Farmers on Holiday

Yes, even farmers go on holiday. As you can see, Bill is really moving out in the Big Easy. His wardrobe was masterfully planned so that he wouldn't look like a tourist....or a local.

He's enthusiastically in search of good food and interesting sights in New Orleans.

On Bourbon St. we went to Pat O'Brien's and listened to the dueling pianos and tried his famous Hurricane drink in the logo glass shaped like a hurricane lamp.

Then we went to Tropical Isle to listen to a western band and try their famous hand grenade drink. I'm thinking the drink goes well with Bill's WSU sweatshirt. Bill's working hard to keep both eyes open at this point. Mine are starting to slam shut. This is way past our bedtime on the farm!

 Next we went dancing. Can you find Bill bustin' a move?

OK, so that was the Bourbon St. experience. Let's move on.

Here we are in our room at La Belle Maison. When we first arrived late Saturday night, the desk clerk told us we were tardy for the party. Interestingly, we had no windows to the outside. This worked well after our night on Bourbon St. Without natural light, we could sleep in until late in the morning.

This was a delicious brunch at the Court of Two Sisters Restaurant. With our two sisters it seemed like a natural choice. The buffet included such favorites as fresh shrimp in spicy etouffee, duck a l'orange, crawfish Louise, creole jambalaya, and corn grits. For dessert we tried a variety of treats including Southern pecan pie and bananas foster. A jazz trio played during our meal.

A jazz band playing on the street.

Lots of carriages pulled by mules.

This is the Royal House Oyster Bar. The kids showed us how to eat raw oysters here.

If I lived in the city, my balcony would have to be covered with greenery like these.

In this shop, a person can buy a civil war gun. Bill's really checking this out.

This is the St. Louis Cathedral overlooking Jackson Square. The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to visit the Cafe du Monde and try their famous beignets.

Lots of powdered sugar on fried fritters, lots and lots of powdered sugar. This cafe is world famous for its au lait, beignets and people watching.

Bill was definitely worthy of watching. He did this after I "spilled" powered sugar all over his backpack. And yes, he cracked me up. Apparently, Grayson is use to his in laws.

Shyla taking time to smell the roses in Jackson Square.

We had great weather. Grayson is chillin' with Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans.

Here's the family on board the steamboat Natchez. Hey, more on the steamboat later.



Garth

Our Farm Dog

Garth

April 3, 1997 - December 15, 2011

Garth was 14 years and 8 months this month. He had a great summer and fall continuing to do the things he loved like play with his ball, come in the house for naps, bark at Grandma's dogs and romp very slowly on the lawn. Just this week he got very sick. He became too weak to come up the stairs, so we carried him up. He lost his appetite and even the tasty canned food wasn't interesting. His breathing was ragged, and yesterday he couldn't get up. We talked to the vet and made an appointment. When the time came, I rode in the back of the car with him to keep him company. He slept all the way there. Rich came out to the car and gave him a sedative which put him into a very deep sleep. A few minutes later he came out again and gave him the euthanasia solution that stopped his heart. It was a very peaceful ending for Garth. We brought him home and buried him in our pet cemetary next to Mocha. We're going to miss him a lot. He was like Old Reliable on the farm.

Here are some more pictures of Garth, two years ago, playing with Shyla and Grayson's dogs.

There's so much to say about Garthy. I will have to do a seond part to this post later.

Pop Quiz!

You've probably noticed that my blog hasn't exactly been chuck a bluc with farming info in December. Are you guessing that Christmas preparations have been distracting me from my farming career? Busted!

Well, the break's over, my friend. The hot buttered rum's on hold because it's time for a farm quiz. Yep, it's a pop quiz to check your farming savvy. Don't sweat it. Just relax. Maybe try to burp. Maybe try to say a sentence while you're burping as that will distract you from your anxiety. I've seen this work with Bill.


                                          

We were in Ephrata this fall to look at the Royal Reds when we had this opportunity to observe this machine. What does this machine do?

a. cool the workers as they pick

b. communication device between pickers

c. deliver snacks to pickers as they work

d. assist in harvesting apples

Would more pictures help you? OK, I can do that since I have the Christmas spirit.

No, these blue trays aren't for sandwiches. They're for apples.

The pickers are picking into a vacuum tube that pulls the apples along into a water tank before going into an electronic sorter. 

