Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How does your garden grow?

It's been pretty warm here on the ranch, 100 + or - for the past couple of weeks. The fields and lawn are taking a hit and turning tan out in the open - under the trees it's still green. The garden has it's ups and downs. I water at least once a day and sometimes twice. I come in as soaked as the garden but without benefit of the well water! In spite of the heat and Eeyore in the garden - TWICE, most things are doing pretty good. This is the garden overall: The corn at least produced decent ears, but they're cooked twice by the time they reach our plate. The blackeyed peas (center upper picture, left below) are growing like crazy right now. They're supposed to be 'bush' plants, but have sent out streamers so far, I had to provide something to prop them up!!

This is my best tomato plant at this time (left, below). If I can keep them moist enough, they may produce better when it cools off! Cucumbers (below right) are doing well and we've already had more cucumbers that the whole season last year.

Then over to the vine plants - the Straightneck Yellow Squash is getting ready to start putting out some yummy tender squashes (left) and the Okra is sporting it's first flower (right) about to open and provide us okra for gumbo.

The pumpkin is getting it's first fruit (I had to make it big so you could see it in the upper left corner:

We should be getting canteloupe in the next couple of weeks (left) - the one below is about 5". Watermellon (right) is coming along, some itty-bitty ones just starting, but the one shown is about 4-5 inches :

My salad row is still making lettuce - mostly green leaf lettuce, but a few reds. I planted some 'mesclun mix', but the leaves were so bitter, I won't plant that next year, just variety lettuces and spinach. There are also some carrots mixed in with the lettuce.

Mike's project is coming along well considering he's a one-man construction crew!! He's put down the foundation, the flooring and the framing so far. This structure will store garden items, feed for the chickens and the larger part will be the chicken coup. Most of the work is done between 7:30 and 10 a.m. before the sun is most intense and the heat oppressive.
By 10:00 a.m. you see narry a kitten around because they're all under the porch and they don't come out till late afternoon, early evening!

So goes life on the ranch these days!!!

Who's in the hen house???

Yesterday, shortly after sunrise (you can tell by the lighting), I awakened to this tapping, scraping noise, and I laid there and thought -- What is that noise???? Sometimes Racey or Eeyore wake me scraping her(his) front hoof on the chain link fence, but this sound was different. So I got up to peep out and see what it was and this is what I found!!!

To the south of my garden, Mike is building a storage area (for garden supplies) and hen house for our future chickens. I've been meaning to go out when he's working on it for a progress picture, but this was too good of an opportunity. Racey AND Eeyore were walking around on the floor of the hen house and 'pawing' or should i say 'hoofing' at the floor. So now we know that the flooring can support over 1000 pounds!!!

When they realized they were caught in the act, they quickly exited:

Within 30 seconds the two were innocently standing by the fence trying to convince me -- "we weren't in the hen house!!! We're not chickens!!"

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

After getting caught up in stopped traffic for about an hour and a half d/t a BAD accident where the whole of I-10 was closed down for CSI activities (collecting materials & measuring distances), my first day of travel was shorter than planned. I overnighted in Lordsburg, NM and knew I was in for a L-O-N-G day of driving for my second day. So rather than take the 'fastest' route according to TomTom, I chose the 'shortest' route and hoped I didn't make a big mistake. Except for one tour through a little mountain town, it did a good job! I made it home for dinner, saw some nice scenery, and drove about 200 fewer miles!! TomTom took me through White Sands National Monument:
and through some beautiful mountain/canyon vistas:

The purpose of my trip to Arizona was to take care of my little grandson, Riley while his mom and dad went white water rafting. We had SUCH A GOOD TIME!!! He's a wonderful and inquisitive little boy, about to crossover from the baby stage to the toddler stage!! He's good natured and tons of fun to be with. We had so much fun getting to know one another. He LOVES water!!! That includes the doggie's water dish or ANY source of water anywhere. Bath time is a favorite time!! Note the tidal wave in the tub from splashing!! And the look of glee!!!

Mobility is another full time activity during waking hours... On the carpet he crawls, but on the tile floor, he does a bear crawl (hands and FEET):
While Mom and Dad were gone, we worked on stair climbing, and it didn't take long to improve his technique. Stair climbing and assisted walking were his favorite things to do -

When Cheyenne and John got home, we went to a neighbors to practice swimming with Mommy:
Cana (black lab) usually comes along to visit his friend, Bailey for water sports - they NEVER tire of retrieving - the big splash is Cana:

And when I got home, we moved the new kittens to the side porch which serves as the training grounds. When napping, they tend to sleep together and all over each other. Ten of the twelve are pictured here!

America the Beautiful

Besides being the BEST place to live despite hard times, it's amazing to me how the landscape can change in 10 minutes of driving! You can sometimes see forever with soft velvety hills (below left), then be in the midst of treed hills and just 15 minutes later (below right).








The landscape can take your breath away at times! The southwest has wonderful rock formations that hold archaelogical truths and rich history of our past (recent compared to other continents). Just imagine moving west 100 years ago through some of this rugged country, without the superhighways!! I remember family trips to visit relatives, and we went through every town and berg along the way!! My kids will never know, and their kids probably won't believe how 'primitive' travel was as recent as the 50's!!

The CATtle Ranch

It was suggested by Travis that we drop the TLE off of catTLE Ranch and just have a CAT RANCH!! We're well on our way! Had to hire a few hands to help manage our growing cat population on our little ranch! Check out the video link!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8

Seriously, we only have 19 cats right now .. :) But the concept is interesting and well expressed in the video!!!

PLUS FIVE = an even DOZEN

Powder had her babies yesterday morning! She was a little freaked, but she did use the box provided and nursed her new little brood. This is her most unique one, though I must say it's an interesting mix... she had a calico too.
The first family picture was a little messy, so I decided to get a better 'family' picture so as not to gross you out!! However if you count, you'll notice SIX kittens in the picture (she only had FIVE). She now thinks they're ALL hers!! So she borrows from her sister at every opportunity.It's not hard to catch her in action:

So, Sienna had to check out Powder's box when she noticed her kitten count was a little short! While checking, Powder returned with yet another and settled in to nurse.

By the time I finished feeding all the animals this morning, Sienna's box was EMPTY!! I had to figure out a solution. Returning them just invites her to retrieve them again, so I scouted around for a bigger box. If they're all going to end up in one box, then there needs to be room for two moms to feed them all! So, here's my solution since it's very apparent to me that they intend to share in the responsibilities!!! And Powder's being pretty pushy, keeping all the babies in her box!!

SEVEN!!!!!

Her first (and last) litter -- SEVEN! I always thought first litters were small!! I knew she was pretty big... I expected 6! Now with Powder, I'm expecting around 5 more within the next 24-48 hours!!
One little addendum: Last night, EVERY time I checked on them, Sienna was ALWAYS purring big time!! It was a permanent purr - even the door vibrated against the water dish!!

Here are the kaleidescope kittens: