pine, those little mounds that you kind of grow that look kind of actually unnatural. Well, this is the tree form of mugo pine. This occurs in Europe at high altitudes and anywhere up 15 to 30 foot in height, grown as a single stem tree. Extremely cold hardy, extremely adaptable to our dry soil conditions and winter winds. And this is the cultivar tonnain balm. And that is the cultivar that is now becoming available. And this is a picture of a tree here in Fargo. Very little work that you need to do on it. So if you want something that looks like a Christmas tree out in your yard, that's gonna stay in place for the next 20, 30 years, then this is one you can use. It's an interesting story behind this cultivar. Dr. Dale Herman was one of the first researchers to get mugo pine seed from within this native range in Europe. He grew all these sources out when he was at South Dakota State and a lot of variation. And some of these had this very nice tree form. And actually this tree was named and selected after Dale left, but he had a big part in actually the creation of this cultivar. There are actually other plantings of it in North Dakota. This is up at Minot and some trees that I think are even nicer than tonnain balm. And again, these are some of Dale's work. And the species Swiss mountain pine is available from nurseries. In fact, Kathy mentioned Jeffery's nursery in her talk. Jeffery carries Swiss mountain pine, the seedling strains of it. So very, very nice tree pine that won't outgrow its situation. I want to talk a little bit. The stone pines are virtually, not virtually, they're unknown in this part of the country. They're more widely used on the east and west coast. Stone pines are kind of the Asian equivalent of what we would call pinion pines in our country. They have an edible seed. They call them stones there. We call them seeds here. So it's an edible nut on them. Extremely attractive trees. They have high resistance to white pine blister rust, which is killing our native white pines across the country. White pine blister rust is another disease that was introduced from Asia, which our native white pines have no tolerance evolved to it. So it's wiping out many of our native white pines. But the Asian species, since they evolved with the disease, have resistance. And then they're very ornamental. Extremely cold-hardy, to minus 50 with some of the species. Highly resistant to winter needle sun burning. I've not seen any winter sun burning on some of the species we grow. They're Swiss stone pines, Siberian stone pines, Korean stone pines, and Japanese stone pines. And I'm gonna kind of just, the picture on your right here is a pine asembra, but they're called stone pines, as I said, because they get these little wingless nuts inside. And those cones disintegrate. They don't open up and fall out. The cones disintegrate. They're ripped apart by woodpeckers and other nut collectors, so hence the name stone pine. But Swiss stone pine is extremely hardy. A number of cultivars available, one of which is from NDSU called Prairie Statesman. Some others are chelae, blue mound, and glauca compacta. So very, very nice trees. Beautiful foliage, five needles in a fascicle blue-green foliage. This is the selection from NDSU by Dr. Herman. This is the original tree out at Absaraka. And this year, 2015, it was named the Collector Conifer of the Year. So one of the conifer groups liked it so well that this is the tree that they're promoting nationally, this year. And it is available in some of the local garden centers. It's being produced in greater and greater numbers by the Oregon wholesale nurseries now. I wanted to throw in Siberian stone pine. Does very well here, slow growing. It's greener rather than blue-green. It's much more green. Very slow growth, doesn't overwhelm the landscape. It may get 30 to 35 foot. Reportedly hardy to minus 60, which I would hate to have to put a tree through minus 60. But seems like anything with the name Siberian in it has a little bit of hardiness to it. Some of the spruces, everybody's familiar with spruce. I think if you look at the conifers in about any town or city around North Dakota, probably three quarters of the conifers planted in those towns are Colorado spruces. Colorado spruces because it's highly adaptable. It's very cold hardy. It's very attractive. But as I say, it's our next over-planted species with increasing disease problems. There's a lot of diseases now occurring on Colorado spruces. Any time you over-plant a species in the numbers that we do, then the problems all start to catch up with it. Down in South Dakota to the Southwest of us, in the Black Hills, there's a variety of white spruce called Black Hills spruce. It's very well adapted to plains conditions. It's much less susceptible to some of those needle diseases. Norway spruce, generally not used in this area, but we do have a selection of it that does well here. And then a new spruce that's being tried here is a Chinese spruce that's kind of being planted out in the Northern Plains area called Myer spruce. And we're trying to increase that spruce diversity, have some others out there and kind of cut down on that reliance of Colorado spruce so much. So again, at the Absuracto Hort Farm, we have a spruce collection. So if you're interested in spruce, come out this summer and we can send you to it and you can look at a lot of spruce. There's a lot of variation between the species and the cultivars. Colorado spruce, as I said, is probably the most popular spruce planted in the state. It looks best when they're grown, they're full-form, separated from each other and allowed to branch to the ground. Much too often, we'll put three of them in a landscape, six foot apart, and in 10 years, they've all grown into each other and they're covering the sidewalk or the front entrance and then everybody starts hacking the branches off of them. So if you can get them out and let them be, that's their best situation. And plus that provides a lot of air movement around in that foliage and less susceptibility to diseases. There is a whole mania which has come about with Colorado spruce. I don't know how many cultivars there are of Colorado spruce, but there are people that do nothing but collect Colorado spruce cultivars. And that's where the blue colors and the forms, these are just a couple of them that are fairly common and widely adaptable. Fat Albert is one of them. Can't quite figure out why they call it Fat Albert because it's basically a little more compact form of Colorado spruce. You know what you're gonna get with this and it may still get 30, 35 foot tall but it's not gonna be the size of an overwhelmingly large Colorado spruce at 60 or 70 foot. Another one of very blue foliage is called Baby Blue Eyes becoming very popular and these are just a few. If you Google Colorado spruce cultivars you're gonna get all kinds of plants. If you don't want the large plants you can get the small plants anywhere from several foot high up to about six or seven foot high. There are many, many, many cultivars of Colorado spruce. These are all grafted cultivars and so you can pretty much know what form they're gonna be in the landscape. If you're into dwarf conifers, come out and see our collection. We have a lot of these. These are some of the plants in our collection out at Absaraka. But too many of a good thing causes problems. As you go through anywhere, I think any town in North Dakota you can drive around and see needle cast on spruce, bare limbs on spruce, dead trees. We tend to plant them way too close together and we plant way too many of them. We like, you know, in the Midwest we like our shelter belts that are the same species a half a mile long and we need to not do that. We need to break these up with multiple conifer species, multiple deciduous species. Then you don't have this disease transmission right down the rows like we get. Just a couple more shots, just shots around town and small towns around. You can really see the problems coming into Colorado spruce. There's two needle cast diseases, rhizopharynstigmina, which causes the needle cast and then we have a branch and trunk fungus called cytospera that kills whole limbs at a time. So there's a lot of things going on with Colorado spruce right now. Black Hills spruce, as I mentioned, native in the Black Hills of South Dakota. You drive through Spearfish Canyon down there. You see a lot of spruce in the canyon. Those are all Black Hills spruce. And that's basically a white spruce that's native to the North of us in Canada which kind of got marooned as the climate changed and became warmer on the plains and less moisture. And so the white spruce kind of remained in the Black Hills where conditions were a little more favorable for it. And it's changed over time to be a little more adapted to plains conditions too. Less susceptible to the needle cast diseases. They can still get rhizopharynsthythmia but less susceptible. But