I'm back! Sorry to have been gone so long.  This is our Daphne. She's grown into a gorgeous young lady but still has a lot to learn.

We just got our bees! We've been waiting for these babies for quite some time and they have arrived at last. Our two hives are young and just getting established so no honey for us this year as the bees will need all that they can make to get through the winter. By next year we hope to have thriving hives and maybe a little honey for us!

The bees are actively searching out pollen and bringing it home!

This is a shot of our 1000 gallon irrigation tanks and the corner of the garage. The water (when it rains, which is not much around here) is collected from the roof into the 35 gallon plastic garbage cans at each corner and pumped with a submersible sump pump into the big tanks. From there it goes into the garden via a series of irrigation tubes that deliver water to the roots of all of the garden plants.

Brassicas! Savoy cabbages, brussels sprouts, purple cauliflower, broccoli romanesca, and waltham broccoli.

I've never grown potatoes before but these babies are looking pretty good!

                                                                   This is our cucumber patch.

 I took 12'of 2x4 welded wire fencing and cut it in half lengthwise and put it against the corner of the fence, creating the opposite corner with a heavy metal stake - it is reasonably sturdy - thereby creating a 10'x 2' area.  I then filled the area with the last of our compost (about 2 cubic yards) and used a shoved to hollow out two 10"deep rows. These I filled with garden soil, planted half the back row with Long Anglaise cucumbers and the other half with Thai cukes. The front row is little gem lettuce - it will all be long gone by the time the cucumbers completely take over the space. In the back left corner I saved a little space and made another short row in which I planted Birdhouse gourds. The idea, and I have to give that credit to Diane, is that the heavy feeding cucumbers and gourds will take root in the soil and then spread their roots deep into the compost and have more than enough to feed on so they will produce a bumper crop. So far the results are amazing!

                                                                         Pass the Sugar Snap Peas, please!
We planted 2 double rows 20 feet long of these babies and it looks like we will have peas galore. We'll eat as many as we can fresh, maybe freeze some (though they are never as good when they've been frozen), juice them as part of our morning juicing concoction, and maybe even try drying some. Anyone have any good ideas on preserving Sugar Snap peas?

Okay, just one more garden picture. A row of atomic red carrots. By the way, everything we grow is grown naturally, meaning no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. It is a little harder to do. You have to pay a bit more attention to your plants. You have to work pretty hard to compost and weed and nurture. Just one taste of a salad made with fresh spinach, arugula, beet greens, 6 or 7 different kinds of heirloom lettuces, baby chard, spring onions, red radishes, and a dressing made with fresh tarragon, parsley, and good olive oil, and you know it is worth every ounce of effort it took to grow.

                                                                            Our LaMancha goat, Taylor.
The goats have been very happy since their arrival here last November, but they are much happier now that we have expanded their area to include a small grassy meadow and a bit of wooded area.

Thanks to Dr. Michael Mongno and his essential nurse, the lovely Brooke Raymond for working so hard to help me complete the fence!

We'll have a few pears from the trees we planted last summer.

And apples! We also have a few peaches and plums hanging on so the future looks good for fruit around here.

I've been baking a little bread too. This is the latest success story, New York Deli Rye. Chewy crusty good. No brag, just fact, as Walter Brennan once said.

 The pigs are my beautiful fat girls. I'm crazy about them.

All of the times have not been so good lately. We lost Diane's mother Antoinette Mongno in April. She was a wonderful woman, full of love and a dedication to bring light and joy to everyone she met. More than a mother in-law, she was also a friend. And this month our brother in-law Alan Beimfohr, a perfect travel companion, loving husband, father, and grandfather, statistics wizard (he always made them up!) and good friend, passed away after a long illness. We miss them every day.
I'll post again soon.