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.

Nice Snow Isn't Always An Oxymoron

It seems like the Southwestern United States has been in a state of drought, or almost out of a drought, or here we go again, it's a drought again, year after year. It's been an unending loop.

A couple of small snowstorms here in Northern New Mexico have made folks a little happier. As everyone I talk to says, "We need the moisture."

Along with the snow this time came some wicked cold, down to single digits at night and teens during the day. It's warming up, though, so that nice snow will melt slowly, trickling down to feed the soil and its plants. Well, that's the plan, anyway.

Ms. Pearl and her man went on a morning survey; I was lazy and stayed inside.

 

The report is simple:  The sky is blue, the sun is shining and all is well.

April Snow

Yesterday afternoon while we were sewing at ThreadBear in Las Vegas, the sky and the air looked gray and moisty, like Newport Beach in the winter. Minus the beach.

"I wish it would do something," a friend said.

"Maybe rain?" someone else said. And then she added, "Hah!"

And then it started snowing. We packed up and hightailed it out of there just in case it was a blizzard or something. It wasn't a blizzard, but at home there was a nice two inches of the wet stuff.

By this afternoon it will have soaked into the earth and the grass trying to grow will say, "Thanks, buddy!"

I like the hopeful vibe of the hammock hanging behind the picnic table.

Growing Dome Report: Early Spring 2013

Early spring in Northern New Mexico is not pretty. Everything still looks dead and three years ago when we first moved here, this SoCal gal wondered if any of the plants, trees, or grass would ever come back.

Looking north toward the cabin and Growing Dome

Temps are still as low as 3 degrees with highs in the 30's or 40's. The wind howls and it sounds like the roof is going to be ripped off. It's times like these that I remind myself that summer will be in the temperate 70's and 80's and not over 100F for weeks like at our old home.

The Growing Dome is the place to be during times like these. With the sun shining it's in the 70's and 80's which makes it cozy to sit in the Adirondack chair, read, listen to the wind, and watch stuff grow.

Below is the eastern side of the dome. I planted most of this stuff in late September. We ate lettuce, radishes, carrots, chard and kale throughout the winter.

Cast of characters here: kale, onions, rainbow chard, carrots and broccoli rabe.

Here are some closeups:

Broccoli Rabe

Carrots, rainbow chard, and red stalk celery

The radishes look as pretty as their picture.

I just bought a Meyer lemon tree. In the background are some EarthBoxes. Box 1: spearmint, Box 2: rosemary in the back and cilantro sprouting in the front, Box 3 (which you will just have to imagine): lemon thyme in the back, basil in the front. The rosemary and lemon thyme are a year old now.

The west side of the dome has been my lettuce garden and it's almost done and I have to wash off the aphids before we eat the leaves. I know, "Yuck!" But there's some protein there, I guess. I've been keeping the aphids in check with insecticidal soap which works if I keep at it.

Some of the sugar snap peas are ready to pick.

And I have one last crop of snap peas waiting in the wings. These were planted late February.

Pretty soon it will be time to plant the warm season crops: beans, tomatoes, cukes are number one on the list. Yay!

And here's another Yay!  We will be adding some raised beds where the south lawn is, so I can grow more stuff outside! We don't need that much lawn and why not have a potager (kitchen garden) just outside your house?

Happy Spring, everyone!

Snow, Cold, and the Growing Dome Report for February

This morning when we woke up it was 11 degrees F, and there was some new snow here (just a little) and more in the higher mountains.

We're talking maybe a half inch or so, which is good, but we need more snow! New Mexico needs moisture!

There's just enough snow to see bunny rabbit tracks. 

And getting all artsy fartsy taking a photo of a teeny pine cone in the yard.

Inside the Growing Dome, though, it's warm in the sun. Tom put an Adirondack chair in there for leisurely reading and basking.

These snap peas are loving winter inside the dome.

Let us remember "lettuce," my dad used to say. I give the plants a trim and they grow more leaves in a few weeks.

There's a problem with aphids, so I plucked out and threw away a kale plant teeming with the little fellers. More plants are being aphidized, so I will have to mix up a little soap bath. Let's hope after their bath they will give it up.

Recovering from the stomach crud. Lost a couple pounds, so that's good.

Brrr....It's Cold!

 Brr! It's definitely cold here. How cold is it? It's so cold Ms. Pearl lifted up both front paws from the snow, sitting up even though she had never done it before.

 
It's been cold in many places of the United States, even cold in Southern California. Gotta put away the crop tops and shorts for a while, you guys. Get tough, SoCal people!

