sulking
Not that it's been a bad day. On the home front things have been nice. Some of the grown kids were around, one granddaughter was here, too. Good eats, good company, good coffee. Drove to town to watch some fireworks, heard from an out of state friend.
Rabbits. Cute fuzzy little bunnies. L'il sh*ts. It appears they will eat just about anything grown in the desert. We do not have any chain link up yet ($$) but I know from past experience they'll just slip through. It's discouraging to have had a mini-farm with all the fixings going well in the past and trying to start over. Soil is not as good here. I can fix that, but it takes time.
There is some kind of leaf-eating insect I have yet to identify that has shredded one plum tree.
The little ground squirrels are troublesome but the gray squirrels are really a problem. Very odd, since they aren't exactly supposed to be here. They have always been in the mountains (up at least a couple thousand feet, in the pines). They are omnivores. And they are picky. They'll nip off a whole stem of something and decide they don't like it, leaving our garden beds in tatters.
Fencing is useless. The main difference between here and the old farm is the variety of animals. We kept cats before. They seemed a fine deterrent. I think our attack geese were also helpful. Maybe even the chickens and goats? We had rodents and lagomorphs then but they really didn't do the damage they are doing now. I don't have the money to recreate my old farm world full blown. I'm going to have to keep going with patience. Not feeling patient.
Wind. Yes, the desert is windy. I've lived in this desert, one space or another, for nearly all of my adult life. I've lived in this same part (ten mile radius as the crow flies, say) for most of that time. I feel like I know the winds. This year there is something markedly different about the wind. Not everyone around here agrees with me. M does and he's been out here as long as I have. J, a very smart person, thinks we are in a wind tunnel and that there is not a lot of difference from the past two years. I do agree, and yet...there is a difference between this year in the wind tunnel and last and the year before. Truly. I don't think I'm imagining this.
Local growers have all complained about the lengthy cold this year screwing up their plantings. That I've noticed. We've done repeated planting to get some results. For us, the hungry animals have been more of a problem than the cold, though. The unfortunate growers I've talked to are trying to make some money, though, from their produce and the late spring/summer has screwed them up. I'm not reliant on my growing for income so I'm not facing that particular stress.
If we are witnessing some effects of climate change here, I'm starting to think that the way to go with high desert planting may be trees (a permanent agriculture :-)), brushy food like berries (and Lycium which I've recently been told will grow at our altitude - yes!), and native plants or near-native plants. Trees and shrubs are doing beautifully. They are even being patient as the soil gets slowly amended.
Issues with the Native American heritage crops we've planted this year: ground squirrels find the seeds and eat them. The stuff is too good. Once we get a couple of barn cats (ha! no barn yet so what do we call them?) we may be able to have success with those varieties.
Yet to do:
More cinder blocks
More fencing
Fetch home desert wild grapes and a few other native food plants (means a trip to SD County)
Find time for above or wait until summer term ends
Chicken coop and chickens
Watch geese?
CATS
Oh and we've been hand watering things, a pretty big task considering what we've put in. N said he'd help me install the drip system except the water main is...well...missing. Three of us searched the whole property, archy foot survey style, and did not find it. We think that it has been buried by the people who built the house under a pile of gravel and cement they dumped near one front end of the property. Good grief. A friend offered to loan me his metal detector to find out for sure. I'd like to play with that, but really, he lives on the other side of the valley so I may not want to drive over to get it. Rather, this week I shall go visit the water company in town and see if they have a clue. Also have to call the builders - local small - no number listed. I will find them. I know one of them works at the local high school. Aaargh.
Life on the not-yet-farm.
Rabbits. Cute fuzzy little bunnies. L'il sh*ts. It appears they will eat just about anything grown in the desert. We do not have any chain link up yet ($$) but I know from past experience they'll just slip through. It's discouraging to have had a mini-farm with all the fixings going well in the past and trying to start over. Soil is not as good here. I can fix that, but it takes time.
There is some kind of leaf-eating insect I have yet to identify that has shredded one plum tree.
The little ground squirrels are troublesome but the gray squirrels are really a problem. Very odd, since they aren't exactly supposed to be here. They have always been in the mountains (up at least a couple thousand feet, in the pines). They are omnivores. And they are picky. They'll nip off a whole stem of something and decide they don't like it, leaving our garden beds in tatters.
Fencing is useless. The main difference between here and the old farm is the variety of animals. We kept cats before. They seemed a fine deterrent. I think our attack geese were also helpful. Maybe even the chickens and goats? We had rodents and lagomorphs then but they really didn't do the damage they are doing now. I don't have the money to recreate my old farm world full blown. I'm going to have to keep going with patience. Not feeling patient.
Wind. Yes, the desert is windy. I've lived in this desert, one space or another, for nearly all of my adult life. I've lived in this same part (ten mile radius as the crow flies, say) for most of that time. I feel like I know the winds. This year there is something markedly different about the wind. Not everyone around here agrees with me. M does and he's been out here as long as I have. J, a very smart person, thinks we are in a wind tunnel and that there is not a lot of difference from the past two years. I do agree, and yet...there is a difference between this year in the wind tunnel and last and the year before. Truly. I don't think I'm imagining this.
Local growers have all complained about the lengthy cold this year screwing up their plantings. That I've noticed. We've done repeated planting to get some results. For us, the hungry animals have been more of a problem than the cold, though. The unfortunate growers I've talked to are trying to make some money, though, from their produce and the late spring/summer has screwed them up. I'm not reliant on my growing for income so I'm not facing that particular stress.
If we are witnessing some effects of climate change here, I'm starting to think that the way to go with high desert planting may be trees (a permanent agriculture :-)), brushy food like berries (and Lycium which I've recently been told will grow at our altitude - yes!), and native plants or near-native plants. Trees and shrubs are doing beautifully. They are even being patient as the soil gets slowly amended.
Issues with the Native American heritage crops we've planted this year: ground squirrels find the seeds and eat them. The stuff is too good. Once we get a couple of barn cats (ha! no barn yet so what do we call them?) we may be able to have success with those varieties.
Yet to do:
More cinder blocks
More fencing
Fetch home desert wild grapes and a few other native food plants (means a trip to SD County)
Find time for above or wait until summer term ends
Chicken coop and chickens
Watch geese?
CATS
Oh and we've been hand watering things, a pretty big task considering what we've put in. N said he'd help me install the drip system except the water main is...well...missing. Three of us searched the whole property, archy foot survey style, and did not find it. We think that it has been buried by the people who built the house under a pile of gravel and cement they dumped near one front end of the property. Good grief. A friend offered to loan me his metal detector to find out for sure. I'd like to play with that, but really, he lives on the other side of the valley so I may not want to drive over to get it. Rather, this week I shall go visit the water company in town and see if they have a clue. Also have to call the builders - local small - no number listed. I will find them. I know one of them works at the local high school. Aaargh.
Life on the not-yet-farm.