Today was not supposed to be a busy day...

Today was supposed to be calm.  Chill.  No big plans.  

Well, even when there are no big plans, there are still things to do.  

We started off by going to the 7th Annual Garden Fair where we got some free wild flower seeds to plant an arctic garden for any migrating birds that might make their way here, a free baby tomato plant and a rain barrel.

I only took one picture at the Garden Fair and this is it.  Not the best picture I've taken, but it'll do.  This was just one of the exhibit areas.

Then, we went home, picked up the dogs and went out to the Public Lands to let them run around for a bit.  Instead of letting them run around, though, we started exploring and wound up driving through the Public Lands and National Forest for a couple of hours before making our way back to civilization.

A shot from within the Boonies

Love.  In the middle of no where.

On our way home, we stopped and picked up some rocks for our front yard (free rocks from an undisclosed location...people can be funny about rocks, even when they're not doing anyone any good...).  I've really been wanting to establish the space between our beds and the path (AKA a border) and rocks seemed like the best answer since they're free if you know where to find them and are willing to do some heavy lifting ;-)

Buddha hanging out in front of one of our beds in the front yard.  Notice the beautiful (free) rocks making up the border?  There's nothing planted in this bed yet, but I'm thinking I'll plant some corn (either blue corn or strawberry popping corn) in here this year with some beans and my first attempt at tomatillos.

Once home again, we created the rock borders for our beds and set up our new rain barrel.  We got the barrel from John Nash who was super nice and has better prices than places like Lowe's or Home Depot and he's an actual person, as opposed to a big, crazy store.  We originally planned on this one living in our back yard, but it fit perfectly in the rose bed in the front yard, so it went there instead.

This barrel holds 60 gallons of water.  Once we set up its twin in the back yard and add that to the 55 gallon barrel we already have in the back yard, we'll be able to catch and hold a total of 175 gallons of water!  Now, if it'll actually rain, we'll be all set!

Once we finished setting up the rain barrel, we decided to go back and get a second one before the Fair closed.  We got there just as everyone was packing up!  We got our second barrel (which is not set up yet) and a new little turtle friend to hang out in the front yard.  When we left the Fair we decided to see if we could find a bird bath for our not-here-yet bees.  Who knew bird baths could be so expensive?!?  We settled for the bottom of a terra cotta pot instead of an official bird bath.  It's sealed, so it will hold water just perfectly.  We put it on top of an old round we have been using as extra outdoor seating.  Magic!  A $17 bird bath!

Here's a shot of our new turtle friend and our bird/bee bath.  The green you see are our strawberries trying to perk up.

When all was said and done, it was 6:00.  In the evening.  Really!?!  Where do the days go?!

The Little Things

Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. 

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

~Chief Seattle

I love this quote!  However, I also believe that whatever he does to himself, he does to the web.  I believe that we are all connected and that each individual can affect positive change on the people around them and therefore, on the rest of the web, too.

Amid all of the bad news that's going around (tornadoes & gas prices & GMOs, oh my!), I thought I'd take a minute to appreciate the little things.  The power of positive thinking is limitless...if we can just remember to use it!  Here's my attempt...

I am grateful for the cluck cluck clucking of life in the backyard each morning and am super grateful that some of that clucking leads to squawking and the laying of eggs!

I am grateful for sunflower sprouts and sun spots.  These babies (if they're anything like their mom) should grow up to be giants (12 feet tall...ish).

I am grateful for the beginnings of (at least) a million apples.  This will be our first real year of harvesting apples from our Frankenstein (spliced, espalier) apple trees.  Last year I think we may have gotten 10 apples total.  They WILL all survive the season!

I am grateful for new arugula and lettuce peeking up at me through all the mulch.

I am grateful for pretty, yummy lettuce.  I am even grateful for the bitterness it is acquiring because it reminds me that nature actually has a process and not everything tastes (or looks) perfect forever.

I am grateful for the fact that, this year, I can intentionally let my lettuce (and spinach) go to seed so I can collect those seeds and use them next time!  I am grateful for the perspective that "going to seed" is not a pain in the butt, but instead, is a gift.

