Recap

Written by karen on 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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Wonders of nature

Written by karen on June 2nd, 2022

There are many wonders to living close to the land (and far from other people) as we do. Among them our connections to the seasonality, awareness of the night time sky, and of course, sightings of wildlife.

For the 13 years that we have lived here, we have seen signs of what I was sure was a badger. Very sharp and long scratch marks in the dirt, occasionally clawing at a wooden door. But we never saw a badger.

Finally this morning, laying in bed, I heard something that sounded strange. I got out of bed, and right in front of the house, I saw it — the elusive badger. It was beautiful. Not too large and with a bold stripe running down its back all the way to the tip of its nose. It moved slowly and seemed uninterested in me as it looked right into the glass doors in our bedroom and then slunk over toward the other house and eventually out into the bush. Pretty great way to start the day.

Here’s a quick update on other things here: it is very hot and dry and windy as it often is in the spring. They are talking about a bigger than usual monsoon, which is rumored to start in mid June. We’ll see.

Being unsure what the future holds, we have cut back on the garden. Instead of our normal 10 or so beds, we are focusing on one bed and trying the intensive gardening idea that I have read much about. The idea is to plant a whole bunch of different things all densely in one bed. Since we usually have so many beds going, this hasn’t really made sense in the past, but this year I thought it might be a fun experiment. We’ll see how things go.

It’s so hot and dry, that the birds, especially the quail, are scratching up everything that’s watered. I know it doesn’t make much sense to plant things before monsoons, but it amuses me and keeps me busy so I do it anyway.

In the meantime, garlic is ready to harvest.

 

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Military flyovers

Written by karen on March 16th, 2022

A few weeks ago, we learned of a proposal by the U.S. Air Force to increase military training in our area.

We already experience quite a few low, fast military flyovers, including what seem to be hot shot pilots flying low in the canyons here. I’ve always thought it was just a matter of time before there was a horrific crash. (There have been a few but not in our immediate area.)

The new proposal would include increased F-16 and F-35 fly-overs as low as 100 feet above ground level and sonic booms at altitudes as low as 5,000 feet. In addition, dropping of flares and chaff would be allowed causing a significant fire risk, not to mention damage to the environment and wildlife here. 

Faced with the numerous other risks this proposal presents, the community quickly mobilized and put together this web site and this online petition, which now has over 1000 signatures, to fight this. The worldwide community of wildlife biologists who have done work in this area are particularly upset about this.

The process for this is long and complicated. The first steps are a public announcement and a request for public scoping comments, which are now done. Now there will be a lull in the activity while the Air Force prepares the Draft Environmental Impact Study, which is planned to be released in the fall of 2023. After that there will be a public review and comment period, the Final EIS (summer 2024), and the Record of Decision (fall 2024).

We believe that we can successfully oppose this, but it will take time, money, and concerted efforts. If you can sign the petition, follow this on social media, or otherwise take action, we’d appreciate it.

It’s been sad to learn also that this kind of thing is happening in rural areas nationwide, especially in the west. People just don’t seem to be able to act in their own interests sometimes.

 

 

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Books read in 2021

Written by karen on January 16th, 2022

Here’s this year’s list with bold for my particular favorites. This was the most books I’ve read in one year in a while. I did join a book club this year, which expanded the things I read. I read several climate change related books, and some mindless crime drama to escape the horror of the world. I also read a fair amount of nonfiction related to local food and farming as a result of a work project I did on the same topic.

  1. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
  2. Lost Light by Michael Connelly
  3. The Narrows by Michael Connelly
  4. The Closers by Michael Connelly
  5. The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
  6. The Dayton Book Guys by J. Bradford Tillson Jr.
  7. The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
  8. The Overstory by Richard Powers
  9. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
  10. Horizon by Barry Lopez
  11. Coming Home to Eat by Gary Nabhan [reread]
  12. Climbing the Mango Trees by Madhur Jaffrey
  13. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
  14. Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
  15. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
  16. A Peace of My Mind by John Noltner
  17. A Full Life in a Small Place by Janice Emily Bowers
  18. The Town That Food Saved by Ben Hewitt
  19. Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert
  20. The Way of Peace by James Allen
  21. Escape From Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson
  22. Dance of the Jakaranda by Peter Kimani
  23. Greyhound by Steffan Piper
  24. Underground by Mark Rudd
  25. Vegetables Unleashed by Jose Andres
  26. Eating Wildly by Ava Chin
  27. Everything I Want to Do is Illegal by Joel Salatin
  28. The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux
  29. Reclaiming Our Food by Tanya Denckla Cobb
  30. Accidentals by Susan Gaines
  31. Win by Harlan Coben
  32. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  33. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver [reread]
  34. Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert
  35. Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams
  36. The Quiet Girl by SF Kosa
  37. Sooley by John Grisham
  38. A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
  39. A Moveable Feast edited by Don George
  40. We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer
  41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee [reread]
  42. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
  43. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  44. A Bittersweet Season by Jane Gross
  45. Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas Tallamy
  46. Glorious Boy by Aimee Liu
  47. The Turquoise Ledge by Leslie Marmon Silko
  48. The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
  49. The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
  50. Kiss the Ground by Josh Tickell
  51. Foundation by Isaac Asimov [reread]
  52. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov [reread]
  53. Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl
  54. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov [reread]
  55. Varina by Charles Frazier
  56. The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
  57. Later by Stephen King
  58. Miracle Cure by Harlan Coben
 

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I’m not ready for winter

Written by karen on 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

Written by karen on 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

Written by karen on 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

Written by karen on 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!

Written by karen on 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

Written by karen on 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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