So this is the old timer's thread. My GH is cooking along. Have about 12 carambola ripening on the tree, plus jaboticaba, yellow guava, Surinam Cherries, pomegranates. No bananas this year as I removed Dwarf Cavendish and replaced with Dw Namwah and Dw Red. Hopefully bananas next year. Just got a Sapodilla and a June Plum, but the June Plum suffered greatly in shipping. Hoping it will recover. Just ordered a new RO pump and filters, as the pump burned out. Close call, as it burned out while I was out of town and I got back to find I had just one day of water left. My wife would have been in trouble within a day or two!

I finally finished clearing up the last of the branches. I sawed them into more logs to add to the edging, but it's nice seeing the yard all cleaned up. :-) The sun moves through the bed in such a way that all the roses get hit with at least the minimum number of hours needed to grow well. I moved the cinder blocks to make an area for overwintering the roses that didn't get planted in the ground. After moving them into this space, I think I'll shorten the length of the "box" and stack them three-high. When the neighborhood leaves drop, I'll be collecting them to fill the spaces between them for added insulation. I trimmed more branches from these arbor vitae, and planted all but one of the roses going here. On the far left is 'Rosa moschata' which didn't go in the ground yet because I'm not sure if it will get enough sun. I keep track of when the shadow of the house falls on it, and it seems to be getting full-sun from about an hour after sunrise until about noon. Thereafter, it's in bright-shade. I might just end up moving the white azalea from the front to this spot. But the rest of them, going left to right, are "Sissinghurst Castle", 'Tricolore de Flandre', 'Tuscany Superb', and the musk-seedling 'Reverend Seidel'. In the green wheelbarrow you see the thin pieces of the last of the tree branches. On the ground to the right of the BBQ is the last of the thick pieces, which I'll be adding to the log edging. A close-up of a section of the log-edging. Right now, it's fairly secure, but I'll be putting a lot of long screws into the pieces to hold it in place better. And there's lots of nooks and crannies between the pieces. I started pouring peat moss in there, and will eventually stick low-growing sedums and sempervivums into the crevices. It's hard to get good shots with the way the sun and shadows are hitting the yard right now, but here's another shot of the bed. Another shot of the yard. Re-seeding the "lawn" will be one of next year's projects. Another shot of the bed. I'm going to be throwing down mulch and manure to eventually reach the height of the log-edging, making this a somewhat raised-bed. The bed tapers to a narrow end where the garage and pavement meet the "lawn", and I planted only three roses here. On the far left, with room to spread but contained from taking over, is 'Indigo', which came as one of a few suckers from a garden-forum member. To its right is 'Honorine de Brabant', a dark pink and white striped Bourbon. In the corner on the right (look for the white name tag, since the plant is really small now), is "Sophie's Perpetual". I left room by the window because (for now) it's the only way into the garage -- the door must be opened from the inside. And in the corner by the fence, with a few branches forming a make-shift tripod, is "Secret Garden Musk Climber" which is really the end-cap of the back Gallica bed. The Gallica bed is against the fence and behind the railroad ties. In front of it, and behind the log-edging, is a row of shorter repeat-flowering roses -- to the right of "Sophie's Perpetual" is 'Clotilde Soupert', then 'The Prince', then 'Golden Buddha', then 'Prospero', with 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' in the corner by the stones, and 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau' sprawling out to the right and in front of it. If you're interested in going through ALL the pics of the yard, beginning last year before I did anything, I put them all in an album on Photobucket. Right now, it's 277 pics (with descriptions), including a lot of "rose inventory" shots, but it's fun to flip through. Make sure you select "Oldest First" to view, if it doesn't already come up that way. :-) ~Christopher

Columbusguy, we found a warehouse locally that had the same thickness, but 3/4 inch narrower in stock. The difference is barely noticeable since the porch swing is hung right where the transition takes place. Since I am seriously cash-strapped, I wanted to stay in a budget. The original boards were 1 x 5 pine and were just beautiful, but would not be in my budget even if I could find replacements. The brown floor paint is SW Oil-Based Enamel (I love that stuff) and it is slightly bronzy-greenish. All of the photos look way more green than it really is. It is a color I mixed up at home and had matched. SW's browns are a bit disappointing and I am a little "over-particular" about brown, so when I need a brown paint I mix my own. (ok, really, i am totally OCD about color, but I love the brown of the porch floor) The blinds were $20 each at Lowes. They won't trim these for you (only the expensive interior blinds can be trimmed) so buy them longer than you need and cut them yourself. I simply unrolled them on the lawn, made my measurements (take a bit off both sides to ensure the pulleys at the top are still centered) and used tin snips to cut the plastic slats. I used an old hacksaw to cut through the heavy plastic header and footers. Hint: the footer slides, so slip it back and forth to give you more room to cut the slats, then slide it all the way over and just cut off one end to size, rather than both ends. Worthy, I did a good deal of research on painting the floor and found some pretty convincing arguments for painting only one side. The area below is unconditioned basement. It is not exposed to the elements. I'll let you know if I screwed up.

Here's an even bigger hug Shelly!!!!! (((((((((((((((((HUG))))))))))))))))))) I know what you mean about how life can change so quickly. Our whole married life my DH and I have made about the same yearly salary which was great when we first got married and it was just the 2 of us, but not as great when you have 2 kids, mortgage, and you have to pay for your own health insurance. It was a struggle! When we merged our company, for the first time we were getting almost twice as much money, plus our health insurance was provided and we didn't have to pay anything except our co-pays!!!! That's why we ended up moving. We had a cute little ranch home (dining room part of the living room, small kitchen) so we finished off the basement and that is where we would have family gatherings. But 2 sisters and a niece were diagnosed with MS, my brother was in a car accident over 5 years ago and used a walker (at that time) to get around (now he is in a wheelchair), my dad passed away and my mom is getting older and it is harder for people to go up and down the steps to go into the basement. With our bigger salary, I always wanted a house with a dining room for entertaining so we bought a bigger house. I have a bigger kitchen, a seperate dining room and a family room which I love but it also came with a much bigger mortgage!!! When I was depressed I kept focusing on the fact that if we hadn't of moved our lives would be easier because the cut in pay put us back to what we had been making. After awhile I realized I can't change anything, we can't sell our house and get the money back that we put into it, we have great neighbors, we are in a better neighborhood than we were and I love all the room I have in my colonial! Normally I am upbeat and believe that humor gets you through a lot of bad spots. After 6 months I realized I couldn't change things so I just have to accept it and move on. It kills me that my kids have to help us pay bills but I am proud that I raised them right because they don't complain about it!!! My hubby does compressor repairs for some of his old customers so every once in a while he surprises me with a little cash and tells me to use it just for crafts, either garage sales or glass because he knows I enjoy doing them. Your hubby does sound like a wonderful person, I assume you have been married about 10 years or more? I've been married 27-1/2 years. I'm sorry you don't have a good relationship with your parents. Do you have brothers or sisters? Remember what they say, "You can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends!" I would say my family (I'm the middle of 5 kids...1 boy & 4 girls) was a lot closer before my dad passed away but that is a whole other story! LOL Barb