Shanty Town Garden

First of all, I just had to share this picture of my Grand-daughter, Sarah. Isn't she just beautiful? She was all gussied up to go to her boyfriend's senior prom. Seeing this picture just took my breath away.

 We have our first hummingbird of the season. I can hear you thinking, "Oh no, another summer of hummingbird pictures!"  Ha, ha, you are probably right.

 Since this was the first one, he/she can claim property rights and spend the entire summer chasing the other hummers away. We've already seen another one. Pa said they buzz his hat that has a red brim when he is puttering around outside.

 We tore out part of the garden fence to haul all the sand out of it. Wayne came over to drill some holes with his auger to help Pa fence the front of the property to make the POA happy. I asked him if he would take a few minutes to scrape the sand out of the garden.

 You can see how deep the sand is by where the shovel sits in the ditch where the fence was.

 Kind of hard to get any sense of depth, but just think at least 6 inches deep.

 We wanted to just scoop some sand  up but Wayne had other ideas.

 He used the back end of the tractor and scrapped out way more than 6 inches. A lot of my garden soil went with it. He dragged it over to the field. So I am back to square one with the garden.

 He dumped a couple buckets of horse poo in after he was done. I raked it all over and will roto till it after we get the front fencing done to our property. Won't do much good to plant yet because it is supposed to freeze tonight. My new strawberries are really doing well tho. If it freezes, my asparagus will freeze again.

 We decided to line two sides of the garden with corrugated roofing, hoping that would keep some of the sand from blowing in. Not too pretty but if it works, I don't care.

 Remember when you were a kid and went on Sunday drives and you would see junk yards or those road side zoos? They were always surrounded by corrugated roofing, rust and all.

 Pa said it reminded him of Shanty Town so I will have to make a sign saying "Shanty Town Garden".

With my expert help......we got two strands of barbed wire strung on the short side of the fence along with rehanging the gate. It now goes across our drive way. We are going to keep it locked and give keys to a couple of friends. Don't know what is going on in Wayne's head but as soon as he drilled holes for the pipes and rail road ties, he took off like he was on fire. I had planned on inviting him for dinner but he didn't even stop in to say bye. I told Pa that I felt weird feelings coming off him in waves like he really didn't want to help or even be here. I think the only reason he helped was because we've done so much for him. People are so strange out here. One minute they are your best friend and the next minute they don't want to have anything to do with you. I told Pa I am done helping people. DONE, DONE, DONE. Ok, there are a couple , three exceptions but I'm done being used.

 For the past couple of weeks, I've been making a bouquet for my mom for Mother's Day. Everything except the Spanish Moss is made from card stock, even the ferns and vase.

 I've got it all wrapped up and ready to send. I'll probably faint when I go to the post office to mail it but heck, my mom is worth it.

All the flowers were so time consuming! I got to the point where if I saw another flower, I was going to scream! But I had to keep going so I had enough to fill the vase. I hope it goes thru the mail ok. She may have to fluff the bouquet out a bit.

Pa and I celebrated out 18th wedding anniversary on the 26th of April. We made each other a card and neither one of us even put it in an envelope. Celebrated is stretching it a bit as it was just another day in paradise. He did his thing and I did mine. I cooked dinner, he did the dishes and that was that. Having never been married this long, is this normal? Oh well, it works for us.

Since starting seeds in the house, we have little fruit type flies all over the place! They came with the planting soil. I will be so glad when I can plant everything in the garden and get it out of the house. Usually I put a flea collar on top of the soil and that kills them off but we have so many trays of seeds, it just isn't possible. So when the time comes, I'll gently take the trays out side along with the majority of the flies and that will get rid of a lot of them. I usually bake the soil in the oven first but I had too much soil and didn't want to take the time to do it. Maybe we'll get a bug bomb and set it off in the house after I get the seedlings planted.

