May 1 A Walk by the River

May 1!  I can hardly believe we are already in May.  This past week has definitely felt more spring-like.
The nighttime temperatures have been warmer, in the 30's, and last night, was 43!! Incredible.  These
warmer days encouraged me to go ahead and plant my tomatoes and peppers under the hoop houses in the garden.  I have been monitoring the soil temps in there, and they have been above 50, so I figured it was mostly safe. Of course, predictions now are for a cold snap later this week, with a big storm raging through the central Rockies.  We might even see a few snowflakes here.
Just to be safe, I still have about half of my tomatoes and peppers in my little greenhouse.

Today, I decided to take a walk along maybe the prettiest 2 miles of trail around here.. The Las Conchas trailhead follows the East Fork of the Jemez through a narrow canyon, until it reaches the top of East Fork Box canyon, where the walls get really narrow, and the river drops over a series of falls.
The river still shows the results of the flooding following the Las Conchas fire two years ago.  In this top photo, you can still see the deposits of ash and mud which washed downstream.

Let's see where the river takes us...

See where the water level used to be, cut into the rocks there...probably eons ago.  Doesnt that make you wonder what the river must have been like then?  Instead of a gentle stream, it must have been a raging torrent.

 This very large boulder (bigger than car-sized) must've made some noise when it fell, landing point side down in the river bed.

It fell off from somewhere up there....

 To me, there is nothing more soul refreshing than the sound of gentle water, sunshine, and bird song.
Plunk me down by a stream any day, and I will be happy.  

 Those Gambrel Oaks still have not dropped last year's leaves, and no sign of buds yet either.

Several fine bridges were built by a mountain biking club from Albuquerque.  Makes walking this path as easy as pie. We used to have to ford the river at several junctures.

Getting near to the end of the river path.  The trail does continue up and out of the canyon,  but for today, I wanted to just walk the river section.

The end of the trail along this part of the river.  Just around the corner, where the green bank on the right, and the rock face on the left are seen a bit above the middle of this picture, the river takes a sharp bend left, and enters East Fork Box canyon.

I have stepped past the fence, and waded through the water to show you now where the river
has turned.  Once it enters East Fork Box, the canyon narrows to only allow passage for the river itself,
and the water falls over several  cascades to make passage on foot mostly impossible.

I turned around and headed back to the truck.  A beautiful, refreshing hike!

Psalms 23: 1-4

The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for You are with me.

P

april 25 Sunshine, snow, sunshine, repeat

This aspen, growing in town where it's slightly warmer, has already busted out with leaves.  

 Stuff keeps getting in the way of posting here.  I wanted to keep track of the weather and temps each day, so a year from now I will be able  to note how spring progresses compared to now.   The last few days have been wildly fluctuating weather-wise.  Sun, clouds, very cold, pleasant. Probably the only constant has been the wind. Always the wind in the spring.
So, going on memory now,...
22nd dawned very cold, about 13 degrees. I lost some plants in the garden that were not protected enough.
The 23rd was nicer, but so breezy that it continued to feel cold. I think it was near 20 in the morning, and supposedly got up to about 50, but didn't feel like it.  I had on a hooded sweatshirt all day and wanted more.
Yesterday, it was again cold in the morning, around 18, but with clear skies, and a bit less wind, it seemed pretty nice.  I think it got up in the mid to high 50's by afternoon.
And then today, it was downright warm in the morning. Near 40 degrees at 7am!  But we are completely socked in with clouds, so it hasn't warmed up much since.  The forecast is for snow showers or rain showers, maybe some thunder....

 This is the stage for most of the aspens around here... still flowering.

  This was taken Tuesday, when suddenly snow clouds rolled in. Yep, that is snow headed my way.  Didn't accumulate, just felt wet and raw.

Hummer!  I had to take this with my ipad through the kitchen window, so of course, it's not a great photo.  this little guy sat on a branch in the trees behind for the longest time before he finally decided to fly to the feeder. I don't know what they eat otherwise. There sure isn't much growing. Maybe they feed on the aspen flowers!

April 21 - Coming Alive

 April 21. The day dawned sunny, clear, and warmer. If you consider 32 warmer. Still, that's better than it has been.  With clear skies and sunshine all day, it does feel like spring.  The high today was about 55.

 I noticed yesterday that the aspens in some sunny areas are starting to flower... Pretty soon, they will be covered in the most brilliant spring green leaves you can imagine.   Right now, it is more like grayish fuzzy flower buds. This is not my photo, I borrowed this from an audubon website so you can see what the flowers look like.  I'm going to mark yesterday as the first day I saw flowers, as that's when I first noticed them, but did not have my camera.  Like everything else in nature, family groups vary.  Some aspen are flowering, some are not.  Some groups on the same hillside are at different stages, leading me to believe that
genetics plays a part in flowering time, just as it does in other aspects of growth.  

I banged up my knee yesterday when I tripped and landed on a rock, so I can't wander too far... just when things are getting good too.  So I had to stick closer to home.

 The rhubard that I thought was dead, is starting to bud! yay!

My sad little patch of daffodils is finally beginning to flower. I don't know why they don't grow well here. Daffodils grow just about ANYwhere.   Even these few small flowers bring joy, with their brilliant clear yellow trumpets.

