The Rabbit Fence is Complete

Silly rabbits, the veggies are for me!  That's what my new fence is supposed to do...keep the rabbits out.  However some animal is scarfing down every bit of fruit I toss on my compost pile.  I'm not sure if it's gophers, rabbits, or squirrels.

This past Friday afternoon, Bob Gassman, Phil Gauna, his nephew, and I played golf at Arroyo del Oso.  Once again Phil tied me, this time at 88.  Several weeks ago, we both shot 89.

After we got a bite and a beer at Chama River Brewing Company, Bob came to Santa Fe to help me with the fence, and also to hang out over the Memorial Day weekend.  It seems like all we did was work.  We (mostly Bob) had dug the holes for the fence last weekend.  So this weekend, we put our engineering heads together and assembled a pretty darn straight fence, if I do say so myself.

We ate well, with Bob's enchiladas and Spanish rice one evening and my home ground hamburgers the next.  But the work on the fence burned those calories off and more.

Sunday evening we built a gate, and now all that's left is to fill in the dirt beneath the fence and assemble my new watering system.  Oh yeah, and construct a small herb garden in the back yard.  Oh, and plant the grape vines.  And the hops.  And....it never ends.

The Garden is Planted!

On Friday, Bob came up to Santa Fe and we spent all weekend working on the garden.  We got the tilling done, the rows done, and we planted most of it by Sunday evening.

Oh, also thrown in was a Bock-Fest we attended at the Santa Fe Brewing Company on Saturday afternoon.  It was so fun, Bob doesn't remember most of it!  Luckily I drove us home.

New Waterline and Final Garden Prep

Well, it's been a couple weeks since this has been updates, as I figured it would.

Two weekends ago, my parents came to visit and help me install a waterline to my garden.  We also rearranged the waterline that feeds all the trees and plants in my yard.  We split it from a single system to three.  That way I can get more pressure to the plants and trees.

It was windy all last week so I had a hard time getting any work done in the garden.  But this past Sunday, I spent 5 hours hoeing and tilling.  I have about 3  hours left to get it ready to plant.

Bob is coming up on Friday.  We're gonna golf on Friday, then work on the garden Saturday morning.  Then go to a Bock Fest at the Santa Fe Brewing Company on Saturday afternoon.  It's a tasting from 8 different breweries, all serving their version of a Bock beer.  A Bock is a German style amber lager.  In fact, my 50th homebrew a few years ago was a Bock called Bock 5.0.  In fact, it scored a 34 at the first round of the National Homebrew Competition in 2008.  Not enough to place, but not a bad score for my first and only Traditional Bock.

Oh, one more piece of good news for a friend of mine.  Matt Spann from Sheridan, Wyoming just got offered an assistant brewer position at the Idaho Brewing Comany in Idaho Falls, ID.  Congratulations!

Nice Spring Day

It's a great spring day...and I'm stuck in the office.
My parents got into town yesterday evening and they helped me with some landscaping and other yard related things.  I haven't worked on the garden since Wednesday, when I scraped out another row.  This time I soaked it with water to see if the rototilling would be easier.  I plan to finish making 3 rows by tomorrow evening, and finally doing my first plantings this weekend.

But tomorrow, my dad and I are gonna play golf at Cochiti, 8:50 tee time.

The Tilling Begins

I grew up on a farm and my dad always said he had me do the planting because he thought I had a green thumb.  But it was much easier on a tractor.  I spent about 90 minutes digging out 1 row, then rototilling under where I had dug out.  Then returning the soil to that area.  That was brutal.  Or I'm a wimp.

One row down, 7 to go.  Already starting to lose interest...

My First Post

I've been wanting to do this for years.  So today, I finally quit procrastinating and created a blog.  Not like it was a ton of work...it was really a piece of cake.  The work is all done for you.  All you have to do is pick colors, or font sizes, or upload an image or two.  I'm not sure what I was waiting for.  And who knows how long I'll do this.  I started prepping soil for a garden yesterday, with Bob's help, and I thought it would be interesting to update my progress on the garden here.  So here goes:

Friday evening, Bob came over and we had dinner with my cousins Paul and Pat Leyba.

On Saturday, April 30, Bob and I went to the Santa Fe Garden Fair, where we watched Erin Wade give a presentation on "Fearless Vegetable Gardening".  Afterwards, Bob and I rototilled a plot 25 ft. x 30 ft. just southwest of my house.  We mixed in just under 1" of compost, which we picked up in 4 loads in my car from the Santa Fe Equestrian Center.  Saturday, I also bought 4 tomato plants and 4 mint (spearmint) plants.

Yesterday was blustery, cold, windy, and we even had some flurries, so I stayed inside.  It's still a bit cold, but I might head out this evening and begin making raised beds, or as I call them, "rows".

That's it, Blog Post Number 1!