Our Backyard

After the whole Giovanna thing I found it extremely difficult to come back here. (see post below for a short explanation)

The hubster and I have spent the weeks since, preparing our yard for the upcoming garden season. Our garden area is 49' wide by about 55' long. Here is Mr. Clay, in all his glory, riding his tractor tilling up the garden area. He has on his portable air tank (backpack) and he has to wear a dust mask to help protect his lungs:

Since he cannot do heavy strenuous work anymore, I spread gypsum (to help break up our clay soil) and countless wheelbarrowfulls of soil prep (also for the clay) and spread it all over the garden to be tilled in. Here is a far away shot of him on 'compost day' . The dark area is where he hadn't yet tilled, and this shot still blocks off about 12 feet of the left side of the yard.

We cannot plant tender plants (tomatoes, chilis, and squashes) until the end of May here, and even then one year, we still lost half our plants to a late freeze on Memorial Day weekend. So we have spent weeks weeding (burning, cutting and pulling by hand) and cleaning up the rest of the yard.

I don't have any really good shots of how bad the backyard looked because ...well, to be frank, it was quite 'white trashy' looking and I never wanted to have pics of that. This is about the only pic I have, and even then you don't even see the half of it:

And here it is cleaned up... most of the way. We wanted to plant grass on this half of the backyard. And those paving stones you see stacked up there on the left in the shade, are to make a walkway to the garden area :

After planting the grass and laying the pavers:I'd like to say that the grass has come in nicely; but as you can see, it hasn't. This is 3 weeks after planting and the only green you see are very happy weeds. :) Mr. Clay has to till this all up and we have to replant it again, due to us listening to uninformed people at the farmer store where we bought our seed.

This has been the first year we have actually got our butts out (well, ok, me really) and planted the cold crop seeds-peas, radishes, lettuce, and carrots don't mind being planted in the cooler temps. Our peas are doing very well:

See all that green on the other side of the fence? Our neighbors have a ton of weeds! This is only shows about half the peas we planted. We are so going to be so busy minding our peas, we won't even time time for the Q's ;)

Our first crop of radishes, lettuce, and carrots have sprouted and we are already eating fresh radishes.

See the baby lettuces?..they are so cute and in the background is the first feathery leaves of the carrots. If you have never had a homegrown carrot, you don't even know what a carrot tastes like. Talk about flavor! And homegrown lettuce is better than any store bought, by far!

So I planted a 2nd crop:

The second crop is under the white cheese cloth type material. It allows the sun to shine through and also I can water through it. If I don't cover it we have a flock of doves and other birds that come and pick it clean. This way the birds are kept out while the seeds sprout, which has already started:

I also planted two of my squash plants. These are two that I started from heirloom seeds, indoors under lights, and is a variety I have never tried before called 'Tatume'. The fruits are round to slightly elongated are are said to be even tastier than the normal zucchini. I was told they are easily grown onto a trellis or fence, are drought tolerant, and are supposedly resistant to vine borers, too. For those who have grown squash before, you know what a nuisance those squash bugs can be. I shall let you know later if they are in fact resistant to them, and if they indeed grow up the fence.

Well, it's time for me to go cover up the plants for the night(blankies and tarps). We are expecting freezing temps and a chance for snow....and then I hear my world famous tacos calling me for dinner :)

Until next time...

XOXOXO,

Cindi

Hubby, Job, & Garden update

I have been waiting for a quick break in features to post a bit of news that I had to share with you all. I got a "job" writing articles for HandmadeNews on ArtFire's home page ! I am in the Just For Fun section. See? click on that link...but come right back afterwards; you'll see a teensy weensy avatar of me. If you click on my name, it takes you to my bio. Soon, that page will start filling up with articles that I've written. My first two articles are due tomorrow, and I'm not sure how soon the articles are published, but you can count on me to rattle your chain and give me some love when they are published :) They have a comment section down below each article and a 'thumbs up,thumbs down. So at least be sure and leave me a thumb :)) I am hoping to get a widget or a button for my blog soon, so it will be easy to click your way over there. And hey-they still have a link up at the top saying they are hiring, if you are interested.

As for the hubster's health. Well, a few weeks back he was sitting up in bed and coughed at the same time. It wasn't a big cough, but it was enough that it separated the cartilage in his ribs where they went in and did the biopsy. He was in so much pain that I took him to the Dr. They gave him some pain pills, but figured that it was time to wean him off the steroids. So he had to cut it down 1/2 pill every week. The first day of the cut back he could already feel a difference. And by the second week he was noticably weaker. It also affected his attitude, and he was an absolute meany to be around. Constantly trying to pick fights over nothing. The worst part was that he couldn't see it himself. He thought everyone was trying to provoke him. He's now off of them completely, and is tolerable most of the time. And he gets so weak and out of breath even just watering the garden. It frightens me because I see what's coming. I don't say anything to him though.

