Summer 2020

We recently got back from our new Wyoming site (still no house but hopefully trailer next year) and we came back to a garden full of life. I guess the new irrigation controller is working great.

Free form espalier apple tree update

I took a much needed break from the basement office Work From Home environment to sit in the sun and have lunch. The bumblebees were enjoying spring and i realized how long it had been since I just sat in the garden and watched.

It was nice to see my basil snip pruning last year paid off as flowers and buds covered the lower branches of my fuji apple tree. I have been making a strong effort keep the branch angles appropriate and it looks like this year might pay off (if the raccoons don’t steal them).

Speaking of raccoons, they are my prime suspect for the damage to my Gravensteins apple tree. One morning the central leader and half of another branch had been broken off with claw marks on the remaining branches. I installed a motion detector sprinkler but who knows

October Weekend Ranch Trip

Thanks to the state of California’s ridiculous car titling process (more than three months to get my title, Wyoming took 15 minutes) I managed to knock a few more things off the August list.

• New license plates for the farm truck
• New tires for the truck
• Running boards for the truck
• Clean out garage and strip to the studs (well 25% is down to studs)
• Repair garage doors
• New soffits for the garage
• Drainage ditch to culvert
• Remove dead trees (trying to find a professional)
• Clear brush and grass from building area (fire control)
• Repair perimeter fences and gates ( not even close)
• Fence off hills and building a from fields (HAHAHAHAHAH)
• Repair irrigation ditch that feeds cistern (de-prioritized until the house is designed)

 

On Saturday I met with an engineering and survey company which is going to still some soil cores on our proposed build site followed by a topography survey of the area and after he left I decided to tackle the drainage culvert.  Here are a few before picture from earlier in the year, as you can see its clogged with wetland grasses and has no defined channel (I would also say the county set it 6-12 inches too high).

From June

The Late September/Early October rains had made the situation even more mucky so when I trudged into the area is became clear that I needed to dig a side trench to divert some of the water just to be able to get to work.

This cleared enough water that I was able to dig a channel and then I hopped the fence and continued it a bit farther into the grass.  A few hours later the water levels had already dropped substantially.

Extending and widening this channel is going to be an ongoing project and since the area is too wet for heavy equipment its going to be done by hand until it starts to dry out enough to support the weight of a tractor or excavator.  I ran into a similar problem at the entrance to our property which required its own temporary channel (I have someone scheduled to come in for a permanent fix later this winter/spring) to my neighbor’s ditch.  These are all examples of why you don’t let maintenance projects fall behind 2o+ years behind;  if the drainage system had been maintained these would have been quick projects with a mini excavator.

 

Wyoming To Do List for August 2019

We are finally closing on the ranch August 1st and we plan on heading up for 10 days of work.  Bonus labor, my Sister is planning on joining us as well.  A few weeks ago I drove our “new” 2004 f250 diesel 4×4 truck along with a load of tools and other items which are currently in storage (though the truck is in the shop).

 Here is the list of work to be done (mostly so I can get it out of my brain):

• New license plates for the farm truck
• New tires for the truck
• Running boards for the truck
• Clean out garage and strip to the studs
• Repair garage doors
• New soffits for the garage
• Drainage ditch to culvert
• Remove dead trees
• Clear brush and grass from building area (fire control)
• Repair perimeter fences and gates
• Fence off hills and building a from fields
• Repair irrigation ditch that feeds cistern

Wyoming spread update – moreplaning

Last week I drove a load up to our place in Wyoming and deposited our “new” farm truck to its new home. It’s been a very wet spring and summer so the view from our future build site is looking particularly lush.

While there I met with multiple contractors who will hopefully be doing projects for us though the earth moving  specialist did not think digging out the drainage ditch was a good project for machines and instead I’ll be digging it by hand.

It looks like we will be building a utility building with a three garage bays small apartment in the short term with an eye towards the big house being done in 4-5 years.

Soil Progress Update

Its been almost 3 years since I posted my soil improvement plan and when I was chopping down my winter cover crops I realized it was time for an update.

Not to shabby, almost looks like soil.

Walking the grounds and soil samples

The USGS data on my new property is from the early 1970’s and according to the local representative it is of “marginal value” so this weekend. I pulled 4 samples, each covering areas of the 4 primary soil types.

Of the 4, only the green areas really smelled like soil. Im expecting the yellow and blue samples to come back full of salt and the blue sample to be alkali sodic soil.

If my yard is no longer small do i beed to change my name?

Ive bot been posting much this year (or last if i’m honest) due to my day job which has been a bit overwhelming recently. Long hours and lots of stress mean most of my free time has been spent with the kids. While its been neglected, the garden has chugged along and soaked up the winter rains. Im hoping the crimson clover starts to bloom soon and was not slowed down by our batch of frost.

In the meantime, my wife and i have done something crazy and bought a piece of property in Wyoming to build a new home. Its intended to be a vacation and retirement property but I’m hoping we can find a way to move up there sooner.

155 acres of neglected grazing and hay land with 100 acres of water rights. Its going to be a project and il be posting pictures and the restoration plan as I figure it out.

2 years later

Well its been two years and while not much has happened recently thanks to work sometimes I forget how we started.

Things look a little different these days as you enter the yard.

And the other corner shows how much more usable the space is now.

The steepness of the old slope was tough  to judge in the old pictures but when you consider that the rear retaining walls are essentially the same height the scope of the geoscaping becomes clear.  If I had it to do over again there are a few things I would do differently:

• Run more irrigation supply lines under the walls.  I with the fruit trees had their own controller.
• Run a power line along with the irrigation supply.
• Removed more sand to make room for organic material.  The area by the upper retaining wall just has too much sand and the subsurface irrigation results in strips of green in the summer.

That said, the family has been enjoying the yard immensely and we have several BBQ parties a year with everyone eating on the grass.  The deck area gets very little use these days.

Garden Galette

While it’s been an unusually cool May this year (two apple trees still have not woken up yet) the berries seem to be enjoying it. The alpine strawberries are producing like crazy and the raccoons even left the normal strawberries alone long enough for some to ripen.

when combined with the ripening blue berries and some leftover pie crust we ended up with a delicious galette for breakfast.