The three of us

At the moment, Pumpkin Patch Ranch is three people: Sam, mom Virginia, and me. Two of us are a little wacky sometimes. 

They like to entertain each other. While I'm doing laundry in Benson, Sam often takes Ma on errands or to lunch. This makes for a much more peaceful day for me, and I'm so grateful to him.

This summer, Mom walks in the early morning or evening, though she doesn't go as often as she used to. It's something she can do on her own, but we make sure she comes back safely.

Sam continues to work on the "hole to China," the dry well for our new washing machine. He digs and digs, usually in the heat, and it still isn't deep enough. 

Then he sucks up the loose dirt with the shop vac, dumping it out every so often. This story will continue . . .

In other news, Sam has an exciting new toy! It's a 1976 International Loadstar 1700 with a big service bed and all kinds of fun and vintage additions. And it runs! Do any of you have a one ton pickup? Well, this baby is a 7 ton truck! It will arrive at the ranch within the next week. 

Meanwhile, I had a little excitement, too. I signed up for a painting class! We started with blobs of acrylic paint. 

And a super nice instructor. 

And ended with . . . well, a not too terrible painting. Most important, it was fun! I've always wanted to try painting, so although I have a long ways to go, I hope to get better someday soon. 

In an update on our garden, the sunflowers got big and beautiful. They were loosely my inspiration for the above painting.

From the garden, we've had many salads and sauteed vegetables to add to our meals, and have really enjoyed the fresh veggies. On the flip side, the tomato plants were pretty much decimated by bugs and we haven't made salsa even once.

But we harvested 63 jalapenos one morning, which Sam shared with his new coworkers. They were so pretty!

And we grill okra once or twice a week, which we love. Mom isn't so thrilled, but we've learned how to disguise it on her plate!

Speaking of Mom, I keep forgetting to mention her favorite front yard visitors. These rabbits feed and frolic in pairs every morning and evening, right outside her dining room window, and she loves to watch them. 

Monsoons often bring wonderful sunsets, but I had never seen anything this intense until a week or so ago.

The man and rancher contemplates the coming storm. 

It was pretty spectacular. 

After it was over, he captured these beautiful clouds and rainbow. Wow!

Thanks for coming along on our journey. 

The Adventures of Jungle Jan

And her trusty sidekicks.

The other day I took the cats out to the garden.

There were many areas to explore. 

Including one spot where Sam had removed a few buckets. 

We discovered a new resident had moved in!

Fortunately, Dingus and Frankie were oblivious and the toad dived back under the water in the pipe.

It was a good adventure. 

We had another much bigger toad on our walkway between the two homes. They're Colorado River toads, also known as Sonoran Desert toads, and only come out during the monsoon season. 

A few days later, I found one stranded in the 4 foot deep hole Sam is digging as a dry well for the washing machine we bought the other day.

It took several tries using different garden implements, but I was finally able to help him climb up the mud wall with a length of 2x4 lumber under his back legs.

I actually love these creatures! Frogs and toads are my favorites. 

As long as we're talking about creatures . . . this is a Red Velvet Mite. He's small, less than 1/4 inch, but really stands out against the desert soil. 

A beautiful gopher snake crossed our driveway in front of us as we were walking a couple weeks ago. He's harmless and eats rodents, so we appreciate having him as a neighbor. 

Mesquite bugs are all over in the trees, eating the mesquite pods. They startle me with their size, but are harmless. 

Look how colorful they are as a juvenile. I lived 35 years in Tucson and never remember seeing one until we moved out here.

Then there's our tarantula friends, whom I like as long as I see them coming! They dig little holes to hide in during the hot days and only come out at dusk or during a rainstorm. 

See, the desert creatures are mostly harmless and we coexist peacefully. But it pays to know which ones are dangerous, such as the rattlesnakes we've seen and killed. 

Our garden attracts a ton of bugs. These are our pollinators, and we love them. 

Butterflies . . .

And bees.

And these are our pests, Cucumber Beetles, which we're fighting to keep away from the blossoms this year. 

They come in spotted, striped, green, red, black.

Because of them, our harvest hasn't been as plentiful this year.

But we still got an Armenian Cucumber that was over a foot long and weighed 1 lb. 3.4 ounces!

I'll conclude with the view from a morning walk of our mountain and an ocotillo that leafed out during the monsoon rains. We love these unique plants and are happy there's a few slowly growing on the ranch.

Sam spotted this prickly pear cactus in the shape of a heart.

He is the love of my life for these days on our Pumpkin Patch Ranch, and I'm so fortunate to have him. (Plus, he came up with the title of this post.)

I hope you're all doing well.