Yard Work

 All the rain meant that all sorts of things sprouted on our driveway. As Gerald is POA president, Steve Hampton graded our driveway along with the roads. But after he was finished, we got so much rain that our driveway was starting to look like our meadow. So Gerald got the idea to hook up a piece of chain link fence to the back of the truck to clear it. It worked, sort of.

 Just two years after we had the "amazing brush eating machine" clear away the scrub oak around our house, it had all grown back. So Gerald went out with his chipper to clear away the worst of it. He also got this log splitter (below) to process the wood from the big oak we lost last winter. It worked great.

Fall Migration

Our hummingbirds returned for the fall migration, though their numbers seemed light compared with last year. And they arrived later, peaking around mid-September.

But we enjoyed them all the same.

Flowers, flowers everywhere

This was the best summer for rain we could remember. We lost track of how many inches we got, but it had to be eight or nine at least. And with all the rain, there were flowers everywhere. On our trips to the Valley we saw wildflowers all the way down, even in the desert. I had never seen wildflowers in the desert in August in all the years I've lived in Arizona. Anyway, these were taken around the house and should give you an idea of their abundance.

Even the stock pond stayed full.

Wildflowers

Here are some of the wildflowers we saw around Ruger Ranch. These little purple and yellow flowers were everywhere.

The Indian paintbrush was down near where the oak fell last winter.

Goldeneye was growing along the roadsides in great abundance.

And globemallow bloomed in August. We usually only saw it in spring.

These Colorado four o'clocks (above) were all along Cattle Barron Bend. And this fleabane (below) lined the steep stretch leading from our house to Weaver Peak Pass.

Lavender!

 Gerald convinced the Community Garden that lavender would be a good addition. He ordered lavender for the garden and got some for us, too. We decided to create a bed along the south side of the house lining the drive. John Hussen came over with his tractor and they laid these logs in place to border the beds.

 Gerald drove stakes into the logs to hold them in place.

 Then he filled the beds with a mixture of compost from the garden and DG, because lavender like rocky soil. Then he installed a drip system and planted our 54 plants.

Community Garden

Everyone agreed that this was the best year ever for the community garden. Every Saturday from early August through mid-September, we set up our little farm stand, and every week we were amazed at the harvest. Here's Frances and Gerald. In six or so weeks, we made more than $800 at the farm stand, which was enough to pay the water bill for the whole summer.

This amazing vine volunteered itself along our rear fence line and produced these gigantic gourds, which were much prized both among our members and the owner of a local store, who bought six of them. Gerald took one, too, with the intention of making a birdhouse out of it.

The garden benefited from all the rain we got. Everything was lush and full.