Good information to have!

Arbor Day Has Arrived!

So, Arbor Day Eve at the Rancho was the big excitement around here. Michael was so stoked to drive the backhoe up the driveway. After he had a lot of time moving earth around he let the kids go for a ride.



Valerie did her part in the orchard too on Arbor Eve.



Alas, Sunrise over the partially prepared site of our future orchard!



Alligator came over to help put in the plants. Here we are taking a break from digging holes for the grape vines. I believe this one is a Chardonnay vine.



I tell you, he's a real farmer that Gator!





























So, here's the progress during the day. Very satisfying to see trees in what was just yesterday a barren patch of weeds. Now there is a promise of shade and fruit and birds and bees back there!



Here are the long shadows at the end of the day looking back toward chicken land. We got 11 trees in. We'll finish the rest on Sunday as I'll be on farm tour tomorrow. I'll be sampling the best wine/cheese/olive oil this valley has to offer ... who knows how it will inspire the direction of our future yard?

From Amira

Oh, that Michael and his iPad ... techno genious and oh so popular with the kids! I don't know exactly what he and Amira were up to this morning, but I did receive this in my e-mail this morning. Maybe I'm a little less Joan Crawford-like today? Must be the baby chicks and trees.

Arbor Day Eve

Nothing says Arbor Day Eve like a backhoe delivered to your house! I said to Rex, how cool is this house? We can have a rooster, hatch out baby chicks and drive backhoes around the backyard!!!

Now, you and daddy get cracking! I need 28 holes for trees pronto.

What the hail?!

Okay, Michael gets credit for that headline.

So, shortly after the discovery of our little hatchling we observed some crazy dark clouds rolling in from the North West heading at a pretty good clip toward, well, us. On the edge of the dark band of the sky was a swirling mass of gray clouds that had almost a conical look to it. I said CONICAL, not comical. And, not funnel either. Anyhow, it was pretty ominous looking as huge lightening strikes belted out of the sky heading our way.

It was about this time that I discovered my rice cooker went C4 on me. What's C4? If anyone knows, please e-mail me!!!! I had the time set to cook up some brown rice and it had been pleasantly counting down all day. When it started to cook it reached this error code and all the lights started blinking and it ceased to operate. Then I also discovered that the meat I was thawing was still a brick. I looked back out the windows. Did I really want to go out to eat? Man, I was hungry.

So, we piled everyone in the car and headed down to SOL (our new neighborhood tacqueria). Anyhow, while we were dining the winds really whipped up, the sky got dark and we were treated to a half hour long shower of hail and thunderous booms. And this wasn't little pea size hail either.



We waited for the worst of it to pass and then decided we could head back home. We had to drive slowly as the roads were covered in gravelly ice. It looked as if it had snowed. And all the deciduous trees that hadn't had the chance to change color for autumn were stripped of half their leaves. In fact, what struck me as we left the restaurant was a very fragrant aroma that I realized was crushed rosemary. The hail gave it a good pounding.



Anyhow, upon arrival at home we saw the devastation in the garden. Lettuce, chard, kale, brussels, broccoli, cauliflower, etc all decimated. I have a small garden and it has its issues anyway. My heart really went out to all the farmers who depend on this growing food for their livelihood.



Of course, the kids had a blast playing out with the iceballs. And the following morning there was still a layer of ice on the yard as it had chilled down so rapidly.

FAT MAMMA!

So, after I brought the kids home from school today, I decided to check in on our broody mom. I pushed up her breast feathers and only saw one egg. In a panic I looked all over for a chick and didn't see one. Then I saw the broken shell next to her.

I wondered, did another hen eat the chick? Had the egg just broken? Is there going to be a fuzzy little body around here? I was so sad.

But then I lifted up Fat's feather duster bottom and saw this:





Awwwwwwe!!!

And now we wait for the other egg to hatch! (And I'm still tempted to grab a chick or two from C Bar D. But we'll see. That's not half as exciting as the "spontaneous generation" going on in our coop.

Autumn at Rancho Wilhelm

In case you were wondering, the rats are still providing lots of entertainment.



It's been a couple of months of soaking up those solar rays and billing them back to the power company. I have to say it's been very satisfying. And now it looks like the weather is moving into Autumn mode. I notice it is still dark when I wake. And now it's dark and rainy. It puts me in the mood for soups, tea and possibly knitting.

As my knitting is packed up in storage still (as well as many of my books) there will be little of that sitting around. In fact, the rain reminds me that I have a HUGE Bermuda grass issue in the new garden. I wanted the Garden of Eatin' and instead I have the Garden of Weedin'. Dang! I have plans to trench around the garden and do some serious sheet mulching. I've still got cardboard boxes left over from the move and I'm entertaining the idea of bringing in a truck load of municipal compost and wood chips.

In the mean time, I do have a garden planted! It gives me great joy to look out the back (beyond the weeds and last of the goat droppings across the barren landscape) and see onions, lettuces, chard, kale, brussels, mums, pansies and lots of bermuda grass. Well, it doesn't give me great pleasure to see the bermuda grass. But the fact that my veggies are thriving in spite of the invader, I'm stoked.



Friday this week is "Arbor Day" at the Rancho. See the bare weedy space behind the garden above? That is the site of our future orchard! We have 28 fruit trees being delivered! Barren landscape no more!!! Here's what's coming (along with a back hoe to dig all those holes!!):

FUJI APPLE
GALA APPLE
PINK LADY APPLE
2 YELLOW NEWTOWN PIPPIN APPLES (for cider!)
BING CHERRY
LAMBERT CHERRY
MONMORENCY SOUR CHERRY
VAN CHERRY
BLACK MISSION FIG
JANICE SEED-LESS KADOTA FIG
ACRCTIC STAR WHITE NECTARINE
FANTASIA NECTARINE
OH HENRY PEACH
FAIRTIME PEACH
GOLD DUST PEACH
MUIR PEACH
BARTLETT PEAR
20TH CENTURY ASIAN PEAR
SHINKO PEAR
SANTA ROSA PLUM
STSUMA PLUM
EMERALD DROP PLUOT
DAPPLE DANDY PLUOT
AMBROSIA POMEGRANATE
EVERSWEEET POMEGRANATE
FUYU PERSIMMON
MEXICALI AVOCADO

Along with all those guys we're getting four grape vines too.

In the meantime, I have fenced off the chickens (so that none of them gets squished by the backhoe) into an area under the fruitless mulberry giant tree in the back. They seem pretty happy over there. I haven't electrified the fence yet. But I do have a solar hook up should the need arise.



In other news in Chicken-Land, our little Buff Orpington dubbed "FAT" by the kids (really? Fat?? She is so not fat!) has settled on a couple of eggs. I'm guessing it's been about two weeks for her. In about a week to ten days I'm thinking those guys might hatch. And if they don't, the guy at the feed store says I can put some day old chicks under her in the middle of the night and she might think she hatched them. Now, that sounds like fun! Here's a pic of our broody girl. She'll make a good mom I think.



Out front we are in the process of killing our lawn. We were taking advantage of the high temps and really trying to burn out the grass and go with some lower maintenance landscaping. I should see the concept for the front yard later this week. Our friend Eve is putting it together for us. I'm excited!

Now all I need are several more hours in each day so I can get all this work done!