We just got a letter today from the Social Security Disability and they want the hubster to go take a breathing test at the government's expense. But that won't be til July 1, so now we are wondering how much longer we have to wait til they make a determination on his disability claim. I also dread these breathing tests. It makes me cry to see him try and blow into a machine and then the coughing and nearly throwing up afterwards. Enough of that talk :(

I still have not been able to get a job, and financially, things are extremely tight. We've been able to survive this whole year on less than 5K. I'm not sure I know anyone who could do that. We are sooo fortunate that our house is paid off, but we still need water and electricity to make our beans and rice. I wish I knew how to make a donation button on my blog. And then I even wonder if anyone would help. I know things are tight out there. I wonder if some people know how fortunate they are right now.

We have begun to eat radishes from the garden. As as I suspected, the hubby didn't water the lettuce seeds enough and they didn't even sprout. So he planted some more and still hasn't watered them enough. He wanted to do this garden HIS way, so I have stayed out of it. I was going to plant some lettuce in a planter for us, but he nabbed my planter for radishes too. So... at least we have radishes lol

Well I better wrap it up for this time. I have another feature waiting in the wings. Take care everyone and think good thoughts for us.

Our Baby Garden

It finally warmed up enough for us to plant our garden a couple of weeks ago. We are having a small garden this year. Just enough to keep Mr. Clay busy. Our growing season out here in the desert is only from Memorial Day thru Sept/Oct. when Mother Nature decides to freeze it off.

Ms.Robin watched on as we planted.

I know you probably think with being in the desert, we'd have a longer growing period. But we still freeze all thru the month of May.

Normally we have a huge garden; it's a 40' x 40' area. We usually grow 30-40 each of tomatoes, cherry hot peppers, anaheim peppers, jalapeno peppers, 10-15 squash, zucchinis, and habaneros. Then the rows of lettuce, peas, radishes, and carrots. Even though we hook up a irrigation watering system, it's still a full time job watering and weeding. And then, when everything starts coming on, it's not unusual for me to be in the kitchen 10-15 hours a day roasting peeling, freezing, canning, and pickling. When I make salsa, it's not by the bowlful. I make salsa by the 5 gallon bucket full!

When I first learned to can, I would make batches of salsa and call it mild or medium or hot. It wasn't the greatest method of measuring hottness. Then I began to name them-There was the Dragon series-Baby Dragon, Dragon Spit, Dragon Fire; there was the cute name series- wimpy,wimpy,wimpy salsa, Killer Salsa, Killer H. Salsa, This Is The Salsa (TITS for short). That was a funny one. I was down in my kitchen one evening and one of our friends called and told my husband they liked my TITS. We got a good laugh over that one.

And people would continually ask me "how many peppers are in this?" Like I counted? Like I cared? I figured if it was spicy enough for Mr. Clay and me, then we were happy. So last time I named the salsas after songs with numbers. There was 25 or 6 to 4, 50 ways (renamed '50 ways to eat your salsa' in stead of 'ways to leave your lover'), Get your Kicks on Route 66, 76 Tombones..and of course 110 Clarinets were right behind, Around the World in 80 Days, You're Gonna Cry 96 Tears...and then the last batch was Mega H Death. The number in the song was the number of jalapenos in that 5 gallon batch of salsa...with the exception of 25 or 6 to 4-It was only a 4 gallon batch. Mega H Death was the last batch of the season and had all the last of the crops in it-over 200 jalapenos and the H stood for all the habaneros! It is pure fire in salsa form.

This year we only have 5 tomatoes, 4 jalapenos, 8 anaheim chiles, 4 habaneros and the peas , lettuce, radishes, and carrots, zuchini and squash.

Here is my gardening tip(which Mr. Clay refused to follow): if you mix your carrot and radish seeds together in a cup and plant them together, the radishes will come up shade and the delicate carrot sprouts. the radishes will be grown up and harvested just about the time your carrots really start beginning to grow their roots.

Our radishes have sprouted, and so have the zuchinis and squashes.

We bought the tomatoes and peppers, and they are beginning to shoot up.

Everything has sprouted now with the exception of the lettuce. I'm not sure Mr. Clay has kept it damp enough, but we shall see.

As for an update on his health-A couple of weeks ago he was getting out of bed and coughed and separated the cartilage on his ribs. So the Dr.s have begun weaning him off of the steroids. Not a fun time for either of us. His strength is waning and he is super grouchy, to put it mildly. It is difficult at best to be a caregiver to one who is terminal.

As for my job search- it still continues. Every week I get a few more good promising prospects. One of these days I'll land the right one. I hope it's real soon. We have survived this whole year now on less than $5K ! That's quite an accomplishment, I think. Have a Great Day everyone :)