Category: Peter's Log

Various Things Worked On This Sunday

Gate To Chicken Coop

Today was Sunday Oct. 16th 2016. Sunday is the day of the week I typically go to the Canyon to get a few good hours of progress or catchup. Today was a nice overcast day, threatening to rain all day but never did. The previous few days of this storm has given some rain, so it sure feels like the beginning of our winter. The wild fire threat in our area is pretty much over. However it is expected to be sunny all next week and things could dry out again, it’s just unlikely to be a wild fire threat. I was carrying the chainsaw back from the shop with a new chain, so on the way down the driveway I could not resist stopping to cut out a few smaller pines and firs that would likely not survive if we had periodic wild fires, as was the case pre-1800s. By taking them out pro-actively we leave more water and nutrients for the rest of the forest life. and reduce the forest fuel load so lowering  the chance of catastrophic scorched earth wild fire.

I need to speed up the reporting here.  I worked on the small gate in the new beer fence ( that is a combination deer and bear fence, it has nothing to do with drinking beer – really ).  I had expected to finish the gate but as so often happens some equipment failure intervenes. The mower got a flat tire, ugh!  Juan is beginning the mowing of the fields.  We wait for the fire danger to be very low, and for the dust from the plants to be settled.

I get the tire fixed and continue with the gate. Time for lunch.  After lunch I decide to secure the beehives against stronger winds in winter storms.  This takes much more time than expected, and the bees are MEAN!  Are they more aggressive because they have more honey and brood to protect, or did they get some wild queen take over! Either way no more working the bees in t-shirts and shorts!

winter mowing
winter mowing

Winter Wood Supply Harvested Just In Time

Yesterday, was Canyon Thursday, Oct. 13th.  I met White Glove Chimney at the Forest Ranch Store so I could guide them down to the Canyon to clean the “House” wood stove and chimney and the “YAHB” wood stove & chimney.  Part of the winter check list. Also last weekend we finished our 2nd load of short dried manzanita logs and stacked them under the pole barn.  Manzanita burns long, and warm.  It actually has a bit fewer BTUs per cord than Live Oak* – but at the Canyon we have LOTS more of Manzanita than Live Oak.  ( I did not know this but here’s a chart)

firewood-btu-charts-btu-of-firewood-cord

So Juan Arturo Gutierez is set for the winter.

We are “harvesting” the Manzanita to the north (up canyon) from the pole barn on the road to Juans’ Trail / Dipper Pond.

Winter 2016 wood supply under the pole barn.
Winter 2016 wood supply under the pole barn.

The 3rd Trail

Just a quick post for now.  I will come back to this post and add and edit later. I am creating a 3rd trail to the creek! There is the trail/road we all know, the one we use to go to the campground near Bear Lake, and there is the trail/road that Juan & I just finished re-establishing last Sunday ( 01/19/14).  We drove the truck to the very end and turned around and drove back out.  Juan & Alina built a foot trail from this roads end down to the creek last summer.

Now we in the process of building a 3rd trail.  This trail will go to the creek directly down from the homestead and be just a walking trail. I have taken several adventurous and strenuous hikes through the bramble and rock outcroppings in search of the “best trail”.  I still don’t have it figured out, but I am getting closer. On this last exploratory “dive” into the canyon I ran across this old wagon wheel hub!!! Pretty cool. IMG_3234 IMG_3235

New Bat Box on Cottonwood by Ann & Bobs pond

New Bat Box on Cottonwood by Ann & Bobs pond

Today I installed a brand spanking new bat box at the Canyon. I bought it last week at the Chico Farmers Market. There is already a small colony in the old bat box on the house. So we are trying to establish another one. Bats need water so I put this box up high on the old cottonwood tree that stands next to Ann & Bobs pond. More about the pond in another post.

Oct. 27th 2011

Another nearly all day opportunity at the Canyon. I had to stop in Forest Ranch first for a little real estate brokerage task. I could go into that another time.  I arrived and Juan was weeding the garlic and onion beds, after that we added about 8 inches of straw mulch. The nights are getting frosty.  I brought some deer resistant plants to finish off the patio terraces. (see photos of plant labels).

