Husband asked me to make a scarecrow since he always sees the sparrows hanging out in the garden patch in the morning. We don't have many sprouts coming up yet and we don't want them to be eaten.
I put her together with things I found around the shop. Some old electric conduit that we dug up a couple weeks ago with some duct tape made a nice frame. Luckily I had some clothes destined for Goodwill that hadn't headed over yet that I dressed her in. Her head is half of an automatic dog waterer that the people we bought the place from left.
I'm calling her Olive. I think she looks more friendly than scary but hopefully the birds don't think so. We'll have to wait and see. I don't want to have to change her name to Olive Soothecrow.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Mandolin
Husband tried to get me a drum set for Christmas but the musical forces that be seemed to be against the idea. The first order he placed was from a place that was supposed to have real time inventory on their website. But after Christmas had come and gone and we still hadn't received it he canceled the order.
The next place he ordered from sent out two packages but only had tracking information for one of them. It also turns out the wrong address ended up on the packages. Husband discovered the error and called the music store to get it changed. They did a recall on the package they had a tracking number for. We ended up with box 2 of 2 from the set since UPS delivers to us regularly and changed the address on that box themselves. Box 2 of 2 was not very useful - it was full of mostly stands. The store couldn't send us just box 1 so we had to send them back box 2 and get a refund.
By this time we had decided that instead of building we were going to set up a small trailer caravan to live in. We can barely fit half of what we already own into a trailer caravan so we figured a smaller instrument would be better. So when we went into town on St. Patrick's Day I visited the Folk Music Shop and wandered around and around the store looking; waiting for something to catch my eye.
They had a lot of fun instruments but when I saw this one I was hooked. So now I'm learning the mandolin so we can sit around home and play music instead of always having to drive somewhere to amuse ourselves.
The next place he ordered from sent out two packages but only had tracking information for one of them. It also turns out the wrong address ended up on the packages. Husband discovered the error and called the music store to get it changed. They did a recall on the package they had a tracking number for. We ended up with box 2 of 2 from the set since UPS delivers to us regularly and changed the address on that box themselves. Box 2 of 2 was not very useful - it was full of mostly stands. The store couldn't send us just box 1 so we had to send them back box 2 and get a refund.
By this time we had decided that instead of building we were going to set up a small trailer caravan to live in. We can barely fit half of what we already own into a trailer caravan so we figured a smaller instrument would be better. So when we went into town on St. Patrick's Day I visited the Folk Music Shop and wandered around and around the store looking; waiting for something to catch my eye.
They had a lot of fun instruments but when I saw this one I was hooked. So now I'm learning the mandolin so we can sit around home and play music instead of always having to drive somewhere to amuse ourselves.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Planted, Watered, Fenced
Husband finished putting the irrigation in last week so we spent Wednesday through Saturday planting seeds and running rabbit fence. We have about 1750 square feet planted. The three closer rows have six varieties of tomatoes: Illini Gold, Black Cherry, Egg Yolk, Homestead, Snowberry, and Sladkiy. The two farther rows are half and half Honeydew Melon and Golden Bantam Sweet Corn. The irrigation set-up seems to be working really well. It's easy to use and I think we must be using much less water than the old flood system we had before. And it wasn't that expensive. I'm not sure why we never looked into setting some up before.
The other two sections have two rows each. Calabacitas and Japanese Cucumber are planted in the closest one, then an entire row of Desert King Watermelon. We planted Yellow Scallop Squash, Ping Tung Eggplant, Jackson Wonder Bush Beans, Serrano and Ancho Peppers, and Sweet Yellow Peppers in the 1st long row and Melon Banana, Burgandy Okra, Harriet Bush Beans, Ground Cherry, and Tomatillo in the 2nd long row.
Now we've just got to wait for them to start sprouting. I checked today and may have seen one or two.
The anticipation!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Cat Happiness
I finally put up an outdoor enclosure for the cats. In the city they were used to being allowed on the fenced back porch and they would love to go out there and roll in the dirt or lay in the sun. Ever since we moved, we've only been letting them out for short supervised periods on the front porch because there was no fenced yard for them to play in.
