I've been here a little over a week now, beginning to get a feel for this place. My lungs are getting accustomed to this clean, high elevation air and I have a lot of things to look forward to here.
The work has been fairly simple. Its mainly self directed. There are areas of the Orchard that have been neglected more than others, and its just kind of a, "Do something positive for the orchard" mind set when it comes down to working. Lately that has consisted of maintaining, cleaning out, and deepening some of the irrigation ditches that provides this place with water. Just providing a defined path for the water to flow, adding berms where necessary and just a little bit of hard work has payed off tremendously as we've noted a massive decrease in flooding the orchard and yard this time around, as opposed to last Sunday when the water was ran. Last time was a hectic 22 hour work day for Nick, who basically ran around checking all the different valves, opening this one, closing that one, blocking this, directing the flow this way, etc. He did a great job, but due to neglect of the property in the past (from the old care taker) the water doesn't flow like it should. Basically, this time around water ran exactly where it was supposed to, with minimal problems. (Which have been noted and will be corrected by Friday, when we run more water).
It hasn't been all ditch work, though. A lot of work has gone into the garden this week as well. We have 20, 16X4ft organic garden beds enclosed in a fenced in / shade clothed area which are fed by a drip system and sprinklers. The garden structure was already created, with most beds planted when I arrived, however since then we've gotten around to planting the rest of the beds, mulching in between all the rows, spreading grass seed in between all the rows and tightened the shade cloth as the Peacocks just love to walk around on it. They're constantly peering within, wishing they could (and they would, if given the chance) to devour everything inside.
Its early in the season, but already have radishes, carrots, broccoli, different lettuce types, corn, squash, tomatoes, beats, peas, edible ground cover, perennial flowers, etc, etc all coming up. I expect to see a lot of growth these coming weeks from the garden.
I am interested in introducing some Dwarf-Cavendish Banana trees to the property. A good commercial variety that will thrive in our desert climate. It bears bunches of up to 90 bananas, all slightly shorter than what you're accustomed to in the grocery store. I'm going to do a bit more reading up on the matter, but all in all I wouldn't be surprised if some banana trees are being shipped this way in the coming month or so.
Nick and I decided to "remodel" the chicken coup. Happy chickens, make for a lot of eggs. I think that was our initial thinking. It started off with climbing on top of an unstable caged structure, removing heavy brush and throwing into the truck below. The roof has been about 60% cleared (its roughly about 24X24ft), but after a little over watering in the field bordering it, it became inaccessible with the truck. So we stopped working on the roof (where we were going to remove the brush, tighten the fence roofing, apply shade cloth and fix the raccoon trap), and concentrated on the inside. We dumped quite a few loads of the home made mulch mix inside, and learned quickly we can just leave our rakes in the shed. The chickens immediately jumped on every pile we dumped and began spreading it out, pecking through it eating on all the insects that lived within. Made for simple work. While inside, I was able to get a decent estimate on the egg count. Roughly 4 to 5 dozen eggs. We have no plans on eating them, and I've noted several birds actually caring for them so I suppose soon we will have a lot of little chicks running around.
Apparently we once had near 100 chickens, then a raccoon slaughtered most of them. We have about 20 now, give or take. One thing the three of us had talked about doing is separate them, and get some good egg producing breeds here so we can stop buying eggs. Just another step towards total self sufficiency, I suppose.
Earlier in the week we spent a day draining the pool, cleaning it, and filling it back up. Also that day, we loaded up a hot tub that was on the far side of the property just getting overgrown with. I should first fill you in on what area of the property this was at. Its over by our bee boxes, so i'm used to hearing them buzz. But while Nick and I were scrubbing the inside, Nick says to me, "Stop what you're doing and slowly get away." Right before he said that, I noticed how loud the buzzing had become. Thirty feet or so away from where we were cleaning the hot tub, live thousands and thousands of bees. Best to not bother them.
Later that day we got the John Deere out and backed a trailer up as close to the tub as possible and loaded it up. It needs minimal work, some new tubing and Ben knows how to do the rest, but all in all it cleaned up nice and will be a nice thing to have here.
Its not all work out here, though. Today I'm taking it easy. Walked around and checked the boxes this morning, seeing where water is and had been flowing, making sure our ditches and berms have held up (and they did). Made a couple mental notes of areas of the property that need some attention, and went back inside to cook some breakfast. Eggs, toast, bacon, and honey from our own bees. Pretty good way to start the day.
Only "work" done today, was moving a canoe from Pond 3, with the help of Ben, and washed it out nicely and relocated it to Pond 5 so I can row around for exercise and something to do. Pond 3 is one of our medium to large ponds, but with a thick growth on 3 sides of it. It has a large island in the middle, with growth around the edges but bare in the middle. The center island is a nice little fishing spot, but also home to about four or five geese nests. Pond 5 is similar in size, only with a very small center island and no growth immediately it. Its also visible from the house, so if I happen to be rowing around and tip, I feel as if I have a less chance of dying in this pond, haha.
Well, tomorrow my Nikon D60 should arrive and I will begin shooting photos of the place and posting them here. Aside from living on this organic orchard, its also a bird sanctuary / refuge. The peacocks follow you around, they're always curious. While operating the wood chipper the other day, I had one about three feet from me the entire time just kind of wondering why I'm making so much noise. The white geese are nice to look at, but like to get close to you and hiss while you're attempting to get their feed. The Canadian Geese mainly stick to the ponds, but they waddle around on the land and in the lagoon. They're usually on the shores of the ponds waiting to be fed in the mornings, they know whats up. The mud ducks are probably my favorite out here, but they're much too skiddish. I can never get very close to them. The turkeys always travel together, normally 10 or so at a time I'll see come up and feed. Witnessed a very exciting turket fight the other day, it was pretty intense. There are quite a few big ones, its making me look forward to Thanksgiving this year ;) Aside from that, there are Quail, just "plain ol' ducks", Herrings, etc, etc. Just a lot of birds, really.
This has become a long ramble, but I figured I'd post an update that was longer than a few lines. Will be traveling to New Mexico in the coming month to examine an adobe house owned by my employer and to further explore the possibility of starting an earthbag project here or there.
Photos soon!
