Jasmine Festival

Hey there!  We have been cleaning up the yard and trimming up plants so we can have places to sit.  We just found out that the previous owners had so much debris (yard sale throwaways, as one neighbor called it), that the stuff piled high to the fence.  Apparently when they cleaned up the property there were 17 dumpsters that hauled stuff out of here.  WOW.  It makes it seem that the years’ worth of cleaning and prepping was nothing compared to what the trash removal crew had to do.  Anyway...the place is still not even close to being finished, but we are definitely ready to share what IS right now!  The jasmines are blooming and it is a great time to celebrate!  So we are going to do just that!  Hopefully we will be stringing up some low energy led lights so we can create a nice ambiance.  Jacques did a wonderful job with getting the electric all in place.  Now we would love to have our neighbors and friends over to help us celebrate.  
                                        Please come to our 
                    First Annual Jasmine Festival! 

They smell AMAZING!

Check out our Facebook page for invites: https://www.facebook.com/EnchantedForestPhoenix

Bring a chair!  Also, you can (optional) bring a meatless dish to share, wine or other beverage, yoga mat, art supplies, and a drum/instrument/something to bang on!  Here is the schedule:
April 5th - 3:00pm-11:00pm (we will have to be quiet after 10)
3:00 Festival begins
3:30 Yoga
4:30 Art (murals, mandalas, watercolors)
5:30 Prepare meal together
6:00 Eat, Conversation
7:00 Drum, fire-pit, poetry, stories, ideas
10:00 Sharing circle
11:00 Festival ends

Irrigation

 It is a beautiful thing living on a rare irrigated property.








Not only does it save a lot of money in watering, but it really keeps things green.

But everything tends to get all wet!  This is only a problem if you want to walk from the yard to your vehicle, or just in the yard!!!

Irrigation is wonderful.  Plants will grow in such a way that they will accomplish so much more (produce) than with simple watering. 






Challenges with irrigation:  Despite everything getting flooded, the challenges include having multiple plants with multiple water needs.  At the forest, most adjust, but that is not the case with other properties that get irrigated.  Other challenges include being timely.  That means that SRP (the water irrigation company) tells us when we are supposed to "get water."  Sometimes this is an inconvienent time, like 2am!  When it is our time to get water, often we have to walk down the street and open what I call "flood gates," which are gates letting irrigation in.  These gates manually open when a property wants to take water.  Despite the challenges, the amount of green at the forest automatically justifies wanting irrigated land!

Cats

When we moved in to the forest, we inherited a gazillion cats.  Okay, not a gazillion, but waaaaay too many for us to handle.  With the help of Craigslist and a bunch of people from animal rescue places, we have decreased our cat population to nine (9).  We have ensured they are all "fixed" (spayed or neutered" and they all have a clean bill of health from a vet.  Through no fault of their own they were abandoned at the property and now they are deserving of love from a family.  Would you consider adopting one or helping us find a home for them?  The animal rescue places define "adoptable" as able to approach the animal and pick it up.  Well, we have been working hard at that by hand feeding them and they are approaching us more and more each day.  The ones who are left are still not allowing us to pick them up, but they are all nice cats. If we take them somewhere, they will be euthanized.  Help us prevent this by taking them in as your own or finding someone who will.  Thank you so much!!!!