Our house is quite noisy these days with all the babies around. We have puppies and chicks a sure sign of spring.
It’s the first time having puppies here and we have 9- oh my. They are too young yet to find homes for now so we enjoy playing with them. They all are so sweet, soft and cuddly.
Chicks are a normal part of Spring for us because we always get a few each year that way we have different ages and a few are always laying eggs. Our oldest is over 6 years and the youngest besides the chicks are around 5 months. The baby chick in the picture below is a week old. Raising chickens and ducks has been one of the most amazing and sad parts of rural living. Its sad when we lose one it’s hard not to get attached even though we don’t name them.
Happy Spring Everyone!

Yesterday was a productive and fun family day out in the garden we were able to get quite a bit done. The extra hands to get the plastic up for a green house was great.
The area has definitely improved from what it was and our goals are to regenerate not only that area but eventually to whole yard. The ground is clay with lots of volcanic rocks but with the rain/snow we had over the winter has help to bring up some green already (evern if they are weeds). Weeds are beneficial because they help with erosion, some are edible and the flowers help feed the bees/insects.
We have a way to go regenerating our property so setting small goals has helped along the way. Don’t worry about doing everything at once that is so overwhelming. One plant in a pot is a start anyone can do that. Thankfully I have my family to help.

​Blessings

In previous posts we shared our challenges growing produce here in Northern Arizona but we love fresh vegetables, herbs & flowers so we keep trying and at this point it’s more like a science experiment. We compost everything we can to use in our gardens, the chickens & ducks provide manure (composted or aged first) and any natural materials we can use from our yard. Keeping the input costs down is important so we try not to purchase amendments unless needed. We hope you enjoy the slideshow pictures of the past year.

Yay! It’s finally Spring! We are so ready for nice weather and Spring is such a beautiful time of year. All the new growth and green in our yard that we don’t see the rest of the year.

We definitely have had an abundance of moisture this year and it seems like most of it was in a short amount of time. It’s muddy everywhere from either rain or snow.

We we are excited and ready to get our garden going and the garden area itself isn’t bad because of all the bark that was put up there, walking up there in the mud is another whole story. We hope that the moisture benefits our growing area this spring & summer but time and temperatures will be unpredictable factors.

Blessings all!

Gardening in Arizona has been a challenge for us.  Each year we try something different to see if it helps grow more bounty.  We have been blessed with great neighbors with animals that give us all the horse manure we can use.  That in itself has improved our soil in our garden.  Our soil is clay that is on the alkaline side with lots of rocks & weeds and needs lot of amendments so when have opted for above ground and/or raised beds.  We also grow in containers too. 

In the Ash Fork area where we live we have to haul water or have it delivered which is a challenge in itself but when it comes to gardening are water usage doubles in the growing season or until monsoons arrive.

Starting plants from seeds seem to do well for us but keeping the plant alive through the hottest days of summer is another challenge.

Final challenge is the wild life and free ranging cows-cows are much easier to deal with we just have to keep our gate shut but the wild life so frustrating! Last year a gray squirrel kept digging in my raised beds and eating some of my vegetables.  

The photos below are from previous years.

After much thought we have decided to close our online store. It’ll give us more time to work on other projects. We will still share thrifty tips on the blog as that is part of our every day lives. Thank you everyone that supported our store We truly appreciate you