"Slow growing and difficult to establish in cultivation, it is highly prized in British horticulture, but its low climate tolerance limits the regions in the USA which it can be grown successfully" "....wow! if I had known that, I would probably never have tried growing them here in Quebec !" Ah, but Quebec isn't in the USA . . . plant one just a little further south and watch it expire rapidly ;-) "Supposedly P. breweriana's closest relative is P. sitchensis" I'd disagree, and also am very dubious about those genetic results. I'd put P. breweriana somewhat on its own, but not too distant from the P. brachytyla - P. omorika - P. mariana grouping. Certainly not close to P. sitchensis, which in turn is very close to P. jezoensis and the P. engelmannii - P. glauca group. Resin

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!

rrs626- Your choices are beautiful! I love your granite and backsplash. What a difference from what you first were considering. I love the new backsplash vs the cream that you were thinking about. I can't wait to see it up. As for me, we are moving slow. I have all our walls patched and sanded and the old backsplash is down. I am going to start painting in the next week. We are waiting on countertops for now due to some uncertainty with the economy. Once my husband is a little busier with work, we'll move forward. I'll post some pics of the new paint job because even that little change will help. Hopefully, we'll have the new countertops in the near future. Sorry, I didn't catch your posts earlier. You made some great choices!

As everyone knows I love to travel and especially around our own country. In March we went to Fredericksburg, TX for a week along with our friends who have a toy hauler 5th wheel. We had our motorcycles with us and rode all over the countryside. We also went to the LBJ National Historic Park, which is so interesting. In the middle of June we headed to the Pacific Northwest and toured around Oregon, Washington, Idaho. I also got to meet up with 6 members of the KT. We saw several National Parks along the way. We ended up at Teton National Park in Wyoming. In October I flew to Cincinnati and did a driving tour with Murraysmom. We were on the road for 10 days and drove over 2,200 miles. We got to meet with 10 KTer's. Murraysmom and I had never met before and had a wonderful time. Just last month we went to Galveston to see MarilynC and also the surrounding area. I had a get together in my motor home and enjoyed the company of 5 KTer's while we were in the Galveston area. We also got to visit with RuthieG on our way to Galveston and hopefully will see her again in late January. We will be heading out again mid January heading to Florida to see my folks and other relatives I have there. Hopefully I will get to see some more KT friends that I have also seen over the past few years. There are many places I still haven't been to but hopefully will have a good 10 years to venture out and enjoy our great country and all it has to offer. Being retired we don't have to wait for a holiday to enjoy our motor home. I just wish I could keep him on the road longer. He is a homing pigeon and says he needs to go home after a month to six weeks on the road. My ideal way to travel is to go 400 miles and set up, then take day trips to see everything of interest in a 150 mile radius. Then move another 400 miles and do it over again. It also saves on gas to do this since you are not returning home so often and then having to go back to where you were and start over. With diesel prices being anywhere from $3.69 to 4.29 a gallon and only getting 7-8 miles to a gallon it cost about $288.00 a day on the road figuring a 400 mile day. I tell my husband it is only money and we can't take it with us. We earned it and we want to enjoy it and spend it during our lifetime. If there is anything left over the kids are welcome to it. I hope all of you that want to travel get to do so. We live life only once so enjoy it to the fullest.