the big thing is people like blue spruce and Black Hills are more green in color. So maybe we need to get used to a little green too but shorter needles on it, very small cones on it. Cones are only inch and a half, two inches long. So it's an attractive tree, very attractive tree. Meyer spruce as I mentioned is an Asian spruce and Northern Asian spruce has not been grown much at all in the Northern Plains. It's been trialed in a number of states. So far it's had good, very good cold hardiness. Much better resistance to the needle cast diseases. So hopefully it has resistance to those and it won't cross into them. It's got blunt rather than sharp-tipped needles. If you grab a Colorado spruce by the needles you feel it right away in those spines on the end of the needles. Meyer spruce, you can grab the needles. They're soft, not soft, but much softer. They don't have a tip on the end of it and don't end up hurting your hand. Height-wise, we don't know right now if it's gonna be 30, 40, 50 foot. We just have not grown them enough. Individual specimen, excuse me, out in the open looks very similar to Colorado spruce. It's got longer cones, longer than Black Hills, not quite as long as Colorado, but very similar trees. Aaron Bergdahl with North Dakota Forest Service has an interest in Meyer spruce. This is a mixed planting down in Ransom County here in North Dakota. And you can see there's Black Hills on the left and Meyer's on the right. Very similar growth rates, very similar habits. So hopefully that'll be a species that we can use a little bit more in the future. I mentioned Norway spruce. Norway spruce typically isn't used to a large degree in North Dakota. It's better adapted Minnesota, Wisconsin, and to the east. But NDSU does have a release, our selection in the release, called Royal Splendor Norway Spruce. And this is very different from the typical Norway spruce. This tree is much more upright, pure middle form to it. All the branches are upright, shorter needles. It doesn't have the drooping branches of Norway. If you're familiar with Norway spruce, they tend to get older, they have a drooping appearance. They look a little tired, but the Royal Splendor Spruce does not do that. This has become very popular with the wholesale nurseries on the west coast. And we go in every year to our tree with this lift. We go in and we take what are called scions from that tree. All these cultivars, our conifers that are cultivars are grafted. So we take hundreds of scions and the scion is essentially the short end of that new growth and that's what's grafted on rootstocks. So we'll send several hundred to a number of nurseries and they graft those, grow them for a number of years to get them up to size and then those are the trees that are distributed. There's a lot of odd spruce cultivars out there. So if you like something different in your yard, one of them that I'm starting to see show up is this pendula white spruce. It kind of has a wavy appearance with the weeping limbs on it. I am the red cone Norway. When the cones come out, on small plants even, they're producing little red cones on the end of it. And as I said, if you're interested in conifers and dwarf conifers, there are hundreds of them available that have some odd shape to them that are pretty distinct and neat if they're not overused in the landscape. Douglas fir is a tree that is just very rarely encountered in North Dakota. This is in a cemetery, a little town just west of Fargo, about 25 miles of Wheatland, North Dakota, if you know where Wheatland is. North side of Wheatland, there's a little cemetery there.  Douglas fir does not do well here. The seed sources we've tried have not performed well here. Well, here we have a cemetery full of Douglas fir. These trees were sent to them as a mistake in 1949. The cemetery board ordered Colorado spruce from a nursery in Colorado. What they got instead was Douglas fir by mistake, which is really a very fortuitous mistake for us because we're now using this as a seed source to grow these plants. This source is very winter hardy. It's adapted to the Northern Plains area. It is not susceptible to any of those spruce needlecast diseases. So here we have a whole different genera that hopefully we can grow. And we don't need to be concerned about the spruce needlecast diseases. Douglas fir does have some of his own problems, but there's not enough of them here to where any of those are occurring here right now. As I mentioned, these are being grown. Right now being grown as container seedlings by the town or state nursery. Itasca nursery over in Minnesota is also will be growing this source. So there should be a number of seedlings of this source available. Very, very similar to Colorado spruce informed, but not as blue. This is Colorado spruce on the right, but then you've got three Douglas fir here on the left. So growth rate and cemetery, very similar to Colorado spruce. We're probably asked about firs every year. What fir can we grow here? And we always say probably none. Firs do not do well here. And they're just, we have two dry conditions, drying winds, they winter sunburn extremely badly. I always tell them, if you're going to try to grow on here, place it on the north side of a belt or a home or something where the winter sun does not hit it. If you want to try it, the best choices are probably Minnesota sources and the balsam fir, which there are a few balsam fir around, and the trial of Siberian fir. This is typically what happens to fir in our part of the country. The needles are continuously burned on in open locations, off in open locations. This is a little fir that I've been watching for a couple of years. This is the Siberian fir that I mentioned. Again, one of those plants from Siberia, hardy to minus 50, 60, but it has not shown much of that winter burn, especially as a young plant, that you get on plants right adjacent to it, and you can see all these other burned sources of balsam fir. So it's one we can maybe try. Siberian fir is produced by a number of growers, so maybe a fir we can try in our climate here. Arborvita, everybody wants to grow arborvita, which is fine if you realize that at some point you're going to get winter burn on the foliage. They're very attractive plants, they're very dense, they're excellent for screening. Thuiaxudentalis is actually a native U.S. plant, but once we bring it out on the plains here, it starts getting some of those winter sunburn problems. There are a number of cultivars, and I've listed just the ones that are taller cultivars anywhere from, well, I went down to five foot, but most of these are above that. Some of these, I say 20 foot, they can even get greater than this. This is out of Absaraca, they're probably pushing 26, 28 foot in this row. There are a number of cultivars with that columnar form, Brandon and Pistigiata, Skybound Technene, Wariana. So they are available at different nurseries, but they are susceptible to winter burn, you want to water them in very well in the fall so that they have moisture. Here's what we generally see with arborvita, it looks like a lot of little Charlie Brown Halloween characters. People go out and cover them up each year to try to keep the sun off of them. The other big problem with it is deer brows, deer love arborvita, and of course the winter sunburn problem on them. So if you can put up with all of the problems and give them a good location, then you can probably keep them in good shape. Upright junipers, I'm not gonna talk about any of the creeping junipers at all, but more of the upright forms. And Eastern Red Cedar, Rocky Mountain Juniper are both native to North Dakota. Eastern Red more in the Eastern part, Rocky Mountain across central to the Western part of the state. Both of them are very drought and cold tolerant. Soil pH adaptable, they grow on. Soil pH is well up into the mid eighths. They're useful in mixed plantings, especially the upright ones, or as a screen planting where you might use an arborvita. If you're worried about winter burn, you could try some of the upright junipers instead. They just aren't as susceptible to arborvita. So when you say that, I'm sure somebody has some on it, but height 10 to 20 foot with three to eight foot on them. One of them that's gaining a lot of popularity is Taylor Eastern Red Cedar, which is very, very tight, very columnar, extremely columnar. The Dora Juniper was found in the Badlands in North Dakota. There's another cultivar from the Badlands called Sky High, then several other cultivars, Kala Green and Wichita Blue. So there's a number of upright junipers that we can use in the landscape. I was gonna throw Larch in here at the end. There's a said conifers are generally evergreen, but that's not true with all conifers. Larch are a deciduous conifer. They lose their needles every year. And so they grow back in the spring, much like any other deciduous tree in our landscape. They're very soft, attractive, foliage. They're