Trees! and other interesting offerings

In case you were wondering— we’ve been experiencing some technical difficulties around here. Monday night we had an amazing thunder and lightening storm and it took out our wifi router. It’s taken me this long to get things back up and running – with a lot of help from Wi-Power Tech support. So here’s the update for the week~Read on!

Yay! Tuesday we were finally able to get together with Mr. Gary Foss, owner of Oaks of the Wild West, and picked out 20 wonderful trees for the property. We went out around 3:00 p.m. to meet him. I could not believe the property when we drove down the tree lined entrance. It was the nearest thing to a forest as I’ve ever seen here. And what I could see was only the tip of the iceberg! Mr. Foss has been planting trees on his property for the last 20 years or so. Many of the trees that he sells are grown from the seeds of the trees on his property. He has so many varieties of Oaks, Pines, Cypress, and junipers. Plus he has quite a variety of nuts and fruit trees. Many people from around our neighborhood have also been able to pick out trees for their property as well. In a few years it’ll be a veritable forest down ol’ South Stone Ridge Road and Prince Placer!Mr. Foss was so sweet. He asked what we were hoping to accomplish with our trees and, once he learned we were trying to set up wind breaks, he walked us around the property showing us mature specimens of the trees we might like to use. He knew so much about each tree, where it originated, the scientific name, total height and width when mature, water needs etc. He was just over flowing with knowledge and the desire to share it! He spent a good hour and a half showing us the oaks, cypress, junipers, and pines. Finally we chose what we thought would work the best for our property and Sue and Mr. Foss began the long process of extricating the young trees from their growing spots. While they were doing this, I noticed the largest Bay Laurel tree I have ever seen outside of New Orleans! It was absolutely huge!!!! I brought a bay with me from California, but it’s not doing so well. The wind rather burnt it this spring, I’m hoping it’ll come back during the fall and winter. Anyway~ we ended up with some really nice little trees. They are beautiful, and varied, and quite healthy. We’ll talk about where we want to plant them and the way we’d like to have them laid out. We ended up with: 2 Mulberry Trees, 3 Arizona Blue Ice Cypress, 3 Arizona Cypress, 3 Italian Stone Pine, 2 Rocky Mountain Juniper, 2 Red Oaks, 2 Eldarica Pines, and 3 Incense Cedars. I really love all the different colors and textures. And check out the container for the tree at the bottom right… recycled and felted fabric. How cool is that!!! Sue has been busily making wire, gopher-proof, baskets for planting these guys. Maybe we’ll be able to do that sometime this weekend. Although I heard a rumor that we might be having a movie day!

The Week’s Weather: We’ve been getting some interesting weather this week. It makes for lovely skies and great sunsets. Every day I find myself astonished at what God’s changing palette produces. The rain has given us a veritable lawn that Sue is continually mowing – pretty sure I’ve said that. The rate of grass growth is simply fantastic! It literally grows a foot in five days. So, there is always something that is due for a trim! In addition to grass growth, the rain has created some interesting water draining paths. Sue has spent a good deal of time trying to redirect it to lower areas of the property that will help keep it from running down the road. One day, I receive an interesting text that said, “Be careful driving up the driveway, I dug some trenches but the first one is kind of deep. Hit a low spot where the tires have already compressed it.” What? So, I saw this when I arrived. Ah! Now I get it. There are a couple more up the drive as well – directing water either to the left or right depending on the closest area of containment. They do help, and also they help to keep the rain from creating drainage ditches where we don’t want them; like right in front of the driveway gate! Another rain issue: the french drain for the gray water had filled up with mud. Water was beginning to back up into the shower. So, I pulled out the rocks and dug out the mud, but I need to work on putting up a small rock wall around it to keep the mud from washing in… it may also help to keep the dirt from blowing into it during the winds. We’ll see. Always an experiment.

We have lovely views from our back porch; most of the sky shots are taken from there or out in the fields. However, today we had a nice view from another angle. Sue is taking care of our neighbor’s dog, Fritz, while they are away at their daughter’s wedding; tonight I walked down there with her and marveled at their view. Same mountains that we see off to the east, but they have a slightly different angle. The scene was amazing. So I had to take a photo. Sue laughs at me, but I just really like sky shots! Unfortunately, the photos I take just never quite do the scene justice. Maybe if you click on it and see it a bit bigger, you’ll get the idea. That same cloud has moved down to the south east of us a bit and is currently putting on a wonderful lightening display! Never a dull moment here.

Egg Update and Report: OK. So – it’s been a few days since we’ve done the egg report, and the news is great. Production has been really good. Yesterday we had 14 eggs! Today we had 15! We are so ready to sell!!! AND— Roman may or may not have laid an egg. We’re not too sure, but one morning Sue picked up this huge egg – so much bigger than the duck eggs we had been getting. Then, nothing since. BUT! Many geese will only lay 23-35 eggs during a whole year! So I still think its a goose egg. We’re changing her name to Roma or Romie. Here’s the photo of the egg comparison. Goose egg on the left, faerie egg on the right. The order goes: Tufted Roman (Goose), Welsh Harlequin (Duck), Chicken of unknown breed, Easter Egger, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Banty, Faerie. Kinda fun, isn’t it?!