Our wall was finished up today, so I thought I should follow up on this in case someone finds it later so this isn't just left "hanging". I also wanted to share pictures because we're so excited about it. Now, ever since we moved into this house, we have had serious flooding issues out front due to the poor street paving work we were left with (Thanks, City of Atlanta!) Then there was the stupid mound in front of the house which didn't do much of anything worthwhile except collect weeds. Any time we rec'd any significant downpour (more than a half an inch in 1-2 hours), the result was a "lake" in front of the house that left us unable to park. It would fill up until it reached our sidewalk, at which time it would overflow down the sidewalk, right down into our beds, which resulted in the death of several salvia last year due to waterlogging. When I say "lake", I'm not kidding....this is at least 6"-8" deep: Well, after posting this thread, we (unexpectedly) got a solid contractor lead from it, and the real green light was a solid reference for this contractor we'd received from another member (thanks, GGG, for everything!) The contractor we chose was GW member 'vroomp', or Brad in real life, and his company DCR, Inc. I was not kidding about the previous contractors we contacted above over the past couple of years - if we got a call back, most wouldn't show up, and this led to so much delay. It was amazing - out of probably three dozen phone calls to Brad, the only time he didn't actually pick up was on a Sunday at 9pm, and, really, I wouldn't have answered either! He was literally at our house within a day or two to walk through the plans and give us options, hash out ideas, toss out suggestions. It was quite refreshing, a huge change from what we were accustomed to. What started out as a small 30'-40' wall wound up finding its way up to 62', and then almost 75' .... our fault, of course - the neighbors wanted to join forces and have the wall spread between both yards. I imagine we were the nightmare customers from hell - changing lengths, changing shapes, took us a while to pick out the stone, we couldn't decide on lighting or drains, etc. Through the process, Brad was really communicative and very sensitive to issues and changes we needed to make along the way, and *incredibly* respectful of our budgeting desires, and held his cool even when our neighbors and I couldn't get our crap straight on budgeting (again - thanks Brad!!) We got everything sorted out. He even tossed in a couple of extras including sealing the back of the wall and adding an additional drain for the neighbors, which was not in the original plan. The end result is bigger and better than we'd expected, and the wall has already become a fixture to hang out on and chat with the neighbors and relax with friends, rivalled only by our deck. For pictures of our flooding issues and the mound itself, in all of its (ha ha) glory, check out this gallery page For a couple more pictures of the mound, and the wall before and after it was veneered out, check out this gallery page Since the wall was constructed, we have not had a single issue with flooding, in fact, the drain works like a champ and the sea outs we have growing at the base of our rather steep yard's slope (back/rear of the house) couldn't be happier about the additional water. All in all, the pictures speak for themselves, but I really felt it was necessary to come in and share my experience. I know this was a small job for Brad in comparison to what he's accustomed to, but we're really grateful for his taking it on, and regardless of how small it was, he treated us as if we were spending ten times what we actually did (and again - if you're reading this - THANKS.) We've already sent two of our friends his way, and they've had good experiences as well. I'll post more pictures of the wall in this thread as it gets planted out. We're waiting on stone to revive/refurb the original granite curb that exists throughout our neighborhood, and some fill dirt and mulch to bring the soil level up just a tad. The ultimate goal is to fill/amend, landscape mat, then plant with edibles...cherry and plum trees, blueberries, cranberries and several natives for the fill-in between. The end result:

