He is of mixed origins. I got the eggs from a neighbor. The hen (can't remember the breed) has feathers on her legs and is a real sweetheart, that being a dominate trait he has a few feathers on his legs - just enough to be ugly. I'll have to check to see what the rooster possibilities were at the time. One possibility that I know could have been a Rhode Island Red. (I gave away the Rhode Island Red out of the same hatch, gave away the wrong bird - I see him occasionally and he's a good rooster.) Our daughter is home this weenend from college, if she has her digital camera with her I'll take some pictures of him. He eats out of our hands - all summer when I'd find a worm or grasshopper I'd yell bug and he'd come running to eat it out of my hand. At this point he is not the least bit aggressive to anyone or anything except the little girls. When he is finished with his business the poor things don't have a feather left on their necks and he claws out the feathers on their backends and as soon as he is finished with one he goes to another and then another. I haven't had the courage to leave him in there long enough to see if he ever plays out. Our game rooster is such a gentleman when it comes to his hens I suppose I expect all roosters to act the same way. I'm off to look at your page. Thanks

I haven't seeded any monostands of sheep fescue, so I'm not sure what it looks like. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between wheatgrass and KBG (even KBG that is newly sprouting from the roots/rhizomes). The natives will be much lighter in color than the KBG. A word of warning on the spots that have been going brown during drought. Streambank wheatgrass deals well with drought, but it does so by going in and out of dormancy easily. So if the streambank wheatgrass is the dominant grass, you'll still get some browning. The sheep fescue and western wheatgrass deal with drought by developing extensive root systems, so they don't go dormant as quickly. I've got sections of heckstrip that get almost no water at all from the sprinklers, which means almost no water from mid May through August or September, since we're pretty rain free then. The sprinklers probably hit those spots before the mailbox went in, but the mailbox (community, so I can't just get rid of it) creates a dead spot. The streambank wheatgrass grows there, but goes dormant. Western wheatgrass stays green, but I haven't been planting enough of it so far (from now on, I'm skipping the streambank and going with western). Near the end of the summer, I planted some blue grama, hand watering until it sprouted. It's been doing pretty well. I've read that it's normally a bunch grass, but that it can spread slowly at higher altitudes (I think that's comparative, so we'd count). I was walking the dog earlier today and walked by a section of mostly dirt by a highway. It obviously gets no water other than the rain and snow. There was a lot of dry grass, and some green that looked like it might be western wheatgrass. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the distinctive "eyebrow" seed heads of blue grama. I doubled back to make sure, and there were several tufts of blue grama, green without any water other than the rain we got the first week of June and the first week of September. I'm tempted to sow more grama throughout the lawn, but I want to wait to see how early it goes dormant, since it's a warm season grass. If it has a long enough season, I may start including more of it in my lawn.

When in SLC don't miss 'RED BUTTE GARDENS". They are located right in the city at the foot of the mountains, behind the University of Utah. My favority place to visit when I go (home) each summer.

the cleaning fee is $25 if we just want to chip in and pay it. if people are careful and bring small or bagged plants i think we will be ok. the hard thing with seeds is wind and rain spoils everything. maybe we could have a plant swap a in late april or early may. closer to outdoor planting season. actually that would be a great idea. two events are better than one. it is always a bad time for something. a lot of people are talking about swapping iris. iris should be divided in july-august after the bloom when they start to go dormant. i don't think we should change this as i have already had it listed on a few community calendars and begged for the venue. hate for somebody to show up and nobody is there. i start my seeds late. i don't have a greenhouse and anything started indoors more than 3 weeks before it goes out will usually be too leggy and likely die. lately i have been doing a lot of direct sowing and with little difference if any by the end of the season. i hope people come regardless of the timing�"seeds keep for a good while in the fridge. good time to trade the half-used packet from this years indoor planting for a second wave of different plants. it is more social than anything in my opinion and it's free. my main hope is to bring more people to the forum�"more reason to do another a month or so later with bigger messier things. i have hundreds of seed packets to trade, and will bring fig cuttings as well if they get delivered in time from UC Davis, but nothing with dirt. February would have been better timing�"hint hint for who ever takes command next year. hope you can make it. spread the word.