Poor Pa, this fencing business is exhausting him! We have to get it done as soon as possible so the cows can't get in and eat my fruit trees. The cows have so over grazed the ranch, there are very few places that still have any grass standing so I know they are just waiting for the chance to come and eat ours. Not as long as I have a pellet gun and Pa has his sling shot!

Alrighty then, that catches us up for now. Toodles!

Such a discouraging week!

   I have been so down this week. The only bright spot was getting so see P and B and having M and E over for dinner one evening. We haven't seen M and E for almost a year. They own property here at the ranch. They are such a lovely couple, we really like them and wish they could move here full time. Unfortunately they have to wait till they are old enough to retire. I told them that by the time they retire, we'll be dead of old age!
   The wind has been getting me down. It has blown in 6 inches of sand into my garden space. The only part that is pretty much sand free is where I placed my planter boxes. That leaves 60 % of the garden under sand. I started digging the sand out but after 3 wheel barrel loads, the wind started up again and my back was hurting. I dug out my poor asparagus so their little heads were above the sand. Not that it did much good because we have had freezes the past couple of nights and their heads were frozen. It didn't hurt the roots tho so they should make a come back.
   Pa's truck has been broken for a couple of weeks. He finally got it to run after replacing the spark plugs and plug wires yesterday. We washed all the mud off of it from rescuing Wayne.
 UPDATE 4/23/2013 I removed my ranting. My daughter said I sounded pathetic. I'ts amazing what rage does to you. Tried to shovel more sand out of the garden but my friend, the wind, showed up so it was fruitless. Told Pa that this is my last year for gardening. I'm tired of fighting the sand. We need a hoop house, like that will ever happen. Wayne said he would bring his tractor over so we could put railroad ties in where needed for the fence that we have to put in. Pa and I are going to Show Low tomorrow to buy barbed wire. He went to the scrap yard today and his friend who works there gave him a killer deal on fence posts. Bless his heart!
 

Spring....Part 2?

     Old man Winter and Spring have been battling it out for the last couple of weeks. One day it's in the 70's and the next it is in the 40's. Makes life interesting for sure!
     My friend Nancy and I went to Springerville/Eager to pick up our Bountiful Basket order last Saturday. I ordered two regular packs, the Italian pack and bread. I also volunteered to help  sort produce into the baskets and got an extra asparagus for helping. My fridge and freezer are so full, you couldn't get a gnat's butt in there anywhere.

 Mini peppers

 Seedless tangerines or mandarin oranges, like Cuties, only a bit bigger.

 Asparagas

 Strawberries, which were incredible. Not at all like the ones you buy in the store.

 Grape tomatoes, again, just bursting with flavor.

 Eggplant, peppers, parsley, onions, garlic. I gave an eggplant to Tom. When I was forced to eat it as a child, I threw up right in my plate! My parents never made me eat it again. Honestly, it tasted like slime.

 This is basil, I think. It sure smells good and tastes great.

I had so much parsley from last time, I let the birds eat the it. I froze a bunch of parsley in ice cube trays with water.
    So Monday, we had winds up to 64 MPH. I think it blew that hard most of the day. My garden has 6 inches of sand in it. There is no way I can dig out that much sand so I will roto-till it and hope not too much damage has been done to the soil.  We woke up Tuesday morning to 3 inches of wet, soggy snow. It melted pretty fast but continued to snow all day. The snow didn't stick but it was cold. Thank God for our wood stove! It kept us warm and toasty all day.

Pa made stir fry. OMG, it was delicious! Who cares about snow when you can have Stir Fry?

