HOT OFF THE PRESS! Pictures from 10.06.07 RoundUp

Ah yes - the old "dig a trench around the tent" thing. Been there, done that . . . many times! lol.

In 1977, DH and I quit our jobs, took our savings and travelled all over British Columbia, basically going from one ghost town to the next, We were sometimes soooo far off the beaten path, that if anything had happened to us, it might be a year or more before anyone stumbled upon us.


Over time, DH learned to rig up HUGE tarps over the entire campsite - up high in the trees, so the tents, picnic table, etc,. stayed dry (though he would have to get up during downpours to drain the water off the tarp)

I think you and Kathy are to be commended for enduring . .. . too many people are too anxious to get old. I figure I will save the bed & breakfast for when I am in my 80s. lol

You practically drove by my house Sequee! As I said, I don't camp so I wouldn't know anything about the sites in Harriman. It's a great place to hike though. Probably too close to NYC to really be secluded from other campers. And yes, the Palisades Park Commission is a joke and cannot run it at all.

Hi Sequee! How are things with you, my neighbor? Have you been camping in Fahnestock State Park? So far, I've taken our gigantic 6 person tent into the backyard here, to someplace close to Lake George (don't remember) and to Cape Cod. I've been hiking in Harriman only. It's beautiful.

That's how we used to camp when I was a kid - a huge tent and cots and Coleman stoves and everything - NO TVs, though! I always imagined I would have enjoyed backpacking, having to carry in what you carry out, etc. Never got a chance to try....

xx, Carrie

Yeah - I won't be doing the Palisades Parks again, but I'm glad to have gone. And as I said, our spot was very large, wooded, and private. It's just all the rules and "hall monitors". Please...

Fahnstock and Pound Ridge are nice, but I think I prefer going the extra distance to the Catskills. Haven't tried the park in the Rhinebeck area yet, either, but I have a feeling it's a bit too "RV" for our tastes.

Ah, the Catskills. My husband's boyhood vacation spot. I've gotten rather attached too, although the electric WC wishes I would stay home where it's flat. Isn't Rhinebeck where the Omega Institute is?

xx, C

er, not that i have pictures, but i just wanted to say thanks again to all the people who brought me lovely plants!
carrie: the yarrow is making multiple new leaves (in an area where i have SO much trouble getting anything to take) and the spearmint is making little baby leaves too.
cat: at least one, maybe 2 of the blackberry plants seems to have taken well
thom: i have new growth on the smaller always afternoon, and the big one i split (sorry) to share with my new-to-gardening friend, and the part of that i have does too. and the hosta isn't apparently dead, in spite of its travel trauma and my never having had one before.
dave: like i said, BES are all making new leaves, the lambs' ear i planted in the garden seems happy, and i several of those went to the same friend
seandor: the 2 rose campion i planted are making new leaves, other 2 went to my friend

i just thought i'd say thanks and update everyone on their babies...

amy
*

I'm glad, Amy. Do you want some monarda? I ripped out one that my DH planted without authorization! It might be the same as what Harper was giving away.

x, C

I am pleased the campion are growing. I still have six I need to plant in gardens :-)

I am grateful too--thanks, Thom, for three hostas (one a giant "clump") and a begonia, who are presently looking fine. (Well, the hostas are about to go to bed for the winter, but they are good.)
And thanks to SOMEONE who gave me several hydrangea cuttings--my mind has gone to mush as to whom--but the cuttings are presently budding out. I'm trying them under lights, some in light potting soil and some in vermiculite. Was it YankeeCat? I think it was.
I am so pleased.

Glad to hear it Amy.

Heck, don't feel guilty about dividing any hosta or daylily, divide away...lol. I'm glad all of my pant kids found good homes and are behaving nicely.

CapeCod - it was YankeeCat. I'm glad they are doing well for you. The original bush has to be 50 years old that the cuttings are from. I can tell you that hydrangeas thrive on used kitty litter - I dump my cat boxes on them at my neighbor's house and tell him it is "mulch". LOL They doubled in size this summer!

