In the garden... and a dentist if you need one

So far we have planted 30 pounds of seed potatoes and 450 onion plants.

It was darker than I thought....

The fence is further along now than in this pic!

My new drip system, the micro drip is much cheaper than the big stuff.  I'll take it!

Hattie getting some much needed dental work done.

Ruby must be the dental hygenist

You know our # if you need an appointment.

Normandy? Yes, I'll take one.

I love all things French (excluding their politics).

via http://myfrenchcountryhome.blogspot.com/

The best French blog I have found.  However, this one is really good as well:                           http://decordeprovence.blogspot.com/

Even though I will not likely ever get to go to France, I can still be inspired and hopefully bring a little French style to our simple New Mexico life.

Ode to Russian Sage

Soon you will be back, oh how we have missed you.
 This summer we promise not to take you for granted.  You are not a peony or a rose, but we love you just the same because you are so simple and strong.

From my parent's farm....

This is from last year when we went to their farm to learn how to compost for a field trip.  Cousins and friends! Where was Hattie?

This is Millie.  She just had a baby bull.  I had my fingers crossed for a girl so I could get a milk cow.  She only likes my dad.  Her baby is Earl.  I haven't got to see him yet.

This coop is so pretty it needs to be in a magazine.  Its a chicken tractor, see the skids?  My parents built it.  My MIL has a really pretty coop too.  My coop is sorta ghetto compared to theirs.

Mom's front yard.  She gives me lots of plants.  We are going up there next week.  Its obviously not going to be this green--too bad.

A tidy enough garden you think?

She does all lasagna gardening and raised beds.

Ivy's photo shoot of November:

Ivy took these pictures; what it looks like around here in November.

Front yard flower bed, this was its 2nd year, its even pretty after it freezes.  Lots of winter interest.

Coming down the run... I think these are Buff Orpingtons.

This is the side of the mesa behind our house.

Cute pic of Mercy, or oldest dog, she is Border Collie/Great Pyrenees.   She is so tired, so so tired.

The view from the  front of our house. This is our little lake, I have to say, because I am from Texas, it is bigger than it looks!

Nice composition.

Ivy's self portrait...

My Kitchen Garden 2011

I wanted to add pictures of my garden from last summer.  What a year it turned out to be.   It was so, so dry that nothing would come up.  With the hard winds and no moisture it was a battle to get the seeds going.  But then, in July, the monsoons hit, and we got about 12 inches in one month, we didn't have to water, things  just grew and grew.  (Including bine-weed, which I have serious problems with. SERIOUSLY bad problems.)
In 2010 we designed it, but only got half of the beds made and built up.  Lots of shoveling.  This year we almost finished the other side.  But then the pumpkins took over so I ran out of room.  I am trying to convert the raised beds to lasagna beds, it helps with the weeds and makes for some awesome soil full of earthworms.

Cow elk checking on the tomatoes.  Thank goodness for the fence.  These are pics of the garden in April when  I started the tomatoes.  I don't think it is really worth the effort.  My tomatoes had a lot of disease by the end of the summer.

Don't even look over here ladies.  In the forefront are the wall-of-waters.  They even kept the tomatoes warm when it snowed on May 1 and got down to 23 degrees.

Ivy took all these garden pictures.

 I started these tom. with wall-of-waters back in April, way early, they still didn't do too much.  I had those horned worms on them.  Those things are nasty.  I also had a little rattlesnake coiled up under one.  I am not much of a farm-girl after those kind of experiences. Gardening looses it's luster for a while.  I am just glad the little girls never came across one out there.  We don't have many snakes here.

Stupid coat hanging on the fence covering my pretty lace vine.  I love that thing, the vine not the coat; it grew 20 feet this year.  I planted another west of the gate, you can see it, it almost caught up to the one that is 2 years old.  I think I'll add one to the border of the garden every year.

Harvest time, a little bit of a mess.  I meant to plant butternut, but I can't read I guess, so I planted buttercup.  It is so good with butter and brown sugar.  I swear, 3 plants yeilded 2 wheel-barrel loads.  Enough for a family all winter.

Cinderellas, my favorite things pumpkins.

Cosmos Corner

Color anyone?

Squash in the middle, potatoes, cauliflower (this didn't taste good) broccoli, the bees took it over and we let them.  French Marigolds along the fence with dill, and a bunch of fun stuff that grew like crazy.  I had to pull up a lot of the borage.  It took over, what in the world do you do with borage?  

I just wanted to document this. I need a list of all I grew, but I am not that organized.