On Friday afternoon, we went for a drive and hike and saw some cute javelinas. This was the first pair we saw.
Then we ran into this bunch.
The babies were so cute!
Glad there aren’t any packs of these getting into our garden though.
This little piggy
Written by karen on July 22nd, 2012Today in masonry school
Written by karen on July 18th, 2012Today, we put some rebar into the wall, anchoring it to the OSB backing and adding strength.
We also put in the first electrical outlet in the adobe wall….
…and began experiments for the adobe wall wine rack concept.
Last night, we made a lovely cold soup from a giant cucumber from the garden. The tomatoes are starting to come in nicely as well.
Laying bricks
Written by karen on July 16th, 2012We began building the first adobe wall today. As with most things, we “practiced” in an inconspicuous place. This time it was the back laundry room. (The adobe there will help warm our bedroom in the winter.)
First, we mixed the mud. It’s pretty much like stucco, except we added some color to try to make the mortar look less gray and more like the adobe bricks.
The actual bricklaying went faster than I expected. Brad said these bricks are much more stable and solid than others he’s worked with.
Here is the first day’s work. And things always go faster after the first day.
And on the weather front, we’ve gotten an inch of rain in the past 24 hours. We also had pretty big hail this afternoon. Exciting.
July 4 in Rodeo
Written by karen on July 5th, 2012They actually shut down highway 80 for this parade. This year was an especially good one.
Growth spurt
Written by karen on June 29th, 2012After coming home from being gone for a week, we thought the changes in the garden would be significant, but we weren’t prepared for this.
The beans have gone crazy, nearly filling their hoop houses. The cucumbers have tons and blooms and the starts of fruits.
The watermelon plants have expanded to the point that you can’t even see the circles in Squashville where they are growing. (It’s hard to remember how it looked just 8 weeks ago.)
And we were shocked to come home to watermelons the size of grapefruits. It won’t be long until we have some to eat.
The tomatoes are continuing to thrive and put out new fruits. Most aren’t ready to eat yet, but we did have our first cherry tomato. Yum.
And Brad harvested the shallots.
Perhaps most surprising of all, the tatsoi and lettuce are still going strong and haven’t gotten bitter.
Everything seems happy in the 100+ degree heat. And on the weather front (ha ha), the monsoons have started.
Oh, deer
Written by karen on June 19th, 2012Sunday night, our lovely little herd of deer nearly wiped out one circle of squash. So Brad has upgraded Squashville accordingly.
To market, we go
Written by karen on June 18th, 2012
Our lettuce and tatsoi are really thriving, producing more than we can eat. So we decided it was finally time to make an appearance at the local farmers’ market, as growers this time. (We’ve been working with the market here to help with marketing and try to increase the emphasis on fresh, local produce, not much in demand in our community. We never thought we’d sell there, but what better way to help the market grow.)
Saturday morning, we harvested. Then we began the process of triple-washing, spinning, and packing the greens. We’ve had lots of experience doing this before, but never in our house with our produce!
When it was all done, we had 15 bags of lettuce and 5 bags of tatsoi, plus a few extra bags for ourselves. Amazingly, we still only harvested about half the bed. We sold most of it and gave the rest to friends.
Our lettuce is really delicious, despite the fact that it’s been over 100 here (unusually hot). Most other folks here say their lettuce has gone bitter. I attribute our success to the fact that our lettuce bed is in the afternoon shade (and covered and gets a lot of water).
The rest of the garden is doing well. Brad harvested almost 9 pounds of hardneck garlic, and the shallots will be ready soon. The tomatoes are thriving, and we have little pea-sized watermelons. I love summer!
Fluff
Written by karen on June 12th, 2012So the insulation is in.
The material for this is Icynene, apparently not made of soy as I’d thought, but rather from castor oil. It’s “low emission” and creates a tighter air seal than most anything else.
It’s water-based, and they spray it in with a tube. It comes out at 140 degrees, which made a hot day even hotter. (The truck the guys came in has a trailer with a big air conditioner in the back. Brad thought it was for the comfort of the installers, but it turned out it was actually for the material.)
It sprays on pretty thin and then quickly expands. Kind of like Crazy Foam. Once dry, it has the consistency of very dry angel food cake.
On the walls that are double (or will be), they foamed in about 5 inches, which is less space than we have, so no trimming was needed. On the walls that will get adobe though, they needed to trim off the extra. Here’s what that looked like.
When they were all done, they left three giant bags of trimmings. We’ve been brainstorming what we might do with those. :)
Alien life
Written by karen on June 9th, 2012
We get some weird bugs here. Shortly after I took this picture, this thing flew. It looked like a small bird.
Ice cream across the border
Written by karen on June 7th, 2012Brad and I have been to Mexico many times. Strangely, though, we haven’t made a trip south of the border since we moved here. Too busy? Too close? I’m not sure, but this week, we finally made a short visit to Agua Prieta (AP). It’s a very easy trip over, and we went between errands in Douglas and Bisbee.
Agua Prieta is just across from Douglas, AZ where we grocery shop, go to the farmers market, etc. It’s a much bigger town than Douglas and has many more stores, restaurants, and facilities. A lot of the architecture is quite nice, and it reminds me of “colonial” cities in other countries. Lots of beautiful churches. It is also very clean.
It’s not a tourist town, and we didn’t seem to attract any particular interest of folks. There was no one asking us for money or anything else.
We went, walked around for a bit, had lunch, and then found an ice cream parlor! (Ice cream is something that is sorely missing in Douglas or anywhere else around here.) We’re looking forward to going back, especially since we’ve learned that there is a baseball team there.
On the way back, the trip through the checkpoint was pretty quick. The US Border officials pretty much hassled everyone, making TSA look genuinely friendly, but I guess that’s the world we live in. For now, anyway.
So for any of you planning to visit, bring your passport, and we’ll take a little trip to AP.