Thanks everyone. We have already been planning to leave the hookups, Sierraeast, and had to fight the health department so they wouldn't make us destroy the septic system, which works fine. Watching the demo was fun... What is it about destroying things that seems to bring out the excited kid in everyone? The guys were so late the first day that my husband let the kids take the Bobcat and ram into the thing...They punched big holes in it and knocked it off some of the blocks. I had to stop them before they pushed it into the carport behind. But even the crew, who does this for a living, got all excited when the destruction started. The kids looked forward to that day for months. It was so sad that they actually got started at about exactly the time our 10 and almost 14 yo ds's had to go to baseball practice! One of our dd's took LONG videos for them, though. I always have to include that we were blessed to have it to live in, and we have special memories of our time living so close together. But it was past its prime and I don't think we'll miss it now.

It started as a raised frill of bark around the bottom of the canes and at the fork of the original canes. That has been there for over a year. This year the first flush of flowers started okay, but then I started to find die back all through the rose. As fast as I cut out the die back, more appeared. All the time I was cutting out the dead wood, more appeared. The blooms looked awful. I decided that I had enjoyed it for over 11 years and it didn't owe me anything. I have dug out a deep and wide hole where the roots used to be and lined it with cardboard, after putting a few inches of manure in the bottom. I will fill this with soil from elsewhere in the garden and replant in the autumn. I have a few ideas about what to replace it with, but that is a subject for another thread. Daisy

As I mentioned above, the sellers that can't send potted plants to Idaho are Edmunds Roses, Jackson&Perkins, Park Seed, and Wayside Gardens. The last three listed are all in the same company. There may be more forbidden sellers that I don't know of. The desert is not prime ag land. I live out in the desert hills. There is prime ag land in the river valley areas just a few miles away. This is made possible by irrigation, as I've mentioned many times before. My stepdad pumped water with electric pumps out of the Snake River directly because he had first water rights. That water was further pumped to his concrete ditches where it was distributed to each row in a field. Huge sprinkler systems are also used. The wonderful water begins in our mountains as the valuable snow pack, which melts and eventually makes its way to rivers. Lots of this water is stored in reservoirs behind dams to be released as needed. The dams produce hydroelectric power as well, which is where all our electricity here comes from. Diane

Interesting. I always assumed it must have been an ephemeral lake bed to keep the trees away. It isn't the Grand Canyon or anything, but it certainly is a north Florida landmark and pretty cool to cross.