HAIL YES!

And that whole land thereof is brimstone...that it is not sown, nor beareth, not any grass groweth therein." Deuteronmy 29: 23

The whole land indeed was covered in brimstone, I don't know about not being sown or bearing grass, we certainly tried. This is what our back yard looked like after 15 mins of a red thunder storm cell passing over the county yesterday afternoon:



And here (this is Maxwell's mountain):



And the death of my flower bed....(and yes that is me wailing and gnashing my teeth you hear)



Kinda like Christmas in July, except there was no Santa Claus, no HOHOHO and definitely no Good Will Towards Men. I don't even think Nat King Cole crooning the Christmas Song coulda helped this one.

Here is the proof that what fell was brimstone-ish if not hellfire and hellish:


If you were wondering, no, my garden did not make it. I'm digging everything up today and salvaging what I can. Funny thing, a rabbit ate most of the garden last week, and nature finished it off. I guess that's what we get for not going to Church on Sunday.

You've been squashed: and other Summer fun

This week the garden has offically gone out of control. Can I just say zucchinin plants can be dangerous? My arms and hands bear the scars of my daily tussle with them.

I've also been "squashing" the neighbors. We've got so much squash we're giving it away, but still keeping some for ourselves, and it's been very good.

Today is Thursday, Farmer's Market day! I'll be able to pick up a good watermelon from Jake the melon man, sweet corn from Mr. S, and bread from the bread ladies! Yum! Tomorrow were going to Las Vegas (that's the one in NM) to pick raspberries at Salman's Raspberry Ranch. Can you say freezer jam??

The end of summer is always good, but sad in a way too. The chili roasters have started to apprear, which means Fall and colder temps are on their way. But for now, we're going to take advantage of all that's around us.

How does my garden grow?

I've tried to grow a garden for the last few summers. Growing anything at 7500 elevation presents many problems. Most summers my very meager attempts at green thumbing have been thwarted by summer hail storms. See living on the side of a mountian also presents problems too--see also hail storms.

This summer when the first of many damaging storms rolled in Joseph ran outside and covered my small garden with all of our patio furniture. This seriously saved everything. He must have remembered two summers ago my reaction has hail rained down, "Ahhh, this is how the pioneers felt!!"

About a month ago the first blossom came out on one of the patty-pan bushes. I didn't know how long till I would see a fruit, so I called the only person who would know, my dad. He told me it would depend on whether the blossom was a male or a female, and then added, that he shouldn't have to explain that to me--right? Ok, right, akwark moment ensued! The yield would also depend on how many bees found the flowers and pollinated them. I'd seen bees flying around in the small town, but I wasn't sure if they'd find my place.

Well, yesterday to my great, and happy surprise I was chased out of the garden by a very mean swarm of bees. YAY bees!! I also noticed that I do indeed have fruit on the vine. Three yellow patty-pans, one green patty-pan, a very small zuccini, and also a bunch of yellow tomatoes, which are at this point a very sick chartruese color, oh and a pumpkin. Oh, then there is the swiss chard--we ate some of that on Sunday with our dinner. It was deeee-lish!

Lest you think I'm some sort of green thumb I'm not, I've been doing this to see if I could, and now I know I can, but I've also found out that I really enjoy it. Next year, the world I think...or maybe enough to fit under the patio furniture again.