Quote :

Alpine is a census-designated place located in Rio Grande County, Colorado, United States.[1] ZIP code 81154 serves Alpine, but mail must be addressed to South Fork.[2]

Yep, << laughing >> I relate to that!  Our mail comes from Alpine, TX and even though we're only 18 miles from Terlingua it's all addressed to Alpine 80 miles away!  I bet you have as much fun as I do explaining to people that your mail comes through a place 80 miles away ... they just don't understand.

Brewster county - the largest county in Texas; Alpine, TX the largest (and only) city in Brewster County!  If it weren't for Sol Ross University, we'd have about 4,000 in the county, with the college, it's about 9000.

And shoot, this whole thread's gone completely off topic .... that's why I mentioned my dogs being afraid of the rumble ...

LOL as the OP, I don't really care that the thread went way off topic. I think it's great. I live in a suburb area. And I'm shivering today. Texas, bipolar weather. It was nice out earlier today but now it's freezing! We've got high ceilings. Doesn't really work well with cold.

We rent. We need a slightly bigger place. We're debating on buying a house. Rent here is difficult with our dogs. It took me about a month to find this place because all giant breeds are on a restricted list. We have to go through private renters. There is absolutely no rental company that doesn't have that idiotic breed restriction list. I know, we went through five of them! We did get lucky though. Our landlord encouraged us to get the Huskies and he loves Balou. He wants us to stay. We might be looking into another house he has that's for sale.

I got up a while back and Sasha was telling me she wanted out.  Opened the door to a rush of cold air, put her on lead and she stepped onto the porch and fell - it wasn't thick, but it was a solid coat of ice.

I said earlier in this thread that I'd see a 50 degree drop in temperature - nope, in the last 24 hours it's been a 60 degree drop ... it's now all of 27 outside!  The clouds have settled in and visibility is down to about 2 miles.   Texas, I love you but sometimes you can be downright aggravating!!!

Setting here with the propane heater going full blast to get this old trailer warm - and I'll take the jacket off when it does.  I was thinking about heading into the village for breakfast (and to get warm) but if my porch is ice then the roads into town are going to be slippery and I haven't had to drive on ice for a long time ... and the locals really scare me when they get out on ice, at least I've had the experience growing up but a lot of these folks have no idea.

If it's doing this down here, I really have to wonder what it's doing up in the plains --

Wow, crazy weather!!
You all live in such interesting places!

College town here...lots of pedestrians, coffee shops, free buses...strict leash laws and every ball field has a big sign on it: "NO DOGS ON FIELD". Every trail has a posted sign "DOGS ON MAXIMUM 6' LEASH", (and has a poopy bag dispenser and a trashcan.) So my dog never gets to run free like yours! There are lots of runners, bicyclists (those active 20 somethings!) and other dogowners out and about. He is quite the dog about town though...on our walks we say Hi to dogs we know, walk through the neighborhood strip mall, sometimes sit at the frozen yogurt or coffee shop in nice weather...We know all the stores that keep bowls of water for dogs out front. :-) Rumo brings me there...

I wanted to share my latest "wet dog" discovery...So after my wet dog has come in and settled, I wrap a facetowel or handtowel around my hand and 'pet' him on his wettest spots. He minds this a lot less than the big towel! And it gets him quite dry. And when the little towel gets too damp, I just change it out for a dry one.

Shepsky13 wrote:

Wow, crazy weather!!


I wanted to share my latest "wet dog" discovery...So after my wet dog has come in and settled, I wrap a facetowel or handtowel around my hand and 'pet' him on his wettest spots. He minds this a lot less than the big towel! And it gets him quite dry. And when the little towel gets too damp, I just change it out for a dry one.

I have two who love to be wiped down, Z'ev, the resident Persnickety One and Archer, the grandpuppy.  They wriggle into the towel and clearly revel in the attention.

Then there is Ami.  Won't come in the door if he sees a towel.  Doesn't trust me if he sees the door to the kitchen is shut (its at right angles to the outside back door.)  And...if he sees the towel coming, he runs under the table and refuses to come out:



For him, since he's also the wooly that carries the most moisture, I've found using a paper towel, or even a tissue, absorbs really fast.  I just hate using something disposable but they do go in my compost pile.