They started to get very sneaky. Every time we would go through the front door one of them would be there trying to get past us and run outside. They're pretty good at escaping so they would get out half the time. When they didn't get out for a while they'd roam around the house sounding and acting very forlorn. Jubei would squeak constantly and be underfoot. Hansel would mope around saying, "Maaaru, maruuu." Pico would hang out by the door and in the windows and cry if she saw someone outside.
So, I bought 50' of welded wire fence and made them a pretty large enclosure. It's on the north side of the house so it's in shade most of the day. They can get in to it from a window and there's a cyprus tree inside that they can scratch. There are a ton of birds in that part of the yard so they have plenty of entertainment.
Sometimes Hansel gets sad when he's inside because he seems to distrust the ceiling. He spent some time after he first got out just looking straight up into the sky. Jubei ran back and forth the length of the enclosure like he was on catnip. They all had fun eating greens and chasing bugs. I think Hansel may have eaten a bee the second day because he got a puffy chin but he didn't seem to mind it and he recovered by the next morning.
They all seem more content now. And they sleep at night instead of running around constantly and that makes everyone happy.
They started to get very sneaky. Every time we would go through the front door one of them would be there trying to get past us and run outside. They're pretty good at escaping so they would get out half the time. When they didn't get out for a while they'd roam around the house sounding and acting very forlorn. Jubei would squeak constantly and be underfoot. Hansel would mope around saying, "Maaaru, maruuu." Pico would hang out by the door and in the windows and cry if she saw someone outside.
So, I bought 50' of welded wire fence and made them a pretty large enclosure. It's on the north side of the house so it's in shade most of the day. They can get in to it from a window and there's a cyprus tree inside that they can scratch. There are a ton of birds in that part of the yard so they have plenty of entertainment.
Sometimes Hansel gets sad when he's inside because he seems to distrust the ceiling. He spent some time after he first got out just looking straight up into the sky. Jubei ran back and forth the length of the enclosure like he was on catnip. They all had fun eating greens and chasing bugs. I think Hansel may have eaten a bee the second day because he got a puffy chin but he didn't seem to mind it and he recovered by the next morning.
They all seem more content now. And they sleep at night instead of running around constantly and that makes everyone happy.
Spring in the Desert
We took a drive down our dirt road this weekend. There's been a decent amount of rain this winter so the wildflowers are blooming, the desert is changing from brown to green and the river is still flowing. All the trees by the river have grown leaves again so you can see where it goes by the fuzzy green stripe through the landscape.
Showy Birds
The Vermillion Flycatcher seems to be turning in to a bit of an exhibitionist. He comes around every day that someone is working outside and makes sure to fly by clicking away until you pay attention to him. And now he sits still long enough that he's just daring me to take more pictures of him. He still flies off before I get him most of the time but I'm learning how to be fast.
The turkey vultures are not the most attractive birds but they are pretty impressive when they're soaring over the land. They are huge and they glide over the wind gracefully. They've been hanging around a lot lately so I wonder if there's a carcass that they keep visiting.
The turkey vultures are not the most attractive birds but they are pretty impressive when they're soaring over the land. They are huge and they glide over the wind gracefully. They've been hanging around a lot lately so I wonder if there's a carcass that they keep visiting.
Walking
I've noticed that although we haven't been trying to, Husband and I are losing weight. We moved about a month ago and in that time we've both lost some pudge and started putting on some muscle. Chopping or gathering wood, walking out to check on the chickens, riding a bike around the clearing, or any of the other small tasks and walks we take all day don't seem to be much exercise but they appear to be having an effect. Some of the other chores we have are hard work but the time always goes quickly when I'm doing them because I know I'm improving our land. Removing rocks or digging or smashing old concrete are rough but I'm so satisfied when I see the progress we're making already.
Speaking of walking, the weather has been beautiful lately so I took a walk down our street last week. I only ended up going about a mile and a quarter but it took me about two and half hours. It was a pleasant partly cloudy day and I was on the lookout for wildflowers, birds, or beasts.
