Fire on the mountain.

There is smoke in our little valley tonight. The local paper was reporting that smoke could be seen from Albuquerque. We spotted it out the window and had to get up on the roof to check it out..wasn't as close as we originally thought. The fire was probably an idiot camper leaving a campfire that wasn't fully extinguished. The fire is in the Santa Fe National Forest six miles northwest of Jemez Springs. The newspaper also says the fire is about 1400 acres of ponderosa pine/ mixed conifer forest. Evacuations are happening at campsites up there and around Jemez Springs but that is 90 miles from our humble abode.

Australorps

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chickens. day one

got 17 pullets today.. black Australorps..lay brown eggs:

Hopi Black Dye Sunflower.

Edible seed..black shell.

More Paint and The Garlic>

Day two of painting the siding..

left side is pretty much done. all seven windows ..

House Painting, Tomatillos and Other Stuff..

painted (cut and trim) everything low enough to do from the ground..

Hops

Chinook plant is making a comeback after already being this tall and nicely trimmed down to one main shoot. Trimming all the new growth off that plant almost every other day just to keep all the energy into production of flowers and roots instead of other shoots.

new chainsaw.

chiles planted.

jalapenos and jemez pueblo green chiles..

still windy and dry yet we're sowing seeds..

purple carrots from the first planting:

spring is windy in the mountains

two shots of the main garden;
garlic in the far background with cucumber trellis in foreground:

carrot screen and lettuce, kale and beets coming up around that..

New Chicken Coop

we brought the old nesting box for ernie's birds to the new coop:




The jersey giants getting used to their bigger, better home: