Orubis...You have no idea how timely your post is! The gutters are going in on Tuesday followed by French drains on Wednesday. :o) We don't have gutters on our current house (never needed them), but the new house is a whole different story. We realized after the first heavy rain that they'd be neccessary. It's been pouring rain for 2 days and there are trenches where it's coming off the house. The puddles are turning into lakes. *sigh* Since we're on the subject of gutters, we were amazed at the variance in bids that we got for them. We need 141 LF and 10 downspouts with a few miters. We had 4 bids that were between 800-900, 1 for 1700, and another for 2700!!! I think that guy's method of bidding a job was to see how much he owed in bills that month. LOL

Congratulations, Faron! I hope the Bison clinch the title!

Thanks everyone! My oldest daughter got some more good news today. She had missed the dead line of a nursing school she really wanted to go to due to having to take a nursing test (TEAS) before applying to the school. I must say it is too bad that every school has different requirements to apply. They called her today and said she could still apply and there is a TEAS test next Thursday. This is for St. Luke's in Kansas City so still close to us and to where my younger daughter is going.

cercis, the reds I prune back have a very lax, rangy habit...they do not form neat little (or even large) mounds :-) I just cut back any too long or very rangy stems back to a node or where they emerge from a larger stem. In some cases I will take a entire branch back to the trunk or one of the main stems. IME, it is hard to hurt a rhody by pruning :-) Even lopping the enitre plant off at nearly ground level is unlikely to kill it (at least here in the PNW) as it just forces the backbudding of latent buds located under the bark just about anywhere on the plant. btw, this rhody got flattened by our heavy February snowstorm, so is even more sprawly than usual. I am taking a heavier hand to it this season in hopes to generate more upright growth in the center. It will look awkward for awhile but should respond nicely given some time. The other, even larger rhodies out in the garden I never touch. They get a lot more sun and have a much better, more upright form. And they are far enough away that I don't bother deadheading either. I only spend time doing that on the ones I walk by on a daily basis :-) They are also too tall to reach most of the old flowerheads without a ladder.