Here in Northern New Mexico, temps haven't gone as low as MINUS 33, like what happened a couple February's ago, but this morning was -12F when doggie visitor Reggie went out for a little constitutional. Ms. Pearl wanted to stay "turned in," snug under our bed's down comforter. Smart doggie.

 
It snowed all day yesterday, a light powdery 3 or 4 inches of blessed moisture.  That's our upper pasture with plenty of grass. Our two beef steers are methodically eating, one bite at a time. A USDA fellow dropped by for a cattle survey and complimented us on our grass and said we were managing it well. Well, yeah, we only have two cattle on it!

Our two steers, George and Ringo (why, oh why, do I name these cattle?) are still getting used to Ms. P and her officious behavior. "Stay together! Get in line!" are what half Australian shepherds say to both their livestock and their people.

So here are George and Ringo. They are Limousin-Angus cross breeds.

George

Ringo

They are an experiment: Limousin cattle are larger and longer than Angus, so will produce more beef. We will have a couple more Black Angus soon, so maybe we can have some taste tests. These guys are wearing their shaggy, thick fur coats and have found all the tree sheltered spots for when it gets snowy.

Usually, though, all they do is eat or lie down in the sunshine. What a life.

Looking north toward The Enchanted Forest are the mountains near Angel Fire Resort. (Whoops-Those are the mountains above Guadalupita. Sorry.) I know skiers and resort workers who will be very happy.

The creek is almost completely frozen (this photo is from December)  The steers found an open space to drink, but Tom made the opening bigger.

I think if there wasn't sun most days I might not like the cold weather, but it's amazing what a little sunlight can do for my mental health. Heck, I even consider 40 degree weather warm now, and that's what we are supposed to have starting tomorrow. Yippee!

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.

Winter Storm A-Coming

Winter weather is supposed to make its entrance any time today. The weather experts say we have a 100 percent chance of snow. The temperature outside has been dropping since early this morning.

Tom has readied the boot collection.

A lone bunny rabbit takes a few last minute nibbles of the lawn.

Looking south it appears moisty and cloudy. Let the snow begin!

A perfect day for Abuelita hot chocolate and sewing in The Quilt Cave.

Yak Is The New Black

Well, that's what someone in this newspaper article about yaks in Northern New Mexico said. Raising yaks is the cool thing to do. We live next door to a herd of yaks and our cattle like to visit them. Let's go for a walk on a frigid morning to say hi to the yaks, too.

Let's walk across the footbridge to the Enchanted Forest. Our property line is just past the pines in the forest and the yaks like to gather at the fence for a convo most mornings. First, Ms. Pearl wants to freak me out and walk on the ice.

I like the yaks because they look almost prehistoric, like cattle probably looked a zillion years ago. They are native to the Himalayas, so raising yaks here makes sense: we are at 7200 feet with cold winters and summers not too hot, usually in the 70's or 80's.

What do you do with yaks? Well, you can eat them and you can comb them. The eating part is self explanatory, but the combing? Some of a yak's fur is soft and fluffy, comparable to cashmere. People don't shear the yaks, though, but instead comb the fibers in the springtime when they are shedding. They don't shed a lot of down, about a pound each per year, but yak fiber sells for around $16 an ounce, so it's worth it to collect the fur.

Here's a mama and her baby. Yak horns make me nervous, but in this herd there is only one meanie. He has thrown two different guys, hooking their clothing and flinging them up and over a corral fence. Bystanders estimate the smaller man flew five feet vertically and six feet horizontally. Maybe there should be yak Olympics with "man tossing" as an event.

Most of the yaks are nervous around people, but this guy came over to the fence for a chat. He has mocos in the corner of his eyes. I wanted to reach over and help him clean them, but we just met and I didn't think it would be the right thing to do to a relative stranger.

And then there's my favorite, Lily, who was hand raised and added to the herd last year after living in a neighbor's front yard all her life. She's friendly and loves to have her head scratched. You might remember her from our yak round up photos.

I think she misses her people, so when Lily comes up to the fence, we have a long talk and a good old head rub right between the horns. No one will ever eat Lily. She has immunity.

We've thought about having yaks on our ranch. They are simple to take care of as long as they don't wander off, have less impact on the land and waterways than cattle because they are smaller and have dainty hooves, and are extremely cold hardy.

Hope you enjoyed our walk. It looks cold, doesn't it? But that's an okay price to pay for mild summers. I do not miss 100 degree heat!