There are 3 men on the machine. One is the operator and two pick. The pickers on the machine are picking the fruit at the top of the tree. There are 2 men picking at ground level. Each of the pickers has a harness with a tube attached to the machine.

Those guys in the sunglasses are the investors of this machine. They were very excited to see it in action as it was being tested in the field. If all goes well, they hope to start selling the machine commercially soon.

The machine moves like a crawler through the orchard row. It works best on level ground as it picks up a bin in front and discharges a full one.

This investor is giving Bill compelling reasons to tell all of his farm friends what a great investment this would be. He didn't share how much it will cost.

This is the computer monitor that controls the sorter portion of the machine.  Not only does the machine deposit the harvested apples into a bin, via vacuum, but it can also sort out defective apples.  The  sorter, controlled by computer, and aided by cameras can actually see bad spots or defects on each apple as it travels under a camera.  This system is widely used by the commercial packing facilities that handle our fruit only on a smaller scale here. The sorting done in the field would save a grower the sorting charges in the warehouse.

Notice the different positions of this one apple.  The camera takes many pictures of each apple.

There are platforms on the machine that eliminate the need for ladders and picking bags. The idea is that this will save time and increase worker productivity.

OK, I'm impressed. You guessed spot on what this machine does. You're a regular Farmer Hoggett!

Do I think this machine will be popular in the Lake Chelan area? No, we have too many slopes.

This could be a hit in the Columbia Basin where there is a lot of flat ground. The mystery of the price will have to be unveiled with cost benefit analysis. Maybe there will be leasing possibilities?

Back to that hot buttered rum!

New Mechanic

Diamondback Acres is going big time. Alex came up from California this week and is here now as our full time mechanic.

He worked part time for us a few years ago, but he needed full time work and housing for his family. We didn't have either, so he left to find work back in California.

Just a week ago Alex called Arturo during our Union Valley planning meeting. We had just stated we needed to find a mechanic and then Alex called, like divine providence. He had just lost his job and wondered if Arturo knew of anything, perhaps something with us? Yes!

Back to Union Valley and the winter damaged Fugis. We met with Gary McMonagle, a grafter, to get his opinion on the damage. After walking around reviewing the history of the orchard and cutting a variety of trunks, we cut down a tree to get a look at the cambian layer. He told us that if there is no cambian layer, there would be nothing to graft to.  Of course, Bill knew this.

We all gazed down on the tree stump to check out the cambian. Yes, indeed there was enough cambian to graft. But not all the trees looked this good.

We cut this one at ground level because it had so much injury above. Gary said this was graftable but taping would be tough, so we would have to dig around the tree to create enough space.

This tree has significant injury on the southwest side of the tree from winter sun/cold damage. It appears the trunks were painted white when the trees were young. Without the protective white paint, the sun can heat the bark/cambian to 70 - 80 degrees on a mild winter day. The night temperature can drop to below 20 degrees causing shock and tissue death.

Bill would like to get rid of the Fugi inner stem, since this is the reason for the overall wimpiness of the trees. Union Valley is a chilly place so even if we could bring these trees back from the dead, there is a chance this could happen again. Getting rid of any Fugi inner stem would mean cutting the trees to ground level.

Gary, being the voice of reason, suggested we go lightly this spring and experiment. He suggested we cut the tops off of the trees leaving a few limbs. We could graft a few of the best and a few of the worst to see how they do before making the big financial commitment of a major over haul. Yay, Gary! Great idea. We want a sure thing, so redirecting our energy to grafting the Golden block makes cents (get it?).

What's that? Hey, that's winterized Leo in his bed with the upgrade for colder temperatures with wind. The pink back drop looks like decor, but it's actually a highly technical flap that comes up and over Leo when the wind picks up. Next to his bed is a bowl of warm water so Leo won't have to walk far to stay hydrated. All of this maintains Leo's status and regal portliness as king farm cat. 

Washington State Horticulture Annual Meeting

Did you know farmers have professional development opportunities? Not all farmers take advantage of them,  but the two in this house sure do. Bill has been attending the Washington State Hort annual meeting since he started farming 23 years ago. I've been attending since I began farming full time 3 years ago. Before that, I attended professional development for teachers. It has been interesting for me to compare the two types of professional development.