I am grateful for the ability to grow some of my own food, make mistakes, plan better/differently next time and enjoy the harvest while it lasts.

Cheers to the fantastic weekend ahead!

On Preparation

Let me start off by saying that I have Spring Fever in the worst kind of way.  For real.  All I want to do is play in the yard/garden, hang out with the chickens and plan, plan, plan how my garden will grow.  Instead, I have to work.  Stinkin' responsibilities.  Oh well.  When I come home from work, I am wiped.  When I wake up in the morning, I am just trying to get myself (mentally) ready for the day.  Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to have a job and even more grateful to have a job I care about.  However, right now I just want to play in the dirt!

OK...enough of that.  Now on to the preparation part of this post.

Last weekend we worked on the back yard.  It's a place that hasn't gotten much attention this spring apart from the new raised beds and the chicken coop.  However, if I am going to plant peanuts, they must have a bed to grow in.  We pulled out the bed that held tomatoes and peppers in it last year, which added another 6 or 8 feet of growing space.  While messing with it, we found lots and lots of little roots.  These were not leftovers from the tomatoes and peppers (which, by the way, did very poorly last year) and were, instead, part of a huge root that has crept over from one of the neighbors trees.  Stinkin!!!  Well, we tore out as much as we could and are hopeful the peanuts will survive in the bed.

Down from the peanut bed will be wild flowers.  This little strip was expanded out from last years 6 +/- inch strip.  Morning Glories will climb the fence between the dogs side of the yard and ours and I'll be happy with anything else that comes up, too (that is, after I throw down some actual seeds).  The kiddie pools stacked up at the end will be for our potatoes (which will go in the dirt this weekend).  Tool Lady purchased these pools last summer thinking they'd be good for the dogs.  We quickly learned that the dogs weren't very impressed unless it involved getting super muddy.  So, in an attempt to re-use these guys before just trashing them, we are going to try to grow potatoes.  The green, second layer is bottomless and is just sitting inside the blue one with some good dirt and some hay waiting patiently for the potatoes (which are eying up nicely in a basket on my kitchen counter).

Now, in preparation for another dry summer (drought sucks), I have been trying to figure out how to save more water/use less water.  I have purchased Fish Girl a timer for her bathroom and have requested that she take 10 minutes showers.  I know this sounds like a long shower, but she could be in there for an hour and still want more time.  No joke.  I am also planning on purchasing another water catchment bin to go under our roof spout in the back yard (right now we have one 55 gallon container) and we have a bucket that catches all the water in the shower while said water is heating up through the pipes.

As an experiment, I brought a bucket into the kitchen and saved all the water from the boiled eggs I made as well as from the rinsing of the lettuce and spinach I harvested.  I then poured the water into our (really sad) container (you like my plastic wrap fix up job?) and happily went outside to water the spinach and lettuce still in the ground.  How much water did I get out of this little experiment?

2 gallons!  Hey, every little bit helps, right?!

On the chicken front, here are three of the Newbies, out and about in the yard.  They are now hanging out with  the grown Ladies, although they don't sleep together yet (by choice).  No real drama ensued when we introduced the ladies to the Newbies, aside from Prim trying to act tough.

Prim still thinks she's hot shit, but the Ladies are teaching her to chill out a bit.  We'll see if she's preparing to  make us some eggs, if she's preparing to be a he, and/or if she is preparing to become part of a yummy stew.  There will be no mean girls in my flock!!!

She sure is pretty though.

When Rhubarb Flowers

Last weekend Tool Lady noticed a small knob looking thing coming up in the center of our little rhubarb.  It was still enclosed in it's leaf-wrapping, so we were not certain that it was on it's way to being a flower, but we had our suspicions.  Well, by Thursday morning, it looked like this...

Definitely a flower.  Stinkin'!!!  Now, why would you not want your rhubarb to flower?  Well, according to John Seymour's The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It, when rhubarb flowers, it diverts all of the nourishment away from the plant and into the flower.  This leaves you without the juicy stems you want and instead gives you...um...gross-ness.  No thanks!