Nippy and Sunny

This post's title sounds like a comedy duo I might have seen on the Ed Sullivan Show when I was a kid, but really, it's about the weather. Warmer than usual here like much of the country, we have our cold mornings, around 15-20 degrees F or so, and if the sun stays out, temps rise into the 40's or 50's.

For you folks born to cold weather, 40 or 50 probably sounds incredibly balmy, and we, too, are beginning to appreciate how "warm" it is. Hell, that's sweater weather!

Last night it snowed Dippin' Dots and when I forced gently carried Miss Bonnie outside so she would have her morning cat excursion, the round pellets on our wooden deck crunched.

Here's what it looks like from the deck, just before the sun peeks over the rim rock.

 Looks frigid, doesn't it? And it is, around 16 F this morning.

This is looking toward the Buddha tree circle. Buddha, way at the top of the path, doesn't seem worried about the cold.

Have you been watching Lillyhammer on Netflix? I just saw the first episode and watching it made me realize cold is relative. Norway is freaking cold. If you are from Norway, let me know if I'm right about this one.

I know two buddies who aren't inconvenienced by the weather, as long as they are inside. Let's name them Nippy and Sunny.

That quilt is a shredded mess. I should make a new one. Yeah. Put it on the list.

Winter is Icy Hot

While it's 84 degrees in parts of SoCal and people are wandering around in their shorts, here in Northern New Mexico winter is acting pretty much according to season, with 40's to low 50's during the day and teens and 20's at night. As long as there's sun, I'll be okay.

Biscochito Cookies-A New Mexico Christmas Tradition

Northern New Mexico during winter is cold with night time temperatures in the teens and day times in the 30's and 40's.That doesn't keep people from their business, though. Yesterday in Las Vegas, Old Town's Bridge Street didn't have a parking space as folks walked up and down the sidewalks shopping the local stores for last minute Christmas gifts. It helped that the local stores are having a drawing for as much as $1000 if you spend at least $50 around town. Let's just say I did my part when it came to local spending.

Towns bedeck their businesses and walkways with what are called farolitos in the north and luminarias in the south. It began back in the 1500's when bonfires were lit to guide the way to midnight mass. In the 1800's there was a switch to paper bags half filled with sand with a lit candle inside. These have morphed into plug in lights that look like the real thing. If you have a rooftop decorated with farolitos/luminarias, it's easier to flip a switch, so that's how it goes. It's still beautiful, no matter what the power source.

People brave the cold to watch Christmas light parades, follow the path of Mary and Joseph as they look for an inn, gaze at beautiful luminaria displays, hang around bonfires, and just soak in Christmas with family and friends.

But it's cold, so there has to be time for some restoratives, like biscochitos and hot chocolate. Again, it was the Spanish who brought these cookies to New Mexico in the 16th century. Everyone has their favorite family recipe. I don't have a favorite yet, but in the spirit of Christmas, I went to the Mora Winterfest last Saturday and bought four different bags of biscochitos there. (My oven was broken, so it was a good reason to buy lots of baked goods from my neighbors.)

A shortbread type cookie with a little anise flavor, covered with cinnamon sugar, biscochitos are not too sweet, perfect with hot chocolate, coffee, or tea. It's just what you need after wandering around in freezing weather, looking at Christmas lights or following Mary and Joseph around town.

There are many biscochito recipes: just do a search and you will understand what I mean here. My suggestion is to find a family recipe that someone's grandma used to make and give it a try. Most of the traditionalists swear that lard is integral to a flaky cookie and I agree. You can't taste it, and come on...it's Christmas! In the meantime, here is a recipe I found in a cookbook called License to Cook, compiled by the New Mexico Federation of Business and Professional Women.

Biscochitos (Anise Seed Cookies)

1 pound butter flavored Crisco

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided

2 t anise seed

2 eggs, beaten

6 cups flour

3 t baking powder

1 t salt'

1/2 cup orange juice

1 T cinnamon

Cream Crisco,  sugar, anise seed in large bowl. Add eggs and beat well. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in another large bowl. Alternate adding flour mixture and orange juice to creamed mixture until a stiff dough is formed. At this point some people roll out the dough to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness and cut the dough into desired shapes. Others will make a log out of the dough, refrigerate it, and slice it into rounds 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Dust the top of each cookie with a little of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes until cookies are lightly browned.

Note: Some bakers will immediately dip the cookies one more time in the cinnamon sugar mixture when they are done baking. Others will replace the orange juice with brandy or sweet wine.

Feliz Navidad!