Harvesting Navajo Tea

This week, the Monday/Tuesday off time was happily spent helping our friend harvest on his navajo tea farm. For those of you who haven't the foggiest as to what navajo tea might be, (a) look at the picture and (b) it's a native herb in our region that grows wildly but can be cultivated, needs almost no water, grows back each year almost double what it was before, and the plant can be harvested, dried and bundled to be steeped as tea. In this case, our friend is getting it bagged, boxed, and sold. (http://www.highdesertfarmers.com/) He is one of the best tinkerers I know, and had rigged a saw on the back of his tracker, along with a tarp to catch the fallen plants, that would help with the harvest process. Not to mention some handy (hand-held) tools for the job. In the end, it was exceedingly successful, but took some practice to get the routine down!

Tinkering...

Reaping...

Steve's tractor (this shot's posted for John)

Turning with the tarp of day one (blue)...day two was a stronger white one that was more effective..

Grin reaper

Surveying the scene

Day two with a three person team

Bundling the harvest

Whew.

Tired but happy with Steve Heil and a harvest

NEWLY POSTED:

To watch a film clip of how this worked, you can see the one Steve posted on YouTube of us at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D78R_ka8eyE

The garden at 614

After only being asked about thirty times for pictures of the garden here, I'm finally figuring out a way to get the visual out to folks. Please bear in mind that: (a) this was all hard-pan covered with pea gravel when we started these beds, (b) the wind is so strong here (up to 60 mph for extended periods of time) that any surface water is almost immediately wicked away (40% evaporation, I think I was told?!), (c) we are essentially watering these plants with salt water (the city water here is overwhelmingly salty), and (d) the sun is so strong here that many full-sun New England plants are planted in NM shade. That said, shockingly, there are still some things growing in our garden. That is thanks largely to Jake's meticulous dedication to each individual plant. Hourly. :-)
Ok, here you go:

Tomatoes in the front yard

Crazy hubbard squash in the front that has completely taken over our cherry tree. That's right, the squash has taken over the tree. Sheesh.

This is where it ends...!

Sunflowers!

The ladies...

Front yard
Watermelon and acorn squash grow well together, apparently.
Our native grass is finally coming in!
Cantaloupe on the vine

Our decorative gourd is climbing away. As in, many inches per day. You probably could literally watch it grow. The apple tree and rock wall that Jake built for watching sunsets from. Looks out straight over the arroyo at the sunset. So good.
Native flowers, everywhere.

The back tomato patch

On to the vegetable patch...

The first eggplant of the season (called an ichiban japanese eggplant) and the flowers are just beautiful.

Squash! (Jake's favorite)

Okay, that's it for now, but we promise to update the garden saga as the growing continues. <3

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

We can't believe we didn't know this place existed - three hours away, no less. Lives up to its name, and makes the cut for Jake's new favorite National Park. Pictures for all:

Anasazi Cliff Dwellings everywhere.

We explored and hiked...

We looked at their hand prints

and finger printsand pictographs

We enjoyed the greenery (and the views)

We stayed the night, who could resist?

Among flowers
and wildlife?

And then the sun set...beautifully.

Day two involved more exploring

and more friends...

In the end, we loved it.