Hi Pixie, When you posted about Little House on the Prairie I looked some things up and was planning to post but just haven't found the time! I'm glad you explained why you wanted to do the plains! At least now it makes sense! After you posted I looked up DeSmet on google Earth--to get the "lay of the land," and I think your daughter would be really disappointed with the "plains" we have out here compared to the terrain you'll find in eastern SD. The link I posted to a pic of "our" plains up above really is pretty accurate--there is simply nothing out there! If you do DeSmet I doubt that she'll actually be looking at "the land" very much when you do it, and she'll have all the Little House things, which is what she actually thinks of when she's reading the books. (Love it when kids are reading books!) So rather than taking her for a hot, dry, flat drive, and destroying her mental image of Little House, I now very definitely think you should skip the plains and enjoy the extra time in the hills! A couple things about the fishing if you're gonna stick that in. Wherever you do it you'll need a Colorado fishing license, so be sure you plan ahead for that so you're not disappointed. And if you do decide to go to the Poma Ranch near Pagosa Springs, you'd really need to stay there two nites to have time for fishing. Checkin is at 3:00, so that wouldn't leave much time on the day you arrive, and checkout is at 10:00, so there wouldn't be time on the day you were leaving. The Weminuche River that runs thru the ranch flows very gently and it could easily be fished wading or from the bank. Check out their Fishing page at the link below, and there's more fishing info on their FAQs page, including that they rent "basic" and "kids" fishing gear at the ranch. I don't really know anything about fishing so I'm not sure what all that would include, but if you're seriously considering it and have any questions, call the ranch and ask for Karen! Also, since the river flows gently--and is shallow (a "river" out here is not the same as a "river" in the midwest or east!) your daughter might enjoy wading around in it (probably with a pair of cotton tennis shoes or at least flip flops since the bottom will be "rocky")! But she probably wouldn't stay in too long since water in the mountains is COLD--it's melted snow--and the ranch is at 8,000'! Also, if you're seriously considering staying there, PM me and I'd be glad to send you some more pictures of the inside (and outside) of the Hideaway cabin! I've stayed there three times now so I have pics of the outsides of the other cabins too. This is a favorite pic! I couldn't help but smile the first time I drove in there and saw the Welcome Home sign! I immediately knew I was gonna love the place! (The sign is on the back side of the "bathhouse" building that has the "waterfall showers!") And before I got to the welcome home sign (on the small building on the right) I ran into this roadblock on the drive in! (If it looks gloomy, that's because it was raining on and off on the drive from Pagosa to the ranch the first year I stayed there! Then, right after I got there, the sun came out just in time for sunset!) This was a view heading out of Pagosa toward the ranch that year! The ranch is in them thar hills! I also highly recommend the "Cozy House" at Dolores for the Cortez part of your trip, and would be glad to send you a bunch of pics of that place too to help you decide if you're interested. One more thing since Zinnia brought up Dinosaur Ridge! Just a little further down the road, in Morrison, is a place called Tiny Town! Perhaps in lieu of Little House your daughter would like to see some "little houses"---and other buildings! I don't have time to live link these pages, but here's a copy/paste link to their site, and if you google for images of Tiny Town you'll come up with lots of pics of the buildings with people standing by them so you can get the scale. I haven't been out to this place since the late 70's when it was a run down (tiny) ghost town all overgrown with weeds, but it's been all spiffied up and is back in business, and this could be a real fun Kid Thing! You could plan your whole last day to do Red Rocks, the dinosaurs, and Tiny Town, and then head to the airport for your last nite's lodging! http://tinytownrailroad.com/ Out of time for tonite! I can't wait to find out what all you finally decide to do! Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Fishing on the V. A. Poma Ranch!

The Edenton Plan which is slightly smaller than Altadena Park features a side load garage and will fit on a 114' wide lot. (Assuming 10' side setback and 30' on garage side) http://houseplans.southernliving.com/plans/SL2042?index=1&search%5Bplan%5D=edenton&search%5Butf8%5D=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bvendor%5D=

I hope that what I consider as "shoot the messenger" type attacks have ended. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shoot_the_messenger --------------------------------------------------------------------- I have learned over the years that some/many people do not look at links. I had earlier in this thread posted this link: https://sites.google.com/site/roserosettevirus/home In case you are one who did not read it, I think that it is important that you are aware of the following (from my link): "However, the following suggests (to me) that many "apparent" RRV infected roses may actually only have herbicide damage. In 2013, the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab received thirty-one symptomatic samples of different rose varieties that were tested for Rose Rosette Virus. Of those thirty-one samples, only ten returned with positives finds." The above quote is from a 2014 paper presented at a meeting. As I scientist I am trained to look for alternate possibilities. I then stated: It is also possible that there are "possible false negatives" as apparently the test used above was difficult to apply. For this reason a new test has been developed:....... ---------------------------------------------------------------- I reported the 10 out of 31 numbers in this forum: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1701253/please-help-is-this-rose-rosette Please look at the comments after I introduced the numbers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now I introduced the following: " Texas A and M is coordinating the federal funded investigation. This is what they say (as of Feb 2017): "As always, if you suspect that your rose may have rose rosette disease, please send a sample into the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic. Many times there are other plant problems confused for RRD, and plants are taken out that may not need to be. " https://dallasgardenbuzz.com/2017/02/14/rose-rosette-now-what/ H.Kuska comment: I added the bold." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are not familiar with this federally funded project, here is a summary and their actual report: "An almost $4.6 Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture has launched the effort, said Byrne, project director." The above quote is taken from the following summary: https://today.agrilife.org/2014/10/03/combating-national-rose-rosette-disease-crisis-focus-of-texas-study/ The actual report: https://portal.nifa.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/1004350-combatting-rose-rosette-disease-short-and-long-term-approaches.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do others in the field have a concern for possible herbicide damage? The following link takes the reader to a Google search in which the keywords "rose rosette" and herbicide were used: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#newwindow=1&q=%22rose+rosette%22+herbicide&spf=1498077375115