So, what did I do?  I cut it off!  Just grabbed a sharp kitchen knife and chopped it off.  Luckily, it came off without a fight.  Good stuff.

And this huge straw is why the nourishment is taken away from the stems!  Wow!

On another (unrelated) garden note...

This picture (below) is just one more reason why I love my garden!  I get to pick fresh lettuce and spinach from my "wagons" on a warm April evening while enjoying the company of a pretty little visitor :-) 

The 4 Season Garden Challenge

I just joined One Green Generation's Growing Challenge!!!

Now, what the heck have I gotten myself into???  Well, it basically means that I am officially entered and now accountable for keeping my pledge of:
Growing at least four new crops this year (one for each season) from seed.

I also took the additional challenge of growing at least one crop from seed to seed.  To do this I will take a tomato seed, plant it, grow it, harvest it, collect & dry the seeds inside and use them next year.  It is my plan to do this with peanuts and potatoes this year too, but I feel like those are too easy to really count ;-)

This is perfect because it is something I've been wanting to do (I bought a great book last November which inspired our wagons), so it's not like it'll be extra work.  It will, however, be a gentle reminder to get it done instead of just talking about it.

So, what will I grow from seed that I've never grown before?

Let's start where we are...
Spring 2011 - Beets & 

Then, use what I have...
Summer 2011 - Valencia Peanuts, Echinacea & Lemon Cucumbers

Finally, I will do what I can...
What does that mean for next fall and winter???  I'm not sure yet!  I have to do some research (I love research!!!) in order to decide what newbies I want to put in the ground so stay tuned!  Some contenders are broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.  Like I said, I have to do more research because I've never attempted those guys before (is that why they call it a "challenge?!?) and I haven't a clue!

Earth Day/Week/Year/Life AKA Random Ramblings

When I was a little girl I loved being outside.  The smells, the sounds, the beauty and adventure of it all (arroyos included).  I can't tell you how many pictures I have of my 3 year old self playing in the garden!  I'm not sure when the moment happened, but at some point it became my habit to sit on the couch instead of sitting in the grass.  I don't think my tipping point was the day I fell out of the tree and wound up with a branch sticking out of my cheek (true story).  Nor was it the day I found a Black Widow and captured her in a baby food jar because she was just SO beautiful (my dad was SO not excited)!

I'm also not sure when the smell that lingers on clothes hung out to dry shifted from being a good thing to being something I didn't like anymore.  But it happened, and now I wonder why, at 34 years of age, I don't just string up a line and see how it goes.

When did I go from being the little girl who loved the garden to the young lady who didn't?  My mom always grew the most phenomenal tomatoes in the garden and then, every fall, turned those tomatoes into the best spaghetti sauce, ever (which she then froze so we'd have it for meals and meals to come).  So why did I never ask her questions about the growth of those tomatoes, or the ingredients of that sauce?  If I look back, I was just not interested.  I guess I thought I had better things to do growing up than to get a recipe or some tips for growing your own tomatoes.  Silly me.

Reflection is an interesting thing.  Stay with me here...

So, now I'm grown (well, sort of) and trying to do better by myself, my family and my planet.  I'm growing my own food, buying locally and organically, reducing, reusing and recycling.  I'm learning how to preserve/dehydrate/freeze (now THAT'S a learning curve), sew, take care of chickens and pay attention to the seasons/weather.  I'm eating out less and cooking in more, buying only (energy efficient) appliances when the old ones are dead and am taking shorter showers (I have a timer.  For real).  I'm focusing my attention on my intention.  Yay me!

Well, being up at 3:00 this morning (I don't have an answer for you on that account either), I started playing online (of course...what else do you do at 3AM???), reading blogs, checking my facebook, clicking on links when I came across 8 small ways to make a big difference in our world.  I thought, "Hey, minus the whole bike thing, I'm doing pretty good!"  Then, I took the footprint quiz @ earthday.org thinking, "I almost never fly anywhere, my (almost 20 year old car) gets about 24 miles to the gallon, we buy/eat locally (most of the time) and out of our garden when we can (we're still on the learning curve of this one, too), it can't be all that bad, can it?"

