Found this old thread after doing a search for Far Reaches. We hope to make a visit there this coming Friday. I'm sure I read this thread back in the day as it was shocking and sad that Heronswood seemed to be going away, nursery, gardens, plants, it's people and all. It's interesting looking back knowing how things have turned out lately with the s'klallam tribe having bought and taken over the property, it's gardens and that Dan is at least partially involved in a restoration and expansion of the gardens. At least that's what he said at a Bellevue Botanical Gardens lecture by John Anderson, the Keeper of the Gardens at Windsor Castle. It was a nice talk that was at times funny and others a bit dry, but still enjoyable for this plant nerd. But I must say seeing Dan and hearing that he was still involved in the Northwest plant scene was one of my fav moments. We have been planning a trip to Far Reaches for several years and it always gets postponed as it is quite a drive and really takes an entire day. We have the day off and the weather seems to be cooperating and I have my eye on some epimediums, some Podophyla and some dactylorhiza and I'm sure a few surprise plants will catch our eye and drain our pocketbooks, I've been aware of Kelly and Sue's work for many years and purchased a few plants from them when their nursery was called Reflections Gardens. It was a rather small affair with not much in the way of display gardens and when we first walked up to the selection of plants to buy it seemed uninspiring. But as we walked the few aisles of plants we first saw one cool plant and then another and pretty soon we had a car load heading home with us. They've been settled at Far Reaches for many years now and having perused their catalog I know there are many gems to find.

The main question was "How could we discover that we resided on a spinning globe?" The other questions were aftertoughts. Some clues are: 1. Behavior of Focault's pendulum. 2. Low pressure atomspheric regions spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. The reason is associated with earth's rotation, but without knowledge of earth's spin, would mankind have connected the two? 3. The firing of a long range gun: Given a long range gun located 45 deg north of the equator, if it is fired toward south, the projectile tends to fall west of the target; If it fired north, the projectile tends to fall east of the target. Not only does this information demonstrates earth's spin, it also shows the direction of the spin. This effect is small and is measurable only for very long projectile distances. Without aastronomy, it would have been very difficult for mankind to have made this discovery.

Johnny, That sounds like a winning game plan to me. That $35.00 per acre is so totally worth it! PEPH peas are one of my most favorite veggies on earth. The plants are so pretty that you can plant them in a flower bed. I'm having a hard time picturing that much seed at one time. Can you imagine what it would take to harvest an acre by hand? I don't even want to think about it. Keep up the great work. You are touching so many lives in the most wonderful way. Dawn

I agree that pricing for things made in China haven't changed much, but I'm not a disposable type of buyer and try to avoid buying China chunk as much as I possibly can. When it comes to our home or personal items, I'm not a disposable buyer and am willing to pay for quality but like Oly, I'll shop around or just do with out. Food is where I see prices rising the most. Someone mentioned how prices haven't changed much but sizes have descreased which to me still equates to a price increase. I've stopped buying a lot of the things we used to splurge on and tend to buy in bulk and repackage foods into smaller servings. We don't buy chips, treats or snacks and I always cook at home, but other than a few staple items, I don't buy much from our local Krogers or Meijer. Our fruits and vegi's are from a local farmer's market and organic (when available) . Dairy is from a local farmer, our meat is from an Amish poultry farm or Costco. Tonight I stopped by Ulta with my daughter to buy my preferred shampoo/conditioner. The kind I use lasts a long time so it's been a while since my last purchase. Of course the bottles had shrunk by a couple of ounzes and the price had still creeped up. I asked a lady on the floor if there was a comparable product for less and she showed me a few. I chose one that I'm familiar with and I'm hoping it will be fine, but my favorite has hit a number and size that's beyond what I feel is reasonable so I'm moving on. When it comes to my pants and the hems, maybe it's a demographic thing, because 12.00 is reasonable, but 15.00 in our neck of the woods is a lot. Sushi, I was thinking along those lines as well and I actually stopped by the Credit Union today so I'd be prepared to pay cash. She didn't ask me to but I know she'll appreciate it.