Rains Arrive on Schedule

It is late October, and the rains have come. In our area it starting drizzling on Thursday night, and only increased into a downpour Saturday night and much of Sunday. The land was pretty parched, so, the water is much appreciated. This first big rain always is the prelude to winter time changes. Next week daylight savings time arrives and then the short days and cool dark nights follow. The orchard goes to sleep and the farmers go to rest. On Thursday, just hours ahead of the rain, I spent the day shooting the elevations on the spot where the tractor barn will be built. I was a bit surprised to find there was almost a three foot difference from side to side. My eye would not have predicted that. Of course it is difficult to judge these things on a mountain side. But, I fired up the Kubota and began the task of moving earth and leveling the site. After maybe four hours of persistence, I finally agreed with myself to let it be until another time. Once the rains pack the loose dirt down I can re shoot and see what else needs to happen. Funny thing happened on the way to my barn. By the end of the day, the entrance had moved 90 degrees to the north. The east side, where I thought the entrance would be, now has a two foot drop. That won't make for a pleasant entrance, so it makes sense to turn the building one rotation and go with the flow. Sometimes things like this surprise us, but generally I find there is a reason, if I am just open to the experience. Now we wait, but still, I have visions of forms and a cement truck and trowels finishing the concrete, so that the next phase of building can be addressed. For any physical manifestation, there is much mental activity in the form of planning that must happen first. When that is complete, the physical shape can take form.

Apple Time Again!

It is so perfect that as the summer fades away, and I begin thinking about fall and the change of the season, nature begins to give her gifts of so many delicious apples. She starts with the Gravensteins and goes on to the Liberties and the Golden Delicious. I am so lucky because the apples generally don't have worms. I don't know if the mouths haven't found this spot because it is so isolated, or maybe it is just an inhabitable spot, but for some miraculous reason the apples are yummy and have no infestation. The water seems to have held out this year, and everything is still pretty perky. We've had a couple of light rains, but the ground is still hard as a rock. Last week I took the tractor and dug a test hole in an area where I have wondered for years if there was a spring just below the surface of the ground. No such luck. I found the clay that the water flows through in the winter and spring, but it was as dry as a bone. OK, now we know the truth! I have been doing some repair on the ferro cement tank, as it has multiple leaks in it. I won't know until winter if the repairs are effective or not. I also would like to spend a day leveling the ground where we want to put the tractor barn. Now that I have a transit, I should be able to get the area fairly level. That will be fun, and it may happen as soon as this coming Thursday.