Farm Journal

We topped up the hay barns on November 15, 40 bales in each. There are three horses eating it. The rains came in force on 12/26, no more vehicles in the back yard until end of rainy season! Last year, I recall that we were able to drive on 12/15.

We got about 2.5 cups of olives from our tree.

After reading, I decided to water-cure the green olives (submerge them in clean water; change several times per day for 14 days or more until bitterness adequately reduced), and to brine-cure the ripe ones (submerge in brine made of 1 T sea salt per cup; stir once per week; ready in three months).

More curing links:

Olive News
Brine is one way to cure olive abundance

With Jessie's help, we brought in two cubic yards of rotted horse manure and shavings today. The manure was gladly donated by Leslie, who has three horses on property a bit similar to ours near Bellevue High School. (Similar in that it's flat, high water, adobe.) Leslie has about 30 yards of barn waste to get rid of, and her neighbor Vern has an exquisite tiny front loader that can put 1/4 yard of manure into our pickup at a time.

Jessie also brought us one yard of cardboard from La Tortilla Factory. Starting by the well house, we placed plenty of cardboard down right over the nasty weeds growing there (including bermuda and kikuyu grass), then shoveled plenty of the manure on top. We plan to leave this lasagne mixture like that until the spring, when we should be able to plant perennials through it.

Today, I planted a Chinese Pistache tree. We had a very pretty juniper tree right behind our house (where Scooty plants the stick to be thrown). But it grew roots into our sewer line, so we had to remove it. Junipers are not known for being pretty, but I had pruned this out of control juniper “up”, in a way that left all the foliage overhead and the branches at human height all bare. It was striking, and we were sorry to see it go. Jessie cut it down for us.

So I planted this Pistache. It doesn’t actually produce nuts, but it gets a flaming color of red in the fall, and it is very tolerant of poor soil, poor drainage, drought, and sun (all of which we have in abundance). It’s right behind the house, where it will produce lovely color for us in the fall, and it will shade Robin’s desk from the morning sun in the summer.

You rushed into the thrift store
Like you were herding just for a kick
Your face strategically marked below one eye
Your fur it was very slick
You had one eye in the mirror
And the other one on the stick
And all the girls dreamed that you’d pull their shirts down
You’d pull their shirts down, and

You’re so vain
You probably think this chair is for you, Scout
You’re so vain
I’ll bet you think this chair is for you, Scout
Don’t you? Don’t you?

Our Easter was quite an event - Bo broke her foot! We got up in the middle of the night to ride our horses through fields and vineyards to sunrise services at the local Salvation Army inpatient rehabilitation center. There were about 25 people on horseback and 200 other attendees.

I stayed on my horse during the service, because that seemed easiest. Bo got off Hunt. At the end of the service, when she tried to get back on, the saddle slipped a little, Hunt spooked a little, and Bo ended up on the ground, foot first. She had to be driven to the emergency room. After breakfast at the center, I rode my horse back to the horse club leading Hunt along with us. It was a very pretty ride now that I could see where we were going (it had been dark and foggy on the way there). I think it was about an hour back to the club.