The Plan Man, Still No Moola But Fun

Tortuga Thursday

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

When I started this blog, I didn't intend on it to be entirely about farming. From May to October, that's what consumes us. Farming is Lance's endeavor, and we're along for the ride. But it's a great deal of work, too much for one man, so we'll be mightily involved until he's self-sufficient. It's what we want to do. We went into this communal living project to combine our talents and still be able to pursue our individual goals. I have to say, growing and eating our own food is rewarding. We're looking ahead to year three, and there are still a lot of things we need for the farm. We're lucky we have neighbors that are happy to loan Lance the attachment for the tractor. He can keep it for days at a time. We're lucky we were able to get a two year no interest loan that enabled us to get the material for the watering system and greenhouse. In fact, we have enough to build the second greenhouse and add on to the drip system. But the list of needs is still long. We'll eek it out somehow. I'll clue you in on how we do as this next year progresses.

Pirate Pickles and Relish - gourmet

Pirate Pickling Co. is part of the plan. We have the product. We have the "look". There are a lot more hurdles to get over in order to sell our product on a larger commercial basis. This is just a test year while we get all the needed licenses and certification. But we can sell it direct and we're working on that. Found the table for the markets, had a banner and business cards made, and this weekend Lance will be putting it out there locally.

Now that harvesting and pickling are done, Frank and I can get away occasionally as finances allow. As I write, we're at an RV park in Laughlin, NV, actually, a ways from the main area and on the reservation at a casino called the AVI. I told Frank I would take him to a movie and dinner for his birthday here. There wasn't a movie we wanted to see. We checked out the dinner restaurant and choked on the prices. We ended up at the casual restaurant and had prime rib for $9.99. It was okay. I gave him $10 to put in the slots, he turned it into $70 and we headed back to the RV to watch a movie on TV. I couldn't get him to play his winnings. He's saving it for our next trip.

One short health note: still thankful for the Indian Medical Center since we can't afford insurance. The dermatologist found two spots to biopsy. They were benign but showed evidence of pre-cancer cells. He gave me a cream to put on twice a day for four weeks that will inhibit these bad cells from growing. I'm to put it on all sun exposed areas over the next few months (small areas at a time). It can react on my skin like I've been burned. I can handle that if it prevents future problems. Thanks again to my great grandparents for getting on the Indian roster that allows me this care. 

"Docos"

I promised to start posting recipes we use on Tortuga Flats Farm. The first one is what not to cook. As part of our goal to be self-sustaining, Lance is hunting and occasionally dragging Frank along. They came up with the idea to make Docos (dove tacos). Dove is gamey tasting and it seemed like a good idea. DON'T try it. We ended up feeding them to the dogs!

Monsoons, Mud and Muck

Tortuga Thursday

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Potatoes in the distance

After whining about no moisture this year, other than a little snow in January, I'm sorry I complained. The monsoons were pretty much non-existent our first year, but they've made up for it this second year. Our fields have been ponds and our roads rivers at time. The rain has poured so hard we couldn't see to the end of our property. We need to take the RV in for some repairs but we've had to cancel twice because we can't get it out without fear of getting stuck.

Sunrise

The cloudy, stormy skies do give us great sunrises and sunsets.

So far, the abundance of water has not damaged any of our crops. In fact, the potato rows are bushy. Of course weeds are bushy too. They aren't too bad in the fields since we've kept them pretty much cleared. But around the house, greenhouse and beyond our fences out front they've gone out of control.

We've been harvesting dill weed and various other herbs, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, a few tomatoes, radishes, blackberries, jalapenos, peas, and broccoli. Also, all of our greens from chard to butterhead lettuce have been flourishing for well over a month.

My new favorite way to fix veggies is in the wok on the grill. This wok has holes in it and the veggies get grilled. So good.

Tomato

Frank has a couple of cases of pickles already. Christie has been freezing blackberries and zucchini. Although I complain about harvesting the blackberries because I always get pricked, I do enjoy snacking as I go!

Smoking Dells, Crazy Dill and Austrian Delight

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

This has been quite a week.

The first signs of the fire

Near Prescott, which is about thirty miles south of us, a forest fire broke out. From here it looked like it was in the dells, but no. This area is so dry. We had a little snow in January and that's been the extent of our precipitation. A couple of mornings ago, we saw a strange cloud rise up over the property across the street. We realized it was smoke. The smoke turned the  whole sky gray until the wind changed. On Wednesday, we went to a baseball game in

Wednesday going toward Chino Valley

Phoenix and although the sky looked smoke free toward Prescott, one mountain closer to us (but still a long ways off) had flames near the bottom. It looked pretty small. As we came back into the area that evening, we could see the fire had gained speed again.

