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a soggy spring

it’s still spring — that is *highly* unusual behavior for mid-May in these parts. ordinarily, it’d be in the high 80s every day by now, and i’d have pulled out the insulation from the yurt window and propped it permanently open. instead, it’s barely clearing 70 most days, my window is still winter-shut, and i’m being careful to keep a supply of dry firewood inside, because it’s cold enough to need a fire a couple nights a week still.

it’s also raining regularly. *highly* unusual spring behavior. some of the storms are summer monsoon thunderstorms, with crash-bang dramatic downpours and sideways hail. some are slow overnight soakers. in the last four weeks, we’ve had both of those and everything in between.

what with it all, we’ve had some dramatic skies and an awful lot of green stuff growing. some of which is even the stuff we planted. i don’t know that i’ve *ever* seen the weeds quite this epic.

chard & beet greens
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peas & dill on a dewey morning
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blooming baby bok choy
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volunteer corn in the bok choy
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by the way, if you’re local and you’d like some bok choy, we’re selling it for $3/bundle. let me know! it’s every bit as delicious as this picture.
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pretty weeds in the squash bed (sunflower, lambsquarter & amaranth)
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we also re-tilled our field at the end of March. Chris from Ironwood Farm came down with his tractor to help re-level it, since it’s been a few years. we spread about thirty pounds of clover and winter wheat seed on it, and lo! this is our field! seriously.
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also i got some new lenses that snap onto my new camera. a fisheye lens that converts to 15x macro, and a wide angle lens that converts to 10x macro. so now i can do things like this. blue flax in the back, both of these.
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(you guys, this is our FIELD. this is also NEW MEXICO. i’m blown away every time i walk out there.)
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grapes
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did i mention my new camera? it’s a phone, technically, but really it’s a camera. i’m in love.
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flax in the pollinator beds
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clear boundaries:
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we’re also doing a really awesome job of keeping our back fields irrigated this year. that combines with the rain to give us this:
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(more back field photos on our flickr!)

this is the path. what?
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and some horsetail reed, which is thick this year, what with the water.
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so are the tumbleweeds, but i failed to dignify them with a photograph, electing instead to pull them out by the dozens until my hands itched.

one very tiny cota
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and the view from the farthest wayback.
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here is Tybalt enjoying the lambsquarter bed. what do you mean, we didn’t plant lambsquarter?
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we’re also working on the wall again! i know, we totally finished that last year. but this is Wall v. 3.0! Mahazda wall! it’s an extension of the earthbag wall between us and the highway, along the south property. it’s already going smoother & faster than the last one, what with everything we learned last time. and it’s going to be so satisfying to have a solid boundary between us and the street, across the full width of the property.
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oh, and i don’t think any bimonthly blog post would be complete without this guy. follow me @yarrowkat on instgram for #dailypeacock pics! (they’re not really daily. more like a couple times a week. but “dailypeacock” sounds catchier than “periodicpeacock” or “intermittentpeacock.” i think.)
Elliott in the morning. #dailypeacock