It's Where?

It's so nice to have help with those maintenance chores - hard to find a handyman to do that sort of thing.

We have a type of bush called Siberian Pea my mother planted 46 years ago to restore the vegetation along the riverbanks after a devastating flood. They grew fast and made a nice privacy hedge along our yard, plus stabilizing the soil. They reproduce via seeds that pop out of pods in August, shooting 3 and 4 feet out from the bush, and they are starting to become a nuisance - a good example of invasive. Like you, we feel like we might have missed the time to get aggressive with them. In the winter, when there's no leaves, I try to cut some of the bushes back because it's just sticks instead of branches with bulky leaves.

Once in awhile we pick a section and cut them back severely, but unless we kill the roots, pruning just encourages them to re-grow even faster. I alternate between fretting about it and thinking that we're old and we won't live long enough to see it get really bad.

Thanks Martin!

We are somewhat blessed to be getting a rain shower most afternoons, but will pay for it in August when those showers don't come any more, and it all dries out = fire danger.

I am about to shut down our water association's website waterassnrockies.com because it's too expensive and too much work to maintain it. Going to put the info on a Facebook group. The main goal of a web presence is so realtors know to contact us when they list the properties in the association. Is there a risk of someone buying that domain name and turning it into a porn site?

Teal, I'm so sorry. Thank you for letting us know, I'll be thinking about you and sending much love.

I can't decide if I need to start going out to eat more, a lot more, in the search for a satisfying experience. Prices are high, and the food isn't correspondingly better or what I feel is worth it. I haven't had good restaurant food in 3 or more years, but that's only about 8 meals, so not a big enough sample.

I don't keep close track of the restaurants you tell us about, but I think the Quarterdeck would be my favorite.

Thanks Martin!

Hi, Kevin! I'm happy that you're still hanging in there.

All this restaurant talk makes me think about getting Mr. Troutbend to take me out to eat more often than twice a year. A few years ago we had a gift card to McDonald's and I had one of their new type burgers - it was so good! A real treat. He was scornful because in his mind the reason to go to McDonald's is to get their cheapest, flattest burger and remember back in the 1970s and 80s when he bought lots of Happy Meals because he was collecting the Beanie Babies. It sounds like we should try Arby's - because they 'has the meats.'

They're all fortunate to have you as their grandmother, just as we're all fortunate to have you as our friend.

I'm looking forward to seeing it some time.

I always learn a lot when things go wrong and I discover the loopholes in my planning. A few years ago we had a big May snowstorm (similar to what's going on here right now) and there were major power outages. Our generator ran for a couple of days and then quit and wouldn't restart. I discovered we needed a camp stove and a few other survival things I'd forgotten about. And we found out we need to check the generator's oil levels frequently during extended usage.