I went to early voting before it closed last week. It's easier to get the littles in and out fast if there's no line to fight.
So this morning we were up at 5:30AM and got our butts in gear and drove the hour and a half to the title company to sign the closing papers. It's official. We now own 10 acres of mesquite, pencil cactus, ocotillo, yucca, and various other native plants, sparse grasses, and (at certain times of the year) flowers even.
Friday's frost forecast has turned into a freeze instead, so warm weather gardening is well and truly over. Going to pass on the garlic this year. I can't get it in the ground at the homestead fast enough, and I don't want to plant anything here that would take too long to harvest. Store-bought will have to do this year for cooking.
On our way back, hubby pointed out a truck yard where the big big flooring beams for semis and heavy duty trailers were all just stacked up. All super weathered and old. He's going to ask about getting some for our construction projects. They make really great garden bed walls so long as you can get ones that aren't treated. Seems fairly common that they aren't, weirdly.
Most people would consider our native plants to be pests, fit only for bulldozing and burning. But... mesquite pods can be ground into flour or used as chicken/livestock feed, ocotillo flowers apparently make a lovely chamomile-type tea, various parts of certain yucca varieties are edible or extremely useful for making cordage, and so on and so forth. I'm hoping to get to properly explore the property this weekend (time to break out my boots) and see if there's any candelilla. That would be a fun find! It's a waxy plant that you can harvest the wax from and make candles.
Thanks everybody for all the well wishes! Y'all have been so kind and thoughtful, I really appreciate it. Hugs to you all!