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.