Life Goes On

 My fascination with the area hummingbirds continues. We have had as many as 6 feeding at the feeder in front of our living room window.

 One minute they will be eating peacefully and all of a sudden one will drive the others off. They spend so much time fighting, you would think they would starve to death!

 The monsoon rains are really helping the garden. These are cherry tomatoes growing in a pot in front of the house. They are loaded with tomatoes.

 This is a random squash or watermelon that must have been sitting in the horse manure we hauled in. I decided to let it grow and see what it was.

 This is one of the big tomatoes. Of course I can't remember the name of it. It should turn out a purple color and is an heirloom variety.

 Sugar Baby watermelons. Aren't they cute? I hope they mature before the frost starts. I think they should.

 Another Sugar Baby. The seeds came out of the same package as the striped one but this one is all green. Very strange......

 Baby pickling cukes. I doubt I will get enough to can but ya never know.

 Yellow scallop squash. There are five or six so far. My mouth is watering.

 These are either yellow crookneck squash or more scallop squash. Hey, I can't help it. I replanted so many times I lost track of what was where.

 This beauty is a gallon gourd. I won't get gourds this year because the growing season is 120 days and the poor thing fought and fought the winds and sand just to get this far.

 I rooted a yam in water, broke off the vines and planted them. They are doing great but I probably planted them too late.

 Russet potatoes! I want to dig one up and see what is going on under ground but I have to be patient. Don't I?

 Pa's Okra. We were planning to pickle some but doubt we will get enough this year. Boy, the plans going around my head for next year. Our neighbors from down the road came for their first visit yesterday and next spring they are going to have a load of topsoil brought in for their garden. It is $15.00 a yard and is supposed to be good garden soil. I've been thinking of getting some also.

 Green Bell Peppers! Now I'm getting excited! I have three plants of Green and three of Golden Bell Peppers. I love those things.

 One lonely Brussel Sprout. Tom gave this to me. He has grown them for 3 years and has never had one produce one single sprout. What's with that?

 Pa's Oklahoma watermelon. Wouldn't it be nice to get one 40 pounder? We will plant them earlier next year.

This is one of those smooth potatoes that started sprouting in the pantry so I stuck it in the ground and it is doing great.
Daisy Mae and I are going to Show Low tomorrow. That is an all day trip. I'd like to get some razor wire to put around the grapes because this morning the dogs went crazy and when I looked out the bedroom window, we had a herd of young cattle surrounding our garden. Luckily we got to them before they did too much damage. Just grabbed a mouthful of grape leaves. Because Arizona is cattle country, we have no recourse except to fence the entire property in to keep the cows out. Cattle is king around here. Anyway Pa said  no razor wire. I was so proud of Jaz (mini schnauzer). She took out the front door and chased the cows clear to the next property. Of course if the rancher had seen her do this, he would have shot her but thank heavens he was no where in sight. He's killed 26 dogs out here at the ranch over the past 5 or so years. He doesn't need proof that they are maiming his cattle. All he has to say is they were bothering my cattle and BOOM, no more dog. I don't mind him killing a cattle killer but I think he should have some sort of proof. We could just fence in the area around our living space but then I would feel like I was in prison.
Frugal me gave myself a permanent yesterday. Pa put on the wave lotion after I got my hair all wrapped up. I managed the neutralizer myself. Now I kinda look like a poodle. Yes, I could have gone to Show Low and had it done but now that I am retired. I HATE SCHEDULING ANYTHING! I don't even wear a watch and seldom look at my cell phone to see what time it is. Heck, half the time I don't know what day of the week it is. and I like it that way.

"Singing in the Rain!'

 We had our first "gully washer" yesterday. Pa and I drove over to the extreme south side of the ranch yesterday to take pictures of someone's property for them. She hadn't seen her property in 4 years and had lost the ones she had taken when she bought the land. It was cloudy the entire time but as we were headed back, the clouds over New Mexico way started comin' our way.