Rote Riesen carrots

We finished the first major pull-the-weeds-fest. The veggies seemed to love it. You could practically watch them grow - especially the
Austrian carrots and Austrian garden peas. Our good friends, the Rainers, sent Lance and Christie a box of various seeds as a wedding gift. The peas and carrots

Wonderfully sweet garden peas

are out-growing the American varieties.

The greenhouse is practically overrun with greens. We're doing salads every night. The dill is really going crazy but  we like that. We need a lot of seed for canning. Most of the dill will be left to go to seed but we'll pinch some for cooking now and then. Like tonight we had lemon and dill covered catfish. I'll also dry some to get us through the winter.

"My" garlic

We harvested our first ever crop of garlic. We didn't grow any last year. This was my one crop that I planted last October. They like to go in the ground and chill over the winter. Now that I know how easy it is, I plan to grow more next time.

A better netting system this year for the blackberries

Greenhouse from the dill end

Greenhouse from the broccoli end

We leave on our first RV trip on Monday. I'll probably not have any firsthand news from Tortuga Flats Farm to report so I'm taking a couple of weeks off.
 
If you follow me on Facebook, I'm sure I'll have reports and pictures from the road. www.facebook.com/BrendaWhitesideAuthor

Everyone have a safe and fun 4th!

A Drip, a Trip and a Silent Owl.

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Tortuga Thursday

Can't help thinking he'd do his job better if he could hoot.

This week flew by. My to-do list barely took a hit. I've been doing a lot of weeding. I know. I know. You heard me complain about this task last year. It's a bit different this year. Since we no longer flood between rows, we aren't over come with weeds in between. Good thing. The ground is harder between the rows and tougher to weed. The new drip system on the rows targets the plants. The weeds love it too. Unfortunately, one of the lessons we learned last year, we forgot. Some of the rows should be covered after the seeds are sowed and until the vegetables are established. That cuts down on the those air born weed seeds. Next year - well, third time's the charm. We'll remember. So, we had to wait until the plants were big enough to distinguish from the weeds. Which means lots of weeds. Lance has been spending more hours than I have. Once we get the whole field done, upkeep will be easier on the bigger plants.

The radishes are big enough to pick. Those guys are fast producers. The new sweet potato slips arrived and

Peas and the drip tape

they were beautiful. Lance got them in the ground the day they arrived. In the green house, we have leafy greens that can start showing up on our table this week. Yea!

First trip - to the dealer for service.

Two pieces of bad news this week and one is already fixed. The RV had a propane leak. Frank hooked it up and took it for the first time on the road to the dealer. They supposedly fixed it and sent him home. Within a couple of hours I smelled it worse than before. This time Frank took the hoses apart and found the real problem. Fixed. My faith in that dealership continues to dive. Second piece of bad news is the vet says Rusty needs $300 worth of dental work. I'm balking on this one. Yes, I can see his gums are red in the back but he eats anything and everything. Wouldn't he be having trouble if they're that bad? Can't we brush and water pick his teeth to health? We'll have this debate for a couple of days. I need to find the time to do some doggy teeth research.

Sadi Belle has learned what her hands are for and grabs at things with some accuracy. She pulled her bear over on top of herself and that registered surprise. So much fun to watch her grow.


It's been mighty hot on Tortuga Flats. I'm usually out of the sun by 10:00. I don't know how Lance does it for so many hours a day. But then I remember when he was not yet two years old, and we left our cement surrounded apartment for a trip to Yosemite. The first thing he did was plop down in the dirt with a big grin on his face and said "I love

Hollyhocks are blooming

dirt!"

Finding The Way To Living It Up

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

View from our window

The end of May seems like the end of spring to me. June always marks summer. As I write, I'm in a hotel room in Laughlin, Nevada. Summer comes early to this part of the country. One word - hot. Before you think we're crazy gambling when we barely have enough to afford the necessities, let me tell you we don't. Oh, we might put $5 in once or twice in a three day period. But if you've read any prior posts, you'll know the reason Frank comes is to fish Lake Mohave and the Colorado River while I hole up in the room to write. This might be the last time we do this since we now have the RV and the truck. Next week we'll get a hitch to use the home on wheels.