There were some wildflowers and plenty of birds. A little sparrow followed me along a fence for a while and sang a chirpy song. I didn't see any wildlife but there were some interesting saguaros. Like this stately family.
The best one though, was a saguaro with an old gash in its side. And in that gash grew a prickly pear. I'm always amused and amazed by the places that prickly pears will grow. I've seen them in rain gutters pretty regularly and we had quite a few growing on our roof before we cleaned up all the tree debris that was up there. This one looked particularly friendly though. He's peeking out of the saguaro saying, "Good Day."
I've also been searching for a used travel trailer lately to redo and move into. I'll have to explain some other time about our decision to form a trailer caravan instead of building a new house. I saw this trailer on a neighboring property and thought it would probably be a deal.
Husband was unenthusiastic about the idea of fixing it up. Oh well, I'll keep looking.
Speaking of walking, the weather has been beautiful lately so I took a walk down our street last week. I only ended up going about a mile and a quarter but it took me about two and half hours. It was a pleasant partly cloudy day and I was on the lookout for wildflowers, birds, or beasts.
There were some wildflowers and plenty of birds. A little sparrow followed me along a fence for a while and sang a chirpy song. I didn't see any wildlife but there were some interesting saguaros. Like this stately family.
The best one though, was a saguaro with an old gash in its side. And in that gash grew a prickly pear. I'm always amused and amazed by the places that prickly pears will grow. I've seen them in rain gutters pretty regularly and we had quite a few growing on our roof before we cleaned up all the tree debris that was up there. This one looked particularly friendly though. He's peeking out of the saguaro saying, "Good Day."
I've also been searching for a used travel trailer lately to redo and move into. I'll have to explain some other time about our decision to form a trailer caravan instead of building a new house. I saw this trailer on a neighboring property and thought it would probably be a deal.
Husband was unenthusiastic about the idea of fixing it up. Oh well, I'll keep looking.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Preparing Fields
Today was a fun day of manual labor. Luckily we have Mido the Mighty Tractor to help make it easier. Husband started by tilling a few strips in the field where we are planning on planting (I'm not sure what yet). We have a bunch of seeds coming on Monday and most of them are from a "Medium Package" from Baker Creek. So we won't know what we got until we open the box.
Then, for the next couple hours, he and I (mostly he) went through and picked out rocks by hand and with pitchforks. There were so many rocks! I'm a wuss so I get tired pretty quickly and only spent about an hour out there. It was a little windy today too so we got completely covered with a fine layer of dirt.
The rows looked so nice after we were done though. And if you step on them, they're all squishy and soft. I can't wait to start growing in them.
When I came back out to get some pictures of the part we had finished I noticed the flycatcher who was watching us work most of the day was back. I followed him back and forth from the tree by the house, to the tree by the pen, to the tree by the field, and back. After a few rounds he sat still long enough that I was able to get close enough to take a few decent picks. This has to be one of the most striking birds I've ever seen in person. He looked particularly bright today against all the browns and grays of an overcast desert.
Then, for the next couple hours, he and I (mostly he) went through and picked out rocks by hand and with pitchforks. There were so many rocks! I'm a wuss so I get tired pretty quickly and only spent about an hour out there. It was a little windy today too so we got completely covered with a fine layer of dirt.
The rows looked so nice after we were done though. And if you step on them, they're all squishy and soft. I can't wait to start growing in them.
When I came back out to get some pictures of the part we had finished I noticed the flycatcher who was watching us work most of the day was back. I followed him back and forth from the tree by the house, to the tree by the pen, to the tree by the field, and back. After a few rounds he sat still long enough that I was able to get close enough to take a few decent picks. This has to be one of the most striking birds I've ever seen in person. He looked particularly bright today against all the browns and grays of an overcast desert.
Yikes!
The day before yesterday Husband came in and told me I had to come outside and see something. As I was approaching I saw these rust colored spots on the ground and started to get a little creeped out.
I asked, "Is this going to be something sketchy?" He replied, "Yeah, it's pretty sketchy."
