Pumpkins and the PPR

Saturday night was the pumpkin carving party. Nope, not at the Pumpkin Patch Ranch; we're not that organized . . . or that popular!

Scott (on the left) and Lynn have hosted this fun event for several years. Denny (on the right) is Scott and Sam's former boss, now retired (we missed you, Christel!).

Here's another view of the "floral arrangement" between them. Lynn is incredibly talented at pumpkin carving and this year she branched out into paper mache and polymer. Scott made the plant stand out of steel. Now I want to see "Little Shop of Horrors" again!

Their decorations are awesome and get better every year.

Great food and a fun party!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've been moving rocks around and clearing our parking area of weeds. And I'm finally done with trimming trees! I counted 16. They're mostly small, and I enjoy it, but I'm glad to be done for the year!

The bigger story is that Sam and I are gearing up to start our garden. Over a month ago, we started seeds in this little greenhouse that my dad built 5 years ago. It's attached to the shed.

Cute, huh?

The seedlings are coming up and Sam's racing to get the self-watering system done before they need to be transplanted. Arugula, collard greens, peppers, okra, maybe some tomatoes!

You'll be hearing more on this subject!

Jobs and other stories

I've been working on the yard and tree trimming again this week. I sure enjoy being outdoors, especially on a beautiful day. The south side of our little house was pretty warm, but the clouds came and went, so that helped.

I occasionally do a side job, travelling to different neighborhoods in southern Arizona. (I could tell you about it, but then I'd have to kill you! Or just not tell you.) This week I drove out to Sells, the largest town in and capital of the Tohona O'odham Nation. It's a real pretty drive and I always meet interesting people who remind me of my childhood on the Navajo reservation.

On the way back, our weird weekly storm blew in and I had a good view of this isolated rain shower. Within half an hour, rain was coming down all across Tucson.

A few hours later, I was waiting outside Sam's office for him to finish work. They are in an industrial area near the "tank farm" where I worked a temporary job for 6 months back in the 80's. I loved that job! The rain had stopped, but it was still overcast.

Suddenly the setting sun fell below the clouds and the huge fuel tanks just glowed! I love this late afternoon light, especially against a dark cloudy sky.

Ten minutes later . . . more beauty in the sky. Lighting is so important in photo taking, and I lucked out that day.

The next morning, the storm was gone and Sam took a photo of the fog hovering below the Whetstone Mountains at sunrise. What a beautiful commute to work.

I'll close with a screenshot from Sam, at his request. He wondered if his phone was trying to tell him something? At first I said no way am I putting that on the blog. But it IS funny!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Time away

We came into Tucson today for the Classics Car Show, a huge and truly fun show that gets bigger every year. We saw a few friends who had cars in the show and the Drummonds even won 2nd place with their red and white VW Karmann Ghia convertible! (Not pictured here.)

It was a beautiful day, not too hot, just a little windy. Tonight we're having dinner with a fun group of friends who meet once a month or so. After dinner, we go to the nearest ice cream shop, so we call ourselves the "As Long as There's Gelato" club, a.k.a. ALATG. Or something like that!

We spent Saturday morning doing projects around the PPR. We fixed some loose plastic on the greenhouse and Sam installed a thermometer. At that point we discovered that the greenhouse interior was over 100 degrees, which prompted us to  change our gardening strategy! Maybe we'll save that for the days it snows!

A couple days ago I drove into town with Sam, dropped him off at work, did a couple errands (there's always errands), and then spent the morning with my friend Alta. We talked, and talked some more, drank tea and coffee, then went out and helped her son Brian chip and shred branches from several trees that came down in the monsoon storms last summer.

With gloves and ear protection, it was fun! Sam and I have a smaller chipper at the ranch and I'm piling up branches for our next session by the compost pile.

That's about it for now. I hope your weekend is going well!

Skies are big around here

I can't remember when we've had a more strange fall around here. Normally, September and October are hot and sunny for weeks on end. This year we've had rain every week, and not just sprinkles.

So it was nice to see some blue skies yesterday on our way home from church.

After a late lunch, Sam and I worked on transferring gasoline from the rear gas tank to the front tank. When we bought the truck, the previous owner had filled the rear tank, then Sam discovered that the fuel pump wasn't working back there.

