We Have Fallen Down on the Job!!!

Good Lord--has it really been four months since we've made an entry? What, you may ask, have we been doing? Well, we drove to Maine in September, with stops in Ohio (to see Oberlin College again after 40 years), Maryland (to see Lucas and family), Virginia Beach (to see Jenny and family), Memphis (to see good friend Holly after 30 years). On the way home, a friend offered to sell us a home she'd just purchased, so since the end of October we've been moving, cleaning, and remodeling. Above is what our manufactured home looked like the day we moved in--you cant see the color, but it is grey with lime-green faux shutters. The yard used to have a huge organic garden on it, but several year's of neglect has turned it into a breeding ground for tumbleweed and goatheads (vegetable caltrops that stick in your bare feet at night on the way to the bathroom and make you swear something terrible and wake your spouse...). To the left is what it looked like after some paint and shutters. There will be pics coming of the new entry and porch, but you'll have to wait a few days for that. Here's a pic of the living room wall, complete with carpet and mirrors. Oh yuck... But David worked like a dog, and me, too and we painted walls and cabinets, David laid tile and bamboo flooring and so now it doesn't look so terrible anymore. We're happy, and paying $300 a month--will eventually own the place in a year or so. Amazing that we would ever own anything ever again, but once again Grace has found us. We're the luckiest people we know!!!

Mid-August Garden

Here are a few more garden pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/AugustGarden#slideshow/5509121440239505746

Time for another update

The Red Sox just lost in the bottom of the 9th to Toronto. What's up with those guys? We watch most of the Sox games on streaming video from MLB.TV on our computer. Hooray for technology.... when it works.

Summer is here with a vengence with temperatures in the triple digits. Our swamp cooler (evaporative cooler) was acting up so I bought all kinds of parts to repair it. Unfortunately, they no longer make that model and I couldn't replace the blower fan. The shaft was so corroded I destroyed the fan getting it apart. I did manage to gump together the fan temporarily, but it's slightly out of balance and vibrates so much we can feel it in the house. Shaving is a challenge as the bathroom mirror trembles when the cooler is on. So, yesterday we made a trip to Las Cruces for sax reeds, guitar strings, and a new cooler. Here it sits in the carport. I think I'll wait for the cool of the evening to take the old one down and install this one early tomorrow.

I've been having too much fun making band related stuff. Here's a keyboard stand I just finished for Annie. It comes apart for transport into four flat pieces of 3/8" plywood. I painted the logo to hang on the front. I also made sax and guitar stands.
We're playing several Saturday Nights a month at the Turtleback Oasis, a local Natural Food Store. They pay us in coupons for free eats at their deli. Our friend Tracy cooks there and the pies and pastries are wonderful. On Sunday's we play at the Lee Belle Johnson Senior Recreation Center (she was a "Cowgirl Poet" who passed away a few months ago). The crowds have been small, to say the least, but maybe they'll pick up as word gets out. Those who do show up seem to enjoy our music.

Our gardens continue to thrive. We've been eating lots of zuccini, along with chard and beet greens. Some of the chile peppers are getting ready to pick but the tomatos seem to be waiting for cooler weather to really set on. Lots of flowers, but not many tomatos yet. Last year they peaked in early October. We've got about a dozen various melon plants that volunteered from our compost pile. Here's a small watermelon, but we've also got cantelope and several unidentified melons of equal size.

A few weeks ago we found a bunch of bamboo beside the road. There is municipal trash pickup here and folks leave their yard litter beside the road to be hauled away. I couldn't see this stuff going into the landfill so salvaged a couple of vanloads. It makes great trellises and we've stuck a bunch in the fence for the birds to perch on. The finches, sparrows and assorted doves come to be fed every day and some days there must be 75 birds at once sitting around our yard waiting for a chance at the feeder. (that's the empty house next door) I've got several projects in mind and will post some photos at a later date. I have more garden pictures, and if I get ambitious I'll put them in a Picassa album and post a link here.

A trip to City of Rocks State Park

Our friend Kathy Stingley visited from AK for a couple of days and we took a trip the the City of Rocks a couple of hours southwest of us. What a magic place. She also helped serve refreshments at a Senior Dance the Turtleback Trio (Annie, Brian and I) played for Sunday evening. She's on her way back to Homer and here are some photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/CityOfRock#slideshow/5496078853840197442

Some pictures from our camping trip

Click on the link for more.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/GilaCampingTrip#slideshow/5490570116271585826

Cactus in the Alley

We found these spineless prickly pear cactus in the ally next to a dumpster earlier this spring. Someone had been trimming and were throwing out these cuttings. We just stuck them in the sandy gravel outside our fence and "Voila!"


When we returned from Alaska earlier this month, we notices a few bumps on the paddles, and now they're flowering.






The flowers smell a little like watermellon, according to Annie. It's hard to believe something as rubbery, tough, and dead-looking can produce such a beautiful flower, but here's the proof.











