Good Morning 13 May 06

Good morning, folks ~

Trees, trees, trees. May is tree planting month here in the High Desert. The hybrid poplars started rooting within hours of being put in buckets of water last week. The ones planted out have about 1 1/2 inches of growth after one week in the ground. The ones still in water have almost 2 1/2 inches of growth, but the growth is not as stought or robust looking. Hope to get the last ones in the ground this weekend. 4 black austrian pines (3 ft tall) went into the ground last weekend. Going to see if they have more today - if so, then 4 or more for this weekend.

David put a lovely Autumn Blaze Maple about 20 ft in front of our bedroom window. He wanted to plant it right up against the house, and since he hasn't absorbed anything from the lectures I've been giving on tree planting distances and roots and such, the easiest way to get through to him is to just throw a hissy-fit :-) (Every time I look at our little trio of Sweet Gums, I just cry inside knowing that the middle one will have to go in 5 or 6 years because they are all planted too close together - that's what I get for not being there at their installation!!!) The first few pines are a bit on the close side, too, but since they grow slower, it may be 10 years before a few of them will have to go. By that time, maybe we can cut them for Christmas trees, at least. The man has no sense of spacing, but he's got a strong back and looks very good on our tractor, so as long as I make sure that I run outside whenever I know there are trees to be planted and I hear the tractor fire up, our trees may have a chance at some reasonable spacing, LOL!

DH: The look so small 20 ft apart
Me: In 10 years they'll look lovely, and in 20 years they'll be perfect
DH: I'll be dead in 20 years (he's barely 40)
Me: Well, *YOU* may be planning to be dead in 20 years, but *I* don't plan on it, and neither do *THEY* (the trees)

Mostly I win - I am definitely the spoiled one in this marriage!

I planted Flying Saucers and Blue Star morning glory seeds interspersed with white moon flowers along 50 ft of chainlink this week. I hope they can survive our wind. I hear hawk moths are already out and flying in Carson City, NV (40 miles south of us), but I haven't seen them out here yet, this year - Spring is running later than last year, though, so hopefully we'll see them soon. They are also known as humming bird moths as they are litterally as big as humming birds.

We put in about 400 ft of pvc water pipe in the last week, and it has been a total pleasure to water things with a hose instead of hauling bright oragne 5 gal home depot buckets everywhere! But, this formerly pudgy girl is getting some muscles! Who needs a membership at a gym - just get on them rubber boots and grab a bucket! (I'm so excited - lost 15 lbs since Dec 30 - I actually felt rib bones the other day! I didn't know I had any as I hadn't seen or felt them for at least 20 years - about the time my first child was born!)

I finally just dumped a 25 lb bag of sunflower seeds into a large plastic container from walmart and put it out near the bird feeders - now the birds don't have to yell at me to fill up the feeders - I can just walk out there, open the lid, take out a scoop, fill up the feeders and be done. So now the feeders are full most days. The birds are getting braver, too - they don't fly to the neighbor's trees (300 ft away) when I fill the feeders now - they just move down the fence 10 ft or so - all the better to rush in and attack the feeders the moment my back is turned :-) I hope little rodents don't discover they can gnaw holes in plastic pretty easily!

So many blessings in my life, I can barely count them. Wishing you the same! --Karla