Weekend of fun

This weekend my friend Laurie came down from Albuquerque to see me.  We hadn't see each other in almost a year is it was so nice catching up with each other...the weekend went by too fast!  She got here Friday evening and we went to dinner and caught up with each other's lives as Reid listened to all the gossip!  Then Saturday morning we got up and went for a walk like old times and came back to the house and I made breakfast for the three of us while Laurie and Reid watched some college football.  Then it was time for the girls to go shopping so we were off to the outlet mall in Texas...a girl could really spend the entire weekend there!   We got back to Las Cruces just in time to prepare for a nice dinner and a night of dancing.  Here is a picture of us girls ready for the night of fun...take a close look between us and you will see Reid trying to pop through our hair, he is such a goof ball!

Here is a couple shots of Reid and I:

A new experience...canning tomatoes

Reid and I have been able to freeze so many veggies that our freezers are completely full.  We have had to turn to other alternatives in order to preserve as many veggies as we can.  Reid and I have learned to can tomatoes and boy is it a process.   We have been able to can three gallons so far.  However, our processing of veggies has slowed dramatically because two weeks ago someone raided our garden and took most of the produce and left many of our plants trampled and died.  The only plants we have left are our tomatoes.   Here are two pictures of the canning process, the before:

After:

The Garden is Producing!!!

Seems like the last three weeks the garden has been producing faster then we can put the items up.  We have had a ton of squash, our freezer is almost completely full...good thing we both really like it!  Here are a few pictures of two of our days pickings in the last week, it has been really great production because of lots of rain.

I am sad to say that our corn did not do too good, we actually tore everything down last weekend.  Thankfully we were able to get a few ears and will be enjoying them in the near future.

My favorite thing lately has been our purple hull peas, if you are like me you are thinking, what in the world is that!  When we first began talking about a garden, that is all Reid kept saying and I thought he was crazy because I never heard of them.  I was pleasantly surprised, they are soooo good, I will definately put them on our list for next year.

Reid is finally happy to have his home grown tomatoes.  He has enjoyed many tomato sandwiches for lunch...still kinda odd to me but he loves them!  We planted 8 tomato plants and they are all really starting to thrive in the next few weeks I think we are gonna have too many on our hands!

Tonight Reid is cooking some good ole squash and onions, beer butt chicken, candied carrots and green beans...who is ready to join us???

July has flown by

The last few weeks have been busy for both of us.  For July 4th we spent the weekend in the Jemez Mountains with my Aunt and Uncle and their family and friends.  It was an adventure to say the least!  Our tent did not have tent poles so our plans for camping out in our tent were not able to happen, but thankfully there was room in the cabin for us to stay. Rooster and Houla had a blast running free on the land and even found some cows to play with!  I enjoyed taking Reid to my favorite place, that has so many wonderful memories from my childhood.  The weather was beautiful and the nights got cold, but unfortunately we had to return to Las Cruces to the 100+ weather.  Here is a picture of the dogs on our drive home, boy were they tired!

Reid spent a week in Denver for a conference with fellow Animal Science grad students.  He presented his research that he has compiled thus far and then spent time enjoying other presentations and talking to people in his field.  He then returned to Las Cruces to help a fellow student with her research on Dairy calves...I think they are supper cute!  Then he spent two days in Clayton getting ready for another study to begin there.  Thankfully he is back in Las Cruces for a little while...hopefully!   Here is a picture of me with one of the dairy calves, they are so cute and fun to play with.

Reid and I have enjoyed a few sessions of racket ball at the gym.  Although, I don't know that we are exactly playing by the rules, we still have fun no matter what!

We were able to go to Albuquerque for a weekend with my family.  My aunt and uncle always host an ugly shirt bbq and Reid has been determined to win since he found out about it in December.  I am happy to say that he won...but of course with a little help from my wonderful taste! Here is a picture of the winning shirt and of course Reid's trophy for the year.

Last but not least we were able to spend a night bowling with friends.  They asked if we were good at bowling and Reid said no he is awful.  I said that I hadn't been bowling in ages and not sure how I would be.  Well, for those of you who know anything about me, I spent many years on a bowling league.  The truth was still that I hadn't bowled in years.  Although it was not the best scores all that matters is that we had a great time.  Thanks Cody and Marissa for a great night! 

                                                  

A Saturday spent in the garden

On Saturday our task for the morning was to pull up all of the potato plants to make room for something else.  The farmer, Reid, had never planted them before so needless to say neither of us knew what to expect.  It was actually quite interesting to see how potatoes grow.  Thanks to our friend Patricia, she had potatoes that had sprouted and we cut the potato into a few pieces and buried them in the ground.  We left them for about 9 weeks and I honestly thought that we weren't going to get anything because the plants looked terrible.  The plants began to wilt and come to find out that is when you know the potato plants are done!  Here is a picture of how the potatoes grow:

Needless to say you don't have to plant that many sprouts to receive a bundle of potatoes.  This next picture was taken halfway through the potato plants,  lets just say we have plenty of potatoes!

