We took a few days off to recoup, catch up with some things at home, and to plan our next line of attack.  We even went to the Farmer’s Market to sell eggs.  Only had about 12 dozen, so they sold rather quickly, but we were able to get some nice fresh goodies.  Can’t wait til next year when I can grow all of my own!  But I digress…

We decided to start clearing out the weeds (some of which are so old they look like bushy trees).  An acre of weeds can sure be overwhelming, but thank goodness Jim knows how to work a bobcat!  This challenge is not just clearing out the weeds, but cleaning all the garbage and debris that gets uncovered as we start clearing.

 Each section of brush started out looking like this.  Then, as the clearing began, we often found debris, like this:

Which meant we had to stop the bobcat and manually clear out everything so we could continue clearing out the weeds and overgrowth.  It is amazing how much “stuff” we’ve found!

As we continued clearing we found some things I am absolutely thrilled about!  We found a patch of prickly pear cactus and some socorro.  They were all struggling and slowly getting chocked out, but in the far back corner of our property this find has me dancing happy!

The prickly pear cactus has little pears that grow on it that are soooo good to eat!  I gathered a basket of these little gems last year from patches all over Albuquerque.  A few we ate (they taste like a cross between pears and apples).  The remainder I made juice out of.  I thought about making jelly, but chose to make juice which I’ve used as fruit juice or to add to my sun tea.  I could go on and on about the nutritional value, but I’d rather discuss how tasty they are!

The socorro has a few medicinal qualities, but for me — its just so cool looking.  When we finish clearing out the property we plan on making this our cactus corner.  We have some yucca we will be transplanting here to add a little variety, but this will certainly remain our mini “desert paradise.”

We don’t stop working until it gets dark.  The setting sun is always so magical.