Oh how nice you are. Ingrid, I have admired the lovely photos of your garden, thank you for your comments. There is one bush in my little garden that I am watching for a couple of years to see if it is staying. Thank you Jennie, I like to see a garden instead of just close-ups...but I love them to. Thanks Jeff. The fence came in sections from Lowe's I paint everything the same mossy green color. It was black originally. Rosefolly, I appreciate the kind comments from someone with so much knowledge...the trees are quite mature. The background was recently marred by Alabama Power deciding that a lush fig tree posed some danger to them. that's what caused the weird mess on the right corner. (fig trees are tough. It's regrowing.) kay

based on my I-Bs, the stems are fairly tender at the beginning, they do get woody pretty quickly...since I pinch my buds when the cluster was around 1 inch in diameter, I can't tell you if they flop after a big rainstorm or not...for the stems that are fairly old, say 8 weeks or more, they are thick, more some than some the Annabelles I have seen...and these stems are getting hard and woody already...so my bet is all those people getting that IBs in the one gallon pots are now have blooms and they realize the blooms are flopping like most Annabelles would, thus the disappointment...I do think this plant will not give the 12 inch size blooms or the very sturdy blooms the first season...so I am watching what's coming for these in 2010...I usually reserve judgement on these new plants till they have been in my garden for at least two winters...will do the same for IBs here...the general negatives I heard on these new hyrangeas are - ES (wilting, not blooming the next yr, what's wrong)..Blushing bride (boy, what with that leggy growth behavior, floppy everywhere)...Twist-n-shout (will it even rebloom, Penny-Mac the parent was a bust)...Cityline series (very vivid colors, too deep purple, dont overwinter well in Penn, Jersey or areas further north)..Forever-n-Ever (powdery mildew galore, most PM prone of all rebloomers I have had)...you get the drift, there is always something negative about a new release...

Most people with hobby farms around here let a local cut and bale the hay and just keep it. Or, they hire them to do it if they've got horses that can use it. It takes quite a bit of money to buy all of the equipment to deal with 14 acres, even if you're not baling hay. I have a friend who got a pretty good bargain for a 35 horse tractor, bush hog, finish mower, grader blade, box blade, etc. It still came to 40K. Adding on the hay equipment on top of that is another 10K easy. That is an expense that most city people fail to take into account when buying acreage. It's work and it doesn't take care of itself. A good portion of your time will be spent keeping opportunistic saplings cut down, and the fence in good condition, and mowing.

Wow, here I am almost 8 months later and there is very little progress toward our bathroom! No word at all from Jim, the contractor. I wonder if he is still doing the commercial job or if he even wants our work. Plus, Toby, our dog, is even older now - 16 - and on prednisone, so he is peeing a lot. He has doggy dementia, too. He is not terribly confused, not enough to put him down, but there is no way I want new, clean grout on that floor. The bathroom is on hold until he decides to take a trip over the rainbow bridge. I have just contracted to replace the last four windows in the house. The aluminum sliders will be gone in 6 weeks or less! We are getting an awning window for the bathroom with a blind in the glass that can be raised and lowered. It is our sunniest room, and light from that window lights up the whole end of the hallway. I wanted the option to raise the blinds up. The three bedrooms are getting double casement windows with blinds in the glass. Hey - I don't clean, so the blinds are a major, major plus for us! Now I have to get windowsills for all three bedrooms. And for the bathroom, the need for a windowsill is forcing me to decide on the counter top for the vanity. It seems to me that they should be the same material. Tomorrow I am going to try to find the Cambria Quartz source for the area. I want the place where I can get a leftover piece of someone else's slab, since I need such a small piece. My vanity is only 18" x 46". I am hoping for the color called Parys. [houzz=https://www.houzz.com/photos/cambria-countertop-2010-traditional-kitchen-phvw-vp~2704735] Since I still have not chosen the color for the wall tiles in the bathroom, the color for the vanity top is going to determine what direction we go, since it is the next critical decision that I have to make. I like Parys because it is dark and will contrast with the white sink. It will also contrast with all the different wall tiles I have considered. I especially love the glowing blue bits in it. It reminds me of my favorite stone I use when making jewelry, Labradorite! It has that chatoyancy, that glow when it catches the light just right. Opal also does that. Parys just glows in any light. Other things I have made progress on have to do with the vanity. I have sanded it and have decided to replace the original drawer pulls. No way will we enjoy finding the little bail that recedes into a groove on those babies. I am going to fill the holes and then drill one center hole and use a glass knob with chrome in the center. I had already purchased three of them to use on the new cupboards that I was adding into the wall across from the vanity. I have also removed the metal floor protectors on the bottom of the 8 vanity legs and discovered that the small feet that can be leveled that I purchased will fit into the ends of the legs. Holes have to be drilled for them. Because the floor will be made waterproof, and sloped toward a drain, if I did not put levelers into the feet of the vanity, the whole thing would be unlevel and the sink would not drain properly. A and C below make up my leg levelers. Yes, I do try to think of everything. When you have THREE YEARS to do nothing but plan, you do a lot of planning! I have also purchased the shower plumbing - the rainhead, the shower temperature balancing valve, and three volume controls, one for the rain head, one for the shower head, and one for the hand-held, and the controls will each have those labels on them! I already had the shower head. I still have to decide on the hand-held system. I also purchased a really cute hand towel holder. I don't like the rings because the towel gets bunched and does not dry well. This one is from Ginger and it has two bars that move on a swivel, independently of each other. The bars are 12 inches long and the holder holds them a good 2" away from the wall. Plus, since they swivel the whole way around, if one is particularly wet, you can pull it away from the wall and it will hang perpendicular to the wall as you wait until it is dry. In this picture, they show the arms out away from the wall. Normally, they will hang closer to the wall that the thing is mounted on, I would think. For instance, I plan to hang it on the wall to the side of the vanity. The arms would be folded up close to the wall most of the time. I suppose you could install it on the wall next to the medicine cabinet and have the towels hang over the vanity area, if you liked.