     Wednesday morning at 6:30 the phone rang. It was Wayne. Turns out he decided to go to town on Tuesday during the nasty weather and on his way home, he drove off the road , here at the ranch. The roads were soggy and slippery so of course he got stuck. Instead of calling us Tuesday, he spent a cold, chilly night in his car. He used up all his gas trying to keep warm. He had groceries in his car and the dogs ate his hamburger. Doesn't this sound like a comedy? Pa went to rescue him in his just washed truck and got stuck himself!!! Pa had to call another neighbor with four wheeled drive to come and rescue him. When Pa got home, his truck was caked in mud, inside and out. He was not a happy camper.
    Thursday, Pa decided to go to town to pick up a weeks worth of mail. The roads had dried out except for a couple of pot holes. I called him to tell him that he left the package pick up slip in my truck and guess what? His phone was ringing in his office!!!  A little later, my phone rang with a strange number on the screen. I wasn't going to answer it but glad I did. It was Pa. His truck died on one of the ranch roads and wanted me to come and pick him up. I had just spent 3 hours on Sunday, washing my truck inside and out and my heart sank. But duty/love calls, so mud be damned!  Turns out a nice rancher, not our local rancher, stopped by to see what Pa needed and loaned him his phone. I knew I had packages in the mail so suggested we just go on into town and get it. Once we were there and read the sale ads, we also went to Springerville and picked up a few groceries. When we got home, Pa ran down to Tom's to get help towing his truck back to the house so he could work on it.
   It has warmed up considerably today. A good day to work on the truck. Unfortunately, the truck is not co-operating and doesn't want to get fixed. I hope we don't have to tow it to town! I'm on my third load of laundry and also working on something for a Mother's day gift for my Mom.
  We will be having visitors in the next few days. Our friends who own property at Sierra Highlands are moving here, kinda.They don't have a house yet so will spend time between Sierra Highlands, Show Low and So. Arizona.  And our friends from San Diego are coming here to the ranch to visit their property. Pa is making dinner for our guests, bless his heart!
    alrighty!  That catches us up for now. We sure hope a certain someone has enough sense to stay inside during bad weather from now on.

Bountiful Baskets part 2

Not much going on at the ranch right now. The spring winds have arrived and so have my allergies. I don't seem to be allergic to the plants and trees but am pretty sure it is the dust I am allergic to. Oh well, no use crying altho it might make my eyes feel better. I did laundry yesterday and hung it on the line. When it was dry, the wind was blowing and by the time I got the clothes off the line, my eyes felt awful! We had our neighbors Don and Nancy over for dinner and all evening, I was scratching and digging at my eyes as the left one overflowed with tears. I've been using Flonase which does wonders on runny noses. This morning I took an allergy pill, used Flonase and put allergy eye drops in my eyes. Nancy and I went to Springerville/Eagar to pick up our food baskets and I was still dabbing at my eye.

Really, people, you need to check out BountifulBaskets.org.  This time I ordered the juice pack, hostess pack , the regular pack and 5 loaves of 9 grain bread for $49.50. All the produce is top of the line and so fresh, it could reach up and slap you in the face. We got butter lettuce,2 celery, rosemary, ginger, basil, bananas, pineapple, oranges, tangerines, apples, avacados, grapefruit, zuchinni, carrot, asparagus, avacados,  a burpless cuke, bag of red potatoes, parsley, spinach, brocolli, a beet, onions ,lemons, limes , radishes, and a mini watermelon. There's probably a few things I forgot. Nancy was pretty impressed and said next time, she will order a couple other packs. Much better quality than you can get at the store. It is nation wide so I'm sure you can find a delivery place near you. Today, I volunteered to fill baskets so got an extra pineapple as a thank you. Check it out!!!!

My bookshelves arrived from Target. I was leery of what the quality would be but they are very nice!

They are 30 inches wide and 6 feet tall. I usually like things in a wood finish but thought white would look cleaner (until the dust settles on them) . I love them! They are sturdy and have no problem holding tons of card stock. Pa and I put the first one together. It came with step by step instructions and each step had a certain number of hardware pieces to go with it and were in their own little packets. Can we just say, Pa referred to the instructions once or twice and put it together the way he thought it should go. Packets be damned! Fortunately, everything went together just fine.

