plant,water,wait

Nice morning grape vine shadow...planted some taters today (Yukon Gold and All Blue) from http://www.woodprairie.com/  Also got some yellow onions and elephant garlic started in short tubs I got from my girlfriend, Carolyn Burr.

One of the 4 Palo Verde trees I started north of the greenhouse withered up so I transplanted one of her sisters that I started at the same time and has been living in a pot over the winter.  85,95,56,0,B,0



 

chick treats

Swamp flowers are blooming.

Filled up two tubs for potatoes to be planted tomorrow.  Got my first tray of wheat grass for the hens....they take about a week to get to this point so I just started next weeks treat.  I got enough seed thanks to Russell the knife maker to keep the girls in weekly wheat grass for at least a year.

The new/free compost bin I got from my friend Suze in Alpine is cooking away nicely.  Got it half filled with cow and horse manure, new hay and old hay, daily chicken manure, and scraps from the greenhouse - keeping it moist.  Only 3 days and it's already starting to smell like dirt.  It's gonna have to start cooking at 135° to really do the job.  Really easy to roll around to turn the pile.  http://shapeproducts.com/index.php/products/bio-orb-composters   Just got my charge controller for a new battery bank by the greenhouse (Xantrex C-40)...I have another C-40 and a C-60 that have been running consistantly for 4 years now.  79,87,48,0,B,0

rustytrellis

Found a big squash hiding this morning... 651.5 gm

Transplanted my new pepper plants and grape vines.  Set up a trellis for the wrath.  My earthbox tomato plants finally are big enough to start sagging so I installed some support for them.  (How did tomatoes survive in the wild before man invented the tomato cage?)

Someone had suggested a squash recipe that I decided to try out Field Lab style - sliced the big guy down the middle, scooped him out, mixed it up with mushrooms and parmesan cheese, salt/pepper/olive oil on the shell, packed it all in (with some grilled bacon) and rolled it up in foil.  Baked in the grill for a half hour at 400°....was good. 74,83,49,0,B, 1.44

VORTEX

Transplanted my fruit trees this morning.  Extracted the loser plants from the earthbox test and fed them to the hens.  Loaded it up with the ingredients as per instructions and popped in two heirloom beefsteak tomato starts I got in Ft. Stockton. 

Pulled off another squash (527gm) and some first beans (45.9gm)

Checked the forecast and saw some major storms coming through.  First round missed me altogether.  Did all my storm prep including adding some hail buffer to my glass door (heavy winds out of the NNE)  Stapled up a vinyl shower curtain that was in the old Airstream.  Never even noticed the image on it till I got it fixed on the door frame and saw it from the inside!  Second round hit but the big red blobs on the Doppler radar passed just north and south of me.  I hear that the Ghost Town and Study Butte got hammered and sustained quite a bit of damage.  62,81,60, .17",W, 1.26

happymothersday

75,84,59,0,W,0

strip malls and stop lights

Decided on a plant run today.  Considered Odessa but settled on going only half the distance to Ft. Stockton.  Nice to know that the closest stoplight is over 2 hours away.  Trying to fill in the courtyard with more food forest experiments and just plain leafy stuff - peppers, tomatoes, aloe, agave, palms, strawberries, apricot, pear, peach, onion, garlic, grapes.

Long day away and came home to a nice surprise in my mailbox...gifts from Korea from Allen and Ok Hwa's recent trip.  Allen says the cups are meant for sake but they work fine for tequila...  75,82,59,0,B,0

plant shuffle...

Built two EarthBox stands....shuffled everything around in the courtyard - trying to envision the jungle.  Yanked another squash off today, 434 grams.  76,78,53,0,B, .96