Tarantulas, Arugula, and Peaches (Oh, My)

Cold this morning.  Up early because M was doing a night-long time lapse and had the alarm set for 5 am.  

I got to see the sun rise.  Strange, rippling threads of clouds, that together made up a sheet, kind of a tapestry of shades of grey and orange and pink.  As always, the blue, blue of the New Mexico sky.

The number of hummingbirds has decreased significantly over the last two weeks.  We've stopped filling the feeders but there are still a few hangers-on who sit on the laundry line and fend off others from the empty feeders.  I still see quite a few hummingbirds around the zinnias and zooming around the trees that encircle the garden.  

The plants are in a rush against time to the first frost.  The kale has sprouted, my second attempt.  Only one sprouted from the first seeding I made back at the beginning of August.  I'm still waiting to see if my second attempt at carrots will germinate.  There are two beds at the front of the garden in which I planted broccoli.  Two different kinds of plants came up there, many more than I recall planting.  I thinned them out and now the plants are lush-dark green and robust looking.  Neither plant appears to be broccoli.  One tastes like horseradish and the other looks like bok choy.  

Arugula is everywhere.  It must have gone to seed one year throughout the garden, or been spread through composting of the dead plants.  

I disturbed a flock of robins this morning.  I wonder if they were feeding on the red ants that stream across the back part of the garden by the squashes.  I didn't see any ants, but that could also be because it was too cold for them this early in the morning. I was almost hit in the head by a careening hummingbird.  They're crazy fuckers, really.  One landed on my head a few weeks ago, for a brief moment or two. They do seem to have become less shy of us.  

Another tarantula crawling across the yard the day before yesterday.  I suppose the ones we see are males. From what I've read, the females and the young generally stay in the burrows and come out only to catch food that wanders by. The males roam more widely, looking for food and females.  I believe that fall is mating season.  

They are not at all aggressive.  They seem slightly curious when we get close enough to take pictures of them, then they turn and walk away.  Once we got close enough and disturbed one; he reared up his front legs at us and then turned to run away.  They are so large and furry looking that they don't give the impression of being a spider at all.  Instead, they're more like some exotic rodent with extra legs.  

I've been reading up on how to distinguish between coyote, dog, and mountain lion tracks.  Both the mountain lion and the coyote have three lobes on rear of the main foot pad.  The top of the main foot pad is one-lobed in the coyote and two-lobed in the mountain lion.  The rear of the main foot pad is two-lobed in the dog, and one-lobed at the top.  Generally, the dog and the coyote tracks show claw marks and the two main toes are roughly even; the mountain lion track has a leading toe, the leading toe corresponding to the opposite side of the animal the foot belongs to.  A leading toe on the right corresponds to the left paw of the animal--similar to the arrangement of the human feet.  

Coyote track, I think.  Note the three lobes at the bottom of  the main pad and the single lobe at the top of it. 

The second peach tree is now loaded with ripe peaches. I'm not very motivated to do anything with them. I picked a basketful the other day with the idea of making peach cobbler but when i jostled the basket after just a few hours in the house, there was an eruption of fruit flies.  I don't know whether the fruit flies were a collection of those already in the house or if they had emerged from the fruits themselves.  Regardless, I have a strong dislike of fruit flies and I put the whole basket outside the front door.  I'm not really fond of peaches and when I think of eating peach preserves later in the winter, I don't anticipate any pleasure. That I'm not preserving them anyway indicates that I'm not desperate for food; I guess it also indicates a lack of commitment on my part to eating primarily what I grow.  I do feel that commitment, though--I do want to be eating primarily what I grow for numerous reasons.  If it was my homestead (instead of being rented), I don't think I would have planted peach trees, because I don't really like peaches beyond an occasional one.  I would plant blackberries, raspberries, rhubarb, and strawberries.  Those I would eat fresh, in preserves on toast and pancakes, in pies, and in shakes with yogurt.  

Next up are the apples.  Those I might preserve, even though I have difficulty digesting them.  Applesauce and apple butter are good with pancakes, and the apple sauce can be substituted for part of the oils called for in some baking recipes.