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Recap

Sunday, September 4th, 2022

** 10/16/22 update – The rain has continued, and we got about .25 ” this weekend. (Other areas nearby had more, some over 2″.) This is by far the longest the monsoons have gone on in or time here. Recording this for future reference.

10/24/22 update – first freeze this week

Well, it’s been an odd year here for a variety of reasons. As I’m looking at the blog, I realize that several interesting things have happened that haven’t been written about so I’m doing a catch up post with some highlights.

  • After years of waiting, in January, we finally got Starlink internet. It has surpassed our expectations and really changed life here increasing our up and download speeds by about 20-40 times. As a result, we have also cancelled one of our landlines. And we are now in a position to have both electrical power and phone service when the usual service here is down. 
  • Our rain water catchment system is up and operating. We have a 1550 gallon tank behind the house. It feeds a 550 gallon tank that is next to the garden. With the incredible monsoon this year, both tanks are now full.
  • The monsoon has been one of the best since we’ve been here. They started early (June?) and are still going into September. We’ve had over eight inches of rain in that time.
    Everything is green, green, green, and the canyon behind us has a healthy stream flowing.
  • The intensive garden bed we planted did well. We are eating greens, beans, peppers, and tomatoes. There are a few big watermelon and pumpkins yet to be harvested. The zucchini never fruited but have many blooms which I am eating. In the beds we didn’t plant out, Brad put in a bunch of cowpeas which are thriving and will make the soil more fertile. 
  • We put in a motion cam at our front gate which has yielded some fun photos of wildlife.

This year we are thinking more than usual about how much we value the life we have built here. It is a beautiful life in an amazing place.

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I’m not ready for winter

Wednesday, October 13th, 2021

It got into the 30s here last night, but apparently not quite cold enough to freeze the garden. We still have tomatoes and melons on the vines and are hoping for a couple more weeks before the first frost.

Fortunately, it’s still in the 70s during the days. It’s pleasant enough to have the windows open during the day, which is quite nice. (In the summer, we close them to keep the hot air out.)

With all the garden bounty, we have been eating well and also canning, freezing, and otherwise preserving all we can. It will be nice to have all this food throughout the winter.

And we have about 400 heads of garlic and lots of greens in the ground for winter.

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September in the garden

Monday, September 6th, 2021

It is September, and the monsoons are still going. This is the longest they’ve lasted while we’ve been here. Portal just broke a record for rain set in 1967. The mountains are green, and the grass is getting waist high. There are tadpoles in the puddles, frogs jumping around, and turtles all over. It is truly marvelous.

The garden is doing well. We have had the best tomato harvest in years, and I am canning and freezing sauce and salsa for the rest of the year, as well as enjoying fresh tomatoes with every meal. 

The weeds are phenomenal as well. I’ve spent many hours this weekend trying to clear out beds to start on fall planting. And this is the year of the caterpillars. (Each year, there is something that seems to thrive to an unbelievable degree. This year it is caterpillars of every color and stripe, including hornworms.)

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The loveliest time of year

Monday, July 26th, 2021

This morning here was one of those times you could think you were in the English countryside. Cool moist air, low fog, wet dew on the thick green grass, cows softly mooing. It was just beautiful.

Contrary to the predictions, the monsoons have been strong this year. (Last year, we had almost none, causing fairly widespread concern here about the future.) We have had several very heavy rains, and in fact, some areas are having flooding. The plants here are very happy, as are we. In particular, we have been worried about our treasured oak trees and are glad they are getting a good deep drink. The animals are celebrating as well, and we have been seeing frogs and turtles as well as some very healthy looking coyotes.

(PS You may have heard me say that other times are the “best” times of year. There are many here!)

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Next steps

Sunday, July 18th, 2021

The monsoons are in full swing. We pretty quickly filled up our first 550 gallon rainwater catchment tank. And fortuitously, we were able to find another used tank.

This one is 1500 gallons and is 8 feet in diameter and about 6 feet tall. In trying to move it, we first had to drain all the water. (Water is very heavy; the tank is heavy but manageable with a little thought.) We quickly learned though that most moving trucks and trailers, including ones from UHaul, etc., are 5 to 7 feet wide. This posed a problem.

We searched and searched and talked to all kinds of people (including tow companies, who wanted an exorbitant amount of money to do the move), before finding a neighbor with a large flat bed truck who was willing to help us.

