WVR Dog Pound

 It appears that we have become the dumping ground for stray dogs.

 You already met Sadie. She was such a sweetheart. I wanted to keep her but Pa said no.

 I found her a good home in Eager which is next to Springerville.

Look what showed up last week! Two of the sweetest Rotties on this earth. I named the old one Grace and the young one Hope. They were so friendly and loving. As usual we scouted around to see if anyone was camping at the ranch and didn't find a single soul. As you know, we live in the middle of nowhere so the only way they could have ended up here was to be dumped. I really wanted to keep these beauties but we found them a good home where they could be inside and not have to lay in the dirt all day. They took to their new owner right away. Wonder what will show up next? Maybe a horse! Can I keep it, can I keep it?

Our friend Luis took us fishing at Show Low Lake. It is right behind Home Depot in Show Low. We didn't even know it was there. It is really beautiful!

 Pa and I bought new fishing rods and got our fishing licenses. We left at 6 in the morning, stopped at McDonalds for breakfast ( Pa hates McDonalds and threw his breakfast sandwich away) and off we went to fish.

 Luckily we brought chairs and lots of fishing gear. Unfortunately, Pa woke up with a very stiff and sore neck and wasn't feeling very well. But being the trouper he is, he just sat there with his line in the water and didn't move very much.

 I haven't fished in years so Luis took me under his wing and got my hook put on my line, baited my hook and cast my line out. I was bound and determined to cast my own line and after a few practices, got pretty good at it. It was pretty breezy which was a God send because as usual I was totally unprepared for the sun. The breeze kept me cool.

 We were fishing right from this spot. Down the embankment.

 We really need a small boat. Got one you want to give us?

 Choppy water

 There is the dam.

 and guess what folks! I caught the first fish! My arms were burnt to a crisp. I finally had to take my shirt off, drape it over my shoulders and cover my arms. I wish I would have worn my sunglasses because even the rims of my lower eye lids got burnt. We were only planning on staying till noon......

 Luis caught the second fish

 and the 3rd fish. His last fish got caught on a rock while he was reeling it in and he couldn't get it to shore. I was standing ready with the net and he was so distressed that he would lose his fish, I finally waded out with my shoes on and netted it. He was so happy. It was the largest fish caught that day. Poor Pa didn't catch a thing. Can you believe that? He has been a mighty fisherman for years and for him to not catch anything is unbelievable. He felt so rotten I don't think he minded tho. Luis gave us all the fish. Next time I am taking a long sleeve shirt, using sun screen and wearing sunglasses. I was thinking of making me a jacket using shade cloth from Home Depot! At least I didn't get over heated like I usually do and get sick.

My poor garden and flowers. Critters have been having a feast. Until last year, we hadn't seen any ground squirrels (chipmonks) but this year they have been skipping about all over the place. I got out one of my handy dandy Harbor Freight traps and managed to trap 4 baby ground squirrels. They were so darned cute, I couldn't do them any harm so I took them two miles down the road and set them free.

We've had dozens of mice and rats fall in the buckets of water that we set around to get rid of them. Are we ever going to run out? There must be millions of them.

 So here is one of my hanging baskets that used to be full of Petunias.

 Here is where they ended up.

 This is what it is supposed to look like.

 This is one of my desert Spiderworts after a rabbit turned the cage over and ate it.

 Here is what it is supposed to look like. We have to cage everything to protect them from varmits.

 I took a cutting from our cottonwood tree and it's doing quite well. That cage thing is protecting my yellow rose bush.

 Pa made this horse trough thing for me to put plants in to protect them from the bunnies. He cut a pipe in half and welded on legs. Not too pretty but by this time, half the plants would have been eaten. I'll bring them in the house for the winter.

 Once again, I'm growing my own milk. Did you know this is what a dairy farm looks like? Ha ha. This is how we protect our garden plants until they get big enough so the critters won't want to eat them. The last row is Okra and the other rows are green beans. If we don't do this, the critters will either dig them up and let them lay there or else eat them.

 Cantelope and cukes. I had to replant everything because the ones I started in the house died. I think starting them in the house is a waste of time. The plants are stronger when you just plant the seeds outside to begin with. I don't think you gain any growing time because the seeds catch up to the starter plants.

 Mutant tomatoes. They are finally putting out some new green branches so they might produce after all.

 I had grapes this year but the birds ate them all.

 I really only wanted the grapes for the leaves to add to my pickles to keep the pickles to stay crisp. It actually works.

 In order to get things to grow here, you have to keep shade cloth on the plants for the entire growing season. We are so high up ,6000 feet, the sun just bakes everything.

