A Long Suffering Project

 A few weeks ago, Shawn brought up "the hideous bed." Again. I call it "the hideous bed," not because it's hideous, or even a bed, but because Diana's husband called one of her flower beds right after she finished it "hideous" and never changed his mind, and thus "hideous bed" is now a catch-all for anything in the yard that the non-gardener/landscaper hates. Even if it is a half-finished project.

This is a "half finished project" because I originally was going to remove the rock, backfill with soil, and landscape. Unfortunately, as soon as I removed some of the rock (to use for 2 other yard projects), I realized that the area was actually graded in a way to direct runoff away from the house, so backfilling with soil was immediately out, but I was also too lazy to go get more rock, and I also wasn't sure if I wanted to try to do some sort of french drain system.  

So, while he was off on his boy's trip (mountain biking in Colorado), I decided to finally DO something about the half finished hideous bed.

Instead of getting more limestone piece like we've already got, I decided to change it up with some "shadow stone" instead. I went with angular rock just so it compacts together and provides a more stable walking medium.  Now it's officially "done" but I'm still debating on putting something in the center area - like the birdbath or the bird statue. 

Of course, now I'm also all about redoing the area between this spot and the house - removing all the plants (liriope and rough leaf dogwood) and starting over - maybe with a Rusty Blackhaw and Inland Sea Oats or Columbine

Now... where'd we leave off?

Okay, so essentially 4 years after leaving you guys, I decided I should take up blogging about the garden again.  We'll see how long it lasts.  It may be only 2 weeks.  The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts.

So I left off in March 2017. This basically coincided with me really getting into kitten fostering and volunteering at the animal shelter. So let's get you caught up - there was racist rally in Virginia in which the president refused to condemn the white supremacists and insisted that there were "very nice people on both sides."  Actually, the president never did condemn white supremacy the entire time he was in office.  Not surprising since they did (and still do) make up a significant portion of his base.  The US left the Iran Nuclear deal and the Paris Accords, killed NAFTA, and started courting Russia and North Korea as allies while telling Europe they could suck it.  the #metoo movement happened and generally abated with not a whole lot having changed (other than Harvey Weinstein going to jail and a lot of men being upset thinking that women were out to get them).  There was also something about a Hurricane that the president tried to alter it's path with a sharpie and questions about the president's mental aptitude (I mean, the man DID look directly at solar eclipse).  

And then the 2020 pandemic happened. 

That's right. A pandemic. A mother-effing flu-like pandemic that resulted in working from home, wearing masks everywhere, and avoiding elderly family member like you had, well, the plague.  Mixed in with all that, race relations came to a head because for some dumb reason cops refuse to stop killing Black people for doing normal things like "sleeping in their own home," or "going for a run," or for minor law breaking like "used a $20 counterfeit bill" or "had expired license plates."  

Other shitty things that happened in 2020: Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, as did Elijah Cummings, and John Lewis.  But here we are, on "the other side" with vaccines being stabbed in arms and things returning to "normal." Why, we've already had 2 school shootings and schools aren't even really in session. So yeah, the world is healing.

While everyone was like "oh man, at least 2021 can't be any worse," 2021 was like "here, hold my beer" and kicked off with an armed insurrection at the national capitol on January 6, followed by a polar vortex in February which caused the Texas power grid to shit itself like a newborn babe. And I mean one of those shits that shoots up out the back of the diaper and somehow covers EVERYTHING.  

And so, I feel like this is a good point to pick back up with the gardening. Because there's nothing that likes shit more than a gardener (hey oh!)

The polar vortex messed shit up, yo. It knocked enough plants back on their ass and required such a massive amount of clean up (which I'm still doing), that it really resulted in me getting everything almost back to "clean slate status."

First the ice covered everything and weighed it down

Then the snow came and covered everything.  

And then the power outages started.  Ted Cruz ran across the border into Mexico in order give his family a better life with electricity, heat, and running water (seriously, for reals, though sadly he came back). Meanwhile, the Texas grid was like minutes away from crashing to the point that it would have taken MONTHS to fix it.  The outages were meant to be "rolling" but the amount of power that needed to be off the system was so much that they had to kill every "non-essential" circuit - this is why downtowns were all lit up like Christmas while neighborhoods were blacked out - because downtown areas tend to have hospitals and police stations.  So some people went without power for almost a week.  The temperatures didn't get above like 20 degrees for that entire time.  Houses down here are not insulated like they are up north.  Houses down here don't have shut offs to their exterior facing hose bibs to keep the pipes from bursting.  Even if people wanted to leave, they couldn't because the roads were impossible to drive on since we don't have any means of removing snow/ice from the roadways.

At least the snow made for some nice, and not normal for Austin, photos

As the snow was starting to melt, and things were looking up, the water ran out.  One of the Austin water treatment plants went offline for a while because of falling trees and then no one could figure out how to get the power back on because the Water Treatment Plant hasn't been modernized since like 1950.  Because everyone was dripping or running their faucets to keep pipes from freezing, the water reserves got used up REAL QUICK LIKE.  This meant that we were frantically saving snow in buckets and coolers and even tupperware containers just so we had some type of water. Toilets were only getting flushed after pooping, everyone was drinking their beer stash instead of having to boil water, etc etc.  Thankfully, those that had been without electricity for a week, generally didn't lose their water service.

