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I tried really hard to take Saturday off. By "off" I mean to do something I -wanted- to do as opposed to something I felt I -needed- to do.  Wanted = put a raised garden bed together.

My original idea was to build two 3' x 12'  in the 1' deep "pit" that Dave dug for me. The depth was dictated by the "good" garden soil over a clay base. When I looked at that "pit" and thought about the clay bottom, I got nervous. In winter it would be a soggy morass without a trench dug to the downhill side, and even with the ditch the garden soil would get soggy.  So I changed course and put the bed up out of the pit.  My plan then was to load good garden soil into the raised beds and add a layer of mushroom compost.  With the first shovel full of garden dirt I noticed the roots of field bindweed in the dirt. I had seen the bindweed in the garden but not realized the extent of the problem. Bindweed is a horrible pest, will sprout from a 2 inch bit of root and has a seed life of 50 years. Once a plant is established (and in  the Ukiah garden bindweed is well established) it takes 3 years under plastic to kill a root, or you can spray with Roundup, probably multiple times. So.  I guess I'll spray this year, and possibly next year as well, in addition to taking all the other precautions needed to root out young plants.
While building my first 3' by 12' planter I spent a full day bent over the wheelbarrow picking out even tiny bits of root from the soil.  Eventually I decided it wasn't worth the effort and quit.  The rest of the box was filled with beautiful, aromatic mushroom compost into which I have now planted the tomato plants.

Down at Howell Creek I began marking plant placement and weed whacking.  Last year the grass was so high I couldn't see the little plants, but this year lack of water makes things much easier to see. All the shrubs still seem to be in very good shape. In deep "pool" areas the creek still shows damp gravel, so the water level isn't that deep. I'm torn between getting drip irrigation going early and letting the plants extend themselves to get roots deep down toward water.  If they can get really good root growth they won't need my puny drip irrigation but till then it is essential. On the other hand I don't want to stunt or kill plants that need water, and this year will be a terrible year to be without water.

The horses, in their dusty corral, are getting better and better behaved.  When I go out to feed they solicit petting and move briskly out of my way - oh and they don't chase each other around either.  CD is still trying to put a nose in through the gate, but we are working on that!

Through all this activity I have been weaving phone calls about Echo.  There was a family meeting on Saturday late afternoon that I declined to be part of. Emotionally I was not ready to deal with the entire family and Echo.  Yesterday and today I've been getting reports. Apparently I was missed by our half of the family anyway.  I'm putting out a proposal to the family tonight suggesting that I open and close the cabin for the fee that the family was willing to pay someone else to do the job. It would be a very good deal for them to take.

Judith asked why the area at the Red Barn needs such a lot of work. Here is my very long winded answer.

The whole Red Barn area, the flat bits anyway, are a floodplain. Two streams, Red Barn Creek and Howell Creek mostly bring gravel, sand and rock down from the hills and deposit them. The soils on our place, going up more than 1,000 feet are highly erodible and all look as if they were old streams or possibly lake beds. Some of the areas are really high in Serpentine. Here is what Wiki says about Serpentine:
Soils derived from serpentine are toxic to many plants, because of high levels of nickel, chromium, and cobalt; growth of many plants is also inhibited by low levels of potassium and phosphorus and a low ratio of calcium/magnesium. The flora is generally very distinctive, with specialised, slow-growing species.

So this area, with its 100+ year old barn, ( Read more... )

Tazlina is terrified of fireworks. Perhaps some day she will get better - she is good at getting over her fears - or perhaps not. She managed to get over the thwock sound of tennis balls being hit, and the percussive sound of basket balls hitting the ground, both of which used to send her bolting for safety. Fireworks send her bolting for the door, tail between legs. San Francisco has LOTS of fireworks on 4th of July, so we took her to Ukiah where fireworks are banned due to the very dry summer conditions. Tazzy did OK, there were some distant booms, which made her tremble with anxiety, but she was willing to curl up next to the bed and let me comfort her - which is progress from blind panic.

Just because I don't have enough to do I scheduled appointments in Ukiah on Tuesday and Thursday. One was with Shelley (again) and her geologist, to look at the stream restoration project and get one more opinion. The other was with the EQUIP folks, Hannah and Erin. Erin was very much in charge, Hannah is very young and very new in this office. We had a good time.

Only two and a half days before M and I leave for Alaska!

Monday Mar 28th
Spent most of the day in the garden pulling weeds and setting rocks.

