This has been an interesting year. It appears all the roses planted in 2009 have survived, despite the rather cold temps we experienced later in the year.

The grapes believe it or not, still show some green if you take a thumbnail to the rootstock.

I planted a number of Osage Orange from seed and it looks like all survived the winter. Just goes to show my theories on planting from seed vs the 5 gallon bucket approach actually works. In theory, in another 10 years I should have horse apples grown in Nevada. Failing that, I should have some nice hedge apple wood to do turnings from.

I am still looking for a Rosemary variety that will actually survive NV winters. The closest I have come is the 'Barbecue' variety sold at most Home Depots and Walmarts.

If someone knows of a variety that can actually survive the winter around here, I and a few others would be most appreciative.

What else.....

The grand Standard Poodle experiment actually worked and it worked to the point that if I had to do it all over again,

I would have started with a Standard Poodle and ended with same in the course of my dog-owning life.

I do have a couple tips:

1. Do not buy solid white if you have a semi-sandy yard.

2. If you buy a solid any other color than white, give them a sniff every once in a while. While with the whites, knowing when they are filthy is easy, with the darks, it is usually the smell that in the end informs you a bath is necessary.

3. Unless you are prepared to include a poodle in your every waking moment, get another dog. These are very social animals and it's like having a second skin.

Takes some getting used to.

Anything else.....

There is an organic farm: http://www.ddgnevada.com/other/organic/organic.html in Silver Springs which I think is worth supporting, but not to the tune of driving out there weekly for produce.

If you do some asking around, it appears to be quite easy to talk to your friends and ask them if they would be interested in sharing the driving. If you're in the Reno area, there are a few groups that share the drive. Not so many south of there.

Anyway, I think it is important to support local businesses

as long as it is not cost prohibitive.

We did this last year and I thought what what we got vs the price paid was worth the effort. This year however, we are splitting the driving - finally have enough interest to do that. Not my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon driving to Silver Springs to pick up a box of veggies every week. Every 3 or 4 weeks.......not so bad.

~dRahme