very winter hardy, the Siberian and European species, very pH adaptable, but they're not as drought tolerant as as like some of the spruces or pines. Pyramidolin form, but you get cultivars that do everything that spruces do from weeping, vestigiate and dwarf. So the new growth, you can see the very soft new growth, spur type growth. They get the purplish cones in the spring and they make a nice tree, very much like a spruce type form actually. Just over at the ARS station, very bright green color in the summer. And then unfortunately this was a cloudy day when I took this picture, but a lemon yellow to gold in the fall. So very, very attractive tree that's really not used as much as it should be here. Somebody told me, well, they lose their needles every year. And I said, well, yeah, they lose them every year, but they grow back. You can plant a Colorado spruce, it will lose its needles and it won't grow back. So, you know, larches overcome some of that. So feel free to come out and visit us sometime. You can contact Dr. West or myself with these email addresses and pretty much on any conifers, deciduous trees you want to know about. So thank you very much. We do have time for a few questions out there. Well, Greg, you talked about larches. Would you recommend large trees for a windbreak? Large trees for a windbreak, again, losing the needles in the winter kind of negates some of that winter effect of the windbreak. If you wanted it for a summer effect, then certainly, they would be fine for that. But maybe in a mixed windbreak where you've got several conifer species and shrub species, they'd be fine for that. For a windbreak, worse evergreen. For a windbreak, well, yeah.  As other conifers, I talk properly here. How about, Greg, won't it be a good conifer for a sheltered adult that's along a river that occasionally floods? Can't they know it's evolving? Yeah, conifers generally are intolerant of flooding. Some of the arborvita may be a little more tolerant of moist soils, but in our area, we really don't have conifers that tolerate flooding that well. I guess I would plant other deciduous species. How about, okay, got a lot of large love here. What's the difference between a European and a Siberian large? European large, side by side, it's a little bit different in the cones, a little bit different in the hardiness with Siberian being a little hardier. Siberian is a little more tolerant to some of the conditions that we have here. Very similar if you look at them side by side. I think it'd be hard to tell them apart for most people, but for a tougher site or a colder site, Siberian would be the nod over the European, I guess. Greg, should I rake the needles underneath my conifer every year? Raking needles under conifers drives me nuts. I would rather see a bed under a conifer and let the needles fall and accumulate. Those needles actually provide protection for that real system and moisture retention. I know a lot of people like to clean them all up each year, but I would just leave them like and develop a bed underneath it. How about, can I use an upright juniper as a substitute for an arborvide or are they just as susceptible to winter sunburn? Upright junipers are much less susceptible to winter sunburn. If you want a screen, it depends on what part of the state you're in. In the eastern part of the state, the eastern red cedar upright cultivars like Taylor do better. As you move west, you can use Taylor once again, but some of the Rocky Mountain upright cultivars do better to the west of us than in this area with more humidity. But yeah, they can be used on tougher sites than arborvide and perform the same function or provide just as nice a screen. How about red pines? What's your feeling about them? Red pines are not adapted to North Dakota. You occasionally find one. They're adapted to much, much lower pH soils and tend to winter sunburn very badly. It's an 80th temperature to the east of us and should be left to the east of us. Okay, we'll do that. How about the stone pines grow as fast as the ponderosa pine? The growth rate on stone pines is much slower, which actually I prefer, so that they are a little more in tune with the landscape. Ponderosa pine can grow quite rapidly and you can actually put a lot of candle growth out that will, so much candle growth that can break in a windstorm or by birds sitting on it. The stone pine don't put out that much growth each year. So growth rate is much less. Tough evergreen that can grow well in a very shallow rocky soil. Any of the rocky mountain juniper cultivars, eastern red cedar cultivar, ponderosa pine is native to those areas. How close can you plant a conifer to the home foundation? Yeah, any of these I would move out from a foundation, at least six, eight foot at a minimum. It depends on the conifer, a smaller conifer, you can get a little closer. As I mentioned, things like Colorado spruce, we tend to put too close. We quickly overwhelm the planting site. They're probably concerned about roots against the foundation. I don't know that the conifers are gonna be as heavy a root system into a foundation, but just getting them away from the house is the best thing. Do you have any experience with a weeping Norway spruce? Or is that a sad story? Yes, weeping Norway are very sad. No, there are weeping cultivars of Norway and there are actually several that do fairly well here. There are some small ones that only get mid-range size and then larger ones and they tend to do pretty well. What do you think about growing these stone pine trees and harvesting the pine nuts? That would be great if you've got about 30, 40 years to wait. It's okay, and they're beautiful. They take a long time to reach reproductive maturity. Okay, doesn't sound like a plan. How about the Myers spruce handle the winter burn conditions and the drought? Myers spruce to this point, and this is only with 10 years of looking at them, have done very well with minimal winter burning. And then that's one of those things is we get more of them out. Inplantings will be able to determine that. At this point, they look good though. They don't appear to be as drought tolerant, side by side maybe as Colorado spruce if you needed more drought tolerance, but any spruce really shouldn't be in that extreme droughty situation. You know, getting back to those pine nuts, we got a lot of nuts out there and they taste as good as a pinion nut.   The limber pine in the southeast part or southwest part of North Dakota is also a small nut producing pine and they taste the same too. Okay, I see a conifer from a distance that looks almost black. What is it? It's hard to say. Yeah, it's this day or night. Okay, how about this? What's a good time to remove a conifer branch? A branch? It really doesn't matter on conifers. If it's bothering you right now, then go out and remove it. The saw is sharp and the body is willing. Yes. Okay. The snow has melted. Okay, any last question? Oh, sorry.  Should we cover that with burlap over winter? What do you think about that? Yeah, the burlap on arborvita, if you wanna go to the work of doing it each year, a lot of people do. They do cover them. That works so far until they gradually get too large to do it, but instead of wrapping it tightly, kind of just more loosely around it, or put stakes in before the ground freezes and wrap kind of just a protective layer around those stakes instead of tying up your tree like it's gonna get away or something. Yeah, that's why arborvita really suffer from the winter winds. Okay, great. My ponderosa pine's got holes in the trunk. What's going on? Nope, what do you get? Sapsuckers. Sapsuckers, no answer. All the case. Sapsuckers or woodpeckers? I mean, do a bot it. Nothing. That's right. You know, if it comes extremely bad, then you've got some sort of larva underneath there that the woodpeckers are going for, and you may need to have it looked at at that point, but it's occasional holes, and it's typical. Stop that if you can though, right, because it can girdle the tree. Yeah, I could have done that, but you'll just fight back and just scare the woodpecker so it moves to the neighbor's tree. That's what I recommend. There's a lot of questions about that ad-serac field tour. Do you know, like, do you know the date by any chance? Don't have a date for this year. It's generally in August. We would like to have it in September, but it will be again, and usually we let the extension offices know and try to get it out through the system. Tour per year. Is that right? Yeah. Yes, you've got a group that wants to come out and will certainly do a tour for you. So if you've got a Master Gardener group or 4-8th group or whatever group that you may have, certainly, Todd or I will meet you out there and show you the area and let you loose after we talk about it a little bit, and you can spend a whole day out there easily, just walking around looking at trees. Okay, I don't make a plan. Okay.


