KB Ranch

After baking pies the last week, I had the inevitable burnt-on pie drips on the bottom of my new oven. I put oven cleaner on the shopping list, but then thought about pouring that nasty caustic stuff down the drain and into our land. So I looked up tips for natural homemade oven cleaners.

I tried one that had baking soda, vinegar, and a few drops of dish soap. I was surprised to find that it worked just as well as the more expensive spray-on kinds you buy and with none of the nasty smell or chemicals. Next time you clean your oven, you might want to try it.

The monsoons have arrived here, and we had cool rainy weather all weekend. There were a couple big evening thunderstorms, and thankfully, some long sustained rains. The breezes were cool and delicious.

We have been eating well and enjoying lots of yummy summer veggies this week. After Friday harvest, we had a Mediterranean feast (flat bread, hummus, baba ganoush and olives), followed up by a peach pie I made with the peaches we got in Willcox.

Sunday morning we went for a nice walk and saw a bunch of new bugs that the wet weather has brought out. These little ones are especially interesting.

[Note: I couldn’t figure out what this bug was, so I contacted a bug specialist at the University of Arizona. A very nice woman (on leave, no less) wrote back with this: “You’re so lucky!  This is not actually a bug (insect), but a velvet mite (related to spiders).  Most of the year they live hidden away, but just at the start of the monsoon season they emerge briefly in great numbers to reproduce.  They are not harmful to humans, and I think they look charming, like tiny sofa cushions.”]

Other wildlife sightings this week have included mule deer (in our front someday patio area — we watched them from bed this morning) and the cutest little baby quail, all parading around in a row.

On the house front, we’ve ordered the final stucco coat and hope to start on that next week. We’ve also moved into the big bedroom and just love it!

How life has changed in a year! Last year we watched the Rodeo July 4 parade from the sidelines; this year we were in it.

We decorated a float for the farm and marched in the parade as a part of it (with a contingent of small kids on assorted bikes and wagons). It was a lot of fun, and we even won the prize for best float! (Remember, it’s a very small parade.:)

We have really enjoyed the time we’ve spent on the farm and with Jerry and Jennifer. It has deepened my appreciation of the importance of small farms and locally grown organic food. Cooking with fresh seasonal produce is something I thought we had left behind in California with our farmer’s market there, but this has not been the case. And now we even know how to grow and harvest food.

There is a wholesome, idyllic quality to farm life. But it is also a lot of hard work and an incredibly difficult way to try to make a living. If you have an opportunity, support your local farms. Eating local and natural food is not only good for the planet and for the local economy, it’s healthy and satisfying.

I’ve been deliberating about what to do about window coverings. The original plan was to have lots of glass and no coverings, but the sun coming in on the west side is just too hot in the afternoon (especially at my desk with the killer view).

We didn’t think blinds would really match the style of the house. We’d thought about Moroccan style drapes, but they take up a lot of real estate even when they’re not really in use, and I really wanted something that would just disappear when they weren’t being used.

I found these microfiber cellular shades from Allen + Roth and got a few to try them out. They were *much* cheaper than Levelors and have the really nice feature of having no cords.  So far, we love them. They are pretty, functional, and affordable.

my desk with the killer view

shades on door

We are loving living in the house so much. It is really glorious.

We have been sitting outside for a bit nearly every night, either to enjoy the magnificent sunsets or to stargaze before bed. This morning, we took advantage of the cool morning to go for a long walk, on which we saw a horny toad.

Brad has done some more on the house (cleared out the bedroom, finished the last of the floors, and put backer board down in preparation for tiling the kitchen counters), while I’ve been jetting around and otherwise working a lot.

And we have peas.