Water outage map for Austin

Thank God for rain barrels which are full of water...though they were frozen solid...dangnabbit.

So. Like I said, the polar vortex was epic and the plants did not like it. At all. Plants which hadn't died back in years were knocked to the ground (e.g. almond verbena, Philippine violet, Turk's cap), plants that had already budded are still recovering (arizona ash), plants which should have made it through with no problems are having problems recovering (yaupon holly), and some of our more tender plants are being watched on baited breath for recovery or have already been ripped out because of the time it would take to recover (lorapetalum, pitsporum, crepe myrtle).  

I'm going to try to do a post per area as it got cleaned up because in addition to cutting back things that haven't been touched in YEARS, I also added compost and mulch so everything is looking tip top - if a little bare while I wait for things to fill back in.

Mt. Lemmon, AZ

One of my grandparents' favorite places to take out-of-towners is Mt. Lemmon. This is because Mt. Lemmon has enough of an elevation change that there is actually a small ski resort at the top of the mountain, and the temperature is routinely 30-40 degrees cooler than it is in Tucson proper.

I didn't get any photos of it, but the at the lower altitudes of Mt. Lemmon, there is a real problem with Fountain Grass.  I wanted to get some photos because it sure is pretty (even if it is invasive), but there never seemed to be any along the pull out areas - it was always along the areas where we couldn't stop because of safety concerns. Which I guess makes sense - there are probably people who come and pull up the plants in the areas where it's easiest for them to get to.  In any case, there were parts that looked very much like the Wikipedia photo about fountain grass...

The view of Tucson from the first scenic overlook on Mt. Lemmon.  Tucson doesn't have skyscrapers, so it looks very flat.  The entire south side of Mt. Lemmon is a saguaro forest - it was very similar to Davis Mountains only with Saguaro instead of Yucca.

The little infographic showing the various altitudes and associated plant types.  It was 50 degrees at the top - it was 90 in Tucson that day.

Balanced rock at one of the scenic pullouts.

Wanda on the left, Vern in the center and Shawn on the right.  Shawn actually has a photo of me taking a photo of him, and it's actually a really cool photo because the wind is blowing and the sky is all black with just a smidge of blue...I should try to find that photo...

Looking up at the trees across from the ski resort.

Ski run.

Grandpa and me walking at the top of Mt. Lemmon.  The top of the chair lift is that building in front of us.

At the tippy-top of Mt. Lemmon.  I love my trees with character...maybe this would be my tattoo tree with a bird added to one of the branches...

Thistle

Agua Caliente park in the shadow of Mt. Lemmon.  We went here solely because they wanted to show us all the palm trees.  As you might imagine, Palm Trees are not native in Arizona so every time you see them, you know that someone planted them.  This park reminded me a lot of Bonnet House in Fort Lauderdale.

Prickly Pear growing IN the palm tree.  Damn birds, always getting those seeds places where they're not supposed to be.

Doing a short walk to the pond and back.  This was just after Grandpa was telling me about Osage Orange plants and how they had them growing along the fenceline back when he was a kid.

Agua Caliente Park pond

Saguaro at the first pull out on Mt. Lemmon.  It takes about 75 years until saguaros start to branch, and most don't live past about 200 years.

I went through all of the photo albums my grandma had at the house and I thought it was hilarious that she had a picture of the agave that I had taken a picture of (only taken about 20 years ago).  The saguaro is now looking a bit worse for the wear, and the one that was behind it obviously isn't there any more...

Cochise Stronghold, Arizona

After leaving Davis Mountains State Park, we drove on to Arizona and spent the night at Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains. The area was known as one of the locations where Cochise stayed. He is apparently buried somewhere in this area, but no one knows where - it was in a ravine and his dog and his horse were killed and buried with him.

A view from the road on the way to Cochise Stronghold

Our campsite at Cochise.  There were 2 other people there with us.  The campground is first come, first served with no way to reserve spots in advance.

On a walkabout in the campground while Shawn was off mountain biking.

The beginning of the Cochise Trail.  It is 8 miles round trip.  We did 4 - which was to the divide between the east and west stronghold area and back.

One of the mountains

In the creek.  I love the grass on the right side - I'm not sure what type it is, but I do really like it.  I also fell in love with the Manzanita bush which was all over in this area.

Looking up the mountain

Another look up the mountain

Scrub or Mexican Jay.  I love the look of this...like if I were going to get a tattoo, I think this would be a top contender.

Shawn taking photos in the morning

Rocks in the morning.

Half Moon Tank - i.e. it's a dam.

On the upstream side of the dam.  This is about 1 mile into the hike.

A different angle of the dragoons.  The rocks were so cool here - all rounded and shit.

