Our first (and probably last) watermelon

We had many watermelon babies, but then, to our disappointment, they blackened and shrunk. Only one, probably due to the protection of the lettuce forest, grew to a significant size.



It is very sweet, too.

We are also enjoying the other veggies that manage to somehow survive the heat, though there aren't many of them...



This picture is from a while ago, and it features some of our biggest veggies. The more recent tomatoes were the size of blueberries, as the plants withered, and by now they have completely succumbed to the heat.

Windows

In the last couple of weekends we've been working on installing the new windows got. We started on the weekend of the 4th of July - exactly one year after we moved in. Boy, do these things take time!
We wanted to install the windows much earlier. During the cold nights of winter (it does get cold here in the desert, you know) we could feel the coldness getting through single pane glass sheets of our metal windows. Zero insulation. Mark looked up dozens of window makers, and finally chose Clear Choice. On the day removed the window that used to open to the garage, the window person came and took final measurements and half the payment. Yes, it was on the 2nd day of January! He said it would take a couple of weeks. Then, when Mark called to inquire about it 3 weeks later, they said it would take another week or two. Then he called again, and they said "next week". Then he called again, and only got an answering machine. When he tried to file a complaint he found out that the Tucson office closed. We still wanted the windows, so we tried contacting the main office - no answer! Damn!
All of a sudden, dozens of complaints appeared on the BBB regarding Clear Choice. They weren't there before - all unhappy customers that didn't get their windows. We decided to file a claim on the credit card to reverse the charge for the windows. It took 60 buisness days, but we finally got our money back, since they didn't hear a word back from the window company.
Well, then we had to look for another window company. This time we went with Window World. It took longer than they said for the windows to arrive (about 4 weeks) than the time they said they would (2 weeks), but they finally arrived, as I said, in the beginning of July. Yeepee!

Our new windows in the garage - waiting to be installed

So every day on the first weekend we worked on one window. It's a lot of work: First you have to removed the old window, which is never easy - it is attached with nails that are not always in their designated holes. Sometimes there's more than one nail per hole. You have to scrape all the caulk and paint and other gunk that makes the window really stick to the brick. Then you have to carefully, without hurting yourself, remove the window (they're heavy!) and carry it away. The most time consuming part, though, is leveling the openning - scraping all the plaster, cutting the metal sheath under it in the upper part of the openning, and scraping off the bulging parts of the bricks. Next, you fit the window, make sure it's level, drill some holes, put some anchors, and screw it in.

I didn't mention the ceiling fans we installed, ha? That was quite an achievement in itself, including permit requirements, running cables through walls, etc...


Same window, from the inside - a lot better at keeping the heat outside!

Finally, insulation and caulking. We finished 8 out of 9 windows in 2 weekends! The last one is a tiny bathroom window, so it doesn't count :)
Oh, but we still have to plaster. Again! Will this ever end???

The Enchanted Lettuce Forest

This picture was taken a week ago. Since then a major deforestation event took place (the fennel forest was uprooted as well, and basil was planted instead). We still don't know what will come instead of the lettuces and the spinach.

Cilantro is next on our uprooting agenda.


It seeded and is now dead. The seeds were collected, and we will plant a few of them soon.

Small Projects in the Kitchen

Our kitchen is mostly done by now (as you'd expect!!), but it's still not completely done. That will only happen years from now, when we've replaced the tiles (well, I hope it'll be sooner than that, actually, and more about the tiles some other time - it's a LONG story!). But in the meantime we've managed to do some things, like install all the cabinet doors, install the cabinet hardware (you know, drawer pulls and little knobs. Other projects took more time, like the AC vent that comes out of the over-the-range cabinet. Last time you saw it, it probably looked like this:


We had to cut the door on the right side to fit under the shaft. We also put some boards around the shaft, so we can later attach the grill onto them:

You can see the doors and knobs here, too!