 There is spinach and bell peppers growing in here, plus two tomatoes that I thought were peppers.

 The broccoli is doing great. A guy in town said no one in town grows broccoli and was surprised I have such good luck with it.

 This is yellow squash. I should cover it up but I decided to see what it would do in the great outdoors.

 a green bean! Almost the entire planting came up this year. Remember when I had to plant green beans 5 times before getting a single bean?

 Something ate the zucchini so I had to replant.

 This is the first year I had any luck with carrots. I read on someone's blog to make a row, sprinkle seeds in it, cover it with vermiculite and then cover with burlap. Leave the burlap on until the carrots start to grow and get a good root system and then take the burlap off. I had to put shade cloth over it so keep the birds from eating the tops off the carrots. Something ate almost the entire first row this year.

 I planted 25 garlic bulbs and 24 came up so I hope we get a good crop this year.

 A full 6x6 bed of red and yellow onions. When I planted them, they bulbs were all dried up so I didn't think I'd get anything. I was astounded to see almost everyone started growing.

 My dill came up from last year right in the middle of my everbearing strawberries. The berries were kind of stunted until I put a shade cloth over them.

 I should have covered my June strawberries earlier. I think they cooked before putting any berries on so I don't think I'll get anything this year.

 another replant thanks to the wind knocking my milk carton over and some dastardly creature ate my plant.

 One of my apple trees. This is the 2nd summer for them

 This one is a Gala. I needed it to pollenate my Honeycrisp. Hopefully, I'll get an apple or two next year.

 This is our peach tree. Unfortunately the one we planted last year didn't make it so we had to buy another one.

 Our Cherry tree. First year. I ordered a Cherry and an Apricot but got two cherries. Oh well, Pa loves cherries. My plum tree didn't make it so we dug it up and took it back to the store and got a refund. I'll get another one next year.

 Some bird has made a nest under the water tote. This is the first nest we have seen here altho we have plenty of birds. I wonder if it is a hummingbird nest but it looks too big.

 Our caged Lilacs. This year, the furthest one put on some blooms but the wind came up and dried the blooms out before they could open. Maybe next year I'll put some plastic around it to protect it.

 This Mugo pine has been here for 3 years and hasn't grown at all.

 3rd year for my Peoni and it has never grown a blossom. Notice the BBQ grill over it? Keeps the critters from digging up the bulb and eating it.

 another example of  critter protection. Unfortunately, they ate my Wisteria and Petunias before I put the rack over the top. I noticed that they are growing back thol.

I've been wanting a wind chime that bongs and found this at Tractor Supply for $30.00. Ones this size at Lowe's run $50 or $60. They were on sale for 25% off and then I used my refund for the plum tree and bought this one. It sits right outside my craft room and is so relaxing to hear.

Speaking of crafts, my cutting program crashed and I lost over 4000 cutting files. I recovered the ones I purchased but the ones I made myself are somewhere in the great beyond. I had just backed them up the night before but was unable to recover them. Luckily, I shared them with my two girlfriends in Holbrook so one of them is going to burn me a copy so I can get them back. There were a few I didn't share so they are gone forever. I discovered that Windows has a backup program so I am using that to backup everything and storing it on my new external hard drive. My other one is full of digital stamps and craft paper. I don't download as much digital craft paper anymore due to limited computer time. I wish computer time wasn't so expensive out here off the grid. We pay close to $100 a month for 15 gigs. Pa is on the internet a lot when the weather is bad and he can't be outside. We can't watch watch anything on Youtube or any other videos because that really eats up those 15 gigs.

Alrighty then, that's it for now. We are going to Nelson Reservoir near Springerville/Eager to go fishing tomorrow morning. Luis said he caught his limit in less than an hour on Friday so we are hot to trot! I'll take pictures and post them here some time next week. Take care, ya hear?

Missing in Action

Well, it's been awhile. So much has been happening around here, all good in my opinion. First, we had some family members move in with us so they could get a second start at life. Life hadn't been too kind to them in their previous town. They couldn't find jobs in a huge metropolitan city but found jobs in Show Low the first week. Go figure! They stayed with us a month, driving back and forth to Show Low in my truck. I sure did miss my truck even tho I rarely go anywhere. Thanks to the kindness of other family members, they were able to get their own place in Show Low about 2 miles from work. They will have to walk until they can afford a car but they are young so I don't think the walking will hurt them. I'm not too comfortable with them walking home at midnight but that's where God comes in with his angels protecting them. I really enjoyed having them around. Someone to talk to and play Scrabble and Sequence with. One of our neighbors gave them a bed and will give them a sofa and recliner when we can get over there to pick it up. Wow, God is so awesome, He had everything fall into place at just the right times.

