New Year's determination

By Bebe and Sissy Fenstermaker

Spring is right around the corner. With winter solstice behind us, pretty soon the rush will be on. When you live in the Southwest almost everything is planned for spring and fall. Since these seasons usually present our mildest weather which encourages being outdoors, you look up and they seem to be over before they began. Most people think they are our most beautiful seasons because of the wildflowers in the spring and the fall trees in color and blooming grasses. Consequently every fundraiser, field trip, seminar, meeting, deadline, and visiting relative sets its eye on these two seasons. If there is one thing I am doing this year it is making simple plans and making them ahead of time. Ranch plans come first and take priority over anything else, and at the top of the list is raising healthy food. That means eggs and vegetables or, putting it succinctly, raising chicks and digging in the dirt.

The vegetable garden is calling. Thankfully the seed catalogues have arrived to ease the dreary thought of more winter ahead. A vision of pumpkin vines twining their way through tomato and pepper plants is a welcome switch from leafless trees and bare winter ground. I bought some seed at the store the other day just to cheer myself, but of course there are so many other vegetables that would be wonderful to try this year. No, no, no! I now have seed for three kinds of tomatoes, two winter squashes, and one pumpkin. The varieties of tomatoes can be raised together but the squashes and pumpkin cannot. They are all related and will cross if planted near each other. Sissy will have to take one of them to grow at Frommes; I will have to grow one in my yard and one in the vegetable garden. I guess I can't have a summer squash. That settled, there are still peppers, lettuces, and onions to select. The other vegetables will come from seed I have saved.

This year I'm determined. No more mess, no more wandering rows and dabs of this or that, no more gigantic ideas that require the labor of ten. This year will be different. Nearly every year something comes along to change the plan but this year I really am going to scale things back. First and foremost I will not grow more plants than can be fit into a sensibly-sized garden. I will not have one billion little plants sitting until they shrivel because there is no more room. I also will not take our friend Mary's overflow just because neither of us can stop putting seeds into pots. It's thrilling to have seeds germinate, but this garden is not the size of a truck garden and 40 plants of each vegetable are too many.

There is major physical work ahead. It remains to be seen just how much of the garden can be wrestled from the Johnson grass which grew over our heads last summer. Can I find and remove all the black plastic I laid down a year ago to kill the bermuda grass? I do think I can find the T-posts that are down in there somewhere, but I do not know where the bean tower went. Maybe it fell over and I just can't see it yet. Is it possible to dig up the tobacco weeds since they, too, grew over our heads?

One year a flood hit just as the tomatoes were turning red and the whole garden drowned. One year the cows got in and smashed many things. There are always marauding chickens but the year the fighting hens got loose in the garden is a real bad memory. It is harder for the chickens to raid now because we lined the fence with chicken wire. Bit by bit things come along. My theory is that if I just keep trying, someday I will have a vegetable garden just the way I want it.

The laying hens will be two years old this spring. A chicken's best laying years are its first two, so it will behoove me to order some new chicks to keep eggs coming. I don't think the grouchy old hen that's going broody will raise any chicks. She changes nests every day so the possibility of getting any work done is remote. If I order from McMurray Hatchery again the minimum order is 25. I'm casting around for someone or two who will share an order since ten or 15 will be enough for this chicken house. This year I'm not willing to raise the other person's chicks; it's time others learned that craft. I may just check with the feed store to see if there is someone local raising chicks. I will only buy if they can guarantee pullets (females). Years of experience has taught me not to even start with straight run chicks. Straight run means both sexes and inevitability there are many more roosters than hens. The first year I ordered chicks I asked for straight run. What grew up from those fluffy cute things were 12 roosters and three hens. I dithered around putting off slaughter until they were eight or nine months old. By that time the poor hens were featherless and frantic. Anytime I went into the Barn I'd hear 12 pairs of rooster feet hit the ground as they all swarmed off their perches to spur and peck me. One morning Papa mercifully came over and showed me how to do some herd reduction. Later some of us had fine, although rather lean, roast chicken after the smell of hot, wet feathers had left our noses. From then on I have ordered pullets only. Nowadays only one rooster is permitted. Two are trouble and three commit murder. It's funny how people always want to give me a rooster but rarely am I offered a laying hen. My only other rule on chickens is to order several more than I really need. The coyote, fox, raccoon, skunk, ringtail cat, possum, hawk. and snake always manage to drop by to see what's for supper.

Bebe Fenstermaker

We've had our bit of cold weather and I welcomed its shortness. That was 2004 and now I understand we're in for another little spell, may it be equally as short. I fondly remember a past Christmas or two when the temperatures were in the 90s. I am not a fan of cold weather. I find heat more tolerable. Beastly hot days call for early rising to do chores and other outside activities, slow down from the middle of the day until late afternoon, then pick up the pace again. I wonder if I will remember that when summer rolls around.

The hunters blessed us with sausage, that wonderful wild pork and venison variety. I filled two icebox freezers full and am just now able to put other items in. The seasoning that the men use is concocted as they go, I believe. One admitted to me that when he was a youngster, buying a cold drink from a dispenser that served different flavors, he would take a bit from each one. I'm sure he still does so. That was his way of telling me that once they begin mixing the seasoning for the sausage, a little bit of many different flavors goes into each batch. Nonetheless, we celebrated our gift by enjoying superb sausage with fresh eggs from Bebe's chickens. One cannot count her blessings too often.

I have been enjoying the winter birds, the goldfinches, curved bill thrasher, and yes, even those robins! The various sparrows seem to enjoy all the brush piles, flitting in and out. The coyotes are moving about at night. When they set up a howl each time a jet goes over, their location changes. The creek continues to run and the dogs and I disturbed a great blue heron along it the other day. The bird calmly flew up and off right in front of us. We were fairly awed by the sight.

Sissy Fenstermaker