unboxing 2

24 Tuesday Nov 2020

Posted by in Projects

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So here we go! We did planter number two of six. I promise we won’t do this in-depth for each of them, but since we didn’t do a lot with the first one, we – well, I wanted to give you step by step.

We started with Sue unscrewing the outside panels.

Then we pried off the panels from the concrete. They came of relatively easily compared the the first one. This time the concrete seemed to pull away from the wood as it dried.

Then we followed the same steps for the inside.

We had a bit more difficulty extricating the panels from the inside.

We ended up leaving the last part of the final panel. We just couldn’t get it out from the corners. Since we knew it wouldn’t be able to used for a third time anyway, we just decided to leave it. It’ll just compost over time.

Here it is though. Our finished product. You can see the midline there where we had a week between pourings. Came out pretty nice.

In the future, we’ll just post them as wee finish them. Like we would normally with any other project. We have a few posts in the pipeline, so even though it is Thanksgiving weekend and my folks are here for a short visit, we’ll be posting as often as we can. Until then – here’s wishing you the best of Thanksgiving you can possibly have this year – plus, as always~
Thank you for reading!

havin’ a bad day?

17 Tuesday Nov 2020

Posted by in Musings

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We al have them. Lately we’ve all had to really concentrate on being positive. We’re hanging in and hanging on. Everyone is being impacted by so many factors. Did you know that hermit crabs in Thailand are facing a shell shortage? One national park made an appeal to the public to send shells. They think that the downturn in tourists visits may have contributed to the boom in the hermit crab population. Directly related to the times. I’m hoping, if you’re reading this, that you are not searching for “shell-ter” [see the article I’ve linked] and that you’re doing quite well as things heat up, or rather cool down and the virus begins to rear its ugly head again. The weather brings about all sorts of interesting things. Most recently, many of our chickens have been molting. Thing you’re having a bad day?

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saturday in projects

14 Saturday Nov 2020

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Everyone has projects on the weekend. Even the chickens are busy doing what chickens do. This little lady has begun her weekend project of digging a hole to China. Why? We have not idea, but she’s got a good start. I know that she’s in shadow here, but I think you can see the crater she has created. Maybe she’s thinking of planting a tree. We’ll never know and it’ll probably be filled in by tomorrow. Our projects today were a bit more specific.

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yes, yes…

10 Tuesday Nov 2020

Posted by in Weather

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I know, we’ve been absent a lot recently. We’ve been busy, and sick, and injured. So the blog has taken a back seat. What’s been going on? Let’s do a really quick recap.

I can’t remember. Ha! Wouldn’t it be funny if I just left it there. Sometimes that’s exactly what I feel like doing. Anyway~ let’s start over with the every day stuff. So, our friend and neighbor, Elise, had a birthday. Sue made her a Vodka-Lemon Cake… delicious! I think that was the highlight of our week. By Friday I was coming down with a cold hand felt like crud. THEN- we started in on a wind storm that lasted 3 days.

This is a photo off of my phone that is connected to our weather station in the back yard. The wind gauge is attached to the southernmost gabion garden. You can see that we had a micro-burst of around 98 mph. The winds gusted between 25 and 80 mph all tha rest of the night and finally stayed down in the 20-30 mph range starting at 3pm.

Monday morning we found quite a bit of wind damage. I stayed home from work for a few hours and we worked on the Chestnut trees in the orchard. Many of the tree stakes had broke off and blown down and we didn’t want them to end up taking the trees as well, in case the winds came up badly again. The white electrified netting that is around the chickens was also down in several places – we were still fixing that this morning. The large century plant near the road that bloomed this summer took a hit, you can see it here pulled up by the roots.

When the winds are that bad, I always have difficulty sleeping. We are so grateful that we didn’t loose any chickens, nor any of their shelters. The RCW remained steadfast throughout the storm. The youngsters that are in the coop by the goat boys were fine as well. They seem quite happy there. We did more winterizing this morning by putting up covers on the Dove Enclosure and the goat’s chickens’ window… I took this photo this evening, and you can see that the light still comes in, but the wind will no longer blower right in there. Helps keep things warmer.

We are hopeful that we’ll be able to get back to normal soon. Last night our overnight temperature was 30°… so normal is relative. I guess you never quite know what the weather is going to throw at you; even when you watch the forecast. Hopefully Saturday we’ll be able to finish our 2nd concrete planters by the big coop. I think I still owe you an unveiling of the first one. So maybe that’s what we’ll do on Thursday. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

companions

03 Tuesday Nov 2020

Posted by in Permaculture/Technically

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Have you heard of Companion Planting? If you Google it, you will come up with so many hits on so many various blogs, all over the US and beyond. There are DIY sites and YouTube videos to help you set out your garden with companion plantings. It’s all very good information and, for most things, works well. But we have come up with one that no one has on any charts.

So, if you’re not familiar with Companion Planting, it is basically pairing up plants that are mutually beneficial, or supportive, for each other. Let’s say you have Broccoli or Kale and you notice that every year they are inundated with aphids, next year you might want to try planting them along side Chives, Cilantro, and/or Nasturtiums – all repel aphids. If you’d like to explore this further, you can find some handy dandy charts here.

Now, this is the type of companion planting I’m talking about! You have to look closely (seems that I say that a great deal while talking about our photos), but if you do – you will see two different trees growing together. The brighter colored, large leafed tree is a lime tree. It is growing under the protection of a Chinese Elm tree. The Chinese Elm was a volunteer from Ramona, but – after the first freeze that almost killed the lime tree, I decided to let the Elm grow up to shelter the lime.

You may scoff, but when we had our couple of nights of hard freeze, I did not cover the lime tree, and this is the extent of the frost damage. The elm tree will eventually loose its leaves and then I will end up wrapping the lime tree for the winter. But for the quick frost, the elm did its job quite well. I’m hoping that get along long enough that we’ll eventually get actual limes! Time only will tell.

I’ll have to study the companion planting charts a little more closely so that this season I plant to control the bugs quite a bit better. I’m still getting used to the seasons here, and so far my vegetable growing has been for the birds. Figuratively and literally. You could also throw in the squirrels and the grasshoppers for good measure. Just saying. As I figure things out, you can be sure that I will share them here with you! Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

fun times

22 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by in Fun Stuff

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Thumper wants to know “where da party at?” and more importantly, is he invited? He was sad to find out that Sue and Kay were only visiting to say hello, not to have him join them for dinner. (Photo Credit: Kay)

We had some great friends come for a weekend visit. We did some touring around the county, drank some local beer, met and picnicked with the men and women of the historic “B Troop” from Fort Huachuca, enjoyed a meal at the German Cafe and a farm dinner on the veranda. I think it was so great, we should relive it right now! Don’t you????

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reptiles and samurai

08 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by in Fun Stuff

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“Reptiles have silly grins
Dark eyes–shiny teeth–some have fins
Samurai they smile never
Serious–pretty swords–very clever”

Any Oingo Boingo fans out there? They were one of my first concerts as a teenager — loved them! However, now whenever I hear the word “reptile” these lyrics go through my head. (I’ll put a link to the song at the end.) Sue doesn’t get these references when I make them, she just looks at me and shakes her head, who can blame her? Where am I going with this? Not sure, but I have been going through photos and discovered we see lots of of reptiles.

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