 These pictures are out of order but here is the almost finished piece.

 various shelves

 Coming out of the box. Notice the open front door? It was such a lovely day with the temps close to 70.

Two bookcases in my craft room! I am sorting as I go and have all my 12x12 card stock on the shelves. Now onto the  8 1/2 x 11 and I should have room for other things as well. I still have some birthday money left and went to order another one and they aren't on sale anymore!!!!! With free shipping!!!!!! So I'll have to keep an eye on Target so I can find it on sale again. Did I mention I put the second bookcase all together by myself? And I did follow the instructions, step by step and opened each hardware packet as it was called for. I'm such a rule follower! Pa makes his own rules. Makes for an interesting relationship.....

Due to a fantastic deal Pa got on a roto tiller, the garden is all tilled and ready to go. I arranged my boxes, I really need more, and planted some seeds in the house, cabbage, brocolli, tomatoes and some lettuce. Next week, I'll start the viney things. They usually grow so fast, they start blooming in the house. My apple and peach trees will arrive next week. I uncovered the box where the strawberries were plus some onions and lo and behold, the strawberries are alive and so are the onions! There were only 5 strawberry plants but 25 more should come in the mail soon. My rhubarb is coming up also. We haven't seen any signs of the asparagus so hope it made it thru the winter. If it can survive along side the road in Illinois in the winter, it should survive here. I still can't get enthused about the garden but hopefully when I get going, I'll enjoy fighting the potato bugs, tomato worms, birds and mice AND rabbits.

Pa has seen 3 wolves out here! Did  I mention that in my last post?  Maybe that's why I don't like to go walking by myself. I'm trying to find a hand gun I'm more comfortable with to take on walks but haven't found "the one" yet.

Lawsy mercy! I've gotta go and put some more eye drops in my eye. It feels like I need to take it out, rinse it in the sink and put it back in my eye socket. Just my luck, it would roll down the drain, never to be seen again!
Toodles! 

Bountiful Basket Update

Neither rain nor snow or sleet or hail will keep us from getting our food! In spite of the weather, we had to go to Springerville today to pick up our Bountiful Basket order or lose the money. If you don't show up, they donate it to charity. It was snowing like crazy but not sticking.  One mile of the road getting out of the ranch was nothing but snot so we slipped and slid all over but got in and out of the ranch ok. My poor truck is covered in mud.
This is what we got in our basket:
2 celery
1 boc choy
1 lb of strawberries
4 green peppers
9 bananas
1 bunch asparagus
1 lettuce
3 mangos
1 big clove garlic
7 mini pears
That was $15.00 and for an extra $10.00 we got 5 loaves of various bread. Basha's Grocery was having a sale on Chuck roast for $1.88 a pound so we bought four of those.

This big puppy was $47 and change and we paid $14.00 so how could we resist a sale like this? I cut them in half , wrapped them twice and froze them. If nothing else, I can grind it up for hamburger. I love sales like this. We have to eat so I don't feel guilty spending the money. Now, if it were for a new purse, the guilt would set in.  I don't think I would go 110 miles round trip just for $15.00 worth of produce but with meat sales thrown in and lunch out with Pa makes it worth while.

The weather man said it was supposed to clear up today. The weather man has no idea what he's talking about!!!!!  It has snowed off and on all day. It isn't sticking at least so I guess we should be grateful. I'm just ready for Spring! Where the heck is it? I'm just glad we don't have to go anywhere till Wednesday. Hopefully things will dry out a bit or else I'm not going. We have plenty of food to keep us going for a couple of months. Except I forgot to buy potatoes. OH well!

