February 9th

          Gordon had pneumonia, it poured, we went tractor shopping (yes, it was while he had pneumonia when we went, but it was before he knew he had it), etc. - lots of excuses why I haven't been planting.  But today Rose and I planted a chokecherry that G bought at a local nursery.  We put it below our old chicken house, on the bank above some yellow bark willows (we're unsure of the species - or even if these are native), west of the cascara G and I planted in December.

          We put two snowberries (layers or divisions I potted last summer from ours in the large island flower bed) in up by the little pond, high on the hill above the mink shed bench.  They are on the very cusp of the hill, in the sunny area near goat barns and pens.  (We don't have goats, but our neighbors have two, and we have allowed them to house and pasture them on our property for many years now.  They don't roam far afield.)  

          Snowberries were common where we lived when I was a child, in the oak and manzanita woods near Palo Alto, CA.  We picked the white berries and popped them in our fingers - a trick for a child to learn, like learning to snap her fingers.  They have delicate looking leaves and many twiggy branches.  They spread rapidly by sending out underground stems.

          I'm seven plants behind.  I need Gordon to identify some of our potted plants for me - I'm not sure what I'd be planting.  It's hard for me to positively identify ninebark, twinberry or Douglas spirea when they lack their leaves and/or flowers.  But we do have enough plants here for me to catch up.  And Friday we'll be going to the Yamhill County Soil and Water Conservation District (YCSWCD) native plant sale in McMinnville.  We'll get some plants (we've already pre-ordered) for here, and lots for the High School - G's Environmental Science class has cleared the hillside behind the new classrooms and will plant native.  Mostly it was cotoneaster, grass, weeds.)