Apparently it can.  According to this little quiz, it would take 3.3 planets to support my lifestyle.  3.3!?  Really?!  Well, shit.  That's a lot of planets for one persons' convenience!  And here I thought I was doing pretty good.  Well, I guess I thought I was doing better than THAT!

The main points in my destruction of this planet are:
~I eat too much meat
~I don't take public transportation
~I use electricity

Well, to be honest, I don't see these things changing anytime soon.  At least not on a huge scale.  I like meat (organically raised, local meat).  It makes me happy.  Not all the time, but a couple of times a week for sure.  I like my car and I have control issues.  When I'm not carpooling with tool Lady, I like to be in control of where I'm going, when, how fast and with who.  I like electricity, too.  While I have romantic notions of living like Laura Ingalls Wilder (getting up with the sun, busting ass all day, and going to sleep with the sun), I like all my modern conveniences, too.  This includes lights, TV and my thermostat (our fireplace, as it stands today, has the potential to burn the whole house down which would suck more than my carbon footprint at this point).  I also don't have the cash to purchase and install solar panels.  If I did have the cash, I think I'd fix the fireplace first.

So, what does this all mean?  It means growth is an evolution.  It doesn't happen overnight (or at 3 o'clock in the morning).  I am re-learning a lot of habits, a lot of accepted "truths" about myself and my relationship with nature.  I am remembering how nice the sun felt on my skin (you know, before my grown up self became afraid of the cancer in those rays), how warm the dirt was on my hands, how tasty those tomatoes were and how wonderful grass felt in between my toes.  I am trying to be nice to myself through this process because sometimes growth is like laying an egg...it hurts like hell and you might squawk like a freak, but in the end you've either given birth to another life or contributed to a nice omelette.  Regardless, you're a part something bigger than yourself and there's a magic in that.

Happy Earth Week to those of you reading this!  Thank you for all you do (whatever you do) to contribute to the bigger picture of it all!  If you'd like to share your thoughts/ideas/triumphs/stumbles along the way, I'd love to hear it all!  Cheers!

Proposed Bee Ordinance

Today I found out that one of our City Counselors is proposing this new bee ordinance that would require bee keepers to register their apiaries, get inspections and keep their hives 75 feet away from property lines (unless there are walls or fences at least 6 feet high to separate them) as well as a few other minor details.

He says he only doing what his constituents want him to do.  Well, there are bees everywhere.  It's their job to fly to far away places and then come back home for the evening.  Just because I have some coming home to my backyard doesn't mean they're going to sting my neighbor on their way in.

Also, registration and inspections cost money, money no one I know really has to throw away and into the pocket of a city who will have had to create a job for someone specifically hired to inspect said registered apiaries.  The Bee Police?  Really?!  Awesome.

OH! And the whole 75 feet thing!  Really?  Really?!  99.9% of the people in Santa Fe who might want to have a hive or two do not have 75 feet between themselves and their neighbors.  For real.  We live on itty bitty properties.  Our property is 1/8 acre, and we're lucky.

So, after getting some more information...reading a brief article and an Editorial and finding the actual document online...I wrote to my Representatives.  Luckily, Santa Feans are a close knit community, and when we believe in something, we fight for it.  I'm sure Mr. Dominguez is already getting an ear full.  A sweet, sticky, ear full.  If you live here in Santa Fe, please write your Representatives.  Their job is to listen to what you have to say.  Speak loudly.  Cheers!

Potato Seeds and more seeds!

We got our seed potatoes in the mail!!!  Last year we purchased our seed potatoes from one of those big home supply stores.  They did really well at first and then just died :-(  Hopefully this years will survive! Now they just need to sprout their eyes...

