Fall break

Today is my last day off.  I had ten days, starting October 4th, to just stay home and spend time with the dogs and work on my garden.  As usual, I only got half of my plans completed.

The week started out peaceful.  We had a full moon on the 7th, but that night it was overcast after some rain.  The nights were in the mid 60s, calm wind, and made for great evening walks.  My goal was to walk every dog over my break several times for four miles at a time, with the evening walks being the longer ones.

The National Weather Service and several local weather forecasts were warning of havy rains coming our way by later in the week, thanks to residual rains from Tropical Storm Priscilla. It looked like a direct hit with rains starting Saturday.  I was hoping for long, lingering rains for at least three days.

Wednesday came and it started with a morning walk with Gretchen.  I noticed tapeworms in her feces (oh lovely!) so after the walk  I drove straight to the closest feed store for dewormer, stopped at my old lot to do some weed pulling and ended up talking to Robin next door.  The weeds in my old back yard are getting tall and I can't seem to get ahead.  I had a late lunch at a new chicken restaurant before stopping by Fry's Foods to stock up on food for the dogs.  In case the main road was flooded and I was stranded at home for two days.  I bought 30 pounds of chicken meat for them.  It was the only time I stopped in town for groceries this week.

Rain began to fall late that evening so I called the dogs inside and shut the back patio door.  But that rain never amounted to more than an overnight drizzle. 

Two things I failed at getting done was fixing both vehicles.  I didn't have the strength to remove my truck's battery, and on Thursday I drove over to Steve's place to have him try to fix my passenger side window again.  The fuse that controls the window is either corroded or loose.  He couldn't fix it, either, so I will need to have that professionally fixed next week.

To thank him for his efforts, we had lunch in Benson at a food truck spot that I had never tried before:  El Asdero.  My chicken burrito was delicious and one of the employees gave our dogs Hansel and Trace meat scraps which both dogs wolfed down.  From there we went to the Mescal Bar five miles west off the interstate for some beer and conversation.  We sat inside at first, but then moved outside in the back patio where the chainlink fence around the property is covered in grape vines.

I never considered planting grape vines around my fence, but that will be my goal for next year.  The vines that I planted this year, Japanese Honeysuckle and American wisteria, have adapted to their new location but didn't grow as fast as I expected.  Most of the chain-link fence is still exposed and I have no backyard privacy.  I don't feel comfortable having my Crazy Kim neighbor be able to walk by and see the back yard.

As for my vegetable garden...I must have chosen a spot too shady for good growth this year.  Neither my peppers nor tomatoes gave me much of a harvest, and only one bean plant produced any beans!  I'm moving the garden to a sunnier area next to my mesquite grove.

Tropical Storm Priscilla made arrived in Arizona off Baja California on Thursday, but traveled farther west than forecasted.  Western and northern Arizona were hit with strong rains and floods.  We got some drizzle, but nothing to get hysterical about.  Rain for our area kept getting delayed and I found myself staying home in anticipation of heavy rains all weekend.

We finally got the rain Sunday afternoon.  I walked Gretchen again, by now tapeworm free, and as soon as I made it back home, it began to rain. It was 2:15pm.  It was a steady tropical rain without the thunder and lightning that lasted into the evening..  Again I called the dogs in and closed the back patio door for the night.

Today, Monday, I woke up to a grey sunrise.  Storm clouds were low over the mountains.  It was drizzling, and soon that drizzle became a steady rain.  I don't mind walking a dog in a light drizzle, but I do mind steady rain.

The rain ended just before noon.  I had a few hours to get two days worth of planting in.  This is what I had been hoping for all week!  If only this rain came a day earlier.  I tore out two dead plants and replaced them with Justicia.  I put in a foot gate around my cactus garden, planted a few small annuals and pulled out more ragweed.  I still have quite a bit of ragweed to get rid of.  Oh, how I hate that weed.. 

So thus ends a quiet but peaceful week.  The one thing I didn't do is go on a long hike, but that's because my Honda's passenger window won't roll up. I really need to get up Carr Peak again for the fall foliage.