Day 12: Twelve Days of 2023

              This is my recap of December 2023. Early in the month as the weather cooled significantly I had a little scare, thinking that Esmerelda had mastitis.

I got Digger Dog's new house all finished, just in time for rain.

                                                                                                                 

The mountains got a little bit of snow.

And I got almost 2 inches of rain.




 I got my new Greenworks 60v. battery powered chainsaw out of layaway and tackled a pile of catclaw I had cut down with the sawzall last year. Oh my, the chainsaw is so much faster and easier!

Little Jupiter went to his new home

My Farmer Boy came to visit.

I've been trying to work on the junk piles and clean up this mess 15 minutes at a time.

I picked the radishes I planted earlier in the fall. They were soooo good!



There have been some mornings even colder than 28.

I hope everyone has had nice holidays. Time to get down to business. Lots of things planned for this coming year!

Day 2: Twelve Days of 2023

                                

If you missed yesterday's post I decided to recap this year by doing a post for each month of the year so this is Februrary 2023.   Above are Esmarelda's twins, Jupiter and Aries, doing well.

Christmas Evie was so cute!

                                           

Digger discovered his first tarantula. I have no idea why one was out in February

Started loads of tomato plants.

My indoor seed starting area in case you are curious.

                                

My Farmer Boy came to visit for a bit.

It was totally crazy weather.

And so of course Bambi decided to have her triplets

And then to top off everything else, I had a broken pipe underneath my bathroom floor. So the water to the house was shut off for about a week, while I had bottle babies and Farmer Boy to tend to.... Very crazy and stressful.

Throw Back Thursday

Eggs Dec 2016

Last year at this time I was getting a few eggs from new pullets but not many others. The same is true this year. A lot of hens but not many eggs. The days are short and a lot of them are molting. But today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Beginning tomorrow the days will begin to be  a few seconds longer each day. By March I'll be swimming in eggs.

Broccoli Dec 2016

cauliflower Dec 2016

Last year I had lots of broccoli and cauliflower. This year it was so very hot and dry in July, August and September with so many birds and grasshoppers that my seedlings did not survive. So no broccoli or cauliflower now. 

Snow Dec 2016

Last year we had a little snow. this year I've had .1" of rain since the 10th of September. No snow on the radar at all.

A Week In Pictures

#73 a 2016 pullet was Champion English and Reserve Large Fowl Safford, AZ 

Last weekend I attended the Safford Poultry Show. I was pleasantly surprised that my Buff Orpington pullet #73 was judged Best of Breed, Best English and Reserve Large Fowl. There were not that many birds shown in the English class, but there were 108 large fowl show, so not too shabby.

Mount Graham, Jan 14, 2017

Mount Graham Jan 2017

Mount Graham was covered in snow. Can you spot the observatory?

My daughter shows off the marble size hail

I got home and unloaded in time for a little storm of marble size hail.

Sunset Jan 14, 2017

Followed by a really pretty sunset.

uh oh

twisted a 6x6' chain link panel

The storm however did a number on the compost chickens pen. It even twisted a 6'x6' chain link panel out of plumb. I had to leave it out and rearrange the remaining panels.

Ameraucana pullet's first egg

One of the June hatched Ameraucana pullets started laying. Her first egg was this tiny one.

Broccoli coming out

Later in the work I pulled out the broccoli bed and planted some lettuce mix in it's place.

Pinal Mountains Jan 21, 2017

This weekend we have had a lot of rain and have been under a winter storm warning. It's stopped raining for a bit but we have more rain and snow coming. I love that we are getting much needed rain but I wish it would spread it out a bit. Some parts of our county are under a flood watch now too.

There isn't too much run off at my place yet, but the winds have taken out the low tunnel. The plants are all hardy and can survive freezing just fine. The tunnel is just to help them stay a bit warmer so they grow faster. I will deal with it when the weather clears up a bit.

