Daily observations of my simple life.

I stopped my reading of blogs and went out to hang dry my clothes. As the clothes were hung out a huge rumbling filled the air. I smiled at myself for hanging out my clothes to the sound of thunder. Perhaps it will rain, perhaps not but I can see it raining across the valley on the hillside. It is hot and humid but not nearly as hot as a week ago. The temp is 97 degrees, 10 degrees less than last week.

It rained briefly this morning and it was so pleasant that I worked out in the garden in the rain. The big soft wet drops falling on my hair and face as I planted a tree and put in a few more seeds. It's been well over two months since we have had rain, so good to see the wet stuff.

http://360.yahoo.com/cactusandquail.

http://www.simplelvn.blogspot.com

 

Posted by: cactusandquail at 02:30 | link | comments (3)

Vegies:

Since my decision to stop eating meat I have had no problem. There are plenty of foods to eat that arent' meat.  Thanks for all the encouragement.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 01:38 | link | comments (3)

Earthlings

Yesterday I watched a video called Earthlings on Youtube. What a change of heart I had. Oh ,it's been simmering down deep , gentle proddings that the way commercial meat animals are raised is not right, not acceptable to me, but I have not responded to those proddings. Yesterday I made the decision to become a vegitarian.  If I do eat meat at all it will be range fed, humanely handled animals or wild life. I just could not stomach the thought that animals are treated with so little concern just to feed us on demand. Shzzzz. Who do we think we are, anyway? 

This morning I had a nice bowl of potato salad made with ample amounts of my happy hens eggs. They are free range and have lives, social lives. They enjoy hanging out together and scratching here and there and they have good shelter in the chicken houses.

The last two nights I have slept out on the back porch through the night. Very pleasant and I wake up from time to time and there are the stars just so beautiful. This morning I got some more rows planted and now I'm in thinking I should get my middle of the month bills together and get them paid or mailed off., in a few.

When I went to Texas a while back I stopped in Tucson to hear Brad Lancaster lecture on rainwater harvesting. I purchased his book and since then have been trying to implement some of the technics I learned from his class. One thing he spoke of was earthworks so I am making a series of berms to better catch and hold rain when it comes. This is what I do.

1. I rake up weeds and debri around the property and get a wheel barrow full. Then I take it to where I want the berm and dump it.

2. In a plastic bin I soak old newspapers and junk mail in water, then I put them evenly on the debri that I have dumped.

3. Then I go to the horse corral or chicken yard and rake up old horse manure or chicken manure. I just shovel up a lot of the loose dirt in the pens as well because it is very rich and I dump a load of that on the newspapers. I rake this out smooth and then start another cycle right next to it.

When they are done they leave an elevated section of ground that is full of mulch type materials to soak up water. The height is about  2 ft by 3 ft wide.  This leaves a depressed area right next to it where I plant. In desert gardening you plant in the depressions. When it rains the water will hit the high area and soak in staying on your property instead of running off because everything is so flat. 

So this morning I completed another section of berm, I try to do one section a day and the berms are coming along. I also planted beans and cucumbers beside the berm and covered the planting with baskets to keep the rabbits and quail from eating the seedlings. I started two new holes for a mesquite and fig tree I have. I hope they are planted by the end of this  weekend . It really does work to do everything in small amounts daily.

The air is cooler this morning and there is a breeze. It said on the news last night we have not arrived at the monsoon as the dew point went down to 44 on the third day.  It has to have a dew point of 55 for three days in a row. It's not so humid but sounds like we'll have another week of hot dry weather. Is it raining yet? 

Posted by: cactusandquail at 18:19 | link | comments (5)

It's clear the weather has changed. I woke to clouds and verga and a beautiful sunrise.  I did a little gardening early and then went to town. I stopped at my favorite second hand place and got myself another little red wagon. $12. I now have 3 of them which I use to haul various things around the property. The first I bought several years ago at the swap meet for $12. It has carried many a load. This spring I ran into another one at the swap meet, painted green for $10. Now this one for $12. Very helpful to me. I put plastic totes in them and carry manure and plantings and soil here and there. 

I'm very tired, because it's pretty humid. Glad to have the weeks shopping done.  Rain would be nice.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 01:00 | link | comments (2)

Too Hot:

I've decided that until it gets down to 100 degrees I'm not going to require anything of myself beyond watering and feeding the animals and the garden. Any housework or cooking I do will be only what I feel like.

What is this 114 in the shade business!  Years ago I remember seeing that Needles or Death Valley were like 112 degrees and thought ,"how awful, how can they stand it." Now I'm experiencing weeks in the summer of over 110 degrees. I hear of temps like 120 - 128 degrees in Vegas or Lake Havasu or Bullhead City. At what temp can you fry and egg?  All I can say is, it sizzles. 

I'm up at 5 and spend a couple hours outside watering and making sure the animals have what they need. I go out as the sun sets and spend an hour out doing the same. I hunker down in the house the rest of the day except to go out once or twice to make sure all the animals have water. Right now heaven is hotter than hell.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 03:50 | link | comments (4)

I found my way back over here and in. Wow, I got a new password and hopefully I will blog here from time to time. You can read my other blogs at:

http://www.simplelvn.blogspot.com

http://360.yahoo.com/cactusandquail.

 

Posted by: cactusandquail at 03:14 | link | comments