Hey, hey, oh, this always looks so weird here. Let's just see if I can situate myself. There we go. Okay, is that better? Is that better? Okay, okay, oh my gosh. Crazy. Okay, let's do this before I begin. This, oh yeah, okay. Before I begin. All right, hi, hello, nice to see you all today. Happy Valentine's Day. I am going to head out to get myself a special coffee today. That's what I'm going to do right after this. I had to update some stuff. So when this video goes live, you are going to see in the comments, multiple service offerings by me, yours truly. I have a couple more still on the hopper, but you are going to see the twin flame services. So yes, that is what I have been working on, this Queen of Hearts vibe I got going on here. We talked about twin flames this week. We talked about the difference between twin flame and soulmates. And I have been working with twin flame energy personally for the last few years. It's been extraordinarily difficult and challenging. And I'm at the place where I have done a lot of work, a lot of healing work, a lot of shadow work. And I can help you heal through some of that if you are experiencing that. And you will know if it's you, if you are in a situation where you just can't let somebody go and it's been years, or if it's a situation where you don't know what's wrong with you because you just can't get over that person and you don't understand why it's such a big deal and your friends don't get it. Oftentimes it can be very romantic and a love kind of a scenario or relationship or a draw to someone. But other times it can be, it can be other kinds of relationships as well. Twin flames don't have to just be romantic relationships. It could be one of your kids are having some kind of a deeper tie or bond to somebody that is really hard to explain. And yes, there is some past life components to this. We will talk about that in, are you ready? Are you ready? I am going to do a group session. My Twin Flames story will be part of the first hour of our group session. It'll be a two hour group session with practical information and strategies and tips as to how to manage this energy, how to recognize first if that's the scenario you're in and then how to navigate that or at least work with some of the energies around your heart space so that you can function in life and so you can get some of your power back because it can feel like you don't have any. And I know that it can really turn your life upside down and just take over all of your senses as an empath. You are super prone to Twin Flame energies and they are very confusing. There's nothing wrong with you.  You're not desperate for love. That is not what the Twin Flame vibe is about. In fact, you are very powerful and you are very loving and you command a stronger energy for understanding love in this lifetime and part of that is through compassion for ourselves. So on Sunday, March 3rd, in the evening, 6 p.m. Central Time, we will be doing a group if you choose to join it. It is a service offering. It's $55 to join. It is a two-hour group, as I mentioned before. The first hour is worth the price of admission if you want to know what's been up in my life the last couple of years. Oh, yes, I would pay for that. The first hour is not going to be recorded because of this intimacy and the confidentiality pieces. But the second hour will be and the second hour is going to have a practical application of some of the strategies and tips. It's the wisdom and the reckoning of the energy of the Twin Flame. So we're going to do that in a group style. So you don't have to have a group or you don't have to have a Twin Flame experience in order to be part of the group. You can just be part of the group because I know some of the people who have been with me for years are like, what has been going on with you, girl? What is up with you? I'm like, there's been a lot up with me the last couple of years. 2021 rocked my world. We're going to see that. And so there's a lot of stuff there and I'm going to share it with you because the energy of it is potent and it is now in a place where I can use it as medicine and healing. And I'm super, I'm just so charged up about this being able to actually help you to do something really positive and healthy with the experiences that I've had. You know, minus the open heart surgery. I don't want you to get to a place where you're so connected to past stuff that you actually literally have to have it surgically removed from your heart or it devastates you inside and creates physical ailment because it can, energy can do that. And so we're not fear based here. We are empowerment based. And so I'm going to share that with you. So again, that's March 3rd. And I hope you will join. There will be links below in the descriptions on all my videos from now until then. So you can join that. The second part of this is that I will be doing specifically doing coaching for this group of people around twin flame energy because it's unique. There has to be a deep listening component and a recognition of witnessing of the story. You need to be able to be heard and not judged. And I can do that. I can hold that safe and sacred container and then with that to help release and clear, lighten up, soften some of the energy edges that come with the twin flame experience, it cuts deeply and profoundly. And I know that I've lived it because I've lived it. So because I am skilled as a healer and a clear, I can definitely help you in all of those ways. In this lifetime, past life experiences with that person, but we focus on the now. So I am offering coaching and healing specifically for the topic of twin flame energies, twin flame experiences. And the first session is it can be just a one-time session if you want it to be to kind of see, kind of shake things loose and see what happens for you and maybe you can have some clarity around that and then just loosen up a little and then move ahead. Or maybe it's more of a program that you're going to want or need or like a program sounds big, like a plan, like a multi-session kind of a thing. And it's really individualized. It's something like a rhythm to be able to clear maybe with whatever is an alignment for you for your higher self and so it could be different kinds of sessions. It might just be meditations or energy clearings. It might be talking. It might be it could be a lot just a whole host of different things based upon what your healing team suggests for you and what you feel that you need at this time. So the first session one session or first session is a 90-minute session and so it's a talking sharing your story. That session is recorded so that you can listen back to it and then be your own healer. So if we subsequently work together there are some some kind of homework pieces from that initial session that you will be working on to help clear and let go break off some of those dead branches so that your roots can be free to grow and to expand in a healthy loving way for your life so that you can have a partner have life experiences and relationships that are healthy and strong and supportive and loving for you and balanced.  So that session is a 90-minute session 30-minute part of it the second half of it is really about the clearing trying to soften the energy so that you can move forward and then you'll get the recording so you can use that to then go through and listen back to the story you shared with me and get validation from you from yourself so you listen with the tool that I use a special approach that I use that is compassion based and related and you use that technique to be able to really support yourself and to show up for yourself in a different way. So yes, twin flame stuff on this Valentine's Day and I told you all that I was going to be doing something and that's what's here I hope that it can help you it has definitely been a progression for me definitely unfolding and as you know I mean I've had a lot of side effects from it not just the open heart surgery but the depression that I experienced a year ago January and the dramatic weight loss I mean it's just been so much and so I understand I understand and I can hold that compassionate container for you in a safe way I'm not going to judge you and it takes as long as it takes to launch on twin flames it's not something that usually is just done in like one session but you start there and then you see where you're at and move through it at a pace that works for you and so I'm all here for that I'm here for that so not only do I have twin flame stuff coming up that you can participate in and be part of and I also have of course my mentoring that is happening I'm going to be able to do that and receive some mentors I'm going to be able to do that now so I'm pretty excited about that I also am offering just standalone intuitive coaching and energy sessions and so that is also available I just had a great one last night with somebody from Australia that was lovely if you're watching shout out to you my friend we did them in the future because they are day ahead so they were already in Valentine's Day which is always so cool when I get the opportunity to do that to bridge across time not just the continent so that was just absolutely lovely so again you can check out all of my service offerings my new service offerings in the description of all my videos moving forward you'll see that and there's links there so you can check of what's current and what's available if you have any kind of challenges with my scheduler software or anything like that that's not your jam to schedule that way you can always send an email to abovelifechannel at gmail.com and I am answering that right now I am in the driver's seat I am answering that so hello in the chat nice to see you thank you for being here today hi Kenny nice to see you hey Sarah wow nice to see you again too hi Anna hello Patty oh I'm so happy to see you in the chat Patty thank you for being here as always I hope I've inspired your spirit today and filled you with some hope and encouraged you to live your life I'm really excited to be able to work with you around this twin flame energy and I just I just feel like alive right now I feel really like yay alive and just I'm excited to be able to be in service finally to take stuff that has been so difficult and traumatic and dramatic so dramatic and to compost that and alchemize it and create just a beautiful platform for healing is so that is the point you guys that is why sometimes pain has that purpose it really can not just heal you but encourage and inspire you to help in some way with your life purpose and so I am just I'm over in the moon about this so happy Valentine's Day to all you queens of the heart space lots of loving energy heading out to you today and buy yourself some chocolate or coffee I'm going to get some coffee that's what I'm getting for my Valentine's Day for me because I know what I like and I like some sweet caffeinated coffee so I hope you have a great day I can't wait to work with you I'm so excited thank you so much for being here and supporting the work that I do I really appreciate it


