Yeow, Windwhipped! I just checked NOAA, and you're sure enough in the middle of a thunderstorm. Hope you get the rain you need. No! Actually we can't put rock in the trash, but we have automated pickup---everybody has an individual "wheeled" dumpster, and the truck that picks it up has a big long "claw" arm that picks it up and dumps it in the truck without anybody ever seeing it! I don't put much in at a time, so it takes a long, long time to get rid of it, but I don't know how else to get rid of it! I can't afford to pay somebody to come pick it up. I keep looking for somebody who wants it--just joined another FreeCycle and posted it there, and if I don't get any replies there, I'm gonna try Craig's List. I checked there yesterday, and there are already a bunch of people trying to give the stuff away! But if I do that, at least it'll get to a larger audience than on FC. Just gonna keep getting rid of a little bit each week, and keep looking for somebody who wants it. I hate to send it to the landfill, but from one point of view, at least it's something natural, as opposed to all the indestructible plastic that gets dumped these days. And when I'm not getting rid of rock, I only put out the dumpster once a month or less---I'm not a very good consumer---so since I'm paying for weekly pickup--whether I use it or not, and since I absolutely can't be charged with oversupplying the landfill, I figure I've got a little wiggle room! Just my rationalization! But when I see all the other neighbors putting out TWO dumpsters EVERY WEEK (they have to pay extra for the second one), I don't feel too bad about what I'm doing! Happy rain, Skybird

Hi Pixie, When you posted about Little House on the Prairie I looked some things up and was planning to post but just haven't found the time! I'm glad you explained why you wanted to do the plains! At least now it makes sense! After you posted I looked up DeSmet on google Earth--to get the "lay of the land," and I think your daughter would be really disappointed with the "plains" we have out here compared to the terrain you'll find in eastern SD. The link I posted to a pic of "our" plains up above really is pretty accurate--there is simply nothing out there! If you do DeSmet I doubt that she'll actually be looking at "the land" very much when you do it, and she'll have all the Little House things, which is what she actually thinks of when she's reading the books. (Love it when kids are reading books!) So rather than taking her for a hot, dry, flat drive, and destroying her mental image of Little House, I now very definitely think you should skip the plains and enjoy the extra time in the hills! A couple things about the fishing if you're gonna stick that in. Wherever you do it you'll need a Colorado fishing license, so be sure you plan ahead for that so you're not disappointed. And if you do decide to go to the Poma Ranch near Pagosa Springs, you'd really need to stay there two nites to have time for fishing. Checkin is at 3:00, so that wouldn't leave much time on the day you arrive, and checkout is at 10:00, so there wouldn't be time on the day you were leaving. The Weminuche River that runs thru the ranch flows very gently and it could easily be fished wading or from the bank. Check out their Fishing page at the link below, and there's more fishing info on their FAQs page, including that they rent "basic" and "kids" fishing gear at the ranch. I don't really know anything about fishing so I'm not sure what all that would include, but if you're seriously considering it and have any questions, call the ranch and ask for Karen! Also, since the river flows gently--and is shallow (a "river" out here is not the same as a "river" in the midwest or east!) your daughter might enjoy wading around in it (probably with a pair of cotton tennis shoes or at least flip flops since the bottom will be "rocky")! But she probably wouldn't stay in too long since water in the mountains is COLD--it's melted snow--and the ranch is at 8,000'! Also, if you're seriously considering staying there, PM me and I'd be glad to send you some more pictures of the inside (and outside) of the Hideaway cabin! I've stayed there three times now so I have pics of the outsides of the other cabins too. This is a favorite pic! I couldn't help but smile the first time I drove in there and saw the Welcome Home sign! I immediately knew I was gonna love the place! (The sign is on the back side of the "bathhouse" building that has the "waterfall showers!") And before I got to the welcome home sign (on the small building on the right) I ran into this roadblock on the drive in! (If it looks gloomy, that's because it was raining on and off on the drive from Pagosa to the ranch the first year I stayed there! Then, right after I got there, the sun came out just in time for sunset!) This was a view heading out of Pagosa toward the ranch that year! The ranch is in them thar hills! I also highly recommend the "Cozy House" at Dolores for the Cortez part of your trip, and would be glad to send you a bunch of pics of that place too to help you decide if you're interested. One more thing since Zinnia brought up Dinosaur Ridge! Just a little further down the road, in Morrison, is a place called Tiny Town! Perhaps in lieu of Little House your daughter would like to see some "little houses"---and other buildings! I don't have time to live link these pages, but here's a copy/paste link to their site, and if you google for images of Tiny Town you'll come up with lots of pics of the buildings with people standing by them so you can get the scale. I haven't been out to this place since the late 70's when it was a run down (tiny) ghost town all overgrown with weeds, but it's been all spiffied up and is back in business, and this could be a real fun Kid Thing! You could plan your whole last day to do Red Rocks, the dinosaurs, and Tiny Town, and then head to the airport for your last nite's lodging! http://tinytownrailroad.com/ Out of time for tonite! I can't wait to find out what all you finally decide to do! Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Fishing on the V. A. Poma Ranch!

Kathi, that bird is an male Indigo Bunting. It really is not blue, but "the diffraction of light through the structure of their black feathers makes them appear blue". Quoted from Audubons Guide to Birds

Barb, I have been on the forum for a good, long time. My first solo gardens were on the northern California coast -- way, pre-internet. When I first moved here, I thought, "oh boy! Now I'll have some summer warmth and I can grow sweetcorn!" Well, yeah. But, I noticed the same struggle to have a ripe tomato ... Also, and very frustrating, I couldn't enjoy melons, prominent in my family's southern Oregon gardens when I was a kid. I've visited Colorado. No, you have even more of the roller coaster daily, weekly, monthly weather than I usually do. See how surprised I am by June of 2016? Often, it's just a miserably cool and windy late spring around here. Moving, I'd substituted the perpetual coolness of the northern coast for the heat and dryness of actual summers. When the springtime clouds finally move on. No, Colorado has the changeable conditions more so than here. It's elevation and at 2,000 feet with northern Pacific salt water only about 250 miles away, I've got more of a seasonal change than the weekly thing I see Colorado gardeners needing to deal with. I use the wildlife to draw comparisons. Somewhere, not too far from Alamosa, there is almost exactly the same forest as a short walk from my gardens. Critters. We are all likely to have to contend with the "Mountain" Cottontail as our resident bunnies. Colorado has a different species of Marmot but I suspect that he is much the same guy, and living above 6,000 feet in CO. Our Marmot lives above 2,000 and I had one run through my garden this summer (gah!). In Alaska, Marty lives at sea level! Steve who uses the forum as a journal, yeah!