As soon as boscobel opens I'll be sure to post pics !! I am glad my dh dosnt like to touch the roses , I love to do that myself . One time he wacked down a row of limelight hydrangeas about 7 years ago and that was the last thing I asked him to do ! Lol he humors me and looks at blooms and smells them . And dosnt care if I spend a small fortune on my garden stuff. We can live off hot dogs and Mac n. Cheese ! :) I'd rather have plants . Seil , you would have loved it there! I know you grow lots of floribundas and they had a ton ! I fell in love with a few , one called jump for joy , white licorice was gorgeous and this one called Anna's promise . I don't even like oranges but maybe my heart is changing ! Lol Jump for joy ( above) Anna's promise. Camera doesn't even come close to how pretty it was! This post was edited by lilyfinch on Mon, Apr 14, 14 at 10:47

Luis, yes, I did mean that once they are established they won't get water unless there is an extended period without rain. We usually have 36" of rain here annually, and other than their first summer, this is the first time (we've lived here 4 summers)I've watered the hydrangeas that are out at the other end of the yard. That said, my hydrangeas flower quite well but are not the largest or sturdiest I've seen. I've attributed this to the fact that I've moved them a couple of times and soccer damage. Do you think they could need more water?

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!

Take my advice for what it's worth, which isn't alot. I've never lived there, but while we were dating, my now wife lived there for 3 years. I lived 2 hours away, and we would take turns visiting each other on the weekends. Living in a university town will have it's obvious plusses and minuses. Younger average age of residents, more bars per capita (actually I believe I read once that Lexington is #1 in the nation with that), lots of on-going infrastructure improvements, etc. From what I've seen, Lexington seems nicer than most university towns. I would be happy to raise a family there. I've not come across any "bad" neighborhoods. Some older, yes, but no neighborhoods that make me cringe as I drive through them. 3 areas I would suggest staying away from living in: 1) Near campus. This should be obvious, but parking can be insane, and all your normal campus issues prevail here. 2) Downtown, which is just north of campus. Downtown is a major nightlife spot in Lexington. Nice to go to on occasion, but with the noise and parking issues at night, it not ideal to live at. 3) Near the mall. There is only one mall in Lexington. There should be about four to support everyone trying to shop. It is on Nicholasville Road, just south of New Circle Road (Rt.4). Traffic there is horrendous. Around Christmas time there's no use trying to go down that road. New Circle Road is a bit of a freeway for 75% of it. If you pick a neighborhood right off one of its exits, be wary of lots of fast food, gas stations, and traffic. But it is a convient way to get to most places in Lexington. In general, the northern and western suberbs seems slightly nicer to me than the southern and eastern, but not by a ton. I actually considered moving to Lexington, but was unable to find a job at all (Engineering). Industry is scarce, so if you are going to need to find a job as well, you may want to look into that before committing. And if you like watching the news or listening to the radio, I hope you really, really enjoy hearing about UK basketball.... year-round. That's about all they ever talk about.