more gardening

some more garden pictures! This first set is a few weeks old.
Here's some corn. Newer planted in the front, older in the back.
and the pumpkins looking goodsome of the corn is growing really well!
but the garlic is not. Sorry garlic. I planted you wrong, so nothing will come of you.
Just last week, we took a short trip to Boone, NC. Unfortunately, I suck at taking pictures as proof. Here's the only one. That's Kyle and Timmy (who are from Boone) on a V4. It was cool to see people I know from the New, somewhere other than the New.
okay, pictures from today! Here's some of Micah's cantaloupe! It's still not quite as big as the pumpkins from the previous set of pictures.
the corn's still doing really well.
see! Waist high by the 11th of July. It's doing better than knee high by the 4th of July.
The pumpkins haven't been growing. A deer started eating them. I put up a fence, but I still thought they were goners. Turns out they were just using their energy to make flowers?
One of my fingers started swelling up while I was weeding. I have no idea why (but the hypochondriac in me was guessing black widow bite). It's done swelling now. I guess I'm allergic to a weed?
Right now Colin is visiting! He's my second visitor since last winter (Rick, Jan, and Sayre came a month or so ago). Be my 3rd!
-Stella

gardening

not too much to update. Moved out of the cabin and back to Roger's. Weather's been much nicer (when it's not raining). I'm not climbing very strong, but I'm having a good time when I go out and I've been more motivated lately. I'm working 3 days a week, which seems too often for me. But most important is my garden. I'm super psyched to garden. Today I was out there in the 85 degree sun at 2. That's how psyched I am on it. Here's a couple pictures.
I have corn:
giant pumpkins:
and garlic:

also Micah and I went to the Monongahela (national forest) yesterday and saw a(nother) baby bear. And (again) I didn't get a picture of it (sorry Jay).

-Stella

Ahh, now that's more like it!

Finally, spring has come! At least, in the Southwest.

Joshua Tree!


Key's View at JTree
the first of many wildflower pictures for Grandma!

Kelso Dunes in the Mojave Desert National Park

Some dessication cracks in a dry lakebed (there was SOME water) also in the Mojave

I can even identify this flower. It's a wild poppy!
This is Ephedra, it's more powerful than caffeine if you make it into a tea. It's starting to bloom

A Saguaro that must have been blocking the trail
a close up, cool, huh?


close up of another Saguaro

rainbow rocks!

Camping with the WOODSians! Kelsey, Sarahbeth, Lydia, and Harper from left to right. Stephanie joined us later.


this is Phoenix, believe it or not. It was greener than WV is now!
Slide Rock State Park, near Sedona, AZ. It's a natural waterslide!
Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park. Here's some petrified wood in the painted desert

Hopefully the weather will start being just as nice here as it was there! It is getting a lot better!!

Come visit me,
Stella

only a couple pictures

Micah and I decided to chase the warmth down in North Carolina last weekend. It was warmer, and we got one nice day in, but we guessed wrong with our first destination. They had had an ice storm the day before. It made for some interesting hiking. It still snows here everyday. Today, I had to get my car out of our neighborhood to run errands and stuff. It took an hour, Micah pushing, and I broke one of my snow chains in the process. When I tried chains out on my car first, in the desert (sunny, 65 degrees), it didn't occur to me how hard it would be to put them in the snow. You have to fully lay down in the snow, the chains are cold metal, and you can't use gloves, because they require fine motor control. Damn. I'm looking forward to the desert in March!





-Stella

Here's some winter pictures! Above is some ice on the Meadow River. Below is from the same day, the rock was covered in a microthin layer of ice, making it slippery. But Micah still tried, of course. The rock was so colorful!
The Meadow River on that same day. Our view while bouldering.
Micah found this dead mole. Look at how big its digging claws are! It's amazing! Also on the wildlife front, Micah saw a river otter. He said it was about 4 feet long and beautiful!
Micah bouldering a different day. I think it was just before the extremely cold stretch we just left behind. During that cold stretch, ice waterfalls formed all over the gorge, making ice climbing possible. Micah and I got to try it on one of the warmest days of the cold stretch (22 degrees!). It was hard! Even when you have spikes attached to your feet, its still hard to kick holes in the rock to stand on. It was pretty fun though, I guess. I'll never really be an ice climber, I hate the cold, but I did enjoy it. And, like the river otter, we didn't take our camera. What were we thinking?
day 1 or 2 of the staright month of at least a foot of snow on the ground. It started with these 2 feet. This particular picture is showing our glacier roof. You can see how it's sliding down the roof and curling under.
the"curling under" part meant we opened our door to icicles in our faces!


Somehow the trash can got 3 feet of snow balanced on top of it.
why I couldn't go home for Christmas as early as I planned
I'll post as we take more pictures!
-Stella