Re this particular cat, then to roses. This is Twitchit cat, who hobbled up the hill to our solar porch, collapsed with a broken left front leg. She'd been dragging her paw so long that there was no fur left on the top of it. She could (I think) hear then. Probably not well. The leg healed in a sort of odd orientation and she now struts like a bulldog. It's that past four months that she's been more cautious as to where she sleeps and prefers to sleep with her tail over our feet. (So she can tell when we are moving?) I've been trying to teach the herd to use a second door from the kitchen; but with Twitchit, I couldn't get even an earflick as I called her. Only when my shadow crossed her did I get attention. So we'll have to learn that underfoot is by her choice and she has a reason for not responding to "Move!" Our original roxburgii double came with the 200 year old farm house. It bloomed spring and a little in fall. It was at that time shaded by some massive silver maples. Well, (roses can smile at this) the maples have been wiped out by a tornado, by the loss of a sugar maple and by old age and the sunlight situation is much better. The original plant is still going, but now that there's more sun, it's suckering tentatively. It really did wait for more sunlight to move into new territory. One of its suckers in now down in the species garden in really crappy clay. It blooms right on cycle with its parent even though it's usually 5 degrees colder there during winter cold. I do try to improve the soil for the older one. It doesn't really show any perceptible appreciation. The one thing that was really interesting this spring was that we had a wet winter, and there was NO dieback at the ends of any stems. I had come to expect that dieback every winter, regardless of temperature. But this winter, it kept all of its growth and bloomed everywhere.' The single form of roxburgii is a different story for me. It's down in the species bed and it hasn't bloomed yet. Stephen Scaniello tells me it takes time. It's been five years. I also have the bald hipped version of roxburghii down there and it managed a few blooms in year three. Same soil as the other one in the species bed. I talk to them a lot down there. Right now I'm not sure the single is as close to the double roxburghii as the nomenclature suggests. And there's one genejockey paper that doesn't have them close. But the plants have different leaves and different growth styles...someday, I'll be able to compare blooms and bloom times. Right now, they are just interesting to watch. To get bloom, I think age may trump sunlight as my slower ones are in full day sunlight except for shade just before dusk.

We haven't built with Schumacher but did briefly look in to the possibility of using one of their small plans for a lake house build. I was concerned when I read, on their website, how their process works. According to their process, you work with them to finalize your floor plan, and at that point, you sign the paperwork with them. But two things happen AFTER you have signed your paperwork. One is that "your personal builder will meet you at your site to discuss the unique characteristics of your lot". Also after you have signed the contract, "now’s the time for your one-of-a-kind one-stop-shopping experience at our state of the art Design Studio. You are able to pick and choose every high quality material, such as kitchen and bathroom tiles, or different types of flooring." It seems to me that if you have already signed the contract, you are at their mercy for the unique land preparation costs (which can be extremely significant) as well as your interior and design choices.

Still love the look of how they came out. Since being in the house for 8 months now I’ve noticed a plank or 2 with a crack in it probably due to settling. I’ve asked a carpenter if they thought it was due to the flooring quality but he thought it was probably due to the installers who should have picked a different plank to lay since the ones that have cracked probably already had a minor imperfection in it. We had the floors installed with nails and glue and they are otherwise holding up great. Here is a picture of the flooring in our kitchen but floors continue through out the house.

I'm considering the Blue Ridge myself. What did you end up using?