Finally: A Ranch Kitchen

After over three years of unprotected outdoor cooking, my wife finally got a roof over her head. That’s a long time to be dodging rain and other challenging scenarios.

We bought a metal building kit that’s rated for over 120 mph winds. Gusts up to 50 mph are not uncommon here, but dust devils and monsoon thunderstorms produce even stronger. Wind is one of the biggest challenges to outdoor cooking on a gas stove because it can not only reduce or blow out flames, but it also sweeps the heat away – making everything take much longer to cook.

Our outdoor kitchen was actually built at the end of last year and finished this year. Finally getting pics up! 😅

Have you ever seen Aloe vera flower?

Garlic Strawberry Beds

I don’t think there was a special occasion for the strawberry feast adorned with edible flowers. Just eating in season – strawberries April through December!

Greenhouse by Winter / Shade House by Summer

Forage-Fed Chickens

Gardens and elevated white panels flourishing with chicken forage! They’re allowed limited access to their gardens so they don’t decimate them and they can repeatedly regrow. We got a bunch of more chickens and guineas and the forage got a little overgrown while they were cooped up for rehoming. They generally keep the forage under the elevated panels mowed and it just keeps growing. There’s also the start of a tree guild growing with some of their favorite fruit – mulberries and elderberries – and herbs they can self-medicate with. As previously reported, they turn our compost piles for us and add nitrogen packets (aka. manure).

New Ranch Resident

“Three Sisters” Garden

“Three Sisters” is a native American example of companion planting with beans, squash, and corn. Corn provides a trellis for the beans that fertilize the soil for the other plants while the big squash leaves shade out weeds. We added in flowers to attract beneficial insects such as pollinators and predators that attack pests. We also planted “trap plants” that are decoys for the pests. This was a new garden spot this year – we were “breaking new ground” starting with poor, undeveloped, desert dirt and turning it into living soil.

4 New Faucets

We rented a trencher again to install additional faucets around the yard. We now have a total of nine faucets, most of which are for irrigation. One of the new ones is conveniently located right in front of the kitchen and one is a frost-free hydrant for prolonged freezing emergencies.

Unique Rainwater Harvesting

Since we had the trencher anyway I tried a novel water harvesting technique similar to swales and berms on contour. Most of this was done in the neglected front yard. The trenches will fill in over time but they captured and infiltrated tons of water during monsoons this year! This will tremendously benefit the native trees that flourish wherever we capture and infiltrate water. The bigger the trees, the bigger the shade!

Growing Orchard

While the trees are maturing we’ve been utilizing the space for garden beds and getting a start on fruit tree guilds with herbs such as Comfrey, Sage, Wormwood, St. John’s Wort, Lavender, Thyme, and more.

Hügelkultur

Heath’s hugel! This was one of many projects Heath volunteered for this summer. Hügelkultur is a German technique, adopted and spread by permaculture. The idea is to bury lots of wood that composts in place, soaks up water over the first couple of years, and it becomes a raised garden bed that doesn’t need to be watered for years. Our neighbor Mitch helped with the tractor. The final picture shows it covered in woodchips and burlap after native Tepary beans and Cosmos flower seeds had been planted. I didn’t get a picture of it with all the plants and bright orange flowers.

Another Dome Built

With everyone’s help working on it part time we were able to build this dome and get the first layer of plaster on in about a month and a half. I just helped a little each day after my full-time job with some finalizing work on each layer.

In case you haven’t noticed, we like flowers… and trails!

Here is one of the many trails at Sabbatical Ranch:

Carr Peak

This picture was taken the day after Thanksgiving. It includes my daughter and the San Pedro River Valley (Sabbatical Ranch is out there in the middle on the right) after we hiked the second-highest mountain in the Huachuca range, one of the many “sky islands” in the area. Carr Peak has an elevation of 9,229 feet. We took a few hikes this summer in preparation and hope to reach Miller Peak (9,466 feet) next year.