Hey guys, welcome to another edition of summon or skip. So we have here a new play banner Romia and Julian hmm, okay, so this is new these are new plays and Let's check out their capabilities Okay, so we'll start off with Julian. So to be set. It's an increase of Magic resistance by 10 Upon entering battle reduces damage taken by 15% for 12 times Okay, comment here is that 12 times could be a ultimate could be a damage from ultimate passive Basic attack or active attack so that could be any of those so taken so once the 12 is up Then this no longer takes effect This is not really I think one of the most sought-after plays It gives you probably temporary use would do but eventually once you use this play You'll be you would want to upgrade to a different one especially if you want damage reduction to be more than just 12 times but At this point. I don't see Display going to be used for the long term probably short term if you don't have anything you could actually use this But I wouldn't hide it I wouldn't recommend this as a long term use for any of your Characters or heroes so moving to our main event, which is Romia So it's a two-piece set take note that this is being packaged with live right now Because simultaneous again simultaneous with her banner and this one So increase in AP since that Right now. I see that live will really live is the only one will clearly benefit from this Because of the increase of AP you have Sheru which is ad you have a pastel with ad You have icicle which is ad as well Who else let me let me just have a quick reference here on Who are the other Let me just have a quick reference guys so that we can at least have finality on Hydro so who will benefit from that live Probably issa and that's it So if there's an incoming DPS unit for hoplite Definitely, it's going to be ad as well. So right now the only Characters using them will either be issa or live Celia probably but I don't think you'll be using Celia So live is the the foremost recipient of that play So let's go back to the play Oh kiddo key. So You have this what do you call this this play here, okay? So again increase in AP which is going to be live as a primary cpn 3 p set upon entering battle hydro characters recover 0.8 ultimate energy every second so This gives you a buff to all characters which is hydro which is perfect for a hydro team If you want to build a hydro team Definitely go and use this. It's the only reason you're gonna use this play Otherwise, if you're not in a hydro team, you're only you only have live or Sheru Then don't use this play. This won't really this will have a compounded effect if you have all four that are Hydro, but if you're not in hydro, it's not really going to be that effective Okay, so I'd rather you equip live with Ohita If you haven't seen that build guide guys, you may check it out I'll put put again a link up there so that you may see that build guide together with this one You could decide which of the which of the place that you would want to equip live But this one is only going to be good for live again for a hydro team a pure hydro team Which is for this effect doesn't stack with the same play set effect. So if you have Two sets of Rumiya with another hydro. It doesn't stack. Okay, it would only choose one After casting the ultimate hydro characters deal 5% more damage within five seconds Which is a nice add-on 5% is not that much but I think that the Good about this play is that 0.8% ultimate which if you multiply that Basically, if you multiply that with for a 16 24 due to this 3.2 percent across Four of your hydros. So again, this is a big push The 5% although this can be big at 20% if you know if you use the same, you know, I Analysis that if you have four that's times 20% damage more or less Well, it's gonna be good But again this play is not going to be your everyday play for live This is going to be special with her hydro team. So hopefully I could also put together a hydro team with this play because again I'm really really excited for the hydro team component with this play in that team. So that is my Thoughts on those are my thoughts on this play guys. So more or less again If you ask me not really a must have at this point because again, it requires you to build the you will increase It's viability if you have all four hydro in your team, but not No, so again at this point. I have other choices in terms of the build guide I already put a link a while back. So please make sure that you check check that out Before you decide to pull for this matter. So thank you very much guys for staying this far.  This is the warden and I'm out of here


Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and welcome to a very exciting video. Today I'm going to take some time and answer your top 10 questions about WW. These are questions that I get all the time, literally daily, sometimes several times daily. They seem to be the same questions that I'm getting over and over again. So I thought what a better time to take than to answer those questions for you guys here in this video so that if these questions pop up in the future, you can reference back to this video and the answers will be there waiting for you. So these are some of the questions as far as WW goes that I get all the time. They are relating to food, workshops, you name it. These are just the top 10 questions that I get about WW. So let's jump right in. We're going to go from number 10 down to the number one question that I get. So if you want to hear my answers to some of your most asked questions, stay tuned. What is the best plan on WW? What's the plan that I'm going to lose the most weight on? So you're going to hear an answer from me pretty regularly throughout this video. And that is it depends on the person. It depends on your body. It depends on what you want, what choices that you want to make. WW allows us the freedom to do so many things that are customizable for us on our journey. And one of those things is choosing the right plan for us. So as you know, WW has three plans, the purple plan, the blue plan and the green plan on the purple plan. You are focused primarily on whole foods and zero point foods. There are 300 on the list. Now most of your food is going to have to fall from these zero point foods because you're only allowed a minimum of 16 smart points per day. Now some people get more points than that. Some people get way more, some people get just a few more, but 16 is the minimum amount of smart points that you will receive daily on the purple plan. So because the points that you receive are so low, you're going to have to naturally gravitate towards those zero point foods. So people who follow the purple plan are eating a lot of real whole foods and they're processed snacky type of things are limited due to their daily number of smart points. Those people that follow the blue plan, which is the old freestyle plan, you have over 200 zero point foods and you have a minimum of 23 smart points per day. Again, some people have more than that, but this is going to allow you a few more options when it comes to non zero point foods. So if you are somebody that wants a few more snack type of options, then the blue plan is great for you. It also gears you towards eating very well because again, the majority of your foods are going to come from the zero point foods list because your smart points are limited on the blue plan, similar to how they're limited on the purple plan. And then there is the green plan. The green plan you are going to get the most number of daily smart points, again, a minimum of 30. Some people have more on the green plan and you have a hundred zero point foods. So the green plan allows you a lot more flexibility in the foods that you're choosing because you're given so many more points each day to pick from. So this can be a bad thing. So sometimes I've seen people start out on the green plan and quickly switch to either blue or purple because if you are somebody who is going to say to yourself, I have 30 smart points in a day. I have 10 points left and it's the end of the day. So I'm going to have 10 points worth of cookies, then maybe the green plan isn't the best for you. Maybe you need to pick a plan that gives you less options on the non zero point foods, the snacky things, the dessert items and really pushes you towards those healthy options that fall on the zero point food list. So you have to dig deep and look at yourself to determine what the best plan is for you. Nobody can tell you what the best plan is and WW did a lot of case studies when determining these three plans and none of these three plans are going to make you lose weight faster than any of the others. If you work the plan, the plan works no matter what plan you select. So I can't tell you what the best plan for you is, only you can tell you what the best plan for you is. If you are someone that struggles with making healthy food choices, the purple or blue may be the right plan for you. If you're somebody that needs to track every little thing that goes into your mouth, then the green plan may be the one for you. WW does offer an assessment, so you can always take that to determine the right plan. But I say take a good hard look at yourself and pick the plan that you feel is going to work best for you that is going to offer you consistent weight loss, but also consistent satisfaction in the foods that you're eating. And just remember, you can switch plans at any time. So if you start on one and you do it for a few weeks, a few months and you find it's not best for you, then WW gives you the option to switch to a different plan. So again, only you can answer the question, what's the best plan? Number nine, how much weight should I lose every week on WW? Again, it's going to depend on you. Every body is different. Some of us are going to lose weight faster than others. I find that the younger you are, the faster you're going to lose weight. If you are of the male gender, you're probably going to lose a little bit weight, your weight a little faster than those of us that are of the female gender. But it is going to depend on you. It's going to depend on what you're putting into your body. Are you adding in activity?  