Then this little girl showed up on our door step. She was such a cutie and there was no way she could have arrived here unless someone dumped her. She was so thirsty, she drank 4 cereal bowls of water in a couple of hours and ate a huge amount of dog food. Her body was long like a weiner dog, her markings were like a border collie and her face had wired hair. Such a mix! She got along with our dogs and of course I wanted to keep her but Mr. Grumpy.... I mean Pa said no. We had to go to Phoenix for the day right after her arrival so I asked Tom if he could keep her for a couple of days (hoping he would fall in love with her and keep her). She got along with his dog, Max so I kept my finger's crossed. No, Tom didn't want her and no matter how much I asked, Pa kept saying no. I listed her on Craig's List and someone from Eager wanted her. They had a dog about the same age with opposite coloring they had adopted a couple of months ago. After they saw her, they thought the dogs might be sisters. I had named her Sadie and their dog's name was Callie so it was a match made in heaven.

The first weekend in May, my daughter and her family came for the weekend. She'd visited before but not her daughter and husband. We had fun showing them around the ranch. They are city folk so I don't think we will be having them for neighbors. Which is good! I have a free place to stay when I go to Vegas.

We went out to a secluded place and did some target practice. I finally got to shoot my Ruger 38 special. I had no idea it would kick so  much and my thumb felt dislocated for a couple of days. We forgot targets so I have no idea if I even hit anything. Well, I did hit the dirt, does that count?

 Here's Cathy, AKA Rambo

and here's Sarah, AKA Rambette

 My mutant tomato ripened on the vine in the kitchen window.

We are going to eat it tonight. My entire kitchen table is covered with seedlings. We have to eat in the dining room right now. I've already planted Ozark Beauty strawberries, onions, garlic, broccoli, carrots, and bell and mini bell peppers. The broccoli and peppers are transplants. I saved the seeds from some mini bell peppers from the store and they took off like crazy. Just like the mutant tomato seeds. It will be interesting to see what kind of crop I will have. We've harvested some of our asparagus but don't get enough for a meal. Guess I'll have to plant more next year. I've decided I will have to enlarge the garden another 4 feet wide. In it's present size we aren't getting enough to put away for the winter. Tom's is about the same size as ours and he doesn't get enough for himself. He keeps trying to grow corn and usually has 4 or 5 plots of them. The size of the corn is about 3 inches. It takes too much water to grow and the results aren't that great so I've given up on growing corn. I still have to plant spinach, lettuce, kale, green beans, okra, cukes, cantelope, squash and tomatoes. Just need to wait till mid may and hope we don't get a freeze.

We woke up this morning (thank God) and it was sprinkling. Our weather is bouncing back and forth between cold and warm. We actually got up to 80 one day and yesterday and this morning we had to light a fire in the wood stove. I'm behind on the laundry because our spring winds arrived late and I don't want to get the clothes full of sand while hanging out on the line. I only use the dryer when it is raining.

Gosh, I'm sure a lot more has happened since my last post but I don't keep notes and due to old age, have forgotten most of it. I'll leave you with a picture of my hedgehog cactus in bloom.

Until next time!

New Adventures coming!

 Sorry if you've seen these before. I wanted you to have something to look at besides words. My tomatoes are getting blooms in the house. I should just empty the guest bedroom and use it for a green house.

 I let some new vine ripe tomatoes sit on the counter for a month and opened them up and viola! More tomato seeds. They were growing in a spiral because they couldn't break thru the skin.

I planted 18 of them and remembered that I saved some seeds from those mini bell peppers so I planted some of them also to see if they would sprout. A friend of mine from Mesa sent me some seeds to try. Only problem is , you have to let them sit in the fridge for 3 weeks or 3 months before they will sprout. I had to sand some down before I could plant them. What were they? Oh, American Blackcurrant. I think I see one peaking out of the dirt already.

We are experiencing our spring winds right now. Oh how I love 50 MPH winds. My allergies have been so bad, I decided to wash our bedding to see if that helped. I no sooner got the bed spread hung out and the winds began. I had to dry everything else in the dryer.

Apparently we have a thief helping himself to people's property at the ranch. When we went to Show Low last Wednesday, I saw a car at someone's property and just thought they had come to visit. A couple days later, I noticed their shed door was open so told Pa we should watch and see if it gets closed. It was still hanging open so he stopped to check things out and discovered someone had broken out the window to the trailer and almost tore the shed door off. He called the owner in California to let her know. He offered to shut everything up for her so rain wouldn't get inside the trailer. We will need to check on a couple other properties to see if they are ok and maybe call the police. We had a thief about 5 years ago and the police actually caught them. There are very few full timers living out here so most people have their sheds and travel trailers here and only come out to visit once a year or so. That's a perfect opportunity for thieves.