I have a QuickFire hydrangea, which i was given as a seedling from a DG person, not even someone I know very well. I adore it.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/133907/

xx, Carrie

Thank you, YankeeCat--how nice to know that I have cuttings from an "heirloom" 50-year-old hydrangea. I'm pretty much of a novice at hydrangeas, but I am assuming this is a macrophyllia?

Man, I thought this thread qould maybe laast until 10/8 or 10/9! Who'd'a thunk?

CapeCod - I'll try to find my picture of the bloom for you. (I know nothing about the technical aspects of hydrangeas.)

With four cats in the house, I'm sure to have a lot of used kitty litter!! Any particular brand?

I use the kind that is cedar shavings. I wouldn't try it with the clay litter. Can't use kitty litter on anything that you might want to eat. Also I raw feed my cats so the "poops" are really tiny and dry in case I miss scooping them out before I dump the litter.

Oh well. It wa a thought. But then I thought ... what a smell that would be!!

Cat, how do you like the cedar type? Does it absorb the pee smell well enough? How expensive is it?

I like it a lot. For one thing it is very light weight and it isn't slippery when wet. I think it does well on odors - but then I don't have a very good sense of smell. And then there is the benefit of it "looking like mulch". LOL One bag lasts a long time - so it isn't any more expensive. There are some issues using cedar bedding for small animals that were discussed on the Pets Forum and I decided that since the cats are not constantly near the cedar and the area is very well ventilated, that I would use the cedar anyway. When I don't use the used litter for "mulch" I mix my junk mail in it for the trash man.

Thanks. I'm sure Mr. Trash appreciates that! I assume it's of a size that does not get stuck to them and tracked all over - correct?

How do you know when it's 'done'? Does it smell like pee at that point, when you use it as mulch? How do animals react to it? Thanks.

It is very fine - almost sawdust. When it gets wet - I scoop it out - and the "chunks" as I find them. The cedar smell covers up the urine smell pretty well. I slipped on wet clay litter when my basement flooded and had to scrape it off the floor after it dried - so that is why I switched. I will use the newspaper pellets - but they don't mask the odor at all. I tried Wheat Scoop - but I think that Wallingford has a wheat allergy so I stopped using it when he gat a sore on his paw. I haven't tried the citrus peel litter. When I wash out the boxes - that is when I visit my neighbor's hydrangeas - the fine cedar sawdust is hardly visible since it is wet with the wash water. It's just that the neighbor noticed the sawdust and mentioned it and I told him it was the cornmeal I used around his roses for blackspot this summer.

LOL you LIAR! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

The proof is in the pee. This bush can't be anymore than 3 years old.

Holy cats!!!
That's huge!!!!!!!

Looks like u-rine luck!

Grrrrrrrrr-oan.

. . . and a purr-fect mulch for hydrangeas.

Like I always say - Pees and Plenty!

whirled pees?

All she is saying, is give pees a chance

what's so funny bout pees love and understanding?

I drove 6 hours round trip today to go to Logee's open house. When I mentioned that I belonged to a gardening group that had come over Columbus Day weekend, the girls at the counter asked which one. I said Dave's Garden, and they SHOUTED, in unison, DAVES GARDEN!!!!! Everyone turned to look... What exactly did you guys do down there?
Anyway, I went to a lecture by the owner, had a very nice discussion with him, spent 4 hours and a whole heck of a lot of money, got 2 boxes of plants and my husband will be starting a citrus grove in the greenhouse. There will be no presents under the tree for me, but I got plants that had been on the must-have list for a very long time. I can never go back - neither the wallet nor the greenhouse can take much more.

We didn't do anything - did we?

Yankee, When you were dancing on the counter doing shots of Southern, that did raise some eyebrows.

db, They are big fans of DG, could that of been it?

db & Dave:

Didn't our 'guide' at Logee's mention that they had a DG membership or something?

Dave47 - I don't remember that part. But I do remember picking spagham moss out of my hair that night after Harper dropped me off. . .

They didn't speak in terms of membership, more that they remembered the group. But after they shouted, other people came up to be waited on and interrupted my interrogation.