All Hail Summer!

Yesterday was a "weather" day at The Nickel and Dime Ranch, with crazy rain and hail.

While this was happening, I was having lunch with M and M in Santa Fe, on the way home from Albuquerque and the "didn't happen" Friday flight to California for my brother's retirement bash.

I ended up not going because Friday was a "weather day" in Dallas, disrupting flights, resulting in a nine hour wait for an airplane that wasn't going to take me where I wanted to go after all. At 2:30 am, faced with the prospect of waiting another eleven hours at the next stop offered to me by a harried, exhausted Southwest Airlines ticket agent, I gave up.

Sorry I missed your party, bro. All I can say is retirement is awesome and now you can work at whatever you want, whenever you want. Congratulations on surviving 32 years of adolescents.

I'd say, "Come visit," but looking at these photos, you might have second thoughts.

Ms. Pearl certainly had second thoughts, not even wanting to hang out on the covered porch while this was going on. Thunder, lightning and crazy noise on the tin roof were not her thing.

This is why my tomatoes are growing inside a greenhouse.

By the time I was home, all this was gone and today is sunny with nary a cloud in the sky. Still, there's a 50/50 chance for more rain today.

I think I'll go water the tomatoes.

Kitchen Garden Early Summer 2015

Man, do I suck at blogging! It seems like there are so many other things to do..."Look! Squirrel!"

But I haven't forgotten you and hope this has been excellent summer season so far. Our part of Northern New Mexico has been blessed with rain, so much rain that we are out of our drought and the drought map says we are unusually dry, instead.

Tell that to the mosquitoes, who have been enjoying this moist weather just a little too much. Afternoons and shady spots are their favorite time for blood sucking, but if it's breezy they don't hang out too long, so I'm not complaining.

I've been working on are both the Growing Dome and kitchen gardens. The heat loving plants, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, thrive in their warm dome house, but that story is for another day.

Anyway, here are some kitchen garden photos. I truly love the raised beds, which allow me to garden without crawling around.

Below are some Northeaster runner beans climbing up their netting. This is the first time I've grown these, but a neighbor had good luck with them and when I tasted their flat-podded wonderfulness, I decided they would be part of this year's garden.

You can see that black patch on the ground, which is weed barrier cloth. I need to spread some more bark to cover it.

The beds beyond the beans have strawberries, which are starting to bear, and asparagus in the background, now gone to seed after a couple weeks of judicious picking. The asparagus is three years old now, so next year I will be able to pick as much as we want. My friends say the rain has extended the wild asparagus crop along the roads and acequias, so they're still picking!

Below is another shot of the garden. On the left are white cauliflower, broccoli and garlic. Those grow bags contain potatoes: Magic Molly, Purple Viking, Sangre Red and Yukon Gold. Someone said the first three potato names sound like weed. I think they're right.

And here's the last shot. That long bed in the back has more cauliflower (green and orange varieties), carrots and corn. The corn is called Spring Treat, but we shall see what happens, since most people say sweet corn grown around here tastes like sawdust.

 

In the far beds, which each measure four by four, I have a rhubarb plant, some Sugar Sprint snap peas, a valerian plant which the bees love, and some more cauliflower. I've decided to roast cauliflower and freeze it if there's too much. We could use a little more outdoor growing space, so next year we hope to build some more raised beds.

Next up, inside The Dome.

First Snow of the Season-Ranch Headquarters

Calling our place ranch headquarters is a joke, because with a gigantic herd of two Angus beef cattle, there's not much coordinating to do.

The snow is already starting to melt, but I hope there will be enough for our visitors to enjoy when they arrive on Friday.

Marching Into Spring

Geez, that's a corny title, but spring is almost here and I'm itching to plant some stuff outside. Considering June 1 is our last frost date, I have a way to go, but a girl can still dream, can't she?

Inside the Growing Dome, though, we have a flourishing garden of winter veggies.