Our bird-seeded sunflowers continue to bloom and we're seeing a few more ripe tomatoes each day. Last night we had chard from the garden and today we're having store bought corn on the cob for breakfast. Coughed up $19.95 the other night to listen to the Red Sox games streamed from WEEI in Boston. Great to sit outside in the cool of the evening and watch the birds while listening to the Sox stumble along. Last night they beat the Giants despite yet another addition to the disabled list.
We played music at the Farmer's Market yesterday morning for tips and handed out a few business cards. Might get a few actual paying jobs out of the exposure. We're aiming at pushing the envelope so far toward the square that we're actually hip. Lots of Old Standards and Western Swing. The locals seemed to enjoy it so I guess we'll be doing it again.

It Hatched

We returned from shopping this morning to find that our swallowtail chrysalis had hatched. The caterpillar moved from the parsley, where it had been feeding, to the blue sage plant next to it. Nine days later, voila!

You can see the discarded chrysalis in the picture below. We've planted lots more parsley, so hopefully the next crop of caterpillars will have lots to eat.

Avian Ant Destroyers

We went for a walk the other day and saw a curved bill thrasher sitting in a cholla cactus. I think this might be the one that visits our yard and scoops up ants.












Closer inspection revealed a nest with two babies. I don't see how the adults can navigate onto the nest without impaling themselves on the cholla spines.

OTHER AVIAN NEWS
Here's a young white-winged dove we found in the yard. Don't know if he fell out of the nest or was pushed out because (s)he's sickly. He can barely walk-shuffle along, so we kept him in a box over night and put him out under the bird feeder this morning in hopes an adult might try to feed him. We'll keep you posted.

Caterpillars have eaten our parsley

But what the hey? they are making beautiful chrysalises (chrysalae?). Summer is definitely here, no matter what the calendar says, but our swamp cooler is keeping the house a comfortable 76 degrees and we've been spending an hour a day in the municipal swimming pool a half a block away. We're watering every day and have already eaten a few tomatoes out of the garden.








This is a poinciana, also known as a bird of paradise bush. A bird dropped a seed in the garden and we didn't have the heart to pull it out. They grow everywhere around here, and it's taking up room that could be growing tomatoes, but, as with the caterpillars, we hate to get rid of something that beautiful, just to make room for more food.














Another volunteer from our bird feeder, this sunflower has over 20 flower heads on it. We've got sunflowers all over the yard now. They're very cheery and the birds will thank us later.


We sit out on the porch in the evening and watch the finches, sparrows. doves and red winged blackbirds at the feeder. We also have a thrasher that visits the yard to gobble ants. As the sun sets, nighthawks and bats come out and scoop up whatever flying insects are around.









I've been slowly putting down landscaping cloth under the rock borders of the gardens in order to keep the weeds down. Eventually I'll put pea gravel down in the yard. Having a hard-scaped yard makes sense in this heat... NO MOWING... no watering the lawn... and no goatheads (a noxious weed that has a thorny fruit that looks like a caltrop (you can look it up) and sticks in your feet.

We arrived in T or C last year at the end of June and didn't get anything planted until sometime in July. We still had plenty of tomatoes and peppers, along with lots of flowers. With the jumpstart we got this year, I can't wait to see what the yard looks like by the end of summer.

Back in the Garden

We returned from Alaska to find a few extra weeds, but mostly our house-sitter did a great job watering. The cauliflower is just starting to head up, there are flowers on the zuccini and there are volunteer tomatoes, melons and sunflowers everywhere. The sunflowers came up from the bird seed and some of them are amazing. This one must have 20 flowerheads. The peas didn't survive the heat, but the tomatoes are flourishing. We spent yesterday in the desert gathering dried yucca stalks to make more trellises for them to climb on. (The ladder leaning on the porch is made of dry yucca tied together with wire.

Here's a picture of our sacraficial parsley. We came home to find it covered with caterpillars. They're black swallowtails and we're waiting for them to form their crysalis cases. They've eaten all the top leaves of the parsley but haven't touched anything else. It's the second year for the parsley, and we don't need the whole plant anyway, so we're sharing with these beautiful creatures.

More baby pics

There are more pictures at
http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/FoxwellGeorgeStrobel#slideshow/5481597211605484178

Foxwell Strobel

Foxwell Strobel was born Wednesday morning, April 19, at 8:56. Mom and entire family doing fantastically well! He's a handsome boy and already much advanced for his age. 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches long.

Back in Alaska

No photos yet, but we're back in Alaska, staying with Matt, Susannah and Bea. It's COLD here! We are definitely acclimated to New Mexico. Lots of people to see, things to do etc. I've got to build a changing table in anticipation of the arrival of the new grandson, lots of spring cleanup around the triplex, and taking care of odds and ends left over from 28 years in Alaska. I'll try to get the camera out and take a few photos in the next day or so.

