Ok, yes I’m still out goofing off in Sedona. Meanwhile, back at the Ranch… Sue has been working away, in between rainstorms anyway. I understand that today we had a really heavy storm. The water tank was filled to overflowing! It’s really good that we’re finally getting some heavy rains. We want that to deep water all the trees as much as possible. And be able to help replenish the aquafer in our area that supplies our well. This is why we’ve been talking so often about the importance of keeping the water on the land as much as possible, rather than having it run down the road and away from the property. I’m so happy that it’s raining! It does tend to put a damper on the projects though. Although, if you know Sue, you know there are still things going on. 

When I left, I asked Sue to take photos and let me know what was going on because I wanted to try to keep the blog schedule going. I’m doing better than I’ve done before while traveling to California; I do have better access to wifi at the hotel than I do at my folks, so that could be a reason. Anyway~ Sue’s been sending me texts about what’s going on and all the things she’s been working on the past few days. She has been growing trees from seeds for the living fences we’d like to start – growing from seed is so much less costly, but it does take considerably more time. The success rate has been less than stellar, but still many seedlings have come up and needed transplanting. When I left, they were in little bitty squares of starter soil, in the kitchen. Sue transplanted many of them into the biodegradable pots to give them more growing room. She also planted some of the older/taller seedlings into larger flower pots. We’d really like to get them strongly established, with a good root system before we try to plant them into the ground. So, it may actually be next year before we start the permanent living fence.

Today I received a text from Sue at around 9am and she had already: fed and watered all the animals (that includes- cats, dogs, goats, and almost 50 chickens), picked up a load of manure from the Kelly’s and spread it on the ditch line (that’s the totally denuded ground where the ditch was dug for the electrical line to the dinky house), and made a top basket for the seedling trees. That’s a lot done by 9am. I think the top baskets for the seedlings is a great idea because the birds really enjoy hanging out in the rafters above, or the railings around the deck. I can imagine them seeing those little seedlings there and saying to themselves, “Look! They gave us a salad appetizer!” Definitely need just a little protection there.

Tomorrow, on the way home, I’m going to stop by Arcosanti and hopefully have some exciting things to report. Did you look it up? It’ll be interesting to see how Paolo Soleri’s ideas could influence what we’re doing, if at all. Still, it is an amazing concept. I’ll take some photos and share it with you here. Until then, as always~ thanks for reading!

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Today’s Weather: Well… see above.

Egg Report: 12 yesterday and Sue just sent me word that she gathered 10 today.  So, numbers are still doing quite well!