New do

During this social isolation, many of us need a haircut, and Sam is no exception. A couple days ago, he came up with a remedy.

Strangely enough, the mohawk suits him! There are several reasons behind it. Number one, he likes change. And he saw a great new video on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/4nWcxgxCVG0

There's a shorter version on FoxNews.com, if you want to search for it.

After cutting his hair, Sam chose the Scaled Quail as his "spirit animal."

See the resemblance?! Photos of quail here:

https://images.app.goo.gl/n1nCHousfuKB9X7a8

We hear their calls and see them daily on Pumpkin Patch Ranch.

We want to show you the progress on our garden, but first a short road trip today.

A few weeks ago Sam was using his binoculars and saw an amazing sight. Wind turbines are barely visible over the hills northeast of the PPR.

https://www.tep.com/red-horse-wind/

These things are 450 feet tall and 27 miles away, though our round trip drive was about 100 miles. At night they blink red lights (to warn airplanes flying over), and we can see those, too. Sam found it on Google maps and today we went adventuring.

You can see why they built them here--strong winds are common in this valley. It was a beautiful drive by back roads and we thoroughly enjoyed the break.

So back to our garden. We have all these plant starts that have been growing from seed in the greenhouse and more recently in the patio area. Some are 4 or 5 inches tall and really need to be planted.

We've been cleaning out the water pipes and buckets and digging up yucca and weeds from our new raised bed area. Those are tubes of old roots next to Sam.

Mom Virginia was inspired to groom the yard a little.

But unfortunately, her energy doesn't last long. We're in a heat wave, high temperatures of 91 to 94 degrees Fahrenheit, so we don't work long in the afternoons.

Finally, it was time to start filling the buckets. In case you're interested, I'll go through it step by step. We begin by mixing dirt in the wheelbarrow.

We have 4 different piles of soil: kitchen compost, purchased compost, soil from last year's buckets, and native soil from up the hill. I take varying amounts of each.

Then I toss in supplements like worm castings, blood meal, bat guano and potting soil and mix everything together in the wheelbarrow. (Yes, most of the amendments are made from dung or fecal matter of various animals; it grows great plants!) As I've said before, Sam does the research and testing on what to use.

I bring over an empty bucket. Then I grab a little plastic basket and wrap it in a piece of weed cloth. We're using the fabric from last year; it's a bit ragged and stained, but will work fine.

The basket goes in the bucket . . .

And sticks out the hole in the bottom.

Next I pack some really wet soil into the little basket. This will help the water wick up into the bucket.

A longer piece of weed cloth lines the inside, held in place by a few clothespins.

Weed cloth is necessary to keep the soil in the bucket while still allowing it to "breathe" through the holes.

Lastly, I fill the bucket with the amended soil, wetting it down between every shovelful.

And Sam sets it into place with the basket dipping into the water in the pipe. Then I start all over again.

Finally, the transplanting begins!

It took a couple of days (partially because of the unseasonable heat), but by evening yesterday, we have 19 buckets planted with tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, sweet purple peppers, okra, and green beans. 

And 2 potato plants, a purple and a kennewick. I guess we like purple! Thirteen buckets to go, plus a lot of work to build 3 raised beds and fill them with soil. And I haven't even mentioned the trellises for the plants to grow on!

I'll leave you tonight with a promise to post more spring flowers, soon.

And a beautiful sunrise from the other day. I hope your days also hold much joy!

Still socially apart

We're still practicing social distancing and Sam got out his tape measure to keep the correct space between he and Mom. Looks like he's aiming for more than 10 feet.

Sam often cooks for us and the other morning he made "quiche-adillas," a recipe he invented years ago. He starts with a tortilla in a large skillet and pipes a perimeter of mashed potatoes or refried beans around the edge.

He makes a flavorful egg mixture and spoons it into the middle of the tortilla. I think this was eggs, cream, mushrooms and a bit of leftover bacon and sausage.

Sprinkle on grated swiss cheese.

Top with another tortilla and cook until the eggs are solid.

Cut into wedges and enjoy! They make a yummy breakfast.

The spring weather has been really nice (in spite of windy afternoons), so we've been working on a lot of outdoor projects. I got all the garden buckets cleaned out, keeping the dirt in a separate pile from the compost and native soil.

It's one more step toward getting our plant starts into the garden. We have 80 or 90 baby plants now.

On a side note, Jake the snake is back! We only see him early morning, so he's probably spending the night in the greenhouse.

I repotted the flowers Sam bought for Mom Virginia. There's geraniums, gerber daisies and vinca.

They look really nice on Mom's deck.

We've trimmed a few trees . . .

And painted a new sheet of plywood for a work table.

It hasn't been all work. Last week our friends Linda and Mike came over from their home off Sonoita Highway. We've been friends since before Sam and I got married, through Mexico mission trips, motorcycle group rides, and church.

They bought their property not long after Sam and I bought our ranch. We really enjoyed catching up with them.

Some of the recent sights and sounds on my morning walk are a fairly rare sighting of the train almost a mile away. We often hear them in the distance, but I've never seen them from this part of the road.

I'm evidently not very good at video because I don't think I moved at all in this one!, but I wanted you to hear the bird song. All the critters, including birds, are waking up.

Sam regularly supplies me with pretty photos of flowers.  These white ones are fairly large, but they only last one day.

These blooms are tiny, less than 1/16" across, but nice when the photo is enlarged.

These are all over and are such a delicate color.

And I just liked the color and shape of this plant.

You've seen my photos of Rincon Peak to the north. This is what it looks like on an average sunny day, and we love it.

Every so often, things change. Sometimes clouds make shadows in interesting places. Or the sun moves further north as we head towards summer, and bam! There are peaks and ridges in places we never saw before. So much more interesting.

I'll leave you tonight with last week's full moon. Several of you had better shots on your Facebook page. Wasn't it beautiful?

Blessings to you all tonight.

All things alive

Greetings, friends and family! We continue to do well at Pumpkin Patch Ranch. Sam's school district is closed until July, so he is hanging around doing projects and keeping Mom entertained during meals and TV programs.

Today, after a couple weeks of staying home, we took off on a little adventure in the car.

Mom usually rides shotgun because the front passenger seat is easier for her to get in and out of. We explored a road near Benson that we hadn't driven yet.

It was great to be outdoors with the windows open to the fresh air, looking at a different view.

We saw wildflowers, but I couldn't photograph many of them.

We stopped for takeout at lunch, then headed back. Sam had to get home for a continuing education class online with his school district.

Back at the ranch, we're seeing more critters and plants as the weather warms up. Bugs, birds . . .

Butterflies . . .

Lizards . . .

And this beautiful guy that Sam's sister Faye named Jake the Snake. He showed up in our greenhouse about a week ago.

Sam's research shows he's a Western Coachwhip, a type of racer, probably a juvenile but over 4 feet long. He eats mice and other rodents and is non-venomous, so we encouraged him to stay, but it's looking like he moved on a few days ago.

Too bad; we could have used him this week. We've trapped 3 rats near Mom's house and found a mouse in the 5th wheel and rodent damage inside Sam's car. Not fun!

Speaking of new plants, our first harvest was radishes planted 6 weeks ago.

We picked about a dozen so far, and then popped new seeds in the dirt for an ongoing harvest.

I'll close with recent photos of native flowers right here on PPR. This pink fluffy one is fairy duster.

So many varieties when you slow down and look at the details.

Thanks for hanging out with us today. I pray you are staying sane as we wait and watch and do what needs to be done. God bless you all.

(Many photos courtesy of Sam.)