We were able to clear out this section along with an entire row of radishes and onions (we couldn't get these to survive).  We planted more green beans, squash and zucchini because these are our favorites.    Here is a few pictures from dinner last night where we cooked up fresh zucchini, squash and green beans from the garden, very tasty!

While working in the garden Reid heard a little chirp coming from under a tomato plant and look what he found:

Although he looks big in the pictures trust me when I say he was very tiny.  He was very weak and needed a little nourishment.  He sucked this down and was good to go and off the little guy went.

Fun with Friends

Over the past few weeks we have had the privilege to enjoy some great times with new and old friends. The end of May Reid had a good friend, Faris, come to visit from Kansas. We were able to take show him many different places, El Paso, Ruidoso, Elephant Butte, Lake Roberts, the Gila, and my personal favorite was White Sands.
Here is a picture of Faris enjoying his time in El Paso Saddleblaknet:

Faris being the gentleman he is:

We were able to see parts of New Mexico that I had not seen either, The Gila Mountains. We were all in heaven and did not want to leave:

Thanks Faris for some great times, we look forward to you coming back for another visit!

On Thursday night we went to a carnival with our friends Flint, Patricia and Stacey and enjoyed some great rides and some not so great rides. Yes Alice I did try some big kid rides! Towards the end of the night some of us wanted to check out the slide:



Lastly, we spent some time swimming with Patricia and Flint and Reid is learning how easily it is to get sunburned in the dessert. SUNSCREEN will be his friend!

Update on the Garden

The garden is really starting to produce now we picked 6 squash that we will enjoy with dinner tonight. Our green beans are producing so much it is hard to keep up with picking them...they are gonna need a good picking tonight. The tomato plants have quite a few tomatoes but not ready to enjoy yet. I am patiently awaiting my lemon cucumbers, they are my favorite and are not growing fast enough!
Here is a picture of the farmers and our produce:

The Plants:





I also have a beautiful flower garden that I can honestly say I have done all on my own...and it didn't die, woo hoo!

Rooster and Houla

Yesterday we took the boys, Rooster and Houla, to the do it yourself dog wash...and it was an adventure! Rooster is Reid's puppy that he got when he first moved to New Mexico and has been used to getting a bath but Houla is a different story. When we moved to Las Cruces we decided that we want to find a buddy for Rooster so he is not outside all day by himself, so we began looking for another dog. I was doing some research on shelters around town and found a dog that I showed to Reid and he liked him too so we made an appointment to meet him. Well, when we arrived to Safe Haven Animal Shelter told us that his foster om couldn't part with him and decided to adopt him. I was saddened by this news but we decided to look around the shelter since we were there. They showed us many animals and two that we liked. The first was a terrier mix which Reid really liked but I fell in love with the Catahoula, Houla. He was so loving and I knew we found our next pet. We brought him home for an overnight stay to see how Rooster got along with him, and they did perfect! Now they are best friends and are inseparable! Rooster is a chicken when it comes to water but Houla loves it and he spends his day relaxing in his pool. Here are a few pictures of our boys:


Here is Houla enjoying "HIS" Pool:

Houla taking a swim with my nephew Braeden:

Our Garden

Growing up I always had a dream of being a cowgirl and living my life on a ranch raising animals and growing my own food...well now i can say I have come very close to this life. When Reid and I moved in together we decided that we would try to grow some things. I really thought we would be unsuccessful since we live in the dessert with temps nearing 110 some days. However, I have been pleasantly surprised. Now you may ask what we have planted and the list is: 2 types of corn, 2 types of squash, 3 types of cucumbers, 4 or 5 types of tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, okra, 2 types of radishes, 2 types of carrots, sugar snap peas, green beans, lima beans, green chili, bell peppers, banana peppers and green chili.

When I lived on my own I was able to grow zucchini and cucumbers but was only able to get them to produce for a short time. So, I guess I did not have the best outlook on being able to grow a much larger selection of vegetables. On Easter weekend we planted most of the seeds and I waited as patiently as possible to see if things were going to grow. I can't explain the feeling I got when we had the first little green stems popping out of the ground. Reid told me that now the real work begins, and boy does it...watering, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, watering, watering, watering, weeding, weeding, weeding, fertilizing, fertilizing, fertilizing, harvesting, harvesting and harvesting! For the first month we had to water by hand every day which was no small task since we have a very large garden. We finally got smart and bought soaker hose which was not fun to lay but oh so worth it! Now we can turn on the water and continue with other tasks around the house.

Picture 1: The garden just starting to grow in the side yard and back yard

Things began to progress nicely and we realized that it is very possible to grow things in the dirt...not just weeds!

Over the last 3 weeks everything has grown by leaps and bounds and now looks like this:

I am so excited to say that we have been able to eat out of our garden! We have had sugar snap peas, jalapenos, radishes and green beans...and they have been excellent. Tonight we will be eating squash from the garden! I am happy to say that our corn is silking and we along with our neighbors are looking forward to the corn!

The worst part of it all is the bug bites we get while picking the produce, but it is so worth it...maybe the farmer is turning me into a country girl!