Garden Tour

 

Welcome to our garden at the Pumpkin Patch Ranch! 

It's still growing! 

The yard-long beans have given us half a dozen meals every week, as have the cucumbers. 

And cherry tomatoes and yellow squash. Of course we have plenty of peppers, including jalapenos, banana peppers, New Mexico, and Mexibelles, which taste like bell peppers until a bit of heat comes through. 

Several times our entire salad has come from our garden. So fresh!

We kept checking the carrots, but they were growing slowly, so we left them alone. Fortunately last week Sam checked again. We got a whole meal already and there's more coming. Mom Virginia wasn't sure about the colors. Sometimes we have to disguise her food!

The rest of the ranch is still green, too, as well as our neighbors' properties. The rains have slowed down, but as I write this, I hear thunder outside. 

A few nights ago, Sam spent an hour chasing this lightning show with his phone camera, and put together this GIF. Pretty cool, huh?

Can you see the poppies in the riparian area out behind the shed? This was taken from Mom's deck.

With the rains, we have a lot of volunteer plants outside the garden, too. This seems to be a squash and the leaves are 5 or 6 times bigger than Sam's big ol' hands!

Sam often spots wildlife on his drive to work and back. This was a turkey vulture, the largest of the birds in our area.

Just a few days later, I saw a hawk on a yucca and whipped out my camera. I'm not usually that fast!

Sam is always seeing snakes crossing the road, and guards them until they're safely across. He researched this one and it's a glossy snake, probably puffed up to make himself look bigger and more threatening. We've never seen or heard of this one before. 

Me, I see lizards all over our paths between our trailer and my Mom's, and everywhere else. This is a skink. They're usually 6 or 8 inches long, with a pale green belly and tail. 

Last week when I was walking down from the storage trailer, I surprised a Gila monster. We startled each other! He was about 14" long, so probably a youngster, and I wish I had taken a video to show how he swings his tail and body from side to side as he walks. This is the first one we've seen at PPR and only the 4th or 5th one I've ever seen in the wild.

This pretty caterpillar is living on our parsley. We rarely use it, so we're okay with it. Sam figured out he's a Black Swallowtail. He's going to be beautiful. 

We continue to do projects when we can, although I've been bad at taking photos. Sam installed these window awnings over a couple of south facing windows on Mom's house. 

He also bought a set of Pampered Chef microwave chip makers at a thrift store and made some awesome and flavorful oil-free potato chips this week. They were perfectly crispy.

Our star jasmine plants have come back (after being eaten by deer in June), thanks in part to chicken wire fencing and water retention wells. Which I had to rebuild today after the rains this month washed them away.

Mom even helped out after UPS dropped off a box on her deck. I came home from grocery shopping and she had brought in the box and opened and unpacked it! Thanks, Mom!

Dingus and Frankie are always willing to help with laundry and projects. 

We've made a few half-day trips, utilizing Sam's chauffeur services and Crown Victoria sedan. Mom and I often nap on the homeward leg, giving Sam some peace and quiet.

Sam and I snuck away one evening for a treat and the rainy day cooled down so much that I was cold while eating the ice cream. Fortunately, I'm married to a former Boy Scout whose motto is "Be Prepared" and he had a blanket in the trunk. I will admit that the outdoor temps were around 78 degrees with a breeze. I was cold from the inside!

One day we were in Sierra Vista and went looking for the museum that holds the actual window used in McDonald's first ever drive-through in the world. The story is that in 1972, the soldiers at the Army base in nearby Fort Huachuca were not allowed to wear their fatigues into businesses in town. The McDonald's owner knew that a lot of his sales came from soldiers, so he cut a window in the side of his restaurant, making it possible for the soldiers to drive up and get food without getting out of their cars.

It was fun and interesting to see. Then we realized that although we often go to McDonald's for lunch, that day we had chosen Burger King. 

I continue to love my painting workshop, which has gained a few more regulars. We have a lot of fun.

We're going to have a small exhibit at the local college in September, and our teacher asked us to do a "mission" themed painting. This is from a photo of San Xavier south of Tucson. 

Next, I did one of San Pedro Chapel in Tucson. This little old church was on my side of town when we lived there and I've always loved it.

Finally, I decided one day to paint our mountain and poppies, and I set up outside. I've been following a "Plein Air" group on Facebook and had never tried it. 

This was the result, and although I'm not totally satisfied with it, I think it's a cute little painting. The poppies, of course, were off to my right, but in order to paint from there, I would have been knee deep in grass, native plants and flies!

I'll leave you with some of the flowers from our yard. 

I love that we have yellow and purple, cream and white. And many kinds of flowers in each color. 

This sunflower was a volunteer. We never planted them this year. 

And this is the view from Mom's deck of the zinnias and calendula that we did plant. They're huge.

Have a great week, you all!