Here are pictures of the move.

Next we’ll be working on a gravel bed to mount this on and then plumbing between this and the other tank we got for overflow. 

In the meantime, we’ve been watering the garden with rainwater from the first tank, and our plants couldn’t be happier.

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Rain!

Thursday, June 24th, 2021

Yesterday, we finally got some rain. It was so glorious, and I can’t express what a relief it was.

And we harvested our first significant amount of rainwater — about 200 gallons! While our system is not completely set up, we’ve had in a position that just in case it rained, we could catch some of it. And we did!

 

It was pretty amazing to see a fairly brief rain shower result in quite a lot of water in the tank. (I doubt our old small buckets would have even gotten filled.) The math of this is interesting.

It rained about .25″, and our current catchment is about 1200 square feet. It won’t take long to fill up our first 500 gallon tank. There is more rain forecast for next week, and monsoons seem to be starting. Fingers crossed. And yes, plans for more and bigger tanks (and filtering) are in the works.

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Hot, hot, hot

Monday, June 21st, 2021

As you may have heard, it’s hot here. Really hot. 

It’s often hot here in the summer, but never like this that we remember. A few days ago, we had a day where our outside thermometer read 118 degrees (in the sun). It has been over 100 every day for more than a week. 

Being off the grid, we have no air conditioning, but in the past have been able to moderate the temperature pretty well with careful attention to raising and lowering blinds at key times and opening and closing the windows to get the cool night air in and keep the hot day air out. Generally, as long as it gets to 70 or so at night, we can cool the house down sufficiently and then keep a good differential during the day. With the insulation we have, this typically means a 20-30 degree difference between inside and outside temperatures during the day.

In this stretch though, we’ve had nights that haven’t gotten out of the 90s until 4am and then only for an hour or two. When this is the case day after day, it can result in inside temperatures that don’t get below the mid 80s or so. This week, it has been up to 90+ inside at times. I find that high 80s are about where I’m saying enough. It’s been challenging.

We’ve made some adjustments like putting up reflective sheets of cardboard inside the shades, and we have ideas for other modifications we can do if necessary.

We’re waiting to see how long this goes on. The forecast doesn’t look good temperature-wise, though there is a 25% chance of rain midweek. Fingers crossed.

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Weather

Wednesday, October 21st, 2020

As I’m seeing pictures of the first snow in many parts of the country, here I staked tomatoes today. 

We had an unusually hot couple weeks (even for here) this summer that prevented my tomatoes  from fruiting. Then a couple weeks ago, we had a dramatic drop in temperatures. Since then, it’s been a pleasant 80-90 during the day and into the low 50s at night. Perfect weather. And my tomatoes have done well since then.

Next week it’s forecast to go into the low 40s, so a freeze could happen anytime. Until then though, we’re enjoying it.

In other news, we’ve been working on refinishing the outside wood doors before winter comes. The sun and wind here is very hard on exterior surfaces so there is always work to do. One new twist on this is our recently adopted cat. I didn’t designed the house with a cat in mind and having no interior doors makes it difficult to contain her. She is the best thing that’s happened to us this year though, and we aren’t complaining!

For those interested, I’m also working on a project now to encourage people here to eat local. We’re on the web, FB, and Instagram if you want to follow along. In the spring, we’ll be doing a couple “big reads” with virtual events and online discussions that anyone is welcome to join.

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Garden news

Saturday, September 5th, 2020

It hasn’t been a great year for the garden. I suspect our soil is getting “tired,” and we also had a stretch of very hot weather with little rain that challenged everyone’s growing.

Despite that, September tends to be our peak harvest for many things. Our biggest success this year has been eggplants. These Rosa Biancas are beautiful.

We also have watermelons, cantaloupes, and tomatoes coming along. And as usual, our greens have been solid all year. We’re expecting to get an unusual cool spell next week, so we’ll be planting more then for the fall and winter.

And in other news, we’ve seen another gila monster — this time right outside our house. This was a big one that appeared to be at its peak age.

 

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Water

Friday, January 31st, 2020

Last weekend, after too many consecutive days of work, Brad and I took a hike in the canyon. Imagine our surprise to see water flowing there.

It’s rare that there is water flowing in Horseshoe Canyon, but we’ve had a good amount rain and snow this winter (well, for here at least). 

With all the water, we are hopeful for a good spring bloom. 

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