Spider hates towels also but if she gets a treat first then a down into a roll with the towel on the floor then another treat she will tolerate the towel. Not sure who trained who but it works.

With rain comes flowers. Any of this out your way, Al?

Bluebonnet Alert

Since that's where I live - yep!! I'm actually surprised they've managed to last through the freezing spell we've had but they're doing well. We didn't have much of a bloom last year and the seeds stay viable for 3-5 years so we're seeing the benefits of last years weather.

The road from home into Study Butte (that's Stew-dee Byute) is amazing for it's colour this year! In the next day or so, I'm going over a friends to get a couple of plants to see if I can transplant them into the rock garden at the front of my place. It's illegal to take them off the right of way and frowned upon to pick them ("Leave them for others to enjoy!) and they have an explosive seed packet so trying to get seeds is a funny joke!

In my area they are mainly along the highway hills. They're pretty. At one point, I think last year, I saw a group of kids stopped by the police with armfuls of bluebonnets a little off the highway. I am growing flowers inside right now. I love planting.

Almoat time for me to plant tomato seeds when i figure out if i want a hybrid or which single type to grow. I have an anti- garden aka unmaintained species rose currants and and flowering weeds the hummingbirds like. But its under 2 feet of snow right now. Most things wont grow here the season is too short and the altitude is too high

We have a decent growing season, here but it takes a while to get started. I will be starting onions, leeks this week, peppers and eggplant this month. Peas will be direct seeded early April (provided the damn snow is gone!!!) Tomatoes will be started indoors early April (I may start a few cherrie tomatoes - sungold, black cherry and a white and orange, this week to grow in pots for early tomatoes by the back door) All warm season stuff go in the ground the first week of June.

I'd really like, for once, to have a successful cool weather spring crop. But that means eradicating the slugs and getting the chicken wire up under the electric fence to keep the bunnies out! I do have asparagus to come up as well as rhubarb and, hopefully strawberries. I keep trying spinach but have not been happy with it. Maybe a pH issue.

All my tomato seeds are open pollinators so i have to pick one or they hybridize. The pink Berkley tiedyes crossed with the bumblebees and i got bumblebee sized pink Berkley tiedyes. I dont have a greenhouse so nothing goes in the ground because they have to come in at night even in summer its too cold. Berries will grow here i may do raspberries when tractor supply gets them in

I'm a tomato whore. Can't get enough varieties. Cherries, heirlooms, a couple different hybrids for disease resistance, cold tolerant, paste tomatoes....I bought a storage rack from Walmart, some 4 ft florescent shop fixtures and made a plant stand for the upstairs bedroom. Here's from last year...oops, year before:



And...seeding the pots in the kitchen (a mess, but, who cares ):

Oh your kitchen looks like my upstairs i have a 1000 watt metal halide lamp and half a dozen uva uvb and infrared shop lamp lights hanging from the sealing.

My pride and joy this winter:







Orchids in the background were my mom's.

Wow

Wow...are those real?! I would have to touch them to make sure they aren't made of silk, ha ha ha.

I have never been able to rebloom an orchid in my entire life.

Real, indeed.  The dark red one is new this year - Grand Diva, Burgundy.  The flowers are as big around as my face!  

As for the orchids - they are like Christmas cactus and need a 10° drop in temperature at night.  Also, if you can manage it, humidity.  I had to put mine on fish tank gravel in a saucer with water as it is so dry with the wood heat that my flower buds were dropping before they opened.  That and...the granddaughter knocked one off, her father knocked one off and I, trying to see if the stem was flexible enough to help it grow more upright, broke off and ENTIRE STEM of flower buds.  A bit of language on that, I have to say

I'm finding the orchids finicky.  They rot easily - as I was futzing around with humidity, I tried misting the leaves.  And promptly got fungus on the smallest one.  Cut that whole leaf out, sprinkled with cinnamon (that's what the orchid society recommended) and removed from its dish of gravel/water.  Still alive.  Not yet bloomed but the buds are swelling.