The financial side of this - I did promise to let you know how we were managing (with nothing in the bank but love) back when I started this blog.

More view from our window

I think I explained the free hotel rooms but here it is again. The first couple of times we came to Laughlin, we found which casinos had rooms for around $20 a night, during the week only. Weekends are always more expensive. After staying a couple of times, they started sending us free nights. At first, they would send us two free nights a month. Now, we get three. Some times we get coupons for dollars off food but not often. The days of cheap meals in casinos are in the past. Once in a while you can find breakfast specials or buffet specials. But honestly, $8 for a crappy buffet is not a deal to me. If we spend three nights a month here, we can't afford to eat even for that. So we wheel in our ice chest. I make dinners up ahead of time and we bring the fixings for sandwiches and snacks. We also bring a coffee pot. These are no longer provided in the room. This time we did receive six coupons for free coffee.

Lance putting nets on blackberries

Now as for the RV and truck, that's a matter of credit and our living arrangements. Even though Frank was out of work three of the last five years before he retired, and I also lost my job that last year, we managed to keep our credit rating. Yes, we lost what we had in the bank to retire on, but we never missed any payments. And the second part of that is how we now live. Sharing a home, a farm and all the expenses that go with it with another family enables us to make ends meet. We're managing to live on social security supplemented with my small royalties thanks to my son and his family. It's a symbiotic relationship that is suiting us all for varied reasons.

So, summer is coming to the farm. The only farm problem right now is the sweet potatoes. Our slips came but only half as many as I understood we were getting. Of those, two thirds are dead. The company is replacing that whole order and sending two

Summer comes to the farm

more orders via free shipping, but it might be too late. If they don't grow fast before fall arrives with cooler temps, we won't have sweet potatoes for the winter. Maybe we'll have an extra long warm summer.

One More Dream Come True

2012 On the plains in Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

We bought an RV, a fifth wheel. After all kinds of should we, shouldn't we, what are we doing, how can we not - we decided if not, then when? If not now, then never.

The decision did not come easy but makes sense for so many reasons. First a little history. Many years ago, Frank and I decided we would retire doing the RV thing. We've been shopping RV's for over fifteen years. We wanted a fifth wheel. Then one year, after some financial mishaps, our plan changed a bit. Or at least Frank tried to talk me into changing it. If we were going to be RVers, we'd have to sell it all and actually live in the RV. My resolve faltered. I wanted a home base. We kept shopping, and he about had me convinced when the economy really took a nosedive. The RV dream died with like dreams of many people our age.

Peppers going in the ground

Bring us up to 2012, when our two families joined together to farm. The original idea had been for us to actually get an RV and only help on the farm if we felt so inclined. It seemed possible if we were sharing expenses. But that was easier said than accomplished without much in the bank (except love). So, we hunkered down under one big roof and carved Tortuga Flats Farm out of the dusty prairie. And it's been rewarding as well as an adventure.

Fast forward to 2013. The other family is growing - I might have mentioned once or twice I have a beautiful baby granddaughter. The crops are more organized and this experiment is a minor success. The idea of creating more space started as a dim flicker in my mind and I let it grow. We looked at adding on to the house or building a guest house. Neither turned out to be financially feasible - close but too scary to take on. Then the old RV idea surfaced. It certainly adds space to the living area and it just happens to be mobile. Frank and I are gypsies

Tomatoes going in the ground

at heart. We found what we wanted, they were having a sale, the payment was unbelievably low, we bit our nails, and bought it. Since we will be able to travel more, not be home quite as much, we're trading ends of the house with Lance and Christie. They will have the large end now. This seems fair since there are five of them (counting dogs) and three of us.

Only one minor glitch - we don't have a truck to pull it. We may have been able to maneuver buying a new fifth wheel, but we'll have to go used on the truck. We're shopping and have a car salesman friend on the look out. You might think we put the cart before the horse, but I'm okay with that. We'll get there. I'm just anxious to take our first voyage.

Sunrise over the greenhouse

Meanwhile, the potatoes are in the ground as are the peppers, tomatoes and onions. All seeds are planted for various other vegetables. I've seen a few buds on the blackberries. And Frank's declaration a few days ago that we will have no fruit on the trees this year may have been an early prediction. Apparently, a few apple blossoms are just now opening. No peaches, pears, plums or figs. Keeping our hopes up for a few apples. Looking forward to our first RV trip.