I last wrote in February when it was snowing. It's May now and it snowed last week. This week we're forcasted to have the first low temperature above 40, so I'm looking forward to not covering every plant in the garden night after night. I'm learning that gardening in Flagstaff is hard, really hard, frustrating, and hopefully rewarding. If I lived here long term I would have to figure out some sort of a solar heated greenhouse to extend the growing season. It's amazing, its so sunny and warm during the day but then it gets so cold at night. What a tease.
As it is I finally have in the ground: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, beets, chard, lettuce, kale, peas, beans, corn (2 sweet, red, and Hopi blue), cucumbers (4 different kinds), zucchini, crookneck squash, Navajo Hubbard squash, delicata squash, kucha (?) squash, sweet pumpkins, sugar pie pumpkins, amaranth, sunflowers, onions, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, potatoes, garlic, and (today!) eggplant in walls-o-water. That sounds like a lot. No wonder I spend so many hours watering, covering, uncovering, and generally poking around in the yard.
I've also learned not to trust weather forecasts. When the forecast says 36, don't believe that you don't need to cover the tomatoes in the hoop house because it's not hitting freezing. Black, wilted, frozen tomato plants are a frustrating sight in the morning when you were lazy and didn't prepare the tomatoes for the worst. Likewise, random zucchini seedlings have frozen and died off uncovered at night while the rest are happy as could be. Expect the unexpected and give up trying to predict fair weather.
Non-garden related, but still food related, our neighbor brought two new chickens to our lives a few weeks back. Earlier this spring her dog got into our yard and shook to death two chickens. It was a grim sight seeing half dead chickens in the yard and I was thankful that Derek had more stomach than me to finish them off. Earlier that day I joked with my parents about which birds were the dumbest and how I could understand how people could raise them for food. However, faced with killing our own chickens I couldn't do it, and beyond that it was incredibly traumatizing because we weren't prepared for it and they suffered in the ordeal. I'm glad that I don't like to eat chicken so I would never consider raising hens for that, but this still brings up my moral issues with raising/slaughtering animals and eating meat. I eat pork and beef, but if I don't have the heart to kill a pig or a cow, how can I still eat them? Aren't I a hypocrite?
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| With a face like that... |
Eggs are great, chickens are entertaining as hell, and mass produced eggs are unconscionable given the lives of hens who lay them (even those "happy free range chickens"). We didn't want to raise chicks, but being handed two 7-week old balls of golden fluff has been one of the highlights of these last few weeks aside from reaching the half-way mark in grad school and getting a new job. They're cute, friendly, cute, cute, and cute, and it's fun watching them slowly grow into big chicken mannerisms and size.
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| No really, they're pretty cute. |
In the biking scene I finished my Soma Analog and jumped ahead 20 years in mountain bike technology. I'm getting into shape and am finding some skills and confidence on the trail, which feels pretty rad. Slowly the rocks, drops, twists, and hills aren't so daunting and I find myself having a lot more fun. Today on a ride I thought about how if I was ever a parent I would have my kids riding trails at a young age. Why not strap all sorts of pads to the little buggers and send them down a hill? Sounds good to me.
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| An un-glorious shot of the new bike |
That's about it. Summer is officially here in my book. The garden will do its thing, bike camping, car camping and mountain biking, BBQs, hoppy beer, and long days to enjoy it all.
Here's a few more pictures:
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| Sewing projects are getting a little nicer! |
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| Sedona trip to warm up with Jacob and Lily |
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| Snow! |
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| Randy came to visit and liked it so much he's moving here in the fall! |