On the left are Waldmann's Dark Green lettuce and a red lettuce variety. I can't remember its name, but will look it up if you are interested. I use a cut and come again technique. All these lettuces have had haircuts and the leaves just keep growing back. All I do is use some organic fertilizer on them once in a while and we've had lettuce all winter.

That's some rainbow chard to the right of the lettuce. I will give them a trim, too, but their leaves take longer to grow back.

Below, take a look at the kale, romaine and basil.

I tried this dwarf kale for the first time in the dome and it's doing well. I keep cutting its leaves and they grow right back. The same goes for the romaine lettuce, called Little Gem. It's the gift that keeps on coming. These little varieties for the dome are perfect because it's just the two of us eating from this garden and they don't take up too much space.

At Trader Joe's I bought a pot of live basil for $3.99. When I looked more closely, there were five separate plants, so re-potted four of them and stuck the fifth in the dome's planter bed. All are doing well, but if we were to get some sub zero weather, we'd cover them and say a prayer since basil is a definitely a warm weather plant.

Outdoors it's still too cold to plant anything, but here's a look at my bed of garlic, its shoots peeking up from the straw mulch I put on there last fall. Plant garlic by Halloween and it's ready for harvest by the Fourth of July.

I have big plans for these raised beds. We all just have to wait.

Last, a reason why I love living here. Yesterday I stopped off at our local grocery store, a little place that has shown much improvement since we moved here almost four years ago.

I needed eggs, and among the Shur-Fine brand eggs, were these. They are from a local farmer who I know and trust and isn't it just cool that I can say, "Oh, those are Roger's eggs."

And aren't they pretty?

That's all today, peeps. I am close to a quilt finish, so stay tuned.

They Call It God's Country

 Ms. Pearl and I went for a little walk yesterday and while watching MP trot around and then freeze, sniffing the air and wondering just what was that interesting scent, I took a look around. I mean, really looked around at this gorgeous place we now call home.

It makes a big dog look small.

 The rimrock topped by the mesa looms over this part of the ranch.

When someone in northern New Mexico asks where I live and I tell them, they either don't know where the heck that place is, or they say immediately, "That's God's Country!"

I just call it "Home."

Fort Union, New Mexico

From far away it looks like a post apocalyptic movie location...or a Stonehenge type place.

But as you move closer, you realize it's the ruined remains of Fort Union. Cavalry, infantry, and a large quartermaster depot were housed here on the New Mexico plains to protect the folks using the Santa Fe Trail and to act as a supply hub for all the other forts and military positions in the Southwest.

The fort was made from adobe clay brick, wood, local stone for the foundations, and, like in the photo below, adorned with bricks hauled along the Santa Fe Trail. Nails, window glass and roofing tin were also brought along the trail to finish the fort.

The work was hastily done and the clay plaster coating the adobe bricks cracked and required constant repairs to keep the damp from seeping between the plaster and the brick. When the fort was abandoned in 1891, things just fell apart.

Officers lived here, on Officers' Row. The posts in front of the houses held the porch roofs. Officers' wives would sit on their porches to watch the goings on, fanning themselves in the summer heat. Pretty much all that is left are the brick chimneys, standing as witness to times past.

It was a pretty isolated posting, but the fort had a hospital, school, a band, dances, baseball teams, and other entertainment. About seven miles away was the village of Loma Parda, (now a ghost town) where the more adventurous soldiers could find what might be called "night life," drinking at the cantinas and dancing with the local (and sometimes imported) ladies.

I could write more, but you can read more here, instead.

Happy Easter!

 Santuario de Guadalupe was built in 1781 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Hoop House Raising in Northern New Mexico

Yesterday was a brilliant, warm 70 degree day and the wind wasn't blowing: a perfect day for a hoop house raising. We convened at Veronica's house where she had coffee and snacks ready to fuel the crew of about 20 volunteers who came to help. Just like in many Northern New Mexico homes, Veronica has both a wood cook stove and a conventional one. The wood stove keeps the house toasty warm and and it makes sense with wood free and plentiful around here.