Happy New Year

Sleeping Beauty Mountain Jan 7, 2016

Happy New Year. I thought I'd do a little review of 2016. A lot of things went wrong but some things went right and there were a few surprises along the way.

We had some snow in January.

hawk Jan 9, 2016

snow on the Pinal Mts. Jan 10, 2016

A hawk was hanging around but didn't get any chickens.













and more snow.

Sunset Feb 2016

February brought longer days and pretty sunsets.

apple blossom March 15, 2016

Cecile Brunner rose March 15, 2016

Creek side garden March 15, 2016

By March the apple trees and roses were blooming. In the creekside garden the garlic was trying to grow and the peas were coming along. This year should be a much better harvest as I've worked on digging the beds deeper, replacing rocks, caliche, ashes and junk with compost.

AZ pistache tree

Iris blooming March 24, 2016

The old purple and white bearded irises are dependable spring bloomers. This patch is along the driveway where they don't get any water but the rain. I planted quite a few young trees too.

tomato seedlings April 10, 2016

tomato seedlings April 10, 2016

By April the tomato seedlings, started under lights in the house were ready to come outside into bigger pots.

Sweet Magnolia snap peas April 10, 2016

back garden April 10, 2016

Also by April I was picking green and purple snap peas. The back garden, which became the main tomato garden was still full of weeds and junk.

Salad May 4, 2016

Iris May 4, 2016

compost material 

back garden May 2016

By May I was hauling compost material and working on the main tomato garden. The late iris were blooming and we were eating lovely salads.

new potatoes June 2016

yellow zucchini June 2016

By June I was digging new potatoes and picking zucchini. Our local farmer's market had started up too.

erosion control July 2016

rainbow carrots July 2016

rainbow beets July 2016

peppers and tomatoes July 2016

In July I was up on top of the hill doing some erosion control, The garden was doing fairly well, carrots, beets, bell peppers, tomatoes and other things coming in.

Trombonccino Aug 2016

deep digging a bed Aug 2016

compost chickens

carrot with root knot nematodes

By August the squash vines were almost to the roof of the house and the Trombonccino were really going to town. I ripped out a bed of beans that never grew well and dug it out 18 inches deep. I discovered the problem. Besides the caliche and rocks there were ashes and junk buried under there. I put the caliche and rocks into the pathways and filled the bed with compost. August also saw the beginnings of the compost chicken project along with the discovery of root knot nematodes in a couple of beds.

Pregnant Tinkerbell Sep 2016

Swiss Chard Sep 2016

squash 2016

Tithonia Sep 2016

In September Tinkerbell had kittens. The garden was doing fairly well, with greens and squash coming in along with some flowers.

cole crops 2016

Also in September I finished up the old bean bed and planted kale, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings.

They have done amazingly well and there are still a couple of heads of cauliflower and some broccoli shoots to pick.

Superior Farmer's Market

Superior Farmer's Market

end of tomato season

Time to pick squash!

Apparently there are no pictures for October or the computer has hidden them somewhere I can't find them. In November I started going to a little market in the next town over, Superior, Arizona. While small it has been fun and the people there have been very nice. When a hard freeze finally threatened (a month later than normal) I picked all the Trombonccino, 259 pounds worth, not counting what I had picked before.

eggs Dec 2016

cleaning up the greenhouse Dec 2016

homegrown broccoli Dec 2016

Homegrown cauliflower Dec 2016

seed order, ready for spring!

seedlings, I plant something almost every week

In December I've been picking beets, carrots, greens, broccoli and cauliflower. I've been planting lots of greens, hauling manure and making compost.

The compost chickens have done a good job and the new garden space is ready. The chickens will move to a new area this coming week.

I'm working on getting more organized with seed starting and have a big calendar already marked with starting dates for the whole year.




A great thing about starting seedlings in the house under lights is that it gets them off to a good start before they have to contend with birds and bugs outdoors. It also helps me get more from the garden as the last crop can be finishing up while the seedlings are sprouting and growing. I can gain up to a month that way.