When I got there I noticed that the splotches were moving slightly. They were piles of red ants. Besides the piles there were rocks with their undersides covered with ants. It was chilly outside so they were moving slow but I still had to stay far away. I got stung by large ants twice before and both times it was very unpleasant.
I came inside to look on the internet and see what kind of damage they might do when Husband came back inside to say he was going to try lighting them on fire. So then I started looking for other possibly safer ways to get rid of them. Running them over with the car and submerging in soap water were some things I found.
Husband was back outside burning when I was suddenly overcome with paranoia and had to take off all my clothes to be sure there were no ants crawling up my pant legs. He came back in and I let him know about the other options while he laughed at me for being naked.
In the end most of the ants were destroyed by the series of plagues that befell them: fire, car tires, and tractor scraping.
I'm still afraid to go over to that part of the yard for any period of time.
I asked, "Is this going to be something sketchy?" He replied, "Yeah, it's pretty sketchy."
When I got there I noticed that the splotches were moving slightly. They were piles of red ants. Besides the piles there were rocks with their undersides covered with ants. It was chilly outside so they were moving slow but I still had to stay far away. I got stung by large ants twice before and both times it was very unpleasant.
I came inside to look on the internet and see what kind of damage they might do when Husband came back inside to say he was going to try lighting them on fire. So then I started looking for other possibly safer ways to get rid of them. Running them over with the car and submerging in soap water were some things I found.
Husband was back outside burning when I was suddenly overcome with paranoia and had to take off all my clothes to be sure there were no ants crawling up my pant legs. He came back in and I let him know about the other options while he laughed at me for being naked.
In the end most of the ants were destroyed by the series of plagues that befell them: fire, car tires, and tractor scraping.
I'm still afraid to go over to that part of the yard for any period of time.
New Direction
I started the blog in 2007 and after a few posts either lost interest or became engrossed in school and work. So now here we are in 2009 and I'm going to try again. I'm not a student anymore; now I'm an instructor. And I'm not a city dweller anymore either. Husband and I moved in January from a metropolitan area of over a million people to a town with less than three thousand.
So we moved in January and now it's March. I've got some catching up to do. Calling our new home a hovel might be a bit dramatic but it is rustic compared to what I'm used to. Not that our city house was very fancy but it was block and over time we had fixed most of the problems. Now we've started over again but this time with a 1970's double-wide. The plumbing is weird (no valves on pipes!), the electric is weird (aluminum wiring?), the windows are weird (they rattle in the wind and I've already broken one trying in close it), and the floor is weird (mostly shellacked particle board). And although I've done what I can so far there's still a lot of grime, cobwebs, dust, and dead bugs.
But we didn't move out here for a fancy house. We moved to grow food, see stars, hear birds, and live with the land. That's one thing that's really nice about our hovel: it sits on a couple acres of partially treed, partially cleared land. There are mountains to view on most sides as well as saguaros and many different varieties of wildlife. Maybe it will be almost as fun to read about our new adventure as it is to experience it.
Yours,
The Happy Hovel Wife
So we moved in January and now it's March. I've got some catching up to do. Calling our new home a hovel might be a bit dramatic but it is rustic compared to what I'm used to. Not that our city house was very fancy but it was block and over time we had fixed most of the problems. Now we've started over again but this time with a 1970's double-wide. The plumbing is weird (no valves on pipes!), the electric is weird (aluminum wiring?), the windows are weird (they rattle in the wind and I've already broken one trying in close it), and the floor is weird (mostly shellacked particle board). And although I've done what I can so far there's still a lot of grime, cobwebs, dust, and dead bugs.
But we didn't move out here for a fancy house. We moved to grow food, see stars, hear birds, and live with the land. That's one thing that's really nice about our hovel: it sits on a couple acres of partially treed, partially cleared land. There are mountains to view on most sides as well as saguaros and many different varieties of wildlife. Maybe it will be almost as fun to read about our new adventure as it is to experience it.
Yours,
The Happy Hovel Wife
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