Summer fruit

It was a lovely crop of peaches this year, but sadly it is almost at an end. I am not much for canning, but most of the fruit was quartered and put into freezer bags to provide us with peach smoothies and pancake topping the rest of the year. Our little freezer is full, and spite of eating peaches all during the day, I have not had my fill yet.

I can say with confidence that none of the fruit was wasted. The birds had their share, as had the insects, the bunnies and jack rabbits cleaned up whatever fell off the trees, and there still was plenty for us.

Strangely, the coyotes do not seem to have a taste for peaches. This spring they completely cleaned out the apple trees, and even climbed them to get to the fruit. I sure wish I could have gotten a picture of that. All the evidence was there though, with broken branches, half-eaten apples and coyotes slinking off when we surprised them.

I am looking forward to our pears next. It is the first year one of the three trees has fruit on it and it looks gorgeous. Just in case the coyotes have an appetite for them, I asked Dan to put field fencing around the tree far enough away that there will be no climbing and stealing those lovelies. I hope they will taste good; the apples are ho-hum anyway.

A horsey good morning

There is this small triangle between the horse stalls, the arena, and both the round pens where I planted a pecan tree a couple of years ago to provide a bit of shade (eventually). It gets watered regularly and with the bermuda grass that we feed the horses, a nice crop of grass has taken hold. Right now it is luscious and very green, and it must drive the boys to distraction to have all this deliciousness just out of reach. I have come to the conclusion that horses are long-suffering animals, being so totally dependent on their owner. Nothing more sad that see a horse standing in overgrazed desert with good green grass just outside its fence.

This morning we removed one of the round pen panels to give the guys access to this little patch. They could hardly wait for me to open more gates so they could have at it. Strangely, Cody, who we consider not to be the brightest crayon in the box, found the grass first. Bueno explored the green edges and Buggsy had to first roll in sand and have a good run.

I stood guard as horses in tight spaces do not always make sound decisions, but they were all totally engrossed in the food and even left the pecan tree alone. I gave them about 30 minutes of fun as I don't relish the idea of colicky horses, and I think they enjoyed their time grazing.

Happy barrel

We have had some more rain, and it has been lovely. The hillsides are green, mesquite trees are blooming again and there are weeds everywhere. I am taking a big breath on the latter because with the 20 acres we have there is no fighting that battle. After all, this is a ranch and not a golf course. So I just keep weeds in the garden in some measure of control.

This barrel cactus is a first time bloomer in our backyard. It was gifted to me by my friend Phil who found it rolling around in a wash after heavy rain. I am always one to add more natives to the backyard so I was happy to give it a spot. Last fall the poor thing had to fight off a javelina attack, but after being put back in its place it seemed happy. And now it showed how happy.