And what foods are you eating? What types of foods are you choosing? And number one, are you in a calorie deficit? If you are not in a calorie deficit, which basically means that you are eating more points than you are allowed on a weekly basis, you're not going to lose weight. You have to work the plan for the plan to work. So there isn't a set number that you should lose every week on the scale. Hey guys, a loss is a loss. And I'm the first one to be called out on this because if I lose .2 or .4, .6, .8, I'm always disappointed. But you know what? All of those point this and point that add up to full pounds down the road. W, W says that you should lose one half of a pound to two pounds per week based on their studies of their program. But again, every body is different. So you're going to lose what your body wants you to lose. And let me just tell you, there's going to be weeks that you do everything right and you don't see a single loss on the scale. Those are the weeks that you have to persevere. And remember, your body has a mind of its own. It's going to do what it wants to do. And hopefully most likely it will catch up the following week. So the bottom line is there isn't a set number of what you should lose every week because every body is different. But I will tell you if you work the plan, the plan works. Number eight, I get this question a lot. Do you count calories or should I be counting calories in addition to points? So WW's structure of their point system is based partially on calories. As you know, calories are one of the components that WW takes into consideration when determining a point's value of a food. So in my opinion, no, you don't have to double track. You don't have to count calories in addition to counting points. By counting points, you're essentially counting calories. Now I'll caveat that with this. If you are not seeing movement on the scale, I recommend that you do a little test run and you calculate your calories for a few days in addition to your points. Because sometimes you can overeat the zero point foods. Those foods still have calories. So maybe you're eating a little too much chicken or maybe you're having an extra helping of corn or beans with your meal that are really just adding caloric value to your day. And again, remember you have to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. So if you're overeating those zero point foods, you're not going to lose weight. You can find out what calories you should be consuming on a daily basis on sites such as my fitness pal. I find that they have the most accurate calorie calculator. So do you need to count calories? No, you just need to count points. That's what I love about WW. It takes all of the tediousness of calorie counting out and all you do is plug in a points value for the foods that you're eating. Do I recommend that you take a look at your calories every so often? Absolutely. I think at least if you are not seeing the movement you want on the scale, you should calculate your calories for a few days, even a few weeks, and see if again, you're overeating those zero point foods. Number seven is a big one. I get this question a lot. There's a lot of controversy about this here on YouTube, especially the food police come out pretty regularly on this topic and that is fat free foods, processed foods, online foods, snacky foods.  Do you not eat those? So here is my answer to that question. On WW, you can eat whatever you want to eat as long as it falls within your daily points. Now if you eat an entire day of Snickers, is that the best choice and most nutrient dense option? Absolutely not. But will you still lose weight if you stay within your points? Most likely. But WW with offering us these zero point foods guides us in the direction of healthier options. But this is a lifestyle, not a diet.  I'm going to want to throw in a few sweet treats, maybe some processed things like chips or crackers or built bars. Maybe I want to incorporate those into my life and not just my WW weight loss life, but my life forever.  Well, guess what?  I'm going to choose fiber gourmet pasta now and I'm going to choose fiber gourmet pasta five years from now because I enjoy it. It's low smart points and it's really good. So those are the things that you need to think about. You can eat whatever you want to eat.  Probably not because it's important that you have healthy fats in your diet. Now, if you want to add fat free cheese to your chili and then have some avocado toast for breakfast, that's balance. Life is about balance. Weight loss is about balance.  So I say, eat whatever you want to eat. Whatever is going to make you stick with the program and whatever is going to help you lose weight and maintain that weight down the road. I think ordering food online is not only convenient, but there are a lot of options for foods online that you can't get at your local grocery store and most of the time it's free shipping. So you might as well try out some different things. Keep your journey exciting and try out those online foods. And to be completely honest with you, there is absolutely no difference in me going to the grocery store to buy food or online to buy food.  There's no difference between that and buying a built bar online. So I say, buy what you want, eat what you want, as long as you're seeing results on the scale and you're satisfied and you're happy in your journey. Number six, WW is too expensive. Now this one I get quite regularly where I'm seeing people transition over to the iTrack Bytes app because it's less expensive. I don't like the iTrack Bytes app myself. I don't find it very user friendly and I find a lot of the points extremely inaccurate. Now, are there inaccuracies on the WW app, especially with the scanner? Absolutely. But for me, I don't find something that benefits not only my health but my physical appearance as well as my emotional stability of losing weight expensive. And if I have to spend $45 or $50 a month on Weight Watchers, I'm going to pick that any day over spending $45 or $50 on Starbucks or going out for dinner. It's all about what you choose to spend your money on. But I firmly believe that investing in yourself is your best possible investment and that includes attending the workshop or being an online member or whatever it is that you find to be expensive about WW. Losing weight and being healthy in the long run is going to save you so much money versus being unhealthy and overweight when it comes to medical bills and just medical general.  And in my opinion, I don't think Weight Watchers is too expensive. I think that investing that small amount and overall in the big scheme of things, it's a small amount in yourself is so important and beneficial. Number six kind of goes hand in hand with is WW too expensive. Should I do workshops or should I do online? So before I really dive into this topic, I want to talk about the expense. So being an online only member is a lot less expensive than attending the workshops. I want to say it's less than half. I go to the workshop. So I honestly have never been an online member. I've always went to the workshop.  But I feel in my heart of hearts and I have always felt this way that going to the workshops is so important.  And for me, I have the accountability of stepping on that scale in front of a guide who's going to see my weight and see my progress, whether I'm gaining or losing and seeing the pattern in my weight loss. So for me, workshops has always been so important. And I don't know if you guys know, there's just a couple of things that I feel like this is a good time to share with you that are a little off topic, but also encourage you to take a hard look at workshops. So the first thing is, is where I live in, in my town, my workshop is 35 minutes one way from me. And my workshop starts at 7am. And guess what? Every Friday morning I get up at 5am so that I can get out the door and be sitting in the parking lot of that workshop by 6.30 in the morning after a 35 minute drive each way, because it's that important to me. And it contributes that much more to my success. And another thing that you may not know about me and really the only way I feel like you may know this is whether you may have read my about me on my YouTube channel, which no one does that, or you saw the very first video that I ever put out when I started my channel, where I talked a little bit about my past history with Weight Watchers. So have I lost as much weight on this program over the last year that I would like? Absolutely not. But I do want to let you guys know that back in the early 2000s, when it was the original kind of Weight Watchers where we calculated calories, fiber, that old plan, where everything counted even fruit, I lost over 125 pounds on Weight Watchers. Since then, over the last 15 years, I've gained a lot of that back because I stopped going to my workshops. You guys, I was 2 pounds from goal and I stopped going. How dumb. Like, it makes me a little emotional because thinking back on that, what if I would have continued to go? What if I would have became a lifetime member? Would I not be struggling with my weight like I am now? There are so many important factors of going to workshops. So when I'm telling you these things, you guys, it's coming from experience. I have lost a lot of weight on Weight Watchers. So when I'm sharing these tips, these tricks, these recipes with you, it comes from a place of knowledge. I'm not just saying these things to say them. I've actually lived this life and I have lost a tremendous, a tremendous amount of weight on Weight Watchers a lot and I kept it off for quite a while. So going to the workshops just has a special place in my heart. But again, if it's a financial thing or a location thing, there isn't workshops in every area. Then being an online member, I think is just as equally important and shows your dedication to your program by weighing in online and interacting in the Weight Watchers community online. Number four, let's talk about fit points and activity. I pulled myself together and I'm ready to continue on. I'm a little less emotional now. So fit points and activity. Do you have to exercise to lose weight? No, you don't. There is so many people that have lost a substantial amount of weight by not exercising. I say, just move a little bit more. If you're not in a position to do full on workouts and activity, just park a little further out in the parking lot or take the stairs one extra time during the day, walk a few laps around the inside of your house or maybe your outside yard, just move a little bit more. But if you are somebody that's ready to incorporate regular activity and exercise into your plan, I want to talk about the fit points that you earn doing those activities. So if you follow my channel, you know that I'm obsessed, obsessed with Jazzercise. It's something that I discovered back in October and it is the one workout or activity that I love and enjoy and look forward to. I literally drug myself to the gym. It was not something that I enjoyed at all. So by finding Jazzercise, I found something that I've enjoyed. I am getting so much healthier and stronger and leaner. Huge non-scale victory. You guys, my clothes are fitting so much better. I put on a pajama shirt last night that used to kind of tug at the buttons. You guys know what I'm talking about. When it's a little too snug, the buttons will kind of separate. It was nice and loose. So I have been loving Jazzercise.  Now that is a personal preference. I eat all of my dailies and my weeklies and we are going to touch on weeklies in just a minute, but I do not eat my fit points. I love to see them rack up.  