The RJ Ranch

RED, YELLOW, BLUE

Last fall, while shopping at Wally-World I purchased a package of tulip bulbs. From the package description the bulbs had brilliant red blooms.

This is what came up. They’re beautiful, aren’t they?

Apparently someone does not fully understand the primary colors or my career as an art teacher has suddenly come to an end.

We flew over the Palouse Falls today in Roger's helicopter. We've had a lot of rain so the water is quite muddy. It's still a beautiful sight to behold though. Being the white knuckle flyer that I am it is amazing that I was able to take as many photos as I did. The weather was beautiful but the wind just bumped Rogers little R22 around like a fly in a windstorm. More than once I thought that my life was passing before my eyes.

I took over 200 photos but chose this one of the falls to post. If you click on the photo it will enlarge enough for you to see the rainbow just to the left of the falls.



I was able to capture the photo of the flowers when we landed on terra firma just west of the falls.

Last fall I planted a few tulip bulbs (60 of them – I know, what was I thinking?). I also planted some crocus and hyacinth. The latter were placed in a less protected area of the yard.

My sister-in-law told me that the deer love tulips. Not as I do as something beautiful to behold, but more as a culinary delight. I was very careful to protect the tulips. I placed them in an area near the house and hopefully a place that was not too accessible to the deer. Then I covered them with straw. I could only hope they were safe.

About a week ago I discovered the tips of the crocus and hyacinths (not covered by the straw) emerging from the ground. Two days later I found some of their little bodies ripped out and the tops eaten off. Unfortunately, my sister-in-law failed to tell me that deer also like crocus and hyacinth.

The tulips bulbs still snuggled under in the straw have not been bothered. The crocus and hyacinth are now protected by straw borrowed from the tulips. This is the first bloom on my surviving crocus and others seem to be timidly following.

Oh yes, no blooms on the tulips yet but they’re doing very well…so far.

I wonder how difficult it would be for Roger to spray 58 acres with deer repellant.

It’s Arbor Day at the RJ Ranch…
Or should I say Arbor Week

A couple of months ago we picked up a copy of a The Exchange from our local diner. In it was an ad from the Spokane County Conservation District offering trees (seedlings) for sale. The prices were relatively inexpensive so we bought a “few” trees (40 to be exact), plus the planting mix and tubes to protect our young charges from the local residents (deer).

We traveled to Spokane this last week to pick them up. Upon arrival the place was bustling with people looking at plants and paying for their purchases. Our order was neatly bundled and they began loading the trees and planting mix in the truck. I was amazed that all 40 seedlings were in one bag. I’m not sure what I expected. Maybe the word “seedling” had me confused.

There were boxes of unsold plants lining the walls (all begging to be taken home). How could we resist? We bought an additional 20 plants without considering that each had to be planted individually necessitating digging of holes, hauling of planter mix, tubes and deer repellant over uneven and rocky terrain in search of a “soft” spot among the rocks.

Last weekend Roger and I began placing the little darlings in their new homes. We planted 24 the first day. For those of you who are not quick at math, we have 36 left to plant. One day, hopefully in our life time we will see our beautiful botanical garden emerge…that is if the deer doesn’t eat it first.

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Oh yes, the photos are not from our purchase at S.C.C.D. We went out after I posted the above information and purchased 10 more plants/trees. Have we have lost our minds? Probably...