Chocolate Pie and Bluebirds

Lawsy Mercy, where has the time gone? Living out here in the middle of nowhere, we never seem to know what day it is so you'd think the time would just drag by. Not at all!!! Time goes by so fast, it is scary! My birthday was Feb 22nd . On my birthday, I usually look in the mirror, examine my face and say to myself, "My mom has to have made a mistake on my birth certificate. I can't possibly be this old!"  I don't think like an old person, act like an old person and people tell me I don't look like an old person either. But ya have to accept facts, so this year, I didn't look in the mirror and go thru my usual birthday routine. Pa has a birthday on Friday and he will be 71. My GAWD, I'm married to an old man!!!!!!! But let me tell ya, that old man can out work men half his age. He can cook too!

Is this not the most beautiful chocolate meringue pie you've ever seen? Everything except the pie crust was made from scratch. Pa found the meringue recipe in an old cook book. At some point you cook the meringue on top of the stove before putting it on the pie to bake in the oven. It doesn't shrink or weep and tastes delicious.

For the month of February, Tilly killed 12 rabbits in the garden! Believe it or not, it hasn't even made a dent in the rabbit population around here. She killed one last night so the tally for March has begun. She usually won't let go of it but as soon as she killed it, she lost interest so we didn't have a tug of war.

Tom came over yesterday to say he was going to the abandoned property where we get our horse fertilizer. He needed some for his garden. I volunteered to go with him to help him shovel it in. We got a big pick up load full. By the time we were done, I was feeling my age. I was tired for the rest of the day. Pa volunteered to reheat the chicken and noodles we had the night before for dinner. I appreciated that very much!

After a week of no birds in the yard, we had Robins, Western and Mountain Bluebirds, Redshafted Flickers and Pipets at the bird bath yesterday. All the Bluebirds wanted to take a bath so water was flying everywhere. They pretty much emptied the bird bath.

 The Robins were in the front yard.

 The Flicker was in the back yard.

 Bluebirds everywhere! Some of them are sooooo blue!

 I really laughed watching them try to bathe with so many birds in the bird bath.

 I used to fill the one that's sitting on the upturned clay pot with bird seed but it seemed they needed the water the most.

 And I thought they needed to work for their food so I just throw it on the ground so they can scratch for it. That way, the Blue Jay's can't just stand there and scoop up whole mouthfuls.

 If I remember correctly, the Mountain Bluebirds are pretty much all blue and the Western Bluebirds have some red on their breast.

 I have joined Bountiful Baskets.Org
It is a food co-op and is nation wide. For $15.00 you get a basket of half fruit/half veggies. For $10.00 or $12.00 extra, you get 5 loaves of bread. You can get other things also like 40 pounds of tomatoes, oranges, a juice basket filled with fruits that you can juice. My BFF Katie got one and said everything is wonderful. Unfortunately they don't deliver to St. Johns so I will have to go to Springerville to pick it up. I told Pa that we could go together and have dinner while we were there. We could have a delivery to St. Johns if we got enough people to order so maybe sometime in the future, I'll see about that.

You who know me, know I'm all about bargains. I recently bought three dog beds and new bras from this site: http://1saleaday.com/
They have some awesome deals but you have to check every day because each day is different.

Pa went to Show Low this morning and will be gone most of the day. It's nice to have the house all to myself for a change. He's usually out side doing man things anyway so I really have the house to myself  most of the time. I'll go to Show Low next Wednesday which is pay day to stock up on stuff. There are a few "Preppers" out here. They all tell me I should start prepping in case of doomsday. I have enough for a couple of months and if times got really bad, I would have no problem helping myself to one of the rancher's cows. But we never seem to have extra cash to start buying those number 10 cans of dried stuff to store away. We joke with Tom and tell him we'll just come over and steal his supply. Survival of the fittest. That was kind of the idea I had to have a garden and buy heirloom seeds. I never get enough garden goodies to harvest seeds!  I am not eagerly looking forward to gardening this year. I did buy seeds tho and ordered two apple trees and a peach tree and some strawberry plants. Maybe if I have better gardening luck this summer, I'll get my mojo back.