Then we had to paint the grill, because, for some reason, they only come in white! (or some ugly brown, but not for the size we needed). Spray-painting is much harder than I thought. You have to apply just the right amount to cover everything, but not too much to make it run. I can't say I succeeded, but since it's hanging up above the microwave, it looks mostly fine:


Besides that, we also installed lights, and now our kitchen is a lot better lit! We replaced the little fluorescent light in the kitchen that was hanging perpendicular to the kitchen layout, thereby not lighting a lot of the counter space. Instead we got a much longer fluorescent light that hangs parallel to the kitchen layout, and lights up most of the kitchen without much help from any other light.

We also removed the old '50s-style chandelier that was hanging in the dining hall:


And instead put an oil-rubbed bronze chandelier, that goes nicely with the ceiling and our kitchen faucet and cabinet hardware:

With fluorescent light bulbs, of course!

Garden Snippits

Last weekend we had our first fennel! It was ginormous!


I roasted it with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was good, but a bit on the dry side. Next time I will try roasting it covered up.

This weekend we noticed that the persimmon has flowers! Lots of them, too! They are very pretty:


In addition, we transplanted the plants in the greenhouse. Unfortunately the artichokes did not survive the heat when we left the greenhouse closed during the day we went to Tempe about a month and a half ago. Some of the tomatoes were affected as well, as were the eggplants, but most of them seem to have recovered. Especially recovered are the tomato plants that got transplanted on the weekend of April 2nd.
We also planted some herbs (lemon verbena, mint in the backyard, rosemary in the front yard), cucumber seeds, melon seeds, and some sunflower seeds. The melons were planted where the peas used to be - I can't believe we still have some fresh peas! They don't taste quite as good as the earlier ones, and they are the last ones, but we have more that we froze.

Spring!

You can tell Spring is really here:


New leaves on the fig tree!


Our first fig!


New growth on the grapefruit tree!


Leaf buds on the persimmon tree!

This past weekend we almost finished preparing the summer garden for planting: dug another bed, for a total of three, and installed part of the irrigation. We also planted the thyme in a smaller bed, to which mint and lemon verbena will be added at a later date.

Finally, we planted some summer wildflower seeds in the front yard. Hopefully, we'll have a colorful summer!

Greenhouse Plants, Etc.

Last week, when I took these pictures (I know, I'm lazy), our garden turned 4 months old. It has provided us with many peas, arugula, mustard, and spinach. Actually, it was a lot more arugula and mustard than we could handle, so we took them out. Plus, they had tons of aphids. It was neat to see some biological control agents coming to the rescue - ladybugs, parasitoid wasps - but I took them all out. We really didn't know what to do with all that mustard, and the arugula, when not young and tender, is too strong for my taste. We also had arugula and mustard, as well as endive in the mesclun salad mix, so we took them all out, finding little lettuce plants struggling for some air and light. Well, they have plenty of both now!


The area between the struggling lettuce and the green onions, where the arugula and mustard were, now features little lettuce babies, planted 2 weeks earlier:


The greenhouse plants are doing pretty well too:

Four artichokes, 8 bell peppers, 2 eggplants, and the rest are various varieties of heirloom tomatoes.


Even though we didn't really have any below-freezing days since I built the greenhouse, I like to believe that the greenhouse helped these plants grow. As I mentioned before, these pictures were taken last week, and now they are even bigger. Plus, we also purchased another pepper plant and a thyme plant from the Tucson Organic Gardeners Sale last Sunday. As you can see, some of the seeds didn't sprout - 2 of our Taos tomatoes and 3 of the bell peppers. We resowed them yesterday. We also removed most of the doubles and triples to leave a single seedling. The recommendation is to transplant them sometime between mid to end March. I think we will wait until they're a bit bigger to do that, though 2 of their beds have been ready months ago.

Yesterday we dug another little bed for some more herbs we are planning to grow: mint, thyme, lemon verbena, and anything else that will strike out fancy.

If you are interested in spinach, parsley or cilantro, let me know - we have way too much!