Day 2 at the new house. Wife was feeling rough with a migraine, so I got my yard work on.
I was doing some vine removal when I observed our Asian pear tree (or apple-pear tree) under a lot of heavy stress with branches sagging badly with fruit. I decided to do a mini harvest. Never harvested fruit before. I just kind of shook the tree and used a rake to thin the higher up fruit and dead leaves. Except for the pears that hit the hard-scape, or fell on my head, the rest of the fruit ended up being ridiculously good and undented. Crisp like an apple but inside like a pear. I gave a bunch to my new neighbor who let me borrow some of his landscaping tools for the day and still ended up with a bankers box full. I either need to figure out a good way to store them or just start giving them to all my neighbors.
My google history for through the day was like:
"how to remove vines from bushes"
"how to make compost"
"what are apple pears"
"how to harvest apples"
Fun times. The red delicious apple tree seems like it needs to be the next one thinned out.
GORDON wrote: I.have a ginormous apple tree. I usually make one killer apple pie each fall. I'd make more but that's just lots of sugar and I would eat them.
Cider is also good, but I don't know you have enough fruit there to make it worth the trip.to a press.
Rad - I think you are right about not enough to press for the small pear tree. The big boy in the front yard seems like it could be worth doing cider with - I haven't figured out what kind it is. How do you harvest a tree that is 3-4 stories tall anyway?
GORDON wrote: I.have a ginormous apple tree. I usually make one killer apple pie each fall. I'd make more but that's just lots of sugar and I would eat them.
Cider is also good, but I don't know you have enough fruit there to make it worth the trip.to a press.
Rad - I think you are right about not enough to press for the small pear tree. The big boy in the front yard seems like it could be worth doing cider with - I haven't figured out what kind it is. How do you harvest a tree that is 3-4 stories tall anyway?
GORDON wrote: I.have a ginormous apple tree. I usually make one killer apple pie each fall. I'd make more but that's just lots of sugar and I would eat them.
Cider is also good, but I don't know you have enough fruit there to make it worth the trip.to a press.
Rad - I think you are right about not enough to press for the small pear tree. The big boy in the front yard seems like it could be worth doing cider with - I haven't figured out what kind it is. How do you harvest a tree that is 3-4 stories tall anyway?
Have been battling the raccoons since I took possession of the house. Fuckers are rolling up the sod like a yoga matt at 3AM to eat bugs. Put some netting down - they just rolled the sod up on the outside edge of the netting. More netting + cinder blocks + some all-night lighting has slowed them down. This was the first morning without having to wake up and repair sod damage.
Orchards keep their trees trimmed to the pickers don't need tall ladders to harvest... that's an insurance liability thing, not a concern for the mexican migrant workers.
My tree was tall when I brought the property, so I bought a telescoping fruit picker. It is time consuming, but fuck it. The best fruits seem to be up high, anyway. Farther away from ground bugs and fungus, maybe (I dont spray my tree).
Troy wrote: Have been battling the raccoons since I took possession of the house. Fuckers are rolling up the sod like a yoga matt at 3AM to eat bugs. Put some netting down - they just rolled the sod up on the outside edge of the netting. More netting + cinder blocks + some all-night lighting has slowed them down. This was the first morning without having to wake up and repair sod damage.
I know how to make a cruel, fucked-up raccoon trap if you're interested. Put then you need to swing a sledge at their head (since they don't allow guns in hippie-ville).
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Troy wrote: Have been battling the raccoons since I took possession of the house. Fuckers are rolling up the sod like a yoga matt at 3AM to eat bugs. Put some netting down - they just rolled the sod up on the outside edge of the netting. More netting + cinder blocks + some all-night lighting has slowed them down. This was the first morning without having to wake up and repair sod damage.
I know how to make a cruel, fucked-up raccoon trap if you're interested. Put then you need to swing a sledge at their head (since they don't allow guns in hippie-ville).
Been trying to figure out why the crawlspace was so damp. Plenty of ventilation now and not much surface water coming during in the dry season in California.
Then my dog got skunked, twice, this weekend. So I started pest proofing my shed, among other things. First step was digging a trench around the shed and filling it with gravel to keep burrowing creatures out and to support the hardware cloth to cover the air gap.
So I got digging and ended up hitting water at about 12 inches down, at the corner of the property on the high side of the slope. Looks like an underground spring of some sort. I've begun digging a drainage ditch downhill to the street. Right now it's just 18-24 inches of gravel, but I'm going to pick a low-spot soon and put a catch basin and add some perforated pipe to get the eventual surface water.
Not sure yet, think it's a spring. High water table and lots of big trees in the area. I called the county, who took it seriously, someone will be over to assess this morning.
GORDON wrote: Also, if this is a problem, pretty much no way previous owners didn't know bout it. It's illegal to not disclose something like that.
We knew it had drainage issues. We took it as-is and still fought off multiple offers, including cash, to get it.
Too much great stuff not to. We will fix what needs fixing. An underground spring coming up in the backyard explains some of the garden-of-eden type shit in normally water starved California. I'll take it once we get a good drainage system in place.
You should incorporate it into a water feature that will always replenish and slowly overflow into a cunningly placed drain, ensuring you always have a clean pool.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
