I'm bringing 20-24 hotdogs, buns, kraut, mustard, ketchup, onion and relish for lunch. Tony, what the heck is your last name. I'm old and my memory .. uh ... memory...uh ... now what was I asking - oh yeah, memory sometimes fails me. I'm bringing your Canary Island palm. Wayne Smith, I'm bring your 2 EEs and Turk's Cap. Anything else? BTW, did you ever live in Tarrant? Have I missed anything I promised or anyone? I'm also bringing a few well rooted brugs. Look at my list !!!! - Terry

Sherry, If you go to see the giant redwood/sequoia trees, please realize that there are dozens of places worth seeing them along the coast from the CA/OR border to central California and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains along the CA/NV border that each have their own unique appeal. It would take a week just to explore all of the big tree NP's, SP's, SRA's, SNR's and Monuments in CA alone. When I lived in San Francisco, Russian Gulch, Big Basin SP and Mount Madonna were favorites, but after I moved to Carmel it was all about Polo Colorada Canyon and the many spots around Pfeiffer Big Sur. I'll have to tell you about my very rare and unique coffee table made from a Polo Colorado Cyn giant and Bixby Creek driftwood sometime. Yes, "mesa" is a term loosly applied to any landform in the arid west with a flat top and verticle cliff sides, and they are quite common. They are also referred to as table mountains, buttes, potrero or tuya depending on how they were formed and their characteristics and can vary from small ones like those in the BDW to the Grand Mesa in CO which is the largest in the world at around 500 square miles on top. Sometimes plateau is also used wrongly. They don't always have the verticle sides and are much bigger covering huge areas up to millions of square miles. Yes I could move back to St.George I guess, although in many ways the cost of living is higher there than Vegas. I'm sure some of my old friends are still there and kicking. But since my Dad lives there now I wouldn't even consider it.

We just are not a very GardenWeb pretrade bunch we just seem to show up and have fun. We have 18 RSVP's to the evite and about 10 more that I know are planning to come. It's just about 12 days until the swap. Here is the usual info and map link. Here is the basic outline for our swap. The swap usually starts at 9am sharp and we usually do door prizes and a potluck lunch around noon(or before if we get hungry!). It's usually all over by 1:30 depending on weather and how many people come. As for what to bring, the options are wide open. Plants of course, either divisions of your perennials, or cuttings you started or seeds you collected and labeled. Sometimes people bring whole plants they decided they didn't like anymore or didn't have room for. Also, if making new plants is not your thing, you can bring gardening related items, books, terra cotta pots, tools, etc... People are generally very generous and eager to make newbies feel welcome so there are no hard and fast rules about what you can bring. Also, most gardeners just don't want to take any of their own stuff back home so they are often not expecting an "even trade". Please do not take an item from someone's area without asking. A good idea is to bring an extra box to put under your table for the plants you have swapped and are taking home. Items under the tables are off limits. Also, we do have a donation jar if you want to help with the pavilion rental fee. There is also a list of things you may find useful to bring: camp chair or stool card table (there are no tables provided at the Buda pavilion) extra plant labels and marker extra plastic pots - usually someone needs these plastic bags for transporting goodies plastic nursery trays for transporting goodies gardening item to donate for door prize (optional) Your favorite food or drink for the potluck. Drinking water rain jacket (for some reason our swap usually causes a shower! Here is a link that might be useful: Buda City Park

I can't begin to tell you what a wonderful swap this was! The weather again was perfect, location wonderful, the 20 or so friendly swappers were more than generous, the food superb. Again I came home with plants that I didn't know I needed so badly -- some I'd never even heard of before. I took pictures I'll be posting on the gallery in a day or two. In back of the swap pavilion at the Methodist Church was a newly formed community garden. The dedicated director of the gardems gave us a nice welcome and invited us back. Donations received went to this church project. Of course I took pictures. There were lots of young people working hard at turning over the soil and learning how to use a shovel and digging fork. Included will be photos of a rediscovered ancient watering method they are using. As good as it was that's not all that made my day. We were following Laura home to visit her garden, turned in the wrong driveway and saw three Basenjis in the back yard. I raised and exhibited Basenjis 45 years ago and had the first of that breed in Texas so of course I had to get out of the car and get reaquainted with one of my favorites breeds of dog. We had a wonderful conversation with the home owners about the amusing characteristics of the the 'barkless dog' originally from Africa. Come to find out they are part of a Baseji rescue group. They may be hearing from me later. THEN we visited Laura's wonderful large garden. She has oodles of great plants in a spacious area and tons of fantastic yard art. Glorious! I took pictures that I'll be posting on the gallery. T-H-E-N we went to a great little nursery specializing in succulents and desert plants not far from Laura's house. The Basenji people had just been there and bought a yard full. I took pictures there too and will post them. The prices were like wholesale! T--H--E--N we stopped by a garage sale near my house and picked up more goodies. What a day! :-) Thank you Patty for taking me and thank you to all my new friends for being there and for being who you are.