 Thank the good Lord we got home when we did because those clouds opened up and let loose with sheets of rain for two hours. I closed the windows on the windy side of the house and sometime during the storm, the wind changed directions and started blowing rain in the windows on the other side of the house. While closing those windows, I noticed it was raining inside the window seal. Looks like the factory guys will have to come out, take the trim off the window outside and reseal the darned thing. And here I thought we had all our repairs done since the guy showed up last week and took care of chipped tile and cracks in the ceiling. We do have one piece of tile that needs to be replaced since the repair man broke too many of the ones we had. He promised to show up next weekend......we shall see.

 I loved every minute of the storm. After living in Vegas for so long and not seeing much rain for 30 years, I really love the rain.

 "Rain drops, so many rain drops, feels like rain drops, falling on my head" Yes, I did go out in it looking for the cat. She was up and under the truck and refused to come out so she had to stay out there.

 We have a new river going thru our place!

 See that tank on the end of the house? See that line half way up? That's water we caught from the gutters. In the course of 2 hours we collected 600 gallons of water from roof run off. If we'd had more containers, we easily could have caught 600 more. Everything got full and overflowed. I'm all for putting in a cistern for rainwater but will have to wait till we win the lottery.

 Gutter failure!!! We had one spot where the rain didn't make it into the gutter. Pa found out today that the flashing had come loose so he repaired that today.

We won't have to water the garden for a couple of days. 6 inches of water covered my squash and tomatoes. One of my raised beds had 6 inches of water in it so I had to slide my hand down the insides of the box until the seam between the two boards was exposed and then the water gushed out. Hard to believe but the water has soaked into the ground already. I discovered a baby scallop squash yesterday and Pa discovered some tomatoes the size of golf balls today.  I found one pea this morning, broke it open and ate the peas. Yummy!!
I was worried about Daisy Mae getting home from work yesterday. She said it was slightly sprinkling in town when she got off at 4 pm and started pouring by the time she was halfway home. She slipped and slid and made it thru the wash she has to go thu to get home. Safe and sound with a couple of harrowing moments thrown in. She had 4 wheel drive in case she needs it.
After the rain subsided, I walked around the property. You could hear a chorus of croaking all over the place.Apparently we have those toad/frogs that only come out when it rains, mate and then rebury themselves until the next rain. They can stay under the ground for years. Now tell me this....what good are they? They don't eat insects cause they are too busy getting it on. Then they dig lay eggs or what ever it is they do, dig a hole and rebury themselves. All God's creatures have a purpose but I can't figure out what those are good for. Maybe just to give us a chorus of song after a rain. It was really a nice sound.
I finally made a commitment to myself to get back on my diet and stick to it till I lose 20 pounds. I've been on it for 2 days and have shed a pound. Have you heard of Shiritaki noodles? They have no calories, no carbs, no soy. They absorb what ever it is they are cooked with. They are just used as a filler to make you feel fuller. I put in an order with Amazon.com for the fettuccine ones, angel hair pasta ones and rice ones. When you open the package, they smell kinda fishy and nasty. Then you rinse them in cold water for a minute, then blanch them in boiling water, drain and let them dry out a bit on a paper towel. Then add them to what ever you are cooking. I had a plate of them with eggs and mushrooms for breakfast yesterday. Just tasted like more eggs. Worth a try if anyone is contemplating losing weight.
Our friend Tom finally got the rabbits fenced out of his garden. His corn is finally coming back. Maybe by the time fall is here, he can have Chinese food and use the baby corn in it. We still need 100 ft of chicken wire which we will get next payday. It's funny to watch the rabbits trying to figure out why they can no longer get to the squash.
Until next time!

Humming at the ranch

 We have all sorts of hummingbirds at the ranch. Ruby throated and about 6 others.

 But this little sweet thing is a Rofous Hummingbird and we have never seen one like it. One web site I read said they were in Oregon, Washington and Northern California.