Baby agave with some Manzanita seeds.  I didn't take any photos when we got to the divide because there really wasn't anything to take a photo of - but neither of us wanted to continue on for fear that we'd just keep being like "just a little further" and then we'd have to turn around and hike all the way back.  In other words, this was probably taken about 2.5 miles into the hike.

Shadow selfie

Again, Shawn leading the way.

Rocks.  It's really not difficult to understand how Cochise managed to wage a 10-year long war against the US government in an area the size of a postage stamp with his home-turf looking like this.

Cactus.  Some type of Mammilaria?

Blacktail Rattlesnake.  This guy didn't even start rattling at us until later.  This is about 3 miles into the hike. And we had obviously already walked past this spot on our way out.

After we went around the snake (we went off trail), we decided to go around back to see if he was still on the trail - he had already moved off the trail and was under a pine tree.

This was actually the point when he started rattling at us.  Blacktails are apparently the most docile of the rattlesnakes and least likely to bite...not that I want to put that to the test...

I think all the yellow is creosote bush, but I don't know that for sure.  These "Sky Islands" have a huge variety of plants and a lot of them are different than what you find at the lower levels.

More rocks

Heading west toward Tucson

At the McDonalds in Wilcox.  This was the first time I had heard of McDonalds having All Day Breakfast.  I don't think you realize how excited I got about that prospect.  I think the counter girl thought I was insane.

Davis Mountain State Park & Balmorrhea State Park

In mid-September, Shawn and I took a road trip to Tucson, Arizona to visit my grandparents. It's a road trip, so that naturally means you have to drive places you normally wouldn't (or at least that's my theory). Based on coworkers' recommendations, we spent a few days in Davis Mountains State Park.

Davis Mountains State park is adjacent to Fort Davis National Historic Site.  If you plan to visit Davis Mountains, keep in mind that Indian Lodge is a popular place to visit so you may need reservations which you can schedule by calling the Texas Parks and Wildlife main office.  Other places listed here include Balmorrhea State Park and McDonald Observatory.

In the middle of the trail, there's a twisty-looking stick thing.  That, dear readers, is a rattlesnake in the middle of eating a rat.  I don't know what type of rattlesnake, but it was definitely a rattlesnake.  We saw this guy on our way out of the backpacking portion of our trip.

Me, drawing a picture on our Backpacking portion of the trip.

A hummingbird at a feeder in the Bird Blind area of Davis Mountains State Park.

Lesser gold finches

Inside the Indian Lodge

In the courtyard outside the Black Bear restaurant

Awesome agave

Cochineal scale on a cactus.  Yes, I made sure.

Little Toad buddy on a step.

Blue sky in the window

A view from the back parking lot

A view from the trail run that Shawn and I did when we first got to Davis Mountains.  The backpacking area is on the ridge on the other side of the road.

A view of Indian Lodge from the trail run

Rocks and the trail on the hike over to Old Fort Davis

One of the CCC built structures in Davis Mountains

Hiking to Fort Davis

More hiking through Flash Flood Alley

Our first view of Fort Davis.  The row of officers' houses runs north/south on Magnetic north, while the old foundations (which you can see to the right) run north/south on True north.

A view of the hospital at Fort Davis

A wagon at Fort Davis (the commissary is just to the right)

Heading out on our backpacking adventure

One of my pictures I drew while backpacking

Sunset during our backpacking trip

Hiking out in the morning.  You may have noticed that Shawn always goes first in our photos - that is because when we were backpacking in Washington, it became pretty obvious that I am oblivious to snakes when I almost stepped on a rattlesnake.

Hiking out from backpacking

Balmorrhea State Park.  After hiking out during our backpacking, we decided to drive the 45 minutes to Balmorrhea to go for a swim.  Balmorrhea was also a CCC location and everything was built by the crew.

"Come on in, the water's fine!" so says the man who has no problem swimming at Barton Springs.  He said he thinks Balmorrhea is a few degrees warmer.

Fish.  There was also a large turtle swimming around in the springs.  I almost lost my shit over it.

A view from one end of the pool.

Our room at Indian Lodge.  We only stayed one night in the lodge, but damn the room was cool.

Another view of the courtyard area.

A view of the Indian Lodge swimming pool looking toward the entrance of the park.

Yucca against a white wall.

A view from one of the lower areas of Indian Lodge

The night we stayed at Indian Lodge was the night that we had tickets for the McDonald Observatory's Star Party. We arrived around sunset, and then had to kill some time until it was dark enough for the tour to start.  Caroline at Shovel-Ready Garden went to the Big telescope viewing the following night.  If you are going to be in the area during one of their Star Parties or telescope viewings, be sure to attend.

A view of the native plant area at McDonald - this looks much better in person and obviously my cell phone camera is just crappy at capturing it at night...

Sunset at McDonald

Indian Lodge light outside our room

Garter Snake.  We also saw a tarantula (the first wild one for either of us) but it was when we didn't have our cell phones, so no picture, no proof.  Thankfully Shawn had his cell phone at the time when we saw the rattlesnake.

The area had received enough rain for the ocotillo to all have leaves.  It was actually very strange and it made me want to grow one even though I know they don't have leaves most of the year.