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There is still one more fuel break work to be done.  On the south of the house, toward the trail to the spring, the trees & shrubs are still too thick and close to the house for my liking.  So little by little Juan & I cut and pile and sometimes burn.

 

The storm worked perfectly with my schedule today. In the early morning it was just misting in between light rain. Driving up the hill you really only needed your wipers on extra slow.  The fog became pretty heavy at about 500′ elevation and I had to slow down. By the time I made it to the canyon gate it was just misting, not raining. I love walking around in the canyon woods, in that weather. It feels like you are scuba diving. The world  is under a wonderful green canopy over moss and fern covered rocks and trees.  All the amazing shades of greens, yellows, and browns. The wind gently swathing the trees gives the sense of waves.

So instead of staying in the shop to start building the Top Bar beehives I ventured out with Juan to find any over looked patches of Scotch Broom for pulling up. It is amazing how easily the young broom plants pull out of the ground, long tap root and all, when the ground is moist. Winter/spring is the only broom pulling season. When the soil dries out it is impossible to pull even the smallest plants out by their roots. We have made very good progress over the years with beating back the broom. There are now only a few big plant patches – that I know of.  So going around and searching out the emerging broom patches is an important chore.

So with about 30 minutes of grunting and puffing ( and having to take a few breaks to catch my breath ) I moved enough rocks, and a few little bitty boulders, to open a road down to the point, and here is a photo of the truck at the point to prove it.  So after this photo Juan and I dug 20 holes along both edges of the vista rim.  We will plant table grapes in the holes.  Of course the first few years of life the plants will need deer cages.  We gathered the materials for the deer cages and dug the holes today.  Next time, this coming thursday we begin the planting.  Then will come the arbors, and with a little luck a nice deck or at least a nice spot to enjoy the vista in the summer, as well as the winter. 

A wonderful spot for a long view of the canyon is the point down below the YAHB and the pole barn. You may recall that this area was completely over run with scottsbroom. Well after years of cutting and burning and cutting and burning and cutting… the broom is pretty much gone!!! Of course we have to keep the pressure on,  but it is a relief to know scottsbroom can be defeated (without chemical warfare).  Now the point is an easy walk from the YAHB, and is a great spot to hang and contemplate the universe.  Especially on a moonless night!  The night sky is gorgeous! However much of the summer the spot is too hot to hang for much time.   But with a nice deck and grape arbor it would be an awesome micro event center. So that is the plan. Since grapes take a while to get get big enough to offer much shade I want to get those started first!  There will be the whole protection from the wild critters issue but that will be easy with protective cages for the first couple of years.  More on how to protect our plants and animals from the wild critters later, I have a plan. One photos show the vines that will be planted on the point.  They are at this moment heeled in, in the garden.  The other photo shows the point where the grapes and deck will be.

For several months there had been a small leak in the water pipe to the house. It was not really bad and was out past the patio away from the house so I put off addressing it. A few weekends ago I did replace the old leaking shut off valve,  and while I was at it, replaced the pressure regulator.

We had bees once at the ranch. They only lasted a year or two before the bears had a lovely time eating them with out so much as a thank you. Bears do so love honey, and grubs too. While walking around the canyon here and there I run across spots in the ground where a bear has dug out a yellow jackets hive. Yum bears love yellow jacket hives too!  I have been thinking about how to have bees again on the ranch.  Of course there is the option of putting an electric fence around the hives.  But then I think about those yellow jacket hives and wonder how long an electric fence would last with persistent bear pressure. Though I’m sure the bears dug out the yellow jacket hives at night so the counter-attack by the yellow jackets was muted. Yellow jackets aside, my plan is to have an apiary in the fortified carport of the YAHB. My good and most helpful friend Dave Burkland has supplied the talent for the project.  The photos below are from the two Thursdays spent on the project so far. The first Thursday ( Oct. 17th 2013 ) we built a wide bench along the outside wall of the carport that faces the canyon – ( and installed the nice swamp cooler for the YAHB ).   Then last Thursday ( Jan. 16th 2014 ) we hung the large wooden gates that used to be the doors to the entrance of the basement of the house.  ( See I do sometimes save useful stuff to re-use, I just like to hold it to a minimum ).  So the gates are up!  I will finish off above the gates with heavy wire to allow plenty of ventilation for the swamp cooler, and add heavy wire all the way around the bottom of the YAHB.  That should do it. Or at least we will see.  The bee hives will sit on the bench facing the outside wall and I will create a small hole in the exterior wall for the bees to come and go. The carport will also offer some protection from sun and wind and rain. I am planning on starting with one hive this spring when hives are available for sale.  I will keep you posted. Yum honey!

 

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