My daughter sent me a book for my birthday. "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. It is a daily book of 2 minute devotionals. I really love it and added it to my daily Bible reading. I'm still plowing thru the old Testament. I make it sound like a chore but I really enjoy the history as well as the messages and promises we can apply to our daily lives.

Speaking of mojo, I need to get some for crafting. I'm tired of playing on my computer, tired of reading and tired of crafting. I think it's just a case of spring fever. I want to be outside and go exploring. Speaking of outside.....my laundry is done so I had better sign off and hang the clothes out on the line.
Until next time!

The Storm of 2013

Our friend Wayne had a birthday this month so we invited him over for dinner to celebrate. I baked a cake and made "Mama Linda's Famous Tacos". I was going to fix steak but Wayne has that quite often so he really appreciated tacos. I bought him a gag gift and put it in a cracker box. He had a good time especially since he has no one to celebrate special days with. I really feel sorry for our bachelor friends so try to do something special for them on their birthdays or holidays.

My killer dog, Tilly has killed 9 rabbits so far this month. I don't even have to be in the same room with her to know that a bunny is in the garden. She has a different bark/whine for when they are just running around in the yard and when they are in the garden.

 After she catches it I let her bring the bunny in the house if it's not bleeding. She parades it around in front of the other dogs and growls to keep them away.

She's not the least bit interested in eating the bunnies she catches. She'll carry them around for awhile and then we play tug of war so I can throw them outside where the ravens eat them. Nine rabbits won't make much difference to the garden in the summer but at least we can keep the count down a bit.

This is a new bird coming to our birdbath. Have no idea what it is but it has long legs. We have a whole flock of them hanging around.

 We were expecting a winter storm yesterday. It was supposed to get here in the morning but didn't arrive until 4:30 in the afternoon. The wind was blowing like crazy so we had white out conditions. Luckily we prepared and had wood stacked up by the front door and Pa went to the well and got water.

 We really couldn't tell how much we got because there were patches of no snow and snow drifts to about 12 inches.

 Our neighbors came over to hunt this morning. You could see rabbits scattering everywhere. It's too bad they didn't come across the rabbit I threw out this morning. They don't seem to be very smart when it comes to hunting. They trot along with some distance between them hoping to flush out a rabbit.

 They must be eating well tho because they have beautiful coats and look very healthy.

 "Yo, Bro! Do ya see anything?"

 It is still gently snowing but I don't care cause I'm snug as a bug in a rug. After living 15 years in Illinois and surviving the winter of "78, I thought I'd never want to see snow again. Sure does make a big difference when ya don't have to go out in it. After 30 years living in Vegas, it's a nice change. I got so tired of seeing everything in different shades of brown in Vegas. Here, we have the trees that are green and in summer we get grass that is sometimes green and all sorts of wild flowers depending on the rain.

 Pa hates being cooped up in the house all day so he is anxious for the snow to go away. It sure would help if he had a hobby or at least would play a couple rounds of Scrabble with me. I have no one to play Scrabble with and my digital disk of Scrabble quit working. I set up my old computer and it has a game called Acropolis on it which is a word game so I enjoy playing it. I can't get past level 10 tho so I set up another player and am still stuck on level 10!

 When the sun comes out, the snow will be gone in no time except for in the front of the house where it is shady most of the day.

 The three stooges don't seem to mind the snow but they don't stay out in it long.

 More snowy scenes for your viewing pleasure. On the news last night, they said even Phoenix got snow. Show Low got a lot more snow than we did. And Flagstaff got even more.

I made Apple Crisp yesterday and Pa is supposed to make a chocolate meringue pie today if he ever gets inspired. He makes the best chocolate meringue pie! It's all from scratch too. He made dinner last night. It's a recipe he used to make when he went hunting. He calls it stuff and I call it hunter's stew. Every thing comes out of a can except for the hamburger and it is very warming and delicious with corn bread on the side. Gosh, that sounds so good I might go have some for lunch!