Tuesday Mar 29th
The "Lobby Power Upgrade Project" (as separate from the "Front Of House Dimmer Project") is my plan to improve our rather grand "Main Lobby". Here is stock photo, in which it is hard to see all the gold leaf gilding that covers the ceiling. http://sfwmpac.org/gallery/gallery_popups/oh_015.html
The Lobby is fabulous, grand, echo's badly and has almost no power. Every single party planner who walks through the door decides they should gild-the-lily by putting lights at the bottom of the columns. The want a microphone and a couple of speakers and are horrified to find that we will not allow cables to be taped to the marble floor (it damages them). I have spent the last year making an elaborate plan to add power behind every pillar pair, along with microphone and speaker in/outs. We had model boxes made to demonstrate the "worst case" scenario to the big boss. We set the boxes out, I brought along diagrams and we waited to see if Beth would approve them. Changes are a big deal in a historic building... But then the Board of Directors really want all of the temporary cables that regularly festoon the lobby to go away. We now have permission to proceed with the project!! YAY!!

Wednesday Mar 30th
More garden "work". After ignoring the pile of bricks at the back of the garden for a couple of years I began the long process of setting more bricks along the path to the Shed.
Went climbing.
Looked at new toilets. Our old one (which is NOT old, just not functional) wasn't ever a good toilet, and sometime last week it became intolerable. Next week we change it out.

Thursday Mar 31st
Off to Ukiah where a FREEZING wind was blowing, it was raining or hailing in a very off and not much on pattern. M and I bundled up and cleaned Big Red the pickup. The bed was full of several months of project pieces that needed sorting and putting away. Found 5 left hand gloves. Wonder where the right hand ones are?? Truck is much more useful now.
At about 5:30 I did a "good dog test" with Mandi and Tucker. Mandi showed that Tucker could indeed follow directions, and Tucker proved that he is a big, chubby, chocolate lab who isn't interested in much besides going along with his "pack" for some exercise. Mandi will be moving her horse to my pasture next week.

Friday April 1st
I've been -talking- about planting willows and oaks for years. Friday I thought I'd get off my duff and actually -plant- something. The first step was to cut some willow wands to plant. On the entrance road to the Ranch House there are a couple of willow thickets. Willows regularly have to be cut back from the road. I got out the trusty chainsaw and began waving it around snipping willows, blackberry, wild grape, and generally creating open space where nature had intruded. Eventually M said firmly: Ok, do you want to play with your chainsaw or your horse? I agreed that the horse won...
We planted 7 willows before I got my time with Joe. We used the auger on the tractor to dig down 4 feet, getting the base of the willows down to the current water table. I sure hope they can grow roots fast enough to follow that water down. One hole turned out to be entirely in gravel and sand. I thought it might be worth it to fill the hole with compost from the barn-cleaning piles. That might or might not be the right solution. On one hand it gives the willow fabulous nutrition, on the other hand it -discourages- the willow from sending roots off seeking food and water somewhere else. I'll be really interested to see how many, if any, of these plants live.

Joe was really good this week. We worked a on the ground for a while. I did a Monty Roberts exercise for the second week. It involves taking the rein from the opposite side over the horse's back and asking for a head turn. As soon as a turn is given the horse gets a big release. Joe had that one down. The next step was to take a step sideways with his back feet. He is now pretty solid with that move (but only in one direction, the other is still shaky). I think it helps teach him that he that he -can- get a big release if he figures out the right answer.
We walked out to see the new willows. Several of them have a tan, plastic sleeve over them to discourage bugs and rodents from eating them. Classic Joe: he wandered out until he was about 10 feet from one, did a double take, sat back on his haunches with front legs stretched forward, nose down, ears pricked and stood there attempting to convince me that this was a horrible, horse eating item. Silly boy. Typically he made no attempt to run away, just used extreme body language to tell me what he thought.
I love my new violently pink mounting block, it allowed me to slide my leg over Joe's bare back with no fuss. Not that Joe fusses about mounting, but -I- fuss about jumping up and down in prep for throwing myself over his unsaddled back. This is getting more important as I get older, and Joe gets taller. I -think- he grew another inch in the last couple of months.
Training wise Joe is SO hard to read. It seemed, this week, that he was nervous about my cues. We did really slow, very simple things such as walk, stop, walk, stop backup. We did a couple of easy, bending circles. One little circle then a long stop with lots of petting. More than 3/4 of the way through our short session he began licking and chewing which I took as a good sign. I dared to try a turn on the forehand, a move he had pretty much learned last year. He gave a really nervous sidepass step. I petted him. He stood there quite tense for a moment before beginning to relax. The next time I asked I got a lovely turn on the forehand. It was pretty clear that he couldn't quite remember all that stuff from last fall, that it all kind of jumbles together. I know that feeling! Certainly this week he was -really- trying to do what I asked. Next week I'll try more of the same and see if I get a good response or if he just tries to take advantage of the situation.


Today:
Two performances of Ballet. Gotta run do aisle light check.