Olives 2018

We once again went to our neighbor's farm and picked olives. There was a bit of a twist this year, though: we picked 958 pounds (with the help of some friends) and took it to an olive oil press to be magically turned into olive oil!

Rachel & Anthony had decided not to harvest this year, but told us we could come and pick what we wanted. After discussing various options with them, we thought we'd give a try at seeing if we could get enough to bring to the press. We even had enough to pick a bucket just for curing as table olives.

We started by hand, but found it way more efficient to use the electric rakes (imagine a long rake with tines that wiggle). Huge thanks to the Newmans and the Foley-Maddoxes for joining us and making this happen!

County Fire

It is once again fire season in California and this time we've already been impacted. The dramatic County Fire, which started on June 30th, burned through our property in the Capay Valley on July 1st. The fire started near our property, but for the first day the wind blew in the other direction. We happened to be up at the property with some friends that day, and soon decided to evacuate back home. 

When the winds shifted on the second day, the fire jumped the containment lines and came through our property. Remarkably, only one yurt was destroyed and a pop-up tent was damaged. The firefighters bulldozed fire lines and sprayed fire retardant and water. They were able to completely protect the barn, our yurt, our water tank, the bathroom shed, another shed, and the bee hives. 

On July 4th we went up with Eugene and Mark to evaluate the situation. The fire was still burning just north of our property, but there was very little left on our property to burn.

The oaks on the lower part of the property were mostly browned on the bottom. The trees and shrubs on the upper part of the property, where it was primarily chaparral, were completely burned. The grasses throughout were burned. And dead trees and logs burned to white ash. In the end, it's all probably the best for the vegetation, which is adapted to being burned. I hear we can expect a beautiful wildflower season next spring! And this should open up the "back 40"--a portion of the property that we were never able to access because of the thick chaparral. 

Still MORE Spring Break!

Found these photos on my phone. I think this really is the end of what I have!

More Spring Break

Just found more pictures from Spring Break! Most of these were taken by Molly, playing around with camera settings and the amazing scenery. The dog is Eve, and belongs to the person who came to help with some wiring in the barn. Our Berkeley neighbors, Sam and Tina and their daughters joined us, too. The last set is from a walk we took up to the front hills. Molly may be a teenager, but she couldn't resist the urge to roll down the hill!