KarinL: That's a fair question, and I actually did more or less know what I was getting into with 5 acres, but poor planning on my part made it about the WHOLE 5 acres. The usual Montana Homestead way, whether 5 or 500 acres is you concentrate around the house as your main "canvas." The mistake here is we have made the canvas too large. In all reality, using the whole thing wouldn't be inherently bad, but requires some additional planning. Example are the Olive Trees we have beyond the lawn. The grass out there is kind of nasty brohm grass, which isn't irrigated. Most of our moisture is from snow, so by mid July, anything not watered is brown. So, I have a nice little 10' radius green patch in the middle of high brown. I mow the field to offset this. My preference would be to simply let the prairie grass grow without the little "landscape islands" I have now. I'm not sure what farmland looks like up there, but out here, you'll often see a 20-100acre plot with a house in the middle of it. A lot of times, the only way to tell there's a house is that it's surrounded by trees, which are the only trees on the property. I'm not big on blocking the views, but that same basic concept would be okay. I really don't want smaller, I just want more efficient, if that makes sense, and more deliberate. I'm meeting with a designer next week out here, so I'm hopeful he can help me get things under control. Point well taken though. One thing I've been saying is the bank should require you add $10-15k for a tractor into the mortgage on any lot bigger than 2 acres. ;->

Well, I wandered around my local discount drug/department store and got creative (this was the same store where I found self watering windowboxes). I took pictures, but I haven't finished the roll (Gasp, yes, I'm NOT digital yet!). When they're ready I'll scan and post. I ended up with a little plastic basket, and a piece of snap in gutter screen and foam pipe insulation. I had to shorten the basket, and cut off the top. I also drilled some more holes in the bottom and side (get a drill bit that will work on plastic) to maximize the dirt to water ratio. I I had to trim the gutter screen a little, but it's thin plastic. Shears and a hacksaw did fine. I put the basket in the middle and cut a hole in the screen so that the screen hung over the basket a little. The dirt goes down into the basket. I cut two corners off the screen, and stuck a piece of pipe insulation in each corner. I cut the bottom at an angle so the water would flow out easily into the reservoir part. I propped up the other corners with a short piece of pipe. I tried watering it the other day, and soon had water coming up the sides of my box! I should probably drill a couple of over flow holes just above the gutter screen line. I planted wildflower seedlings and threw in a bunch more seed. I figure I'll thin them later. This box is my 'will wildflowers create a windbreak on my balcony?' experiment. For the Deck box (plastic, bigger than a windowbox), I did not do a bottom screen. I'll use the gutter screen next year. I had not done enough studying yet when I did this one. I used BIG chunks of styrofoam torn up and jumbled with lots of air spaces inbetween. Again I put the angle cut pipe in two corners. I covered the top with a black garbage bag. This contains bush beans, and I think I've had to water it once in 2 months? It is still inside, in front of my 8' patio door. I've had beans! The neighbors couldn't believe it. MY WORD, those things are tasty! I've just planted new seeds inbetween the current plants. These plants are pretty leggy from being indoors, and once the new ones come up I'll probably pull these out, and maybe keep rotating like that all summer. I plan to move it out to the balcony in a week or two, and I hope they'll be sturdier when grown outside. I know beans like some heat, so I may need to wait til mid-June at this rate! I don't know how safe the pipe insulation is, but I didn't see anything else to use (looked all around HD too) without getting into buying a big, expensive, roll of something. If anyone has any suggestions on what to use for tubing, let me know. Maybe some medical supply item? I heard PVC pipe isn't very safe either, and I wasn't sure I had the tools to trim it. I don't have much storage. I need all my pots and supplies to stack within each other and hide under my balcony table/chair set in the winter. That all gets covered with multiple vinyl chair covers, and strapped down with bungee cords so it doesn't all blow away in the gale force winter winds. Anyway, it was fun to wander around the store and think creatively! Tyrus urban, where did you find Earthboxes for $27? I have a different brand which I think was $30ish on sale at QVC. I put my tomatoes in there a week ago, and of course the temp dropped immediately. It's too heavy to pull inside, so I've had a white poly fabric shower curtain clamped aroung my home made trellis system ever since. Light goes in, rain rolls off. I check them every day and they are surviving. I plan on planting the garden this weekend, but I'll be rigging some cover around the tomatoes and cukes. I may just put a paper leaf bag over the cages at night. If the leaves end up laying against plastic they get frosted. I think I'll put down some black trash bags for a day or two to try to heat up the soil some more.

I shouldn't have said cankers, I thought the word cankers was interchangeable with frost crack and sunscald, and now I know that they're not. My trees had frost crack and/or sunscald, due to being planted on the south/southwest part of our house. The trees i planted were susceptible to it, which I didn't know at the time. The Crimson King didn't survive no doubt because I didn't water it enough. I watered it, but it was like 8ft tall, and i only watered it about 5 gallons a week (puny for my fast draining soil). And probably the same could be said for the red rocket maple. But the golden Raintree died during a bitter cold winter. I read it was to zone 5, but most sites have it at zone 6, so it wasn't right for my zone in the first place. Dh and I decided this morning that we're going to do a 6ft L fence blocking the 3 properties that abuts ours, including the next door neighbor, the neighbor's Christmas tree property, and the empty tract of land belonging to his parents. The entire fence will be about 150ft long. That's an immediate 6ft screen. And no waiting for 10 years for conifers to do the job. He's going to take some time off in May or June and we'll do the fence. Just a simple wood fence. No one around here has a fence. Not a single solitary person. But then they don't have 3 properties abutting their backyard either. We're doing an L fence because we don't want to close off our entire back yard. We like the openness to be outside barbecuing and being able to say hello to neighbors walking down to the lake, or the elderly couple who lives up the road, they must be close to 80yrs now, and they walk hand in hand every spring and summer past our house, and then back. I love them. I would hate being fully blocked off from ever seeing them. I admit every spring I look for them, and always a little scared they won't walk anymore. I have 3 Lilacs on that side, and they are quickly growing and will provide some screen, so the yard won't be fully exposed to the road. We also live out in the middle of nowhere, so the only people who drive past here are the people who live here, and the few people who take our road as a short cut to a nearby town. And now, I'll be able to relax and plant what I want, and for no other reason than pure pleasure. Who knew! lol We still plan on planting Junipers and other shrubs, but now they''ll be here and there, for a focal point, not for a screen.

dchall_san_antonio: What I think is hilarious is that I already answered your question of 10ft ceilings up thread and yet you are asking again for some reason. Here's what I said" They want the grand feeling that 10 ft ceilings offer. And yes, my Dad is 6'5." Not to mention 10 ft ceilings are more efficient to cool in warm climates as you correctly assumed the home will be in. But someone in the appraisal business should already know that, right? So does that mean you can give back the 15 yard penalty now? Let me correct you on a few more items. Don't assume my parents will not use an outdoor kitchen. They have one now and it is used at least twice a week in nice weather. Now that they will be moving to a warm climate it will be used even more. I clearly said they thought this home was a "good value" as they want to put a lot of money into a boat with storage and the pool area. So the assumption that "money is no object " is absurd. I talked about and the plan shows a large linen closet near bedrooms 2 and 3. And a linen cabinet in the Master bath. So to say "One linen shelf for four bedrooms and three bedrooms is not enough. " is again, incorrect. The great room plan is 25'4" x 17' 9". So wrong on that point as well. Wow, you must be up to at least a 50 yard penalty for all the incorrect assumptions and lack of comprehension!