Growth and Change

So, where have I been the past few weeks? I went camping again with Dempsey and the cool girl who now also feeds him treats and is nice enough to let me call her "my girlfriend" . . .

When it comes to the "man's best friend" kind of loyalty, I see where I stand here . . .

The latest trip was the Fancy Pass loop, up in the hills somewhere between Minturn and Leadville. Fortunately the turn for the forest road was before the sinkhole. You can't just cover an old railroad tunnel . . . nice going long retired CDOT engineer.

Again, it turns out that Dempsey is quite the little trooper, very willing to hike for hours over whatever kind of terrain happens to be under foot/paw.  There was quite a variety on the hike with some rockiness over the passes, alpine lakes and meadows, and even some random mining-like equipment left in the middle of nowhere.  We have our next trip planned, sans Dempsey.  We'll be heading to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort for Zak and Melissa's wedding, some hot springs soaking and possibly another hike up a 14er.

Not surprisingly the garden continues to grow and I keep making new discoveries as the season goes by.  After a slow start, the creeping, viney plants, the pumpkin, watermelon, and cantaloupe finally got to growing and grow they did!  I'll have to get a shot of the area the pumpkin took over towards the northeast side of the garden . . . but at last it did its job and made a pumpkin, well three actually.  

This picture is a couple weeks old and now the smallest of the bunch is up to a whopping five pounds.  The largest is probably big enough to turn into some sort of horse drawn carriage . . .

Ok, maybe not that big, but the pumpkin is way bigger than my hand!

Every once in a while, something gets overlooked in the harvesting walk of the afternoon.  I'm still not sure what to do with oversized vegetables besides start my collection of veggie fetish photos . . .

Look at the size of that watermelon . . .

There's the shot of the pumpkin's supporting foliage.  For reference, that is a second story window in the background . . .

Of the raspberry bushes that were donated to me, a couple survived and one is making fruit by the handful, probably not my hand, maybe a small child's hand . . .

The sunburst cherry tomatoes or whatever they are have been making garden snacks for me and Dempsey daily.  He discovered that he likes tomatoes and cucumbers and if left alone in the yard, he will find the ripe ones and very indelicately harvest them.

More updates to come, but think furniture shopping . . .

Heart to Heart

Dear blog, I know it has been a long time since we last checked in with each other. This does not mean that I have forgotten about you or that I don't love you anymore . . . I do, I have just been busy. I remember the good times we've had, but also the times you taunted me with your unblinking stare, your demands for attention, your lack of self-motivation to simply update yourself. So blog, I am here to help. You will not be merely lost in the passing of time. Even though I have changed and you have not, I still care. Here's your stinking update already . . . Me

Early AM . . .

There is a whole lot of difference between making a right turn out of the door in the morning instead of the usual left to head north . . .

First and foremost, I have found that my neighbors to the north love to drench the sidewalk along with their weeds that serve as a "lawn"... I'm usually not in the mood to dodge and weave my way down the block. Dempsey is also very dainty and does not like getting his paws wet, except for special occasions.

I'm not sure what has been going on mornings of late, but I was starting to get convinced that the zombie apocalypse was starting in my neighborhood. I have been seeing an odd cast of characters stumbling around the streets during the wee hours. Changing my route had kept me safe... Dempsey sure wouldn't protect me.

It is hard to believe that August is already here. What happened to July? I think there is going to have to be some sort of recap in coming days. There has been a whole lot going on in my life and times...

Breaking Stuff

It is no secret that I have very little fear when it comes to taking things apart.  There is never a guarantee that they will go back together with the desired result, but I will dismantle things!

My smart phone device recently experienced an impact with the ground, touch screen first and as one would assume, the glass cracked.  I did some calling around to see what it would cost to repair and the standard charge seems to be $120 these days, but nobody stocks the parts.  Based on my experience paying somebody else to replace the power supply on my iMac, I decided to check on parts costs and the repair process.

Thanks to the powers of the internet, finding the required information wasn't all that tough.  Parts are readily available thanks to eBay and instructional videos populate youtube, some good, some horrifying.

I think my favorite video is the one where they remove the broken touchscreen from the front side of the phone by breaking it thoroughly!  I followed the steps in the above, but didn't use a heat gun to separate the LCD/digitizer.  As a result, I managed to crack the LCD in the process.  That is now on order and the process will be repeated.

Fortunately I have some backup options if I completely destroy the phone and . . . I'm up for a phone upgrade in December . . .

First Harvest

I took the opportunity provided by a cool, early morning to poke around the garden to see if anything was ready for picking.  The crookneck squash does a good job of obscuring its produce with abundant, giant leaves, but there was a squash of reasonable size that I went ahead and plucked.  Since there are many more to follow, I will probably just slice into this one and eat it raw to see what it would best pair with flavor wise.

The radishes are probably planted a shade on the dense side so it is a bit harder to see how they are coming along. I found a few that were showing a larger root size toward the top, they will be eaten shortly.

The lettuces that were unhappy with the heat seem to have made the adjustment to our early Colorado summer.  I have some strategies for getting plants in the ground next year and keeping more of a continuous harvest.  I am starting to see some action from the other veggies ... the tomato plants are doing their best to branch out and supply me with lots and lots of tomatoes, more updates to follow ...

Gardening is Hot!

Everything in the yard has been growing much faster than I have been keeping track of and documenting! I managed to get some seeds and seedlings in the ground sometime shortly after the mother's day weekend which generally gives Colorado Front Range gardeners the green light for frost free planting.  I suspect I could have started earlier and I will next year with some seeds started indoors.

What was once an empty box, aside from the dirt added, is now full and lush. The one of the crookneck squashes (upper right corner of the first box) has really taken off. The other seems to be lagging behind a bit, but maybe that will result in an accidentally staggered harvest.  The various lettuces seem to be doing alright, but something is nibbling on the row of bitter salad mix ... as well as the radishes.  I suspect the culprit is the notorious flea beetle.  I have seen a few hop around when I have plucked a few leaves for sampling.  Word on the street (or the internet) is that used coffee grounds repel these little guys and fortunately I have a very steady source.

The radishes have been rapid growers and I never really took the opportunity to space them out after they sprouted.  I'll be harvesting them as they start showing decent sized roots, I don't want them to get too bitter. I did space out the romaine, unfortunately right as it started getting hot out. Some of it should survive, but it definitely looks a little stressed.

I thought the Japanese Eggplant blossom was particularly charming looking with its purple hue.  I hear that eggplants can be quite prolific once they start fruiting.

Besides pest control, I have a pretty regular schedule and cycle of garden chores.  There seems to be no shortage of weeds that magically appear around the plants.  I rather enjoy my late evening watering and picking sessions. There is something very relaxing about the mindless activity.  With any luck, my next shots will be of my first harvests!

Road Trip!

Dempsey gets to go on his first camping trip this weekend.  We're hitting the road and heading towards Chaffee County and Huron Peak.

In preparation for the trip, we've continued a regimen of cross-training with Avery on the tennis courts. He should have plenty of fitness at this point to tackle the 10+ mile hike up to 14,000' and back.  I'm more curious to see how he will do in a tent overnight!

This will be the second trip out of town for some outdoor adventures. Two weeks ago, I went out of town with the Blah Life, up to Steamboat Springs. There was hiking, there was some getting lost, there was some snow, there was some relaxing., and hot spring soaking.. All in all it was a lovely time. More to follow...