Yes it has been awhile. I have not forgotten the blog just got caught up in life, in the flesh. Computer sit down work has been of a different phase. I have helped a few people out with their issues and not really focused on my own wants and desires.

I went to my 40th high school reunion this past summer. That was a reality check! I wondered who invited all the chaperons? 

My Gabion walls have grown and with the cooler weather I might do some more to finish off the design. 

The chickens seem to be holding their own. This year we didn't make enough money to break even. The price of feed have gone up so much that we have to re think the farm, so I am thinking of some other kind of farm status to try. Any ideas? 

Forget the garden! Like the last two years, last year was a total flop! This year I found out about Gophers. I had more devastating trouble with gopher than anything else. Mice had to take a back seat to being the #1 pest. The sneaky jobs the gophers had surpassed any mice attack. I was smiling and dreaming about all the squash, artichokes, bell peppers, tomatoes to eat, only to find them were gone the next day. Just a pile of dirt!  The plants that were planted in raised above gardens were eaten by mice and believe it or not, this year it is the birds! They come along and snap off the stems. Thinking I'll do a winter garden I tried broccoli this year. I was looking out the kitchen window a couple of days ago, hypnotically watching the birds fly in and out of my back yard, only to realize the birds were on my green sprouted broccoli and make nubs out of the stocks! I dashed outside to cover the plants with screening. Now the plants are half gone!, These plants were in  tall barrels to keep out the jumping mice! I have the healthiest rodents on the planet, so I think! Maybe you have had the same issue. Share in how you took care of the problem if you were successful, and without using poisons. 

I will share with you I am a desert raised kid. In all of my 58 years of life I have never experienced an earthquake, and I never expected to either! But last summer one night, I had just started to drifted off to sleep when my standard poodle, Cottonball Jack started barking. I was in that time of, sleep/wake/sleep drift, when the bed vibrated so hard I thought a full grown Saint Bernard dog had jumped onto the bed and shook! I had to grab onto the mattress as it almost rattled me off the bed! Now remember, I was just re waking up and not really understanding what was happening, but I did know I don't have a dog that big and I was straddled almost sideways on the bed. WHY? After the reality sunk in, my thoughts raced to the holes the gophers dug to eat my plants! I thought: The darn gophers dug a hole under my house! They were sucking me under too! BIG GOPHER holes! I put my shoes on and went out the back of the house to check under the house. I opened the trap door and peeked in with a flashlight. A couple of glowing tiny eyes glowed back at me, then disappeared. I went to the front of the house and things looked level. I then went to the deck that over looked at the town below me. I had never seen so many lights on before. I didn't even know there were that many people in the town! I went back into the house wondering if I dreamed the event. What ever it was I was glad it was over and I didn't have to figure out who to call for a house filling hole! I looked at the heavy clock that was on a shelf above the head of the bed. It was slightly sideways from normal sitting. I said to myself I need to move it if I have any more dreams like that! As I drifted off to sleep I thought maybe an earthquake. Naw, couldn't be... I Live in Arizona! Exhaustion from farm work I had no trouble falling asleep. The next day I was waking up to the sound of a rooster and remembering the events of the night. After the animal chores I turned on the computer and looked at the news. YUP an earthquake, just as I sleepily suspected. As I surfed the web for more information a fellow blogger said it was as if a bear had crawled across the roof of his camper, he was camping around the grand Canyon area! 
So that is a little of the highlights of the summer. Now deep into the winter months I am getting ready for what I am hoping is snow. Yes I love the with stuff. It brings water to the much needed aquifers. We have a mine that wants to move into the area. I am apposing the event. There are enough mining accidents and water being one of our most precious resources is in the drought stages here. And this mining company wants to withdraw 2 million four hundred forty eight gallons of water in a twenty four hour period of time. It is a set up for disaster in the aquifer department. And we live in an area where Earth fissures are popping up all around us. I learned I can trap the golfers! The mining company is trapping us!
Where is the responsibility for the people who live in the area. And if you ask me, there are way to many mines starting to destroy our beautiful country side, pollute the air and poison our water! But hey!.. They say it is all in the name of progress. I call it regression! We have learned that these mines have many accidents. It is a matter of time before it fails somewhere. Man is his own worse enemy! Does anyone out there know a way of discouraging the mines? It will be a matter of time befog nobody will have a place to live where it isn't tainted. Share please.