Garden

I'm getting this retirement thing down. I have been gardening this spring, and spending a LOT of time at it. Seems like the weeds grow right in front of my eyes. The vegetable plants are a different story. I planted on May 13th, and had pretty good germination (except for squash and cucumbers). So I replanted those and the "skips" in the green beans and corn on 5/28 and again on 6/12. The weather had been cool at night (below 50 degrees), so maybe that was the problem getting the seeds germinated. The past week has been warmer, and nights are now over 50 degrees. We'll see what develops. So here's the desert garden. There is a 5 wire electric fence around it to hopefully keep deer, raccoons, and skunks out:















A couple of years ago, I had planted a garden and then in the hot part of the summer, everyone on our irrigation ditch wanted water at the same time. So there was none available when I wanted it. This year I bought a 425 gallon tank, so I can hopefully have it full when those times roll around. I figure I can keep the garden alive for about 9 days with the water in the tank.















We also bought a used chipper/shredder this spring. It mounts on the tractor and runs off the PTO so there is no engine with it (less maintenance). Previously I have burned all the branches that fall from our trees (especially the globe willows). Now I can turn those branches into wood chips.

Erica has been busy planting perennial flowers in the front and side of our house. They look really good, although these shady shots don't show them off very well.

Well, gotta go. Time to irrigate!

Elk Hunt

October 11-15 2008, Lizard Head Wilderness Area.
My camp was just to the right of this photo, which was taken before Saturday's big wind storm.











This is almost the same view, just north of camp. Photo taken after Saturday's wind storm blew most of the aspen leaves off the trees.











Another view of camp.

Cold Creek (lower right), camp on hill.













Dolores Peak from Groundhog Trail













La Plata mountains













Here's the six point bull I got, about a mile north of camp. I'm pretty happy with him.... he is my first bull. I've shot a couple of cows before, but this is my first bull.










Dolores Peak in the background.













I had to make 5 trips to pack the meat out. This photo is from my last trip and shows a front quarter and a bag of tenderloin.

The evenings were below freezing, but the afternoons were in the 60's. So I put a blanket on the truck topper to help keep the meat cool.

Snow

OK. We give up! We couldn't get out of the driveway Monday, and I couldn't get the tractor from the back to the front to plow it (I kept getting it stuck... no chains). We have about 3 feet on the ground now. Kinda hard to get a good average, since the wind has moved it around several times, and in some spots there is 18 inches and others there is 4 feet in drifts.

Arizona in the winter is sounding better all the time.

A fellow worker digging out the stairs from the parking lot. I was offering encouragement.

Home away from home.

This pic was taken back in December, but I'm including it because it was cool to see a buck in the yard.

Bill and Jeannie

Our friends Bill and Jeannie from Richmond, Kentucky were here the third week in September, and we had a great time with them. We hiked in the Lizard Head Wilderness (at left) and got snowed on.















Here's another shot just before it started to snow and rain. We were on the Navajo Lake Trail.











We also went on a horseback ride south of Mancos at the Robbers Roost Ranch. It was a lot of fun, and makes me wish we had horses. If only we had someone to take care of them...















Bill and Erica played some music. I banged on the bass until they told me to stop. Erica has been getting some tunes ready to try and teach me, so we will see if they'll take. Kinda like trying to teach a dog to drive a car.









Last Thursday, this tree decided to split. It has been raining so much since then that I haven't been able to get it cut up and pulled out. We have had over two inches of rain the last four days, so I can't complain about that.

Anybody need some firewood?

Sarah's Wedding

It's true! Sarah and Rob tied the knot on August 11th. Here's a photo of the happy couple and Sarah's proud dad. It was a very nice wedding and we had a great time. We hope Mr. and Mrs. Lund will come see us soon.















Here's a picture we took in the front yard the other day. The sky was purple, pink, and peach, over a golden sunset (says Erica).
Since I have color deficit disorder, I wouldn't know. But it sure looked cool.

Green Again

The last couple of days, we finally received some rain. It had been raining to the north of us, but was missing us. We got 3/10ths of an inch the last couple of days. And a really nice rainbow that filled the sky.









Some of the chickens (sorry Mark, I mean poultry) started laying about a week ago, and we are getting 3-6 eggs a day. Most are still pretty small, but they are getting bigger. We let the chickens out of their house for a couple of hours in the late afternoon, and they have a great time in the yard.

Hike

We went for a hike Saturday in the Lizard Head Wilderness, and here is a photo of a columbine we saw. It was a hot hike, and we didn't go far, but it was fun. I didn't take any general shots of the area, and now I wish I had one to post. Rats!












Here's a shot of the wonder dog on a hike we went on last week. No, the pack is not hers. She made me carry it. And her water. Not that we needed it... there was a stream the whole way.

Little Sally got skunked last night and had to sleep in her kennel. EB went to town this morning to get some peroxide and baking soda for a de-skunkifying bath. It's always something. You would think a wonder dog could avoid skunks....