Never A Dull Moment At The Farm!!

So many things to catch up on!  We have had a beautiful group of bull Elk watching us from the hills above.  These regal animals are about the size of a large horse, and carry a huge rack of antlers.  They are just done with "shedding" their antlers which they do every winter.  Now they are regrowing them and have 6" stubs coming up.  It never ceases to take my breath away when I see them.

Ben (our male Pyrenees) found out what a skunk is night before last.  This unlucky skunk will not be bothering anyone else in the future, but was able to spray Ben in the face before being dispatched.  He doesn't quite understand why I am not hugging him tightly like I usually do.  We've had several helpful hints to remove the smell - the most common is tomato juice.  That would be great, but I really don't want a pink guard dog!

Yesterday morning, I met a group from the California Rare Fruit Growers Association at the school in Bradley.  This is such a wonderful school - most of the children have gone to school together since kindergarten.  They are more like cousins than schoolmates.  They include kindergarten through 8th grade.   We helped a combined class of 6th - 8th graders graft two apple trees each.  They will keep them at school until June then take them home to plant in their own yards.

After the class, the small group from the CRFGA came to The Farm to check out our new fruit orchard we have been planting - we currently have over 200 various fruit trees and 300 olive trees.  This group was traveling in a van.  When they toured the orchard, they left the door to the van open.  We all turned around a saw a cute little Rhode Island Red hen standing in the doorway (see picture).  This morning, Dr. Joe Sabol, retired professor from Cal Poly, emailed me to tell me that they had found a fresh brown egg in the back seat when they returned to drop off the van.

Never a dull moment at The Farm!  Stay tuned.

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants"

What a great day I had today!  Marvin is in the midst of planting our first veggie crop.  He went to Gilroy the other day and purchased a few thousand "plugs" (little bitty plants) of broccoli, artichokes, romaine lettuce, leaf lettuce and red cabbage.  Today, my sister Colleen and I took a "road trip" to Salinas and picked up a few more thousand including green cabbage and cauliflower.  Even though we had rain off and on, it was such a beautiful drive.  The Salinas Valley is known as the "Salad Bowl of the World" because they grow so much of the produce that we all consume.

We have fellows planting our new babies and they are really kicking it! They were able to plant between 2 and 3 thousand today.  Some of our crops will be planted by seed, but this first bunch will be plugs.

When we returned from Salinas, we jumped in the Kabota to view the fields.  The sheep were up near the chickens, just below the fruit orchard.  Marvin wanted them back in a different field for the night.  I know it sounds odd, but he called them and they just trotted back where they were supposed to be.  I call him Dr. Doolittle.  After collecting the eggs (around 75 today), we rode up on top and spotted a herd of about 10 bull elk.  The elk are without their horns right now - they shed them and regrow them each year.  We only know that they are bulls because that is the bunch that hangs out on this property.

It is Valentine's Day and our 35th wedding anniversary, so our daughter Meghan and her fiance Travis took us to The Loading Chute in Creston for dinner.  Amazing food!  check them out at www.myspace.com/loadingchute.

Back home to play with Ben and Angel, then to retire for the night and begin this wonderful lifestyle again tomorrow.

I'll leave you today with my favorite quote by Epictetus who was a Greek Stoic philosopher that lived between AD55 and AD 135: "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants". 

-Kathy

Meet Our Staff

Angel & Ben

Border Patrol

Ben and Angel are Great Pyrenees.  Wayne suggested that they would be a good breed to protect the farm from coyotes and mountain lions.  After researching a couple of dozen Alpaca, sheep and goat farms in California, I found that several of them had purchased their puppies from Randy and Barbara Coleman from Amity, Oregon.  They are located just west of Portland.  My sister Colleen and I took a road trip (1000 miles each way) and picked out our pups.  These are amazing dogs.  They are tireless guard dogs, but can be just as gentle with children.  They work all night and sleep most of the day.  You will get to know more about them later.