Happenings on our farm

Update: Here's the picture of me feeding Monday, the colt born about three weeks ago with leg problems. He's up and walking around fine, though he has not yet returned to the farm. We will see him again when we head up to Todd's for Animal Feeding this morning. Wyatt is Rodeo-ing this week end, so they are all gone. On the farm, you always have something do feed or water, so neighbors tend to help.

1. Cherry blossoms are already changing to fruit on our early trees.

2. Finally put a fence and rock around this area, the potato and asparagus. Chickens like to hunt for bugs in here.

See, they love the straw!

3. Speaking of Chickens. We now have the white duck from the pond visiting the Chickens. They are all free ranging through the fields.

4. Went to the Farmers' Market Information Session. Farmers' from Sierra will be represented through the summer starting May 16-End of October. We'll be there selling Pecans and other wares from our gardens. Not going weekly, but definitely will try to make at least once a month or more.

5. More of the Cherry Tree row in bloom. The closest tree is part of three that came into bloom just this week, while the farthest trees are already forming fruit in these little furry white packages.

Plants are in bloom, we actually have some fruit and the watering has begun. Things are busy at P and S Farm. We are enjoying the changing season and moving into the "farming" chores that tend to be part of the daily life. This isn't the laid back "idyllic" time that people think of when they think of us in the calm farm away from the hectic city.

This week we planted about 40 trees with about 20 more to go. Butterfly bushes to cottonwood trees and Apache Plume now line our entry way on the creek side. This is an effort to fight erosion and hold the bank in place. The plants were part of the effort by the Sierra County Soil and Water Conservation District. They provided the easy part, the plants. We do grow rocks here and my arms and back have been digging through this to get the plants in the ground. Watering will take place with the help of the sprayer we had arrive just before our trip to Chicago. The sprayer arrived broken, but a quick phone call brought the piece in time to spray zinc for the pecan trees as the leaves are developing. We watered from 7:30 PM Thursday to 7:30 PM Friday April 23/24, 2009. This watering should help the uptake and growth of all the leaves and fruit.

Characters we've met. This is Nacho, the burro over at Todd's who is Comache's buddy. He gives a loud greeting as we head in to the feeding area.
Pam, here's one of the trees we planted when you visited. They all have leaves now. The fig is struggling because 1. we had a late frost and I didn't properly cover and 2. the cattle got through and ate the leaves they did see. It now has new leaves and is doing better, but this is one of the best ones. I'll have to trim some of the bottom leaves off. The tree wrap is loose and will probably go ahead and paint the bottoms. (This reflects the hot sun and protects the young trees from damage such as cracking bark.)

While I didn't take this picture, it is a Snowy Egret. I noticed one down on the creek bed as I was getting algae for mulch for the cottonwoods that I planted for erosion control. Later, we saw him in the pond with the white duck. Not sure, but I think this might just be a stopping ground and not a nesting area for them. We've seen herons and this is related to the Blue Heron we have nesting along our Cottonwoods, but I don't know the Snowy Egret actually nests in this area. Maybe they will this year.

I'll try to post other pictures and updates now that the camera is cleared out.

Other pictures from our farm tour at http://thebountifulalliancem.blogspot.com/