I hope the Shasta Daisys do well.

I planted all these along the foot of the middle terrace.  They will hopefully thrive and improve the appearance of the patio and stability of the ground/soil.

I also completed the deer fence around the test pasture. The fenced area takes in a nice old apple tree, so though the deer will be kept out by the fence, the bear will hear nothing of it. – We will just have to put up with it till the apples are gone.  – It won’t be long.  The bears have become quite comfortable around the place according to Juan.  A shot gun blast in the air doesn’t scare him or her off very far and they come right back. (Some times there are more than one).  I am considering getting some salt shot to get a little respect from the bears.  Eventually I can put up some electric fencing.

Nov. 5th 2011 Saturday – Firewood Gathering

It is a good feeling to know you have the firewood gathered for the winter.  All year-long as you go about the business of the Canyon you are in the back of your mind looking for a good place to get firewood.  Last year I found a very nice situation below the old pig corral / now materials depot. This year I found an even BETTER one, still accessible by pick up truck, the perfect situation.  A large limb of a black oak tree, which has aged dead, still in on the tree, falls but only touches the ground in a place or two, so sits another year or so aging, laying just above the ground in such a manner that you just start up your chain saw and cut off the beautiful rounds, that split apart like pistacheo nuts. Hmmmm good.

Arturo and I also fetched a load of old oak from where I had cut some rounds in the spring while clearing the trail along the water line.  This is also the trail to the “Broom eradication site”.   The photo with this entry is our load back from picking up some of those rounds. The wood is ok but not great.  A little too “digested” by being on the ground. I think we’ll let the rest of that carbon stay where it is and slowly become soil. We have better dead wood in other spots. The trail along the water is quite nice now, or at least passable.  We spend a little time each year at improving “the water line trail”.  This spring (2011) the CCC crews spent all their time on the water line trail.  Last spring (2010) the crew focused on the area around the “mine pond” and the “high road”  to homestead. I am happy to say we have the Broom Infestation “on the run” .  Of course every year time will need to be spent pulling up fresh seedlings and cutting re-sprouts of “too-big-to-pull-old plants”,  and searching and attacking smaller isolated stands.  BUT the big infestations have been hit very hard.

Couple of loads of oak rounds from the "Trail To The Spring".

July 3rd 2010

This Saturday was a treat.  I knew I was going to be able to spend nearly all day at the Canyon so I got a early start. I didn’t have any errands to run or things gather to take up, so by 6:30 am I was on the way up the hill.  Of course I did have to buy Juan a coffecito.  It is such a treat to enjoy a cup of “store bought” coffee with Juan as we walk around the place first thing while Juan shows me all the work he did.

Juan shot another rattlesnake this week.  That makes two so far this season (summer).  Last season Juan shot a total of ten in the season. There are far fewer this season, understandably.  The first kill of the season was near the satellite dish post in garden, this last kill was in the stack of boards under the pole barn.  Last year Juan mistakenly killed a Gofer Snake, and I am sad to say a King Snake.  I have explained to him now the value and importance of a healthy snake population (we want the “good” snakes).  He gets it now.  I keep reminding him.

There are so many things to “work on”  that I have really put little time into vegetable gardening, but I started a book by Steve Soloman, Gardening When It Counts – Growing Food in Hard Times, and it is already a great help to me.  It has spurred me into just getting started.  So today I went into the basement. Rummaged through the box of seed packets and pulled out a bunch of pumpkin seeds, acorn squash, beets, & sunflower seeds.   I planted the pumpkins on the vinca pile, the beets in the old herb garden, the sunflowers along the garden fence by the entry gate and the acron squash near the pile of rocks.  Like all things I will learn as I go.

Sunday January 17th 2010

It is raining gently here in Chico but I can expect at least twice the rainfall is happening at the Canyon.  Juan called yesterday asking that I bring up a few things for him from the store. 1. a pound of Carnitas, 2. 8 pancitos (little cupcakes) and of course un coffecito.  I always bring him a cup of coffee from Starbucks or Peets with lots of cream and sugar. I expect that today will be mostly inside work due to the rain. I can move a few things out of the house in to the YAHB to continue preparing the house for “weekend guests”.