 The baby chicks have gotten so big, they can now go outside.  I had to get them out of the studio...They are much happier out here, in their little nursery pen.  I made a temporary divider in the run to keep the older hens from pecking at them.

Look at baby Elroy the rooster! He already looks like a rooster!   I guess they are about 5 weeks old now.

Hopefully, this banged up knee will be better soon, and I can wander in the spring forest, now that things are really beginning to bud, and  take some photos...

April 20 - Growing Things in a Pine Forest

My hoop houses in the new garden space.  These are an inexpensive, quick way to create a greenhouse effect.

For about $100, I have 240 square feet of growing space.  

Today dawned cloudy and cold again.   It was 28 at 7am this morning, with mostly cloudy skies, so it seemed really cold out.  I think the high today reached about 56, but it never really felt like it. The clouds stayed around all day, and even a few spits of snow here and there.  This time of year the weather is unsettled.  

All these cold temps, wind, and unpredictable weather patterns make trying to grow anything up here a real challenge. Sometimes, I wonder if it is worth all the effort... but then, whatever DOES grow in the garden really brings a sense of accomplishment along with the joy of eating fresh wholesome veggies.

I just started the garden last  year, and even my original small planting area required herculean effort to create
any kind of growing environment.   I chose a slope on the south side of the house, which got the most sun, and radiant warmth from the foundation.

 The original garden area. It slopes down maybe 10 feet from the patio area, so it required me to terrace the hillside. And THAT required me hauling tons of rock from the forest or whevever I could find it, by hand, one rock at a time.   It was quite alot of work. And I broke many fingernails. :-)

Nothing much growing yet, this year. That's the garlic right in front, planted last fall, and I can't wait to harvest this summer!

These are the cold frames against the foundation of the house.  With lightbulbs for warmth on really bitter nights, I can get most seedlings off to an early start.  

this is an inexpensive little mini "greenhouse" I got at Home  Depot - a floor model, so it was only $23!  It's just a set of shelves, with a plastic cover and a front zipper to open and vent.  It actually has amazed me with it's ability to retain heat even overnight, though for smaller seedlings, I try not to let them get below about 50 degrees till they are a bit bigger.   It's also a good place to harden off larger transplants.  This time of year, I do alot of hauling these trays of seeds in and out of the house, depending on weather.  If I am not careful and attentive, it can get well over 100 degrees in here really fast.  Sometimes monitoring all these feels like a full time job.

Now this might be a bit hard to see, so let me explain.  One thing we have plenty of in a pine forest is.... PINE NEEDLES!   So I raked up about 5 wheelbarrows full of them (this took approximately 15 min. - they ARE plentiful) and made this makeshift raised planting bed. First I took old burlap feed sacks from the feed store and filled them with compost.  (I didn't get a photo of the compost heap - maybe another time)

I planted potatoes in the bags, and then surrounded them on all sides, all the way to the top, with pine needles.  There is a fence on one side which provides a little extra support.  Using this natural resource allows me to plant the potatoes in the bags, which will make harvesting really easy later this fall. I can just dump out the bag when they are ready. The pine needles do two things. They insulate the roots from these early cold temperatures, and they act as a mulch, retaining moisture.  And they will break down faster like this than lying on the forest floor, creating more hummus and compost for next year. This is an experiment. We will have to see how it turns out.  

 Pretty much everything I do in the garden this time of year is to try to mediate the cold temperatures... mostly the soil temps.  Pretty soon, I will be planting things under those hoop houses, which create an environment approximately 15-20 degrees warmer than outside. Pretty nifty.

April 18 Spring Rituals

Man, it is COLD again!  Was 13 this morning.   Partly cloudy, which didnt help it feel any warmer.  Even in really cold temps, the sun up here is so intense that it feels warmer, but when it is cloudy, the chill really sets in.
I had appointments in town today and was gone most of the day, but i did get to see this beautiful raven displaying for a mate right outside my window.  I had to take this photo from inside, or risk scaring him off, but it was entertaining watching him call and do a sort of little dance , announcing his availability to all the females who might be in the neighborhood. At least, thats what I believe he was doing. In the bird kingdom, only the males sing, though both sexes can vocalize.  I am sorry the photo isnt better, but i am on my ipad without any photo editing. I took a short video, but cant get that to load.  Will try tomorrow on the big computer.

We have had a pair of ravens in the neighborhood as long as i have been here.  I suspect this young fellow is one of the offspring, perhaps from last year.  

We have observed lots of bird activity - moutain bluebirds scouting for food ( they should have chicks by now), and recently a pair of crows doing an aerial ballet, rolling and tumbling mid-air, grabbing each others claws and spinning around.

All these things tell me it is spring, even if the thermometer makes me think otherwise!

April 17 The Joke is on Me!

Well, ha ha.   After yesterday's bluebird day, Mother Nature decided to have a little joke.
It was 30 at 6am this morning, not too bad.  I went out to start working in the garden, and
it started to snow.

Murphy the cat doesnt much like it.  He opted against leaving the shelter of the garage.

April 16 Spring, maybe for real

This morning it was an amazing 40 degrees at 6:30am!  The sun is peeking over the eastern ridges, and beginning to shine on our little parcel of land.  The air feels crisp and clean.  And the birds are singing.

I thought you might enjoy hearing the sounds of a spring morning, which, it seems, also includes, if you listen closely, my cat winding around my feet calling for his breakfast.  :-)