Sure. If I was out of dailies and weeklies and I was hungry because I exercise so much, absolutely I would dip into my fit points. They're there for us to use. I personally just take the dailies and weeklies out before I would consider doing the fit points. I use them as motivation. I like earning them and seeing them in my bank and going back over my weeks and seeing all of the fit points that I've earned. So for me, Jazzercise is my activity of choice. But again, just a little bit of extra movement every day is going to help. When I first started my weight loss journey back in the early 2000s, I was over 300 pounds. I was about 325 pounds. It hurt my back just to wash dishes at my kitchen sink. Literally hurt my back because I had so much extra weight on my body. So was I able to do Jazzercise back then? Absolutely not. So guess what I did? I started with walking, walking around my neighborhood and eventually I worked myself up to a mile and I was so proud of myself that I walked that mile around my neighborhood. And then from there, I got into going to water aerobics, which really helped take off the weight as well because it was non-strenuous on my body. You guys have to remember, I mean that for here in 300 pounds is a lot of weight. And I actually lost my first 50 pounds only walking around my neighborhood and then incorporated water aerobics. And as I lost a little bit more weight, I started going to curves. Who remembers curves? I actually worked there. That's how much I loved curves. And then once I lost even more weight and got a little bit stronger, I started going to a gym on a regular basis. And that's where I leaned out.  So by starting small and working your way up as you lose weight and your body gets stronger, that's really all you need to think about when it comes to activity and earning fit points. Do what your body can do. Any extra movement is going to help you. So number three is weeklies. Let's talk about weeklies. I get this question a lot. That's why it's at the top of the list. Should I use my weeklies? Do you use your weeklies? Weeklies, weeklies, weeklies. So here's my answer to that. Do what works for you. Some people can eat all of their weeklies and see great success on the scale. Some people, if they even dip barely into their weeklies, it stunts their weight loss. So again, looking back to when I lost 125 pounds, I ate my weeklies every single week. I didn't track a single thing on the day that I ate my weeklies and I can eat a lot, you guys. I was eating a lot of food, but come the next day, I was right back on track and I didn't overeat my points at all during the rest of the week. So for me, I enjoy having my weeklies. I enjoy having that one day a week that I can go out to dinner, breakfast, lunch with my husband. I can have the sweet treat I've been craving all week this last Saturday. I had a donut and here's the thing. I'm going and working out first and then I'm having a donut and then I had pizza for dinner on Saturday. So I didn't track it all. I use my weeklies. I basically zero those out at the end of my treat day, as I like to call it, and I no longer have weeklies. I can only use my daily points. So for me, I use weeklies. But again, this is going to depend on you and your body and how you want your weight loss journey to go. Now, would I probably lose more weight on the scale every week if I didn't use my weeklies? Maybe. Maybe I would because that would be all those calories that I wouldn't be consuming during the week. But you know what? This is my lifestyle. This is something I'm going to do for the rest of my life and I want to have one day a week that I eat what I want. It's the one day I look forward to it. I think about it. I dream about it and I'm ready for that one day a week. And then the next day, right back on track and within my daily points. So use your weeklies if you want to do a little test run. See if using your weeklies, it stunts your weight loss. And if it does, then maybe use a little less weeklies and figure out what works best for you. Every body is different. So everybody's journey on WW is different. All right. Number two and number one are huge, huge. Like I get these questions literally several times a day. Number two is recipe substitutions. You guys, I want to make this as clear as a blue sky on a sunny day just because I may use 96 for extra lean ground beef and a recipe doesn't mean that you have to. You can substitute that out with whatever you want, whether that be 80, 20 ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey, whatever you can make substitutions that work for you. The recipes that we share are the recipes that we eat and that we've created, but you can simply modify and make tweaks that fit into your diet. Some people don't eat red meat.  Some people will not touch fat free cheese and that's fine. When you see those items in a recipe, take them out, sub them in with something that you want to eat on your journey. And worst case scenario, you're going to have to recalculate the points. You guys, there's some personal accountability in all of our journey.  If you don't want to eat exactly what we're sharing in a recipe, you may have to take a moment and put it into your recipe builder and recalculate the points. I have a video here on my channel that walks you through the recipe builder step by step. I'm going to link it below for you guys because I highly recommend that you check that out if you are one that likes to substitute the ingredients that we're using in our recipes. And I have spoken with several other YouTubers and social media influencers and they say they get this same question all the time. People think they have to eat exactly what we're eating and that's not the case.  Substitute what you want. Take out ingredients that you don't want to eat. I have one subscriber on my channel who loves my recipes, who's a vegetarian. She just subs out whatever meat I'm using for whatever she wants to use, whether that be tofu or omitting the meat altogether. So you just have to take out, substitute and omit the ingredients in the recipes that we're sharing that don't work for you. It isn't a buy the book. It's just a general guideline to create a delicious, WW friendly meal. And number one, number one is my nemesis. It's the question I get the most, the most, the most, the most. And that is, how do I know how many points this is on the green plan or how many points that is on the blue plan. Okay, there's one thing I want to share with you guys as far as points and different plans go. The only thing, I'm going to say that again. The only thing that varies between the green, blue and purple plan are the zero point foods. Your bill bars are the same points on all three plans. Your crackers are the same points on all three plans. Your sugar free pudding is the same points on all three plans. The only thing that differs is the zero point foods. I cannot tell you how many messages I get a day about this. I will share a recipe for example, on a YouTube video. And let's say that that particular recipe, I'm showing my favorite breadcrumbs, the pepperage farm, herb season breadcrumbs, and I'm making a delicious meatloaf with 96 foreground beef. I will get so many questions about, well, what if I don't have pepperage farm stuffing? Do you think I could substitute this stuffing or these breadcrumbs? Yes, yes, yes, yes. You can substitute anything that you want. And if it's not the same points value, you just have to figure out the new points of that particular recipe. Same with the meat. Maybe you only have 93 seven meat on hand. I get the question, well, can I use that? Yes, you guys, the bottom line is you can use whatever ingredients you want in any recipe that is shared here on YouTube or on social media in general. You just have to recalculate the points if the points of your substitution vary. Now, if you are using a breadcrumb that has the exact same points as the breadcrumb I'm using, you don't have to recalculate the points of the recipe. It's exactly the same. But if you are using more breadcrumbs, or maybe the breadcrumbs you're using are double or triple the points of mine, then that's where you may just want to be safe and sorry and plug it in to the recipe builder. So substitutions can be made on anything. And in addition to that, the only foods on any plan that are different in points value are the zero point foods. Everything, everything else is exactly the same on all three plans. All right, my friends, those are your top 10 questions on WW Answer. I get a little bit passionate about this because it is something that I get asked all the time. These questions are questions I get asked all the time. So I wanted to share with you the answers to these questions so that hopefully it not only helps you in your journey, but it helps those of us that share these recipes and share our journeys with you on social media to not be as bombarded with messages and things. Now, for me, I am always here to help you. You guys know that. I'm the first one to help you. But sometimes it can get a little overwhelming when we're getting so many messages on the same thing. So that's what made me think that this would actually be a great topic for a video to share. So I hope that you guys enjoyed this. I hope that some of the questions that were roaming around for you on WW were answered here today. If you have any additional questions, please, please feel free to leave those down in the comments and I will answer any of those questions for you. Just remember you guys that this is your journey and you can work the plan however you want to work, whatever works for you, whether it be process foods, non-process foods, activity, no activity, zero point foods, no zero point foods, whatever you want to do, whatever works for you, make it your own, make it special to you and make it work for your weight loss. That's really all that matters.  Feel free to leave those down below and it's your journey and make it work for you. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you're new, I'd love it if you'd stick around, subscribe, hit the bell, so you're notified whenever a new video is uploaded. I plan on having a lot of these types of sit down, let's talk, let's talk about a topic coming out here in 2020. So you definitely want to be subscribed and notified when those videos are uploaded. Give this video a thumbs up if this helped answer some of your top 10 questions. And again, comment down below guys, any additional questions that you have. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for being here with me on my journey. Thank you for listening while I shared some of my personal experiences on WW with you guys today. They're hard to talk about sometimes, especially when you do so well on a program and then you gain a lot of that weight back. It's tough to talk about. But when I'm sharing these things with you, I know what I'm talking about. I've been there. I've done that. I've worked the program. I continue to work the program and I'm here for you guys for not only support, but any questions that you have down the road. So again, thank you guys for watching. And of course, I'll see you next time. Bye.


الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر، لا إله إلا الله والله أكبر، الله أكبر، ولله الحمد، إن الحمد لله ستكون أكبر شكراً لكم ورحمة الله سبحانه وتعالى، نحمده ونستعينه وأسكور أسسيسطن ونعود بالله من شروري أنفسنا ومن سيئاتي أعمالنا ما يهده الله فلا مضلله ومن يضلل فلا هادية له ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له ونشهد أن محمد نعمده ورسوله قال الله تعالى في القرعان الكليم أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم يا إيه الذين أعملوا بليفرس إتقوا الله فلا حق التقاته دوهه ديزرزه فلا تموتنا إلا وأنتم مسلمون لا تقلوا لهم أن تنظروا أن تحتاجوا لكي تكونوا في حالة سبنشن إذا كيف يقول الله عن إبراهيم إيسلام؟ ملطفال مكان ودعني أقرأ أحد مكان that what he says and I have a point about it إبراهيم was truly an example devoutly obedient to God and true in faith he was not an idolater he was thankful for the blessings of God who chose him and guided him to a straight path إن إبراهيمة كان أمة نقانة لله حليفة ولم يكن من المشركين شاكرا لعنومه اجتباه واراه إلى صعات المستقيم We gave him blessings in the world and he is among the righteous in the hereafter واتيناه في الدنيا حسنة وإنه في الأخيرة لمن المسلحين إبراهيم إيسلام يقول إبراهيم was incredible human being هناك آية وقرآن وينتعدوا نعمة الله لا تحسوها ويقول إبراهيم as a human being You are not going to be able to satisfy your gratitude and say enough thanks to a single bounty, a single blessings of God We are not capable of, Allah has said that in the Qur'an but here Allah says شاكرا لعنومه إبراهيم إيسلام إبراهيم single-handedly just one human being He was able and Allah testifies in the Qur'an saying He was able and he satisfied blessings of God, thankfulness He was enough thankful for several blessings I don't know if I digest this as a khutbah on its own It is an incredible justification by Allah And Allah says he has been received blessings and he is among righteous Well, what does this mean to you and I? Then we reveal to you, oh Muhammad Follow the creed of Abraham A man of pure faith who was not an idolator ثم أوحينا إليك أن أتبع ملتة إبراهيمة حنيفة وما كان من المشريكين What does this mean? You and I are in the religion of إبراهيم إيسلام ملتة إبيكم إبراهيمة حنيفة That's what Allah says Everything that you and I do As far as religion is concerned It goes back to إبراهيم إيسلام The greatest example is this Hajj Imagine every activity in Hajj It goes to him And any other religious activities that we have He submitted himself totally to Allah He was at complete peace Complete peace Allah thought Adam An incredible phrase And he said This phrase is a phrase of greeting It shall be for entire For your children until end of time What is that phrase? That phrase is Phrase of Salam The phrase of Salam That's the phrase he taught And جنة is دار السلام جنة will say greeting of Salam to each other And Allah for all of you إن شاء الله there will be إن جنة will greet you with السلام Okay What am I talking about? Our scholars teach us One incredible thing that you hear on Especially in days like this And it says If you have anything With you That is not really good This is a time to fix that What am I talking about? Let me give you by way of a Hadith Prophetﷺ says You shall not enter جنة Paradise Unless you have faith Unless you have إيمان You can't enter جنة unless you have faith إيمان You cannot have إيمان Unless you love each other So pay attention And make these correlations If you have faith In order for you to have faith You have to love each other Shall I not inform you of what will bring love among each other淡وط Go to جنة All you have to do is just كل ما يجب أن يفعله هو أن يدعى السلام. كل ما يجب أن يفعله. ماذا يجب أن يفعل السلام now؟ ماذا يجب أن يفعله؟  It's a prayer. أسنجي السلام عليكم to someone, to your brother, to your sister. You're telling them that I am making dua for you. You're saying I want to ask the best from Allah to you. You're saying I have nothing with you. I have no issues with you. Whatever happened in the past, it's gone. I don't have the beef with you. I want to love you. I want to respect you. I want to honor you. Those are the things that you're saying. When you say السلام عليكم to someone. And this is why Allah taught Adam and if I'm gonna say I'm personified this and you and I as Muslims do this. It is a rich incredible phrase. It is not just سلام عليكم عليكم سلام. It doesn't go like that. You really mean it from the bottom of your heart.  This brings your love. So what is the take home message for you today? I'm just سلام. Spread سلام among each other. When you go out in عيد it's easy to the person in the universe say السلام عليكم إد مبارك. Find someone you don't know. Find an elderly, find a young one. You don't know. You just say سلام عليكم. إد مبارك and see the face. You'll find a puzzled face like what this guy is. I don't know you. That's okay. That's what you're going to do. خطب عيد supposed to be short and sweet and that's what it is. I'm going to sit for a few seconds. Make dua. You make dua too. إن الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام علي رسول الله. الله says in the Qur'an. إن الله وملاكة هو يصليون على النبي. يائه الذين آبنوا. صلوا عليه وسلم وتسليما. اللهم صلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد. كما صليت على أبراهيم وعلى آل أبراهيم. إنك حميد مجين. اللهم بارك على محمد وعلى آل محمد. كما بارك على أبراهيم وعلى آل أبراهيم. إنك حميد مجين. اللهم بارك على أبراهيم وعلى آل أبراهيم. اللهم بارك على أبراهيم وعلى أبراهيم. اللهم بارك على أبراهيم وعلى آل أبراهيم. So the concept of Salam. You have a heart about anyone. You have a resentment about anyone. You have an argument with anyone. As soon as you say Salam عليكم it's done. That's done.  Let me give you a quick example. If you have heard this before, pretend you heard it for the first time. Just humor me, right? Okay. And that goes to you Muneer also. So husband and wife. They have some arguments or so. And husband goes to work.  I can't do this. I just want to make ourselves feel good. So she door gashes some amazing food and the food is there. And she puts a beautiful dress on. She fixes herself and takes the glasses off. All that. The guy comes in from work I guess supposedly. And she's like opens the door and says السلام عليكم. He's like, huh?  She says no honey.  And with that, إن شاء الله I'll say ايد مبارك to all of you. السلام عليكم ورحمة الله.