Farm and Garden 2009 season

Summer tiger lily

A melon starting to grow

What's left after the gopher

Taking a rest

Heading home

Three days of wood gathering

Becca & Rosie ready for shearing

Very short corn

The season started out with getting the orchards pruned, some burning done in the forests, and fence repair. Thanks to the help of interns Michelle and Eileen for enduring the snow, rains, and sun in March and April with these projects. We adopted a Nubian goat named Cloe in April from our neighbors who passed away. Our plan is to breed Cloe this coming season for milk and babies in 2010. With the exceptional endeavors of interns Giselle and Gavin from late May through June we got the garden mowed, weeded and planted.  And that's not all, Gavin and Giselle took care of the farm while we stole away on a much needed vacation. Here are some stories and photos of their stay. steak and berries

We had only one artist stay this season and overall not many guests visiting. It was a quiet summer except for the increasing impacts of other farmers over the years and really feeling it close to home this year. What is that noise? What is that strong skunk smell that hung in the air for two months? The impact is the industrial herb farmers taking over the hills with their bulldozers, huge greenhouses, big trucks, golf carts, motorcycles, generators and guns. Any meadow is a nice spot for their 40 x 100 foot plot. We are sad to see these industrial practices spread through out the hills of California.

We had a dry summer with hungry birds, gophers, bugs, and voles eating all our tender greens. The squashes and melons did well this year with over a hundred pounds at harvest. The corn did not do so well as it went in the ground late and flowered early, the above photo is it going to flower early August at just 2 feet high. We trained our goats to carry packs and headed out for a three day trip with them in the Yolly bolly wilderness. They did great with hauling all our gear and felt at home more off trail then on it.

We started into the fall season with eating good from the garden, lots of apple crisps coming out of the solar oven, sheering the Angora goats, and starting in on the firewood gathering for the winter. We had some well needed rains in October which freshened the creek that was getting to a trickle. Thanks Becca for all the help with firewood, shearing, and apple harvesting, known as the intern who read the most books in a two week stay. Late October found us finishing up the apple harvest and juicing them for cider. Thanks Rebecca for the harvesting of apples, flax, and wheat, firewood gathering, fence repair, and the best souffle ever. And with the help of the Vermonters more firewood was gathered and the old sauna house dismantled with the parts stacked ready for rebuilding.