What's New
Back to the Roots Mushroom Kits was one of the Christmas gifts I gave to family
members this year, and, of course, I had to buy one for myself!
Check out their website, it's an interesting story of how 2 enterprising young men started their mushroom business and use discarded
coffee grounds from local coffee shops as the planting "medium".
Galaxy Ranch, Concho, AZ
Concho is located in rural Apache county about 25 miles northeast of Show Low. We bought our property here in 1993 and for many years we camped here during the summers. We lived in Glendale, Arizona for over 20 years, and we are originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area. We retired and made the move to permanently live here in June, 2006.
Concho has 4 seasons, something we weren't used to living in the Phoenix area, and we had quite a bit of snow that first year, it also got down to -4 degrees! But we managed and only had the water pipes frozen one time, after that we made sure the heat tapes were plugged in and were providing enough heat. We are on solar electricity here and have our own well, and although we haven't had to adapt too much from the way we lived in Glendale, we are more aware of leaving lights on and how we use our water.
Animals on the Ranch
I've always wanted a horse and when we moved from Ohio to Arizona, my husband, Jerry, told me there would be a horse in my future. Well, I had to wait 20 years, but a horse finally came into my life! Somehow though, they kind of grow on you, and now we have 3!
Chickens are a must have on a ranch for the freshest eggs and I just love to watch them scratch around searching for bugs! Guineas are also good for keeping up with the bugs, and they also eat weed seeds, but they can get pretty loud at times and are also known as the farmers "watchdog", they will sound the alarm whenever someone comes onto the property or even when something they're used to seeing in one place has moved!
Before moving here, I had thought about getting into goats and wanted Angora Goats for their beautiful wool, but after searching around for local goats, I found Nubian dairy goats and now have 5 full sized Nubians, four wethers and a doe, 2 of the wethers were born here last June.
When we bought our first house, many years ago, one of the first things we did was to get a dog, and we've had at least one dog since. I don't think life would be complete without our dogs and now we also have 3 dogs!
Gardening
My Dad grew up on a small farm and always kept a garden in our small suburban backyard, behind the garage. He grew tomatoes more than anything else, with leaf lettuce, radishes and green onions sometimes grown. When we bought our first house, we dug up the area across the far back and put a garden in. I didn't just have tomatoes though, we tried different vegetables and were amazed when they grew! Now, with 36 acres, I have plenty of room for a garden and experimenting with even more vegetables.
2012 Calendar
The 2012 Fruit and Veggies Wall Calendar from Galaxy Ranch are now available: Come visit my store on CafePress!
(A big THANK YOU to all who bought calendars last year!)