Hoop houses will be springing up like wild flowers in the next few months around here because our livestock and growers' group has learned that growing veggies in Northern New Mexico can be a very sustainable way to make a living.

Last year Del Jimenez, Agriculture Specialist, Rural Agricultural Improvement and Public Affairs Project (RAIPAP) at New Mexico State University gave a lecture to the group and offered his services as a consultant for this project. Because our group was started with a grant from Heifer International, recipients must follow the Heifer guidelines, including 40 hours of training before they can receive a gift. Veronica has received some bred heifers and is in the process of repaying the group with 5 bred heifers from what has been born so far. Her repayment for the hoop house is its cost, repaid within 5 years. If all goes well, she should be able to make her repayment in a year or so, no problem.

Her dad constructed the frame using PVC pipe, rebar and locally milled lumber. By using lumber from someone nearby who harvests their trees to make boards, it keeps the costs down. In the background are Veronica's chickens. She sells their eggs to family, friends, and the local natural foods grocery store. The whole ranch is in the process of becoming organically certified.

The group's job was to get the large sheet of heavy plastic over the frame and to stretch it tight. Others armed with staple guns tacked the plastic to the wood while we supplied the hands necessary to get it nicely stretched with no wrinkles.

 Here is the plastic being draped over the hoop house "bones."

Veronica's dad tacks the plastic to one side of the frame before we stretch it. I don't know how old her dad is, but he was everywhere at once and you can tell he loves every minute of this project. It made me miss my dad.

Once this side was tacked down, it was time to stretch. We had a line of people on one long side, pulling hard to ensure the plastic was stretched taut as a drum. If the plastic isn't stretched tightly, the crazy Northern New Mexico wind would cause it to flap about and start ripping. There is Veronica, with the sunglasses and gorgeous gray hair.

The group did a quality job and a hoop house is born!

Inside, the hoop house is big! I think the dimensions are 36 long by 20 wide. Someone correct me if I am wrong in the comments, okay?

There is still a lot of work for Veronica to do. Building raised beds, assembling the irrigation and misting systems, and planting the first seeds for her mixed baby lettuce are just some of the tasks still ahead.

But there is a big market for locally grown produce, and Los de Mora Local Growers' Cooperative is on its way to becoming a market force in Northern New Mexico.

As a thank you, we feasted on pizza with green chile garnish, chicken wings, salad, and wine after our labors, and had fun meeting new friends and chatting with our neighbors.

Ms. Pearl Loves Snow

 When we moved here and experienced winter in Northern New Mexico and its below zero temperatures, our friends said, "Get Ms. Pearl a coat!" So we bought her a coat. The other day when it was as low as minus 10F and had finally inched up to 10F above zero, Ms. Pearl wore her coat when Tom and she went out for her morning constitutional.

Ms. Pearl looks ready for anything in her new coat, complete with reflective stripes around her middle and a collar that Tom says is reminiscent of Barnabas Collins, the classy vampire in the old soap Dark Shadows.

The problem is she isn't ready for everything. When she wears her coat it's like an invalid inhabits Ms. Pearl's body.

A cold morning at The NIckel and Dime

She doesn't want to pee or poop while wearing the coat. Ms. Pearl won't range about like she normally does during her morning walks. She prefers to sit. If coaxed, she walks toward you, holding up a paw, as if she has a sticker. But there are no stickers, just a dog that isn't sure what she should be doing while wearing clothing.

Tom took off the coat and she immediately took care of business. Then she found a Frisbee disk and decided it was time to play a bit. Running through the snow naked is her true calling.

She prefers to be unencumbered. We will keep trying the coat, though, because Pearlie is getting up there in age and needs to be coddled just a little, don't you think?

She likes her blankie, though, along with a nice, soft recliner chair.

