Planted okra this morning. It's one of the few things that do well through the worst of the summer.

Sawing old, dead mulberry branches into fist sized pieces. I've been using a version of Hügelkultur for about twenty years. I bury wood deep in the ground, instead of making a mound. It's spongy when I dig it up, and has roots growing into it. Started using it in large pots with a bit of clay soil.

Allison Lutnick MUST be deposed about her trip to Epstein Island! Hillary answered honestly, Howard Lutnick evaded!!

Why are people sleeping on this Florida Senate race? Alex Vindman will win this if we support him!

This is the local pigeon. As far as I can tell from the cooing and the pictures, the only one in the neighborhood.

Likely, a mourning dove from this morning. I cropped it down to this point going by AI descriptions and feedback from MS Seeing AI on my iPhone. Then I checked it with Google's AI. Not sure what I will do with it yet, but it will end up in a collage or something somewhere.

A picture I took last year of a dove in flight, probably a Eurasian collared-dove. The backlighting from the sun seemed to be good, going by the AI descriptions. Blocked the direct sun with a carport roof. I used this with another image in a collage on an 8.5x11 print.

ICE caught generating illegal warrants, and a surge in pro-Trump AI. Let's talk about it.

Vote for Xavier Becerra, he gives a shit. @xavierbecerra.bsky.social @realtexaspaul.com Think I got it this time.

Bird of the morning. Probably a Eurasian collared-dove. I'm setting up a new feeding spot and took a picture to find out what the view was. The curved pipes are half of an arch for a newly planted grape vine to climb on.

Blind man's commercial for Xavier Becerra... @xavierbecerra.bsky.social @realtexaspaul.com

Planted a bunch of Fordhook Swiss chard, buckwheat and amaranth. Also some black oil sunflowers.

Mrs. Lindsey Graham set a trap for us on the left and the dumbest of us will fall for it!! Nobody else is warning you about this!

Reshaping the bit bevel on a roofing hatchet. I need to use it mostly like a draw knife, so it will be a lot more like a single bevel on the right side and a long flat area on the left. I just don't want to pay for a carving axe that probably doesn't have the grind I want either.

Whole gob of Gambel's quails in the neighborhood. They like eating the pods off a lot of the desert trees, like my white-thorn acacia, and probably the willow acacia.

I need you to share this with your friends and families. This is going to hit us all in our wallet and we need to be prepared for it. Trump's tariffs get us again!

Letting the snow peas make a final crop for seed. Good thing about legumes is they don't require a whole lot of fertilizer. Think it's going to be a bean gardening kind of year...

Used up a couple of hours this afternoon figuring out why one of my hand planes always needed the lateral adjustment lever all the way to the left. Should have checked the blade edge first. Even checked the frog for square. I think that blade came like that. Seems better now.

The cayenne peppers I'm starting under lights and a heating mat have sprouted. Last year, they got toasted by afternoon sun in the middle of summer, otherwise they tend to live a few years out here. I will put them on the east side of the house with morning to noon sun this time.

Every morning, when I wake up, I slap myself as a reminder that I don't really know what's going to happen next...

Got the cow peas planted and watered in today. Ended up just getting some garden soil from the store because it's getting warm, and my weed-free soil batches still have garlic and other things growing in it. I'll add sunflowers after the cow peas germinate.

I've covered the surface of that sunken garden bed with a layer of paper. No light, no weeds. Plan to put fresh soil on top and plant cow peas, then sunflowers a little later because they're allelopathic. Build the organics in the soil.

Snow peas have started producing for me. Something to put in the rice along with greens for lunch every day for the next couple of months or more.

Planning to do a lot of air layering of trees and shrubs, for plants it can be used with, this spring. It's more work up front in exchange for a more substantial plant, such as a citrus rootstock, than a cutting, or in some cases, a seedling.

Partly grew up with grandparents next door who lived through two world wars and a depression. Grew up with their stories and artifacts, including old-timy hand tools. They also put EVERYTHING to use. Hope the things I learned from them and others will help me if we plow into hard times.

Been setting up a raised, lasagna-style garden in my backyard. There is a shallow, wide hole at one end where I excavated a palm. I'm stretching the hole into a sunken bed, like the traditional Southwest type. That's where all the chopped mallow plants that suddenly grew to 6 feet are going.

Still working on propagating plants and building soil. I think community gardens will be important in the future. But if not, I've worked on my own garden, and learned a lot.

Another picture of the pigeon, and I think my white-winged doves are starting to come back from Mexico. The Gemini AI description, which is all I have to go by, says the dove on the right of the pigeon has blue around his eye and a white stripe on his wing. Mourning doves have spots.

Got another 30 gallon container to start another batch of heavy potting soil for a citrus tree. Think I'll plant carrots in this one while the garden dirt I put in the bottom layers sorts itself out. Better yet, carrots in a smaller pot of fluffy soil, setting on the top.

Didn't have much of a winter here in the desert again. Probably going to start the peas and beans for the spring and summer today in a 30 gallon container and batch of the heavy potting soil I just mixed: 1/3 native garden dirt. Will be for a citrus tree later on.

A pigeon on the roof. Around here, I mostly have various doves, like the Eurasian collared-doves in the background. I have to go by what AI describers tell me, but they say the green and purple neck feathers are displayed well in this one.

Mourning doves getting their fill of seeds.

Took pomegranate and grape cuttings for propagation this winter. Last year was Brown Turkey figs, and sour orange seeds, which I just up-transplanted. I'll try to graft some navel oranges this year.

First crop of this season's turnips are starting to get fat, there is an abundance of mallow for greens, and the snow peas are climbing. About a year ago, I was in a worried scramble, but things have slowed down to the gradual building up of garden soil.

A kumquat. It's the first time this tree has made a fruit.

A different view of my tallest fan palm tree, just to find out what kind of picture it would take. Its about seventy or more feet tall, and I put the camera against the trunk at about head level.

An Inca dove at one of my feeders. The smallest, yet noisiest doves in my neighborhood.

I like taking pictures of palm trees.

Another White-winged dove leaving one of the feeders. This was from a few summers ago.

Most of the White-winged doves that feed at my home have migrated to Mexico for the upcoming fall and winter months. This is one of the many pictures I took of them this year. See you next year, guys.

A flower of an okra plant, and also the flowers of a pink lantana that the birds planted.

This morning, a patch of pearl millet I am growing.

One of my palm trees at sunset.

Transplanted sweet potato slips outside this morning. The regular potatoes I started at the end of last year are growing well. Keeping the digging and planting going.

I'm planting sunflowers in March, for the birds and for myself. Nothing but digging and planting ahead, but I found a small, flat stone that might make an interesting necklace charm, if I get back to jewelry making and art.

You can have your vegetable garden and also eat it, but it's not a piece of cake...