Trapper's Camp and Other Things

Our local Rim Country Museum had a "Free Day" yesterday. One of our volunteers set up a Trapper's Camp outside the museum complete with tools, hides, etc.

They fired off black powder rifles.

These weapons worked about 30% of the time and took a bit of time to reload.

We had 108 visitors at the museum and our little gift shop made $400. This was the first time we have had a "free day" but I think it was successful and we will do it again.

Our roses are beautiful this year.

They hang outside our chain link fence but the elk have not discovered them……..yet. We have two young bulls that show up every morning about 5:00. The dogs bark at them which might be one reason they have not come up to the fence.

We will be journeying to Wales at the end of the week to see this little one. We will be celebrating her first birthday during our visit.

Planting Trees, Making Steps

We had been struggling with how to "erase" the dirt driveway that came off of the cement driveway and ended up at the garden gate on the west side of the house. Randy had a solution! We bought railroad ties at Home Depot and cut them in half with a chain saw and viola….steps to get from the front of the house to the garden area. We bordered them with rock….had lots of those all around the house. And then had a load of crushed granite delivered and dumped some on each step.

We planted more Cottonwood trees as they are such fast growers and have had good luck with the two in the west patio area. They are excellent shade trees and we need shade! We also planted a Honey Locust tree. Lupe and Brian are planting one of the trees. Lupe does great rock work and Brian has the "Tonka toys" that help dig the holes and level the ground. Due to the drought, our ground is like cement!

We should have lots of shade in a few years. We had to put wire cages around each of the trees because of the elk. They are eating everything this year as the drought has affected their food sources and they are hungry.

We planted some grasses and other plants to make it look more interesting. We will finish it off with some landscape rock in a week or so.

Brian got some big rocks with his shovel and we put some on each side of the steps as they make a nice backdrop for the plants.

We also planted a Cottonwood on either side of the driveway near the street.

Brian picked up some of the native grasses that grow in the cachement area next to our property. We're not sure how well they will do but they will definitely get more water in our yard so we will see.
Next step: dripper lines to all the plants.

Darn Bird Netting!

We had to use some bird netting to protect some of our garden plants. We don't like it but the birds ate all of the cucumbers and were working on the beets and carrots. The problem is we keep catching lizards and the only way to get them out of the netting is to carefully cut them out with scissors.

Today a poor gopher snake got caught. Neither Randy or I were comfortable trying to get this poor guy out of the net so we called our local pet store.

Austin came out and held the snake while Randy cut the netting.

We don't know how long the snake was stuck. He was very lethargic but Austin held on to his head anyway. The netting had cut into his skin but Austin said he would be good as new after two skin sheds.

Austin was going to relocate him to a nice spot out near the Verde River on Houston Mesa Road. He thanked us for calling him. He said most people just "chop them up" and throw them away. Gopher snakes are good snakes to have around in our opinion.

On another note…..the Prickly Pear cactus are in bloom now. We sell Prickly Pear popcorn and jam at our museum store. You can buy the syrup at our local Farmer's Market and it does make excellent lemonade.