Winter Farming

Our hired guys got a pruning break a couple of weeks ago because of the snow in the trees. The wind and sun kicked in this past week to clean all of the snow out of the limbs so the guys could resume their work. Gonzalo is pruning a Red Delicious tree at the Union Valley block.

This is on the hillside facing the lake. Cuco and Bill were commenting on the abundant fruit buds.

Cuco is in charge of the pruning crew since Arturo has not yet returned from Mexico. He's doing a really good job being the temporary crew boss. 

We've had a solid group of 11 guys pruning for us beginning in December. The amount of acreage we have will keep them in steady work throughout the year. 

These reds will probably go to Manson Grower's Cooperative and be sold over seas (exported).



This is Alex our smart new mechanic. Here he's working on Triangle C's John Deere 2240 . This tractor was purchased new by Bill's dad, Ernie, in the mid 70's when Bill was a senior in high school.  It served as the primary farm tractor for many years.  It has needed a rebuild for a long time. 

It's just fabulous all the equipment Alex has repaired so far! Another example, Bill's Nissan truck has had a sticky clutch since the day he bought it seven years ago. I'm not going to lie, I have always avoided the Nissan since shifting causes whiplash. Now, thanks to Alex, it shifts like butter. Yay! Our necks are going to last longer, and I'm not going to miss hearing Bill's string of obscene truck names everytime he shifts.

Alex, cleans and preps for new sleeves, pistons and the works.

This is a picture from last November of the worker housing in Union Valley. Manson Grower's Cooperative employees have vacated so we're working on cleaning, repairing and painting. Rodolfo will be in charge of this block of housing: Check in and out, Repairs, Monthly filter changes, etc.



In December Rodolfo and Victor cut down the 7 acres of failing fugis in Union Valley. We've established there are ~ 4 acres that are healthy enough to graft. Should we graft them to galas, Kanzi or .....? We'll be meeting with fieldmen in February to gather information for a decision.

Every January we meet with our accountant to give her the prior year's financials. Our accountant is uber colorful, and of course this is her dog, Pandora. The tax season is Pandora's opportunity for lots of sugar from the clients.

This was such a fun read that I just have to recommend it! It's a memoir about a successful New York city writer, Kristin Kimball, who abandons her career to farm. She really is a good writer, and her farming story is so intense!

Here's an essay she wrote for GourmetLive that you can check out.

Food + Cooking: Gourmet.com

She's opening the daylong Small Farms Conference at Oregon State University, February 25th. The conference will cover 21 topics including, Writing about farming! I hope we can make it.