Jack Hammer Acres

One of the things we found when we first moved to Tucson was the ground was very hard. In our area not only hard but full of rocks. So I bought a Pick-Axe. You may know it as a mattock. I made holes for a couple of fruit trees. It took forever.

I built some raised beds for a garden and mixed soil (really crushed rock) and store-bought compost. That worked pretty well.

We wanted to put in a fountain - using a large plastic container buried with a submerged pump and covered with a fine screen and rocks. It looks like the water bubbles up out of the ground. The reservoir is the large container and the water recycles. Every once in a while I have to move the rocks and clean the pump filter. The birds love it.

The neighbor, who is a landscaper come over one day with a BobCat back hoe and made the hole for the fountain. He started on another hole when he pulled up my electrical utility hookup - a large 2 inch wire buried only about 1 foot in the ground. There was no damage but he got very nervous and left. The wire was probably 3 feet deep at one point but the previous owner had leveled a large area in the back and must have taken away 2 feet of the covering. I marked it and filled in the hole. Our utilities are buried, those are just electricity and phone.

Now when I want to plant something I use the Jack Hammer it makes life much easier. The first picture is a hole I made to plant an aloe. The pile to the left came out of the hole. I will screen it and mix 50/50 with compost to fill the rest of the hole. The rocks usually go over behind the wall.

If you look through the railing behind the Jack Hammer you will see a pygmy palm I planted a month ago. It is struggling. We have had almost no rain this winter. Four months no rain. The winter rains usually create enough moisture for a great wild flower show here in March, April, and May. This year no flowers. Sunday, a couple of days after I planted the Palm, we awoke to a snowy world of about 3 inches of snow. The second picture shows the palm covered with snow. By evening the snow was gone but the palm did not take it very well.

We just got a digital camera. I will try not to over do but show you some of the world we live in. And describe some of the animals and plants. The temperature reached 91 degrees F. today.

Love Richard