On April 1st we have to pick up some family at the Phoenix airport. They will be staying with us for awhile until they can get back on their feet. They've tried and tried to find jobs to no avail and are going to be homeless and I couldn't let that happen. No one else will help them where they live now. Pa isn't too thrilled but I will enjoy having someone to talk to. We won't let them sit around, they will hunt for jobs or they will be homeless out here!  So it will disrupt our quiet little lives for awhile. While we were in Vegas, we had two young men living with us for 5 months and I had a blast. They were the son's of some friends at the ranch. It got to the point that we had to give them 30 days notice so they would look for jobs a little harder.

We went to lunch at some people's house on Sunday. We met them the day before so I guess they liked us. We were a little apprehensive at first but had a really nice time. We were worried they would spend the whole time trying to convert us to the Mormon faith but we had talked about it on Saturday with them  and told them what we believed and they told us what they believed  so Sunday was just a nice conversation day.

I need to start planning my garden. Don't know how much I will start in the house. I usually start too early and by the time they are supposed to go outside, they've already bloomed in the house! We are not rototilling until the winds stop. I bought 40 pounds of glacial rock dust to add to the garden. It puts trace minerals back in the ground. I want to get some calcium to add in for the tomatoes.

So that's it for now. I'll keep you posted about having room mates later on .

Who Cut The Cheese?

I did! Our little IGA market has cheese on sale once a month so we buy a whole round, cut it up, seal it with a Food Saver and eat cheese to our hearts content. It is really good. It ranges from $2.49 to $2.89 which is what we paid last time. The meat manager told me that cheese as well as beef is expected to go sky high. We bought a bunch of chicken breasts for 99 a pound yesterday and some pork chops for $1.59 and ground chuck for $2.88 a pound. The bad thing is they limit you to 2 or 4 of each so Pa and I buy separately. When you shop once a month, that's what you have to do. We absolutely hate that stores offer one day sales since the major grocery stores are 60 miles away. Of course we can't take advantage of them so we pick out what we want the most and shop on that day. Walmart will price match everything except meat so we take advantage of that also.

Sorry I haven't updated the blog. February was such a cold month, we just hunkered down and burned a lot of firewood.

We started out with this which was 3 rows deep down to almost nothing. Pa and I have been cutting and stacking more as winter progresses. Altho February was cold, we only got a smattering of snow. January was also pretty dry. It was supposed to be 70 today. I bet the trees are totally confused about what time of the year it was.

Another reason I haven't been on the blog is because I've been working on a life changing family matter which I can't talk about right now to protect the innocent. If things work out like I think they will, I'll tell you all about it soon.

 Robins have been hanging around most of the winter. We have 6 of them right now. We've had bluebirds
and a few other species.

 Robins are one of my favorite birds along with humming birds and road runners.

 We are so grateful that we live here and not back east. Can you believe the weather back there?

 Other than being colder this year we've had very little snow and very little rain. We've had a few clouds which produce beautiful sunsets.

 We've seen a lot of new people driving around at the ranch but took a drive a couple of days ago to see if we could find any new neighbors. We didn't see another soul! Where are all these people disappearing to?

 Not much going on in our life at present. Here is a picture of the tomatoes that ate Saint Johns. They are growing pretty fast so I hope they don't take over the house before May when we can plant them outside.
Tom made a little hoop green house to put over his spinach and it has produced all winter long!

My computer has some kind of virus called Idle Rootkit. The only way to get rid of it is to open the computer in safe mode and removing it manually. So I guess that is my next project. Doing things manually when you are not a computer expert could lead to other problems. I had to repair the Start Up the other day but the computer did that on it's own. Always something going on.

I listed some of my rubber stamps on Ebay. Turns out they are collectors items and one of them went for $51.00 including shipping. Are people nuts? For that price, I'd be afraid to ink it up and use it.

Have any of you seen "The Legend of Mick Dodge" ? It is on Nat Geo channel on Tuesday and is so darned funny. It's about a guy who lives in the rain forest in Washington. He lives completely off the land and goes barefoot almost every where. He lives in a tree stump or a cave depending on the time of year. He is the third generation of his family who lives this way. He's quite the character and very entertaining. Be sure to check it out.

Sorry this is so short but I wanted to check in and let you know we are both alive and well. Stay tuned for the next chapter. Until then..........