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By LvsChant, on May 19th, 2012
We had a wonderful week of rain here in the dry southeastern New Mexico desert. Because of the dirt road in front of our property, we tried to minimize the driving we did when the weather was so wet, but welcomed the wonderful smell of the rain and much-needed moisture. It came just in time to give additional water to our newly-transplanted pecan trees, as well as the native cacti on the property. Here are photos of the blooms that came soon after the rain:
The prickly pears look like they’ll be producing fruit, so maybe I’ll try my hand at prickly pear jelly after they ripen…
 Prickly Pear Blossoms When we lived in the Ft. Worth area, I also had the chance to taste nopalitos (strips of the green cactus are made from the flat ‘leaves’ of the prickly pear cactus and steamed or boiled and served as a vegetable or an ingredient in burritos). Perhaps I’ll don gardening gloves and try removing the sharp prickles from them to make homegrown nopalitos sometime. I have to admit that our cactus is still not looking pretty enough to try this. Quite a bit more rain is needed, in my opinion.
 Prickly Pear  Prickly Pear Cactus  Blooming Chollo Especially pretty was the rather large chollo (cho-yoh) cactus with the lovely pink blossoms. As I approached to snap this photo, I began hearing the constant buzz of the happy bees, gathering nectar.
 Bee-covered Chollo blooms This next photo catches the faint distant view of Mount Capitan. Our back porch will face this direction, so we look forward to nice views once the house is complete.
By 17thairborne, on May 16th, 2012
We’ve been in the process of moving our hosting service this past week. As can be expected, there have been a few bumps in the road from one service to another… getting all the data transferred and into the correct format to work with the new system.
We apologize if you have tried to access pages or previous articles on our site and have had difficulty. With any luck, all is complete and everything should be working now.
Thanks for your patience!
By LvsChant, on May 5th, 2012
Yesterday was a red letter day! We got two of our four pecan trees placed on the Homestead. While the process was going on, I was able to video them. See the progress here:
Preparing the Hole:
Planting the Tree (1st Tree):
Planting the Second Tree:
For more information about transplanting mature pecan trees, check out our previous posts on Mature Pecan Trees and Pecan Trees for the Homestead.
Now that the trees are planted, we know we need to be very diligent about watering them heavily until they are very well established. Initially, we plan to [...]
By LvsChant, on May 4th, 2012 
As mentioned in an earlier post, pecan trees do very well in New Mexico. We were fortunate to find someone to sell a few to us for the Homestead. According to my Dad, with the trees having the late spring and summer to establish themselves (assuming we give them good quantities of water), we could possible see some pecans on the next year (2013) winter harvest.
To get ready for the trees, we had to identify where we wanted them, the spacing and how we planned to water them. With the ground being so completely dry (due to lack [...]
By 17thairborne, on April 30th, 2012 
Few words needed!
By LvsChant, on April 30th, 2012 
Before the buildup
This past week has been spent with various aspects of making life a bit more comfortable on the homestead. Such things as repairing a burnt out water heater caused us to learn a few new things(an error made by our electrician after power was supplied caused the tank to fill to only halfway, above which one of the heating elements burned out, shorted out the tank and began leaking).
We also began unpacking those things we will need during our stay in the RV and organizing things to allow some convenience. The bathroom inside [...]
By LvsChant, on April 29th, 2012 
Well… it has been a hectic month. We have driven over 4500 miles, criss-crossing the southern U.S., hauling our belongings, pets, kids and selves from Georgia to New Mexico.
The first leg of the trip began on Easter. After playing and directing the choir for Easter Sunday Mass, we loaded up the kids, dog and lizards into the two vehicles and started out. Behind the dually, we had the gooseneck trailer hitched (loaded with 2 bulldozers); the Tahoe pulled a rented U-Haul trailer with the WWII Harley WLA motorcycle strapped inside. We stopped in West Monroe, LA for the first [...]
By LvsChant, on March 15th, 2012 
COST UPDATE: After talking with the driller, we found out that all the drillers in the region have a minimum fee for drilling that is about $2500. Apparently, even though it was not quoted to us, it is the going price for the work involved in hauling out all the equipment, setting up, etc. We are still thrilled with the fact that the well came in at only 40 feet, but would caution folks to ask what the minimum charge will be in a case of this sort so that they are not surprised.
Based on my research [...]
By LvsChant, on March 13th, 2012
This week has been marked by large quantities of stuff being packed into cardboard boxes. I have long said that the only advantage that is universally true as a result of making a geographical move is that it forces you to sort through your stuff.
Each time this happens (this is move number 19 for us), I am amazed at the amount of stuff we have that we don’t really need. Things I might have thought would be useful to have ended up stuffed in drawers or cupboards… only to be discarded on the next chance to examine it in [...]
By LvsChant, on March 9th, 2012 
Yummy!
When we moved here to Georgia, we knew this was a temporary move. Living in a rented house, we were not able to have a garden. One of the things I decided I’d like to learn about was making wine at home. I had read about the basic process online and decided to give it a try.
My first batch of wine – Apple Wine (1 gallon)
Before I went whole-hog on the winemaking thing, I decided to try a simple, inexpensive project to see just how it would work. I found a very good recipe and plenty of [...]
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