 He is an iridescent cinnamon brown with a brilliant orange throat. 

 I read another web site today that said they were

"Observed in every state and province except Hawaii, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. There was even one very unusual report from extreme eastern Siberia! The Rufous is the most widely-distributed hummingbird in North America. Winters in Mexico and possibly Panama."

 I don't care what they say, we have never seen one and think this guy is really special. His coloring is so beautiful.

 I took a bunch of pictures yesterday only to discover I forgot to put the disc in my camera!!!! Hmmmm, reminds me of the time I took pictures of the eclipse of the moon. No film in the camera for the first half so I just got the second half of the eclipse. I figured I could just turn the pictures around and see the first and second halves!

 This did make me get out my telephoto lens which I haven't used in ages.  I'm surprised the picts turned out as good as they did because the window was dirty and it was sprinkling.

 I ran to town today to get the mail before the roads got too wet. I don't have four wheeled drive so some of the roads get slippery as snot. People have either slid off the road or got bogged down and it costs $300 to get a tow truck out here.

 I just had to share this sweet little fella with you.

Tom's Garden

 This is my friend, Tom's Garden. He lives about three miles from us. He lives in his camper with his dog Max. I should have taken a picture of Max. He has such unusual coloring. When he was a puppy, I was going to steal him because he was so cute. Now he is big and gawky and still cute. He doesn't know how to relax and is a big goof ball.

 Tom's garden puts mine to shame. He bought some wire to make hoops for his entire garden. There are three or four hoops to each patch. He made each plot the same width as the shade cloth to cut down on waste. Then he used pvc pipe on the long sides of the shade cloth and fastened them to the shade cloth with plastic ties.

 Look at all this produce!!!! And he is single!!!!! And he cans his own stuff!!!! He uses a pressure canner.

 You can see in the background how he covers each plot. The milk jugs are protecting the smaller plants. Kind of like having their own green house.

 I am so jealous of his gardening success! Of course he has three years or so more experience gardening out here than I do.

 Argh! I am green with envy!!!!

 Before it gets too hot, Tom goes out and covers each plot each day. In the mornings, he uncovers each one so they can get morning sun. In colder weather, he has plastic to cover the ends. Using the shade cloth, keeps the water from evaporating after he waters.

 This has been a bad year for rabbits. He has fought them like crazy. Yesterday he said he thinks he finally got them all fenced out.

 Potatoes.

 Onions..... mine don't look any where near as good as his.

 Tomatoes. Tom makes his own salsa. I haven't tried any because he likes things HOT and I like mine mild. He gets a little paint brush and pretends like he is a bee and spreads pollen around his tomatoes. He has a lot more patience than I do. But then, I may not get a single tomato because I am not acting like a bee.

 Beans, he will have plenty to can this year.

 Squash, he says most of the blossoms are male and you need female blossoms to make squash.

 He puts mouse traps in his garden just in case they want to munch on his produce.

There, every thing is covered for the afternoon. Doesn't this look professional? He has a small fortune invested in shade cloth. I am waffling back and forth between doing my garden this way or just sticking to enclosed beds next year. I am definitely not going to plant in bags of dirt. Except for three tomatoes, I took everything out of the bags and planted in the ground. I have noticed that the rabbits haven't touched the tomatoes in the bags. Maybe they don't like walking on the plastic.
Another thing Tom does is weave Indian baskets. He was taught by some Western Mono Indian women. He did so well, they gave him an Indian name "Hibece" (Hib-a-chee) which means Old Woman. Next time I am over to his place I will take some picts of them. They are beautiful. He even does bead work on them. I'm talking about beading the entire basket!!! I tried beading some little thing years ago and said this is not for me! Talk about patience! I'm saving up my pennies and will try to talk him into selling me one.
We had a lovely rain last night. Pa connected a barrel to one of the downspouts and it is half full already. I will buy some flashing this week and we can fix the gutters so the other containers can fill up. That will make great water for the garden.