One Week til Alaska

We're in countdown mode. We're getting last minute stuff done in preparation for a month's absence from our little New Mexican hacienda. Yesterday we picked and washed lettuce, kale, pak choy and arugula; then bagged it up and took it to the natural food store. A friend of our neighbor's is house sitting for us, but doesn't arrive until a few hours after we leave, so I hope she can follow our watering instructions and all our tomato's, peppers, flowers etc survive until our return.

This afternoon we drove into the desert to see what was blooming. Saw lots of yellow prickly pear blossoms, but all in places where it was impossible to pull over and take a picture. The south-facing slopes going through the hills east of town warm up first, thus bloom earlier than out on the flat. Unfortunately, that's the area with twisty roads with no shoulders.

(I have no idea why the above is underlined...I tried to remove the line, but no luck!)
In case you missed all the pictures of local flora & fauna, there's an album at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/SpringFlowers#slideshow/5465360070501828466

Had to share this picture. How western is this. We were on a dirt road through the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) and came across a couple of windmills. There were also a bunch of buffalo and lots of cattle. The Jornada is the route the Spanish took north from Mexico. It's part of the Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Instead of following the Rio Grande, where local pueblos and rough terrain made travel by oxcart hazardous, they crossed this barren, dry and pretty inhospitable waste... no water for days, not much forage, and temperatures in the triple digits. The car thermometer measured 104 this afternoon, but a steady wind and humidity under 10% made it quite comfortable.
At the end of the pavement, about half an hour east of town, Spaceport America is due to be finished next summer. They had an educational launch last week, taking experiments designed by area high school and college students into space. The plan is to privatize spaceflight, send very rich tourists into space, launch satellites and generally promise enormous benefits to the local economy. This is as close as you can get without running over a security guard. Right next door is the Cutter Cattle Company, which is leasing out a bunch of land for a solar/wind hydrogen generation facility. Again, lots of talk, but I'll wait until I can buy a can of hydrogen to blow up my blimp before I believe it. Guess that's all the news that fits today. Stay tuned for Alaska and new grand baby pics.

Flower Album

This rose just opened this morning. Click on the link below to see more flower pics I took today, both in our yard and at our friend Ellen's in Hillsboro.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/SpringFlowers#slideshow/5465360070501828466

More Garden Photos

Another beautiful day. It rained Friday Night and Saturday Morning, so everything is greening up. The bok choy is jumping out of the ground.

The lettuce sat still for a while but the warmer nights now (in the mid 50s) have given it a boost.

This is an ice plant, a succulant that grows in many of the yards here in T or C. There are also beautiful reds and oranges. They spill out onto the sidewalks all around us here in the historic district. We keep meaning to pinch off a cutting to bring home to add variety to our yellow.












We bought these pinks for practically nothing last year. Walmart had a bazillion plants dying for lack of watering. We rescued these and they flowered all last summer. They came back strong this summer.

Lazy Days of SPRING!

It's been a month of Sundays since I've written in this Blog, but I've been meaning to--just haven't gotten to it (that darned Facebook, anyway...) Life here spuds along. David's become a digging and a planting fool, and this season I'm even able to get into the act, and not just as a director! David built me a little wooden stool to sit on to pick arugula and it brings me close enough to the ground so I can reach to plant stuff--but I'm not so low that I can't get back up again! That awful ad on TV "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" is a real nightmare for those of us who, as David says, can still "get down" but then can't get up again! The birds are flocking to our feeder again: red house finches, little yellow-green lesser finches, juncos, Oregon races, tiny ground doves and the bigger white-winged doves, house sparrows, white-capped sparrows, and a couple days ago there were two huge yellow-breasted kingbirds on the wire over the feeder. We've hung the hummingbird feeders back up and have added a platform on the fence with a dish of grape jelly on it for the orioles in case they come by. We also have added an oriole liquid feeder and nailed up some orange slices for good measure. We still have one large bed to plant with peppers, but need to buy some plants. We went to the Animus Creek Nursery last Saturday and bought ten different kinds of tomatoes, from big beefsteak ones to yellow pear to cherry to burgundy something-or-others. They're in the ground and seem to be thriving, along with dill, basil, zucchini, Armenian (white) cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, sweet peas, sugar snap peas--well, take a look at the peas, a grapevine, and some catnip! The fabric you see on the porch and the fence around our property we put up for a windscreen to help cut the 65 mph gusts and the days of 15-25 mph constant winds.

Our hanging baskets of baby carnations and last-year's refurbished geraniums are thriving as is the herb garden. We've picked another batch of arugula and mixed them with other greens to bag up and take down to the natural food store. So far we've sold 15 bags of arugula! We're not getting rich, but it's paid for the seeds! To the left is a grapevine we're hardening off before putting into the ground, and some sugar snap peas, which are up about 4" now. The herb garden is doing really well--the lemon thyme and the parsley, rosemary, and blue sage over-wintered really well and the mizuna and pac choy we planted a month ago is going great guns. I leave you with this new little basket, just planted. Wait 'til you see it in a month!