Well, we finally got our phone back.

How to Prune Phone Calls.
Getting too many phone calls? Here's a great solution.
1. Decide to plant rose bushes near your driveway. There are usually underground cables nearby.
2. Get a nice sharp shovel.
3. Drive that shovel in deep to make a pit for a rose bush.
Chances are good that you'll slice through a cable or two. What excitement! What a perfect solution! Our phone didn't ring for a day!

That space up by the mailbox, perfect for putting the climbing Pat Austin rose, was also perfect for an underground phone cable. So our shovel sliced that phone cable clean through, all neat and tidy. Fortunately, our 20 yo son was a gem at splicing the cable. He had to dig up more of the phone cable to reroute it to get enough slack for the splicing. Which means my chosen spot for the rose bush is no longer chosen.

So now the climbing Pat Austin is going to have to lean way over in order to reach the mailbox 4 feet away. My husband says the mail lady will not want to reach through a mass of thorns to deliver our mail each day anyway. Hmmph. I think she should be happy to reach through those luscious copper blooms. I guess I'll have to make some kind of mini arch in order for the roses to reach the mailbox. And under the arch will be some other flower that doesn't need a pit deep enough to hit the phone cable.

Ok, I'm picturing a half-arch to the mailbox looking extremely funky. Which means the mail lady might not even notice those luscious copper blooms because of the weird rose half-arch. Hmm, the space under the arch would be perfect for a miniature porch swing. If you're going funky, might as well go all out.

On another positive note, we got the roses covered with mulch before the freezing weather hit. The temp on Friday night was supposed to be 32, the temp Saturday night was supposed to be 22. We covered the plants so you can't see any of the canes. I'm not sure it ever got to freezing. But tonight it's supposed to be 25. I guess we'll have to wait on planting the remaining roses a couple days more.

We still haven't figured out where to put the raised bed in the back yard. There is one tree in the middle of the back yard and all the rest of the yard is just barren clay with clumpy grass & weeds here and there. This is going to take some in depth thought and careful planning. Much like the planning that went into slicing the phone cable. Yeah.