It has been a very strange week or two weather-wise. The constant threat of rain from hurricanes stalled our water pipe project. After everything was trenched and the pipe laid, the asphalt company (apparently there is only one in Tucson) refused to make asphalt because of the threat of rain. The hurricane ended up being much ado about nothing, but yesterday, in stunning end-of-season monsoon fashion we got an inch of rain in about twenty minutes. The unasphalted trenches siphoned all the water from our cul-de-sac onto our property–there was a little lake in front and a river in the back. It took some time, but the water all eventually got redirected (David did some retrenching) and absorbed.
Unfortunately, we picked yesterday morning (before any sign of rain) to plant our new garden. We waited weeks for just the right time (i.e. not too hot), and here’s how it looked with our plants happily situated in the space:
We decided to give ourselves a break and buy the plants this time, but I still started a bunch of seeds in the greenhouse. They’re coming along nicely but aren’t ready for prime time yet:
In the garden we planted lots of leafy greens, some peppers, eggplant, cauliflower and herbs.
This morning, after the deluge, we reraked around the plants; they looked a little shell-shocked but after a day of sun and some gentler watering they are perking up. They must have heard about the BIG CARDINALS WIN against the San Francisco Forty-Niners today!! (Just had to work that into the post). So it’s exciting to have all these veggies planted and we’re optimistic that they will do well here.
Now, for our unexpected guest. As I’ve mentioned before, the torrential rains bring out all sort of critters, but nothing could have prepared me for this guy, who was not out of, but in our house!!!
That’s a desert tortoise that walked himself into a corner of our entryway and didn’t know how to put himself in reverse. He must have gotten in yesterday when I had the front door open when I was checking out the monsoon damage. I was sitting in the kitchen, knitting away, when I heard a groaning sort of sound. I couldn’t imagine what made the sound. So I followed the noise and … YIKES!! I handled it the way any level-headed person would–I hightailed it out of the house to find David . He dutifully dropped what he was doing to begin operation “get the turtle out of the house”. It was actually a pretty simple “operation”.
Step one:
Step two:
Both the tortoise and I were much happier when he went on his way.
In general, I’m very grateful for all the rain that comes our way. It’s great for the environment and makes everything beautiful and green. Plus there’s always the promise of wildflowers. But right now I’m very ready for the months and months of cloudless Arizona skies that are on their way.
