A member of what is believed to be the Cooter family of turtles decided to  walk along the property of our yard .   The turtle stopped walking then tucked his head into his protective shell just as we at the Kodak moment. We never had the opportunity to take a second picture as he was definitely camera shy.  Who says turtle is slow?

More information on turtle: http://turtle_tails.tripod.com/turtle/turtlepage.htm

Two beautiful young whooping cranes showed up at front yard.  They were busy searching food, I guess we have enough worms and berries under the Jasmine tree.

More information about whooping cranes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whooping_Crane

Growing wheatgrass is another adventure: simple enough and results are incredible.

Hard red wheat berries are inexpensive. We purchased some from a local store (Nutrition Smart) for $1.19 per lb.  I’ll try to simplify the procedures.

Health Benefits of Wheatgrass Juice:
http://cuttler.hubpages.com/hub/WHEAT-GRASS-Health-Benefits-of-Wheat-Grass

Here are my notes:

• 1/4 cup hard red wheat berries
• Soak wheat berries over night
• Sprout wheat berries one day
• Place potting soil in 2 inch trays and spread the berries on top of the soil.
• Water the tray and cover for 2 days.
• Uncover the tray on day 3 and move the trays to indirect light.
• Water every morning for 2 days (need to check the moisture of the soil like any other plant).
• Cut the wheatgrass when it reaches approximately 7″ in height, grind into juice, filter with a coffee filter, and then freeze for future use.

Alfalfa sprouts are one of most nutritious foods you can have.  It is easy to grow at home.  Here are the steps:

We bought sprout jars from Nutrition Smart.  The jars have small mesh screen for draining off the water.  After soaking 2-3 table-spoons alfalfa seeds overnight in the jar, drain-off the water next morning. Then place the jar 45 degree with jar mouth down to drain excess water off.  Then, rinse the sprouts every 12 hours. The photo on the left is second day sprouts.

After 3-4 days, it is ready to harvest sprouts.  The hulls normally stay on one side of the jar.  Remove the hulls as much as possible since the hulls are indigestible.

Benefits of Alfalfa Sprouts:
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/9-health-benefits-of-alfalfa-sprouts.html

It is  impressive to see agave americana bloom stalks reaching up close to the power lines within 3 weeks. These stalks should bloom upon reaching their mature height.  The plant itself blooms once in its lifetime (5 – 7 yrs) then dies off completely leaving behind pups and seedlings to continue on. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_americana

Our birdlike friends come around for their daily feeding.  The Sandhill Cranes often mate for life. They may have two offspring per year around spring time.  When the chicks age they go off and begin their own family.

We were fortunate in obtaining 3 each 65 gallon used pickle barrels.  We decided that to put these choice barrels to good use we would begin to collect rain water.  But in order to begin the collection we needed to tie the barrels together with PVC schedule 40.  So we purchased galvanize pipe to thread into the barrel, secured the connection with 1 3/4  inch electrical nut.  Then we threaded 1 1/4 inch PVC into the galvanized fitting.  Slip connection on other side to accept 1 1/4 in PVC which would connect into either 90 degree elbows or T.  Because the barrels will be collecting rain water from the house gutter system we connected a quick empty to clear debris coming down the drain pipe.  Also used a 3/4 in bib to connect to a hose.  On the top of the outside barrel is the overflow.  We will connect that to a hose a drain out into the grass.  Need to keep the water away from the house foundation.

There were four papaya trees in a cluster that fell down over storm water drainage ditch.  The two smallest were cut and the remaining two were uprighted.  Hopefully those two will fully recover and survive to bear more fruit.