We plan on planting them in an old kiddie pool we purchased for the dogs.  Figure it's worth trying...Yet another experiment.

Peanut update:  Here they are!!!  Tall, healthy, crazy looking,  They will have to be up-potted very very soon!

Aerial view of the peanuts :-)

I worked a lot in the front yard today on some of the ground level beds.  There's still lots to do but I decided I wanted to start putting some seeds down.  Along the fence with the rug hanging off of it (Tool Lady cleaned up upstairs patio, including this rug, which is hanging out to dry) will be super tall (12 feet + hopefully) sunflowers.  In front of them I'll probably plant squash and zucchini.  Where the straw is begins our little strawberry section.

To the right hand side of the strawberries are sugar snap peas along the fence (I will need to create something for them to climb up onto later as the fence will not be sufficient) with two types of echinacea planted in front (Purple Coneflower and White Swan).  There is also some wild grass planted in this bed.  It's supposed to get 6-8 feet tall but didn't do anything last year except die, so we'll see if anything happens this year.

On the right hand side of the echinacea are rows of arugula and lettuce which are mostly in the shade.

That's it!  Now it's time for my book and a beer.  Cheers!

Edit - After all the busy-ness of yesterday, I neglected to mention that our potatoes are German Butterball this year at the request of Tool Lady :-)

Transplants

Today was a fairly busy day, in a calm sort of way.  I woke up before anyone else (even the dogs stayed in bed when I got up!) and decided to have my tea in the front yard.  I thought I could just relax, enjoy the sun, the tea and my current book (Stephen Kings Bag of Bones).

No such luck.  Figures.  Shortly after sitting down, I decided to open up the wagons and see how they were doing.  The 4X5 was doing great!  Everything (spinach, garlic, onions, beets and snap peas) is growing like crazy!  The only issue was that our peas are leaning forward (toward the light filtering through the plastic, I assume) instead of grabbing on to the nice little wire support structure Tool Lady built for them!  So, what did I do?  I tied 'em up!  A little bit of yarn goes a long way.  Hopefully in a week or so I will be able to untie them because they will be holding on all by themselves!

This busy little helper is not one of ours (we are still anxiously awaiting our buzzing package) but was a welcome visitor in our garden today!  Pollinate, pollinate, pollinate!!!

Next up was the 4X6 bed that was stripped of all its kale last week.  After letting it rest for all of a week, I decided it was time to put some babies/seedlings in there.  Here's the thing...I started a ton of tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, lemon cucumbers, basil and peanuts (as well as several other veggies) in flats in the dining room.  However, we do not have a grow light and this year all the seedlings are growing super sloooooowwww.  So, I figured that the wagons are getting pretty hot these days (soon they will be too hot for the spinach and lettuce...it's time to plant some seeds in the shade...), why not throw some of the struggling seedlings in there, in dirt and warmth that might make them happy, and see what happens???  So  that's just what I did!

All the babies (22 seedlings in all + 4 meanderings rows of carrots)  in amongst what's left of the kale (which is sprouting new leaves already) and the lettuce up front.

1 of 8 Lemon Cucumber seedlings I planted.  4 seedlings are four weeks old and 4 are 2 weeks olds, so if all works well we'll have some succession planting/harvesting!!!

Baby peppers

Baby Jalapenos

I crammed lots of plants in one bed while still trying to give them all enough space.  I am really super hopeful they will all survive!  We are looking at a good week of forecasted lows in the mid 30s to low 40s.  Add that to the plastic sheeting holding in the heat and the hay helping out a bit, my fingers are crossed!!!  If not, however, I still have one of each of these seedlings (minus the cherry tomatoes) in my dining room, limping along.

Here's the official list of what I planted today:

Lemon Cucumbers (8)


Tomatoes (1 of each)
Yellow Pear
Martinos' Roma
Brandywine
Italian Heirloom
Yellow Taxi

Cherry Tomatoes (1 of each)
Brown
Golden Nugget
Green Grape
Snow White
Bi-Color
Sweetie
Sun Drop

Bell Peppers (2 of each)
Chocolate Beauty
California Wonder

Jalapenos (2 of each)
Dark Green
Early

Carrots (2 rows of each)
Dragon
Yellow Stone

Basil (4-6 of each, I honestly can't remember)
Dark Purple Opal
Genovese




Cheers!