Leave It To The Beavers

We are lucky to have a creek running right through the ranch. Sometimes it's dry, but usually we have water flowing, one of the few sounds out here in the boonies. Cross our fingers that we get some snow so the water keeps on chooglin'.

Beavers like the creek, too, and on the property next to us they have been busy. The first dam I saw, created from rock, was so tidy I thought humans had done it. And they have soldiered on, making a sizable pool. Those wires you see crossing the water are our fenceline.

Looking toward our neighbors' property, this is where most of the pond is spreading. That's a yak in the background and an adobe building behind the yak.

Beavers used to be considered pests, but they have become popular lately with ranchers and environmentalists because their dams cause water in the streams to soak into the surrounding grounds, in some cases causing the water table to rise. In arid climates like ours, that's a good thing.

This dam isn't stopping the water, so our "herd" of beef cattle, all two of them now, have plenty of creek water to drink.

Ms. Pearl likes the beaver pond, too. She calls it her swimming pool.

Sometimes she gives us her impression of a beaver.

We are happy to have the beavers move in. The water level in the creek has been low and fishing here has been almost nonexistent.

With deeper water, maybe trout will stay a little longer, if they don't mind sharing a pond with beavers, cattle, yaks, and dogs.

Last Glimpses of Fall

Although today is absolutely gorgeous and we should have a high in the 60's, tomorrow comes the cold weather, in the 30's and 40's with lows in the teens.

So here is a last hurrah for fall before all the leaves freeze and fall off the trees.

Buddha Tree and Fall Sky

The Buddha waits patiently for winter. Nothing bothers the Buddha.

During these fall days the afternoon sun is warm and it's fun to sit up among the rocks, watching the traffic go by. Once there were three trucks in 15 minutes!

Lately, most of the traffic watching involves turkeys. It's hunting season, but so far they have been spared. Why, I want to know, are the turkeys in our yard? They should be hiding!

That long porch on the cabin's south side will be the go-to spot when it is cold but sunny. Already the sun is low enough to shine inside, making it so warm I need to open a window. I'm not complaining, though, because Our Mr. Sun will be helping to keep the place warm in just a few days.

I think fall is my favorite season, at least right now it is.

Cousins Visit The Nickel and Dime

Fall is a great time to visit Northern New Mexico because the air is fresher, it still rains, but not as much, and the leaves are turning colors, especially the aspens at the higher elevations. The altitude at The Nickel and Dime is a little too low for aspens, but as we drove north toward Taos, the aspen leaves shimmered like gold against the green pines. Wouldn't these colors make a gorgeous quilt?

Last week was fun because Tom's Wisconsin cousins, Donna, Richard and Tanya, came for a visit.

At Taos, we saw assorted folk wandering about in interesting outfits and made a visit to Taos Pueblo where people have lived for at least 1000 years. The pueblo is  the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States, according to their website. Donna, Tanya and I explored the pueblo's shops and galleries while Tom and Richard sat by the incredibly clear river and eavesdropped on the extremely knowledgeable tour guide.

The ladies and I also made a short visit to Las Vegas and its plaza.

Santa Fe's Plaza was the place for some power shopping while the guys chilled on some benches listening to electronic harp music while watching a tweaker make balloon animals. That's why Santa Fe is called The City Different.

At home we ate too much, laughed a lot, and talked about family history.

Here are Tanya and Richard, ready for our Santa Fe visit.

Miss Bonnie came from her royal room upstairs to say hello to the guests. Richard even had a lap cat for awhile.

The guys got in a little hunting, but be assured that no animals were harmed. There was more sitting and looking at the view than anything else.

It was a golden time, visiting with the family, and the house feels empty without them.

New Mexico Monsoon Days

It's been raining almost every day here. Mornings are blue sky sunny, the clouds building up in the distance. In the afternoon, the rain marches from the mountains and down the valley, thunder and lightning providing accompaniment while I watch, quilt wrapped, from the wicker chair on the porch.