Naiads and Dryads Oh My

Now that we've gotten some decent rain, we've been enjoying the sound of running water in the creeks. The waterfall at the second gate coming in has also started up again. Yesterday, I walked there and found that the seasonal Naiad has made her appearance. Actually, Dino pointed out that there are two naiads in this image.

Orchard Fence

Dino spent a good part of last week getting the fence posts in around the area designated for the orchard. Saturday, we got a little more than half of it fenced, until we ran out of daylight. We've got a series of storms coming in over the next several days, but we'll get back to it as soon as we can. We're already tasting those apples.

I'm headed into the Bay Area tomorrow for a couple of days at work there, but also for some shopping and meeting up with friends.

Orchard In Progress

Dino has been working that poor tractor practically to death (bit of hyperbole there) getting the new orchard area ready for trees.

These are two of the rows, with stakes in to show where the new babies will be planted. All week I've left the house too early in the morning to see much of anything except fence posts along the outer rim (and fog) and too late in the evening for anything at all orchard related.

I believe next weekend, I'm being drafted for fencing duties.

Garden Planning. Fog. Number 84

The last few days, we've been treated to a ribbon of fog along the course of the Chowchilla. It sure is pretty to look at (but not drive in, evidence my trip home tonight.) It's fascinating to see this obvious delineation right at the river. This photo was taken early Sunday morning before it warmed up.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the aforementioned 84th bird species to our ranch list. A few days after Christmas, we identified a Hairy Woodpecker. They look a lot like the Downy, but are larger. If you want to know the truth, getting us to actually place the binoculars on woodpeckers is a mini-miracle because we always think it's another Acorn, of which there is no dearth of supply. Anyway, we looked and were glad for it. If you know why they're called Hairy, that will win extra points, because I don't have a clue, they looked normally feathered to me.

Now that we have the building parts safely stored, we can work on other items on the task list. We've been figuring out an orchard, with special emphasis on yumminess. So far, we've picked out: 2 apples, 2 figs, 2 cherries, 1 quince, 1 pomegranate, 2 almonds, 2 plums, 1 mulberry and 1 walnut. Hoo boy, we're going to be busy in a few years when all these trees get going. We paced off the designated area the other day, and staked it and Dino's now busy prepping with lots of tractor work. We've scouted out a couple of local nurseries for the varieties we want, and the Honeycrisp apple bareroots are coming in sometime this week; the others next month. We lost a couple of cherries we started a few years ago to that awful grasshopper plague, and a quince this year to fire blight.