A Spoon for Every Bite

When I was a little girl, there was nothing I loved more than to go to the neighbors house at the crack of dawn and help her make fresh tortillas for the day.  She made tortillas every day because there were about 20 people living with her and her husband (teenagers and kiddos) and they were all quickly consumed before school and work began.  There is nothing better than a fresh tortilla...all warm and soft...and if I helped her, I would get one.  Since we didn't make tortillas at my house I thought this was the best trade ever!

We moved out of that house for a couple of years and with that move went my trade.  I've thought about making fresh tortillas at home several times in my adult life, but never attempted it.  It seemed like this magical thing that only Martha could do right and it was much easier to just grab a bag of torts from the grocery store.

That is until recently when I had the Aha! moment that, not only can I make tortillas for much cheaper than I can buy them, but they will also be healthier because I'll control the ingredients!  Now, that's some magic!

So, how do you make tortillas???  It's super easy, but does take practice to perfect (and I am still perfecting).  Here's what you do and what I've learned so far...

What to throw in the bowl:
Flour (2 cups)
Water (1 cup)
Salt (1/2-1 teaspoon)
Shortening/lard/oil/butter (8 teaspoons)

These ratios will make 10-12 burrito sized tortillas.  I usually make double that and then we can eat tortillas all week.

The ratio of flour to water is about 2 to 1.  Play with it.  You want to dough to form nicely.  If you've added too much water it will just stick to you.  Add more flour, it won't hurt it :-)

Add as much, or as little, salt as you want.

Shortening works better than oil or butter because it re-hardens after you've warmed it and added it to the flour-salt mixture.  The oil and butter do not harden and it makes for a very sticky and hard-to-work-dough.  This shortening is vegetarian and not hydrogenated.  Magic!

Put your flour in a big bowl and add your salt.  Mix.

 Next, melt your shortening in the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute.

Pour your shortening into your flour/salt mixture

Mix these ingredients together with your finger tips until your shortening is in smaller-than-a-pea crumbles and throughout your flour/salt mixture.

Next, add your water and mix it all together adding more flour if necessary.  Once mixed and in a nice little ball place a damp kitchen towel over the bowl and let your dough rest for about 30 minutes.

Next, break your dough into small balls (the size of the ball determines the size of your tortilla, so play with the sizes you like).  While each ball waits to be rolled out, cover them all with a towel or some plastic wrap so they don't dry out.  Roll out the first ball you made so as to let the others rest a bit while they wait their turn.

Roll out your tortillas one at a time.  If you mess with the dough too much, it will shrink back.  If this happens, just let it rest for a couple of minutes and then try again.

Throw your tortillas on a hot cast iron pan.  Medium heat is best.  Cast iron is best, but not absolutely necessary.

When it starts to fluff up, it's time to flip it.  Just use your fingers to grab onto an edge and flip, but be careful!  That pan will bite you if it has the chance!

Perfect!!!  Now wait just a couple of minutes and then pull it off the pan and stack it on a plate to cool.

Once cool, place them in a plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator.  They'll store for about a week before getting a little chewy.  To re-heat them sprinkle a little water on both sides and throw it in the toaster over for a couple of minutes.  It'll soften right up!  You can throw it in the microwave too, but I don't recommend it, it'll just get chewy as soon as it starts to cool again.

These are whole wheat tortillas from a separate batch.  Whole wheat tortillas are yummy, but I prefer white flour.  Not as healthy, but traditional and fan-tas-tic!

If you put love into your tortillas, you just might get some love back from them!!!

Also, here's a link to one of the best story tellers ever, telling the story A Spoon for Every Bite.  Joe Hayes is my favorite and I spent many a summer listening to him tell his stories!!!

Cheers!