Under the sub-heading of similarities, both meet at convention centers with different sessions offered in different rooms. Experts in both fields present with varying levels of success. Meeting etiquette for both farmers and teachers expects all cell phones turned off. They both break daily for an hour lunch. Topics from the mornings presentations usually dominate the lunch time conversation for both farmers and teachers.

The differences would include more men in the farming field and more women in the teaching field. The restroom is always available to me at these farm meetings since I'm in the minority. Teachers will always choose the Olive Garden for lunch with everyone paying their own way. Farmers will always choose any pub/restaurant that makes a hearty sandwich and serves micro brews with the fieldman in the group buying lunch for everybody. Farmers turn off their cell phones or set them to vibrate. Teachers totally forget about their cell phones until they start ringing. The most important difference for me is that my attendance at teaching sessions included background and understanding. Some of my farming session attendance has lacked that, so for example if Bill leans over to say, "write that down," what I write might not be what he hoped for. On the flip side, some sessions are just so simple for even a beginner like me. Professional development for teachers would have that as well.

I have to say the WSU researcher, Matt Whiting has amazing side burns and hair these days. I found it distracting. Not that I'm distractable at these sessions, but I think he has kind of a rock star '80s thing going on. 

Hey, let me share with you some of the highlights of the sessions:

Agribusiness Risk and Opportunity in the Current Global Economy (Michael Swanson Wells Fargo)

• The apple industry needs to unite and organize to reduce redundancy, competition and inefficiency.
• The impact of the economy on farming is that we've had the best 5 years and we should appreciate the volitility.
• A farmer needs to be both a crop manager and financial engineer
• US biofuel policy has had a big impact on price of ag products and land
• Biggest US trade partners -under NAFTA
• Mexico
• Canada
• Price volitility will be extreme, working capital per unit will need to increase, margin management will be key
• More companies looking to be global causing more volitility
• 3 billion people differential for population growth predictions

Strategic Planning: How to Position Your Orchard for the New Global Economy (John McQuaig)

• 8 Keys to the Summit Parallel Peaks - recommended book (his by the way)
• Analogy to mountain climbing
• Vision - shared vision creates power and consistent decision making
• Strategy
• Structure
• The above are inside influences on the farm including: Products & Services; Marketing & Sales; Culture; People-housing; Systems & Procedures; Finance - Review dept/capital
• More analogy to mountain climbing...this guy really preferred to talk about mountain climbing! 

More highlights later with info on the trade show! We didn't win the Rears Sprayer or the John Deere Gator. Carnsarnit!

More Union Valley

Last week involved several meetings as we worked towards making a final decision on the Union Valley acreage. I spent an hour walking through the Honeycrisp block looking at trees and counting sick or missing ones. Before they were grafted to Honeycrisp, they were some variety of Red Delicious. The typical healthy Honeycrisps had a strong central leader and large scaffold limbs that spiraled up the tree.

 

This tree, while small, is not really weak or a problem.  Maybe it was a replant.

This one is more of a concern. You can see the tree is lopsided with good strong growth on the right side of the picture.  The left side is another story.  If you look closely, you can see two stumped limbs.  These two both appear to be sick or dead.  Sometimes when a limb is cut off, rather than send out a new shoot of growth, it dies.   Once the limb dies, the limb will continue to die back retreating towards the main trunk.  This die back is irreversible.  So, leaving it untreated or unattended will eventually kill the entire tree.  This process is slow, taking several years.  The solution is simple.  You must cut the dead limb back to good healthy tissue.  Sometimes you may be forced to remove the entire limb or you may choose to just clean things up.  We suspect that this problem came about when the Reds were grafted to hHoneycrisp.  It is common for at least a few grafts to break out of the limb they were grafted into late in the first year.  The wind is the most likely culprit pushing on the new growth that has grown large by late summer.  The first year the graft union is not very strong and can be broken easily.  Blowouts are uncommon after the first year.  The key is to address this before there are blowouts by somehow stablizing the graft.  Those grafts that do blowout need to be reworked the next spring.  Either regraft them or cut off the entire limb flush with the main trunk of the tree.

Bill wanted me to use the quad to do this assessment but I decided not to because I'm pretty sure I would have froze to the quad and flown by such interesting specimens as the one above. Luckily I had my hand warmer packets that I deployed when the sun went down. With hand warmers in my gloves, I was able to make a tally mark and take a picture.

Meanwhile, Bill was at the Union Valley housing talking to the Manson Grower's employees with the help of our bilingual employee Rodolfo. They were discussing the change of management and future plans. When I finished my task, I walked through the Golden block to join the conversation.

The Goldens still had their leaves, and it was like a deep long corridor of autumness to cross the property to the housing area with the shop.

Once in the shop, I determined that Victor was going to stay to work for us and the rest of the crew would be leaving between now and January 1st. Victor is coming to us with stellar recommendations, so we feel fortunate that he wants to stay with us. He has experience spraying on the steep hillside with the Red Delicious acreage. He also knows the irrigation lay out and the frost control system. All of this will be new to us and our crew, and Victor's expertise will be a huge help.

The housing includes 4 units with 2 bedrooms each. The shop down the road has 3 bedrooms. There are multiple out buildings and a mobile home pad with hook up for power and septic. All of this looks good.

The only part of this plan that has us concerned is the Fugi block. Before I started my Honeycrisp walk through, Bill and I looked at the Fugi block. We saw the winter injury that we've been aware of since last winter, but this time we really looked at it.  We had determined this block needed grafting or reworking of some kind.  It has not been producing positive cash flow.

Notice how the bark is cracked and loose?

Bill broke off the bark and used his Leatherman to cut into the bark and cambium layer to check for living tissue. There were a number of trees in this condition so we're not sure what to expect this spring. We're talking to several fieldmen and Gary McMonagle (our grafter) to get their opinions.

Tomorrow we have the Washington Horticulture Association meetings in Wenatchee. Every year we attend these meetings to get the latest horticulture information and network with other business people in the industry. We've previewed the topics and the sessions look to be good.

Bottling Time!

Today was a great day! It was the first day since Thanksgiving that I didn't have Thanksgiving leftovers. Notice I didn't say "we"? Bill is so hard core. He had his 7th day in a row of a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce.

That's me (or someone like me) praising Bill for his fortitude in eating leftovers. True, I didn't have to cook for a week. But now I'm ruined. I will never be able to eat turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy and cranberries ever again. Bill even took today's leftovers and made cute little TV dinners that he put in the freezer for a day when I'm far away..... far, far away.

Hey, I hate to change the subject, but we need to bottle the festive winter ale for 2 reasons:

1. It's ready.
2. I found the lollies (carbonation drops/priming sugar).

I misplaced my lollies sometime during my Thanksgiving cleaning flurry and today just in the nick of time I found them. The ale does not lie when it's ready for bottling, and today it was finally ready. Ever since Natalie's birthday, November 20th, I've been checking it with my trusty hydrometer.

The beer may not lie but it sure takes it time. Every day I have filled the tube with enough beer to make the hydrometer float. Then I have read on the scale where it cuts the level of the fluid. Today after 18 days it showed it was ready. According to Cooper's (Brain Dead Brew) instructions it should only take 4-7 days. I will keep you posted on how this turns out. Oh, step back non-believers! This is going to be exceptional. I just know it.

So, Bill asked me how I knew it. He asked me if I tasted it before bottling. He thinks there's merit to tasting the green beer because, in theory, if I do this enough times I should be able to identify bad beer before the bottling process. For the record, I went by smell but perhaps a swish in the mouth might merit some data? Adding to the record, it smelled like roasted malt with a hint of chocolate.

This measurement was taken the hectic morning of Thanksgiving, and the beer was not ready. Thank you, baby Jesus. (No, the table's not leaning. It's the tube.)

This morning I had a reading of 1010, so I was ready. Almost...

As you can see, I now have my lollies, and everything is going brewmeister perfect. Each bottle needs 2 lollies to prime it for secondary fermentation.

I've attached the little bottler to the plastic tap. Wow, this so easy. I could be brain dead and still make this brew!

Now just screw on the cap, and invert the bottle 4 times to mix the priming sugar and beer. I'm going to keep the bottled beer in the little bathroom with the wall heater to keep the temperature between 70 and 80 degrees for 7 days, then I'll move the bottles into the pantry to keep them at room temperature. In 14 days we'll be able to open one and try it.

Since Milan can't be here, Bill has generously offered to be chief taster. In fact, his mug is in the freezer getting frosty as I blog this.