@amymeme well dang! I was talking about small cute stuff like carnations heh. I'm a small time planter. Mostly, potted plants. But I did have a sunflower grow from a seed to about four feet tall. I didn't expect it to grow at all.

In my area the ground is not the best. Sand, clay, limestone mixture. I had a professor that said it was because of a massive dust bowl but it's hard to plant stuff outside here. We also have a ton of feral cats, don't get me started on that subject, but they eat anything and everything. It is possible, it just takes a lot. Which is why I prefer inside potted plants.

@thefluffisreal sounds like you need to borrow squirt you wouldnt have a feral cat problem. Im in an alpine desert at 8400 feet hardly anything grow here... except potatoes

So my Mom sent me these three pots and a few packets of seeds. I love my Mom however, she's ah not the best when it comes to anything green. She accidentally killed all of my and my sister's plants when we were young. She said she left them outside, during the winter, because she was cleaning up and then tried to thaw them on the heat register. Yeah, they all died. So the things she sends I never really know if they are going to grow. Usually, dollar store stuff. I love it though, and she's awesome for sending stuff.

@Lostmaniac, I wish that was a solution. They'd probably find and catch Squirt and do something not so nice. Don't get me wrong I love animals but ferals... People keep feeding them here without taking care of them. Fleas are a major issue. Echo never leaves the house because of the possible diseases he could pick up. Ferals have a horrible terrible life and people just won't stop feeding them. I am trying to get the catch and release program here. Also, it's a military town... Not to say anything bad about the military, my husband is a veteran, but when they move quickly a lot of families leave behind their pets. Dogs are usually picked up, cats are another matter.

I would not mind at all if we had a fixed and vaccinated feral cat colony here. We don't. Instead we have people who think that they are helping by simply feeding the feral cats. Sigh. I could go on but nah let's not bog down the post. There's better stuff to talk about.

Yeah all my tomato seeds my mom sent. Shes addicted to amazon and i got my seeds amd stuff that way shes having true empty nest issues my sis is going to cyprus to get married and she lives in Israel and im in Colorado. Shes made my house way nicer since she ran out of things to customize in her house. Im meeting her in fl next month and even tho spider isnt going and she turned 4 feb 17th my mom bought a birthday present for her "grandwolf".

Squirt is a phenomenal hunter shes killed lots of things including cats but i wouldnt let you borrow her not because id worry about her but it would put your other animals in danger and thats not cool. Im married to a vet lived on bases now we use them to camp at when we have denver va trips kirtland was overrun with coyotes particularly around the chapel dumpster and the McDonald's on base

We had a huge feral cat, deer, rabbit, woodchuck problem here. We couldn't grow anything. The cats sprayed all over and stink stank stunk! Ami took care of it all in very short order. I walked him around the property around midnight every night, to the deer bedding spots. Within daysv they changed their grazing patterns. We put up invisible fence, he patrols the critters leave us alone for the most part.

As for soil? Don't get me started. Very acid, very wet expansive clay with loads and loads of rocks. Last year was so wet with constant rain, garden was a bust. Hoping better this year.

Lostmaniac, wait borrowing other people's pets is a thing? LOL, I thought you were joking! OoOoo, I love Florida. We were thinking about moving there a couple of years ago but we're going to stay in Texas. I know it's silly but I'm too worried about Balou trying to make friends with something bigger than him that has scales... There's other stuff but that's a big one.

@amymeme, we have opossums sometimes but not many critter issues because we have the ferals. Yup, I know that smell! They sometimes will spray around our front yard near our garbage can. I sprayed some lemon pledge on the can and it actually worked. Balou has killed a kitten and a cat. We rescued one kitty and brought her into a shelter, her treed. He can be territorial over his yard but inside, nope. He cuddles with Echo, so there's that.

Meh, invisible fences are expensive. They don't always work. That and I can imagine some kid pulling it out a bunch of times. We had a beware of dog sign that some kid ripped off our fence, oh and then our Christmas decorations were kicked down. It's not that this area is bad it's near a large drop off for an elementary school. We have a privacy fence and we're going to install rollers. Basically, it's PVC pipe inside a bigger piece with thick wire running through the smaller tube. Cat's and dogs can't grasp onto it instead it just rolls.