Num Num Na Num Nam Na Num Na Num ...

So far I haven't seen much of any 'large' wildlife, like raccoons or coyotes, but there are lots of these grey/buff squirrels around.
Turns out, these are actually non-native, and invasive, Eastern Gray squirrels. They were introduced from the eastern U. S. and have played part (along with habitat destruction/development) in the decline of the native Western Gray squirrel through competition and disease.
Bummer. They're still cute though ..

On my walks through the neighborhood, which is wonderfully rural with small farms everywhere, I mostly come across more domestic critters, like chicken, turkeys and Alpaca ..

So far we've also had 3 cats show up around our property, whom we're keeping a careful eye on ..

                                           

They look well fed and seem friendly enough, but Merlin can not stand having other cats around, and will go on the attack as soon as he spots them.
Unfortunately, he is a lousy fighter and always gets beaten up, which usually means another trip to the vet!

And will you look at this! I started a 'raised bed' vegetable garden'!



It's totally pathetic qua size of course, and won't feed anything but perhaps a family of  those squirrels, but it's so much fun to see some of your food grow, and hopefully we get to taste some of it too!
The boxes are 'self-watering', meaning that the bottom 1/4 is filled with water which is 'wicked up' through a grate on which the soil is placed.
I hope it will work!

            

I'm also going for the 'square foot gardening method', which lets you plant your veggies very close together, thus, hopefully, eliminating weeds and allowing for more plants.
So far I have herbs (cilantro, basil and rosemary), a red and a green bell-pepper, rainbow-chard, and one (yeah, that sure is pathetic!) broccoli, in one of the boxes, and I've sown Mesclun, Arugula and spinach in the other.
And look! They're coming up (after 5 days)!

 

The two pots on the left and right of the bench are holding sugar snaps/snow peas and yellow squash in the left one and zucchini on the right. I'm waiting for some bean seeds I ordered on-line to arrive soon and they will go in after the peas and with the zucchini.

Looking good!

And let's not forget the strawberries, they're hanging in a strawberry-pot from the awning:

                                                                                             

I haven't mentioned it yet, but one of the first things we did when we got here, was to reacquaint ourselves with the local golf course. Of course!

We'd played it before, years ago, and really liked it, and since this is going to be home for a couple of years, we're going to sign up for a membership.

 

It's a challenging course, and some holes might even be a little too 'much' for me, but I'll make it work (read: I'll cheat at the hard parts).

Part of what makes it challenging ... the ups and downs. See those golf carts way down there (and the hills in the background) ..?

                                 

Lots of long shots over deep gulches ..

Since even talking about all that gardening and golfing works up an appetite, I made an apricot crisp with the last (!) apricots from Idaho ..

As usual, the kitchen looked like a bomb exploded, but hey, I really don't have much of a counter space!
The result is (almost) always good and that's what matters ..    

                                                                      

 

And there you have it, another week in the life of the Hess's. 

Nothing earth-shattering, but it's a good life, and (most of the time) we like it.

See you next time!