He rigged up some fuel line to go from the fuel filter up to the front tank where you fill it at the gas station. Then somehow he got the gas to go through the line, maybe bypassing the defunct fuel pump? Obviously, when it comes to auto repair, I just do what I'm told!

This morning we had a beautiful sunrise.

But this is what the ranch looks like most of the day.

If this keeps up, we'll have some gorgeous spring flowers. And we certainly need the rain. We're in Southern Arizona, after all!

Comparisons

Last weekend we had a group of friends out to the ranch for Sunday lunch. It was a cool, blustery day, so we packed 10 of us into our tiny living room! Everyone had a good time, and actually, 8 of the 10 have lived in small, RV type homes. Once again, I had so much fun at the party, I totally forgot to take photos! What a great blogger I am!

We had more rain over the weekend, but Monday dawned clear and bright for my morning walk.

About 6 weeks ago, as our monsoon rains were winding down, I took 3 or 4 photos of Pumpkin Patch Ranch at its most green. This Monday I took the same views, for comparison.

This was on August 24.

This is the same view on October 8. Even with a couple big rains since August, quite a change.

August 24.

October 8. As the 1960's song goes, "Where have all the flowers gone?"

And up on the rise, on August 24. Not as green as the low areas.

But more green than on October 8. You can see why we love our monsoons. But we're always glad to get back to the clear, dry desert air.

My morning walks this week have been more chilly than I was used to in Tucson. Today the morning temperature before sunrise was 42 degrees (F). And I found a couple fairy duster blooms covered with morning dew. Aren't they the perfect fairy flowers?

Speaking of flowers, Sam and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary this week, and my romantic husband went out on the ranch and put together a beautiful bouquet from our zinnias and wild flowers and grasses! I love it much more than the ones in a floral shop.

I'll leave you with my quick decorating project from this morning. I found this sign for $2 in the thrift store next door to the laundromat I use every week. It was silver, but a little paint leftover from the kitchen walls did the trick.

I've been looking for ways to bring color into our white living room, especially orange to blend with the painting and compliment the turquoise walls. I like it!

Our favorite overnight guest

Sam picked up my mom, Vae, on Wednesday evening and brought her for a visit. We've wanted her to come out again, but in a one-bedroom, 400 sq.ft. home, the sleeping arrangements are challenging!

She is excited to be here again. She and my dad lived in this little house (and loved it) for a year or so before Pa died in 2014. On Thursday morning, I continued my weeding project in the front yard and Ma was inspired to pitch in. She used to love working outdoors, and hasn't had a yard to care for in 3 years.

Later we drove down to Benson to dump our trash and were able to load these old plywood steps into the truck and get rid of them, too. Score! Then we had lunch and did a little grocery shopping.

Playing with the cats is a fun activity. Ma has never been drawn to animals, but on her visits to Becky or me, she enjoys the fact that the cats (and Becky and Juan's dog, Domino) love her and vie for her attention.

We and the cats have been entertained by rabbit visitors in the early mornings. This one is a jackrabbit and was even bigger than he looks.

We are starting to think about how Ma could live out here again. She loves the views and the country and walks and the quiet . . . pretty much everything here!

And so do we. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Gardens and other parties

Saturday we saw most of the Greenoughs at Jim and Stephanie's housewarming, but I was having a good time and didn't remember to take a single photo! That evening we took Sam's Harley to the car show at Little Anthony's.

The bike attracted its share of attention, but no buyer yet. We also saw a number of friends and old friends, including one guy, Mike, that Sam knew in the Air Force!

Back at the ranch, we're starting seeds for our first try at gardening. Years ago, we grew peppers and other things in pots next to our RV. Time for a real garden! We're using egg flats with a few seeds in each egg cup. Collard greens and arugula so far. A strange combination, but that's the seed packets we picked out a few weeks ago.

We started our compost pile months ago. We keep vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and egg shells in a covered bowl in the kitchen.

By the way, that green and red vegetable in the first photo is a watermelon radish that I found at Safeway in Benson, and here's the reason for that name. We like to saute or roast radishes, and this one made a great addition. 

When the compost bowl fills up, I take it outside and bury the new scraps in the compost heap at the back of the house. (I need to pull back the weeds around the pile.) We started last June with wood chips and plant matter and it seems to be working! We're still researching. Eventually we'll use some of the compost on the garden, but we're not sure yet when it will be ready. 

It's fun to get started!