Fire History, Redux

Monday was the 6-year anniversary of my first break from fire fighting mayhem, when I got to go to the beach for an evening, cool down, and breathe fresh air…then right back to the fire watch. Today is the 6^th year anniversary of our first visit by firefighting professionals for that CZU Lightning Complex Fire maelstrom. After a call to 911, CALFIRE came with a helicopter to put out a conflagration down in the Molino Creek canyon where a few old growth redwoods remained. Satisfied that the spot fire was out, they left us to our own patrols, again. It would be two weeks before the evacuation order was lifted.

Another Tropical Storm – Lightning?!

We’ve got our eyes on the possibility that the remnants of Tropical Storm Iselle will spin our way with lightning and “erratic” winds sometime in the next couple of days. It isn’t quite as hot as it was prior to the storm in 2020 (back then, it was 105F) – the heat wave only got to 92F today, probably a bit hotter tomorrow and the next day. Please, let it not get hotter than that! 20 percent humidity – dry, dry air, drying out the vegetation, preparing it to burn. 

Other Fires

The fire to our South, lit by a camp stove accident, The Timber Fire, has been burning for 17 days…now at 19,000 acres and 20% contained. We watch and sometimes smell the smoke, which makes for pretty sunrises and sunsets. The warm weather accompanies clear views, so we get to see the smoke plume spike skyward miles away, down in Big Sur. The smoke then spreads inland, a broad gray smear stretching East.

Fire Work

Iselle is the third tropical storm to threaten a repeat of 2020 – we expect more this super El Niño year. That anticipation makes for consistent scuttling to prepare for the fire – there’s never enough time and the work seems never to end. A few blades of dry grass can damage irrigation risers, and a patch of high grass at the base of one of our hedgerow oak trees will scorch the poor thing, robbing us of shade and windbreak. Fire hoses still need testing and stretching, people need training on portable pumps. But, we are making progress. The rains are still at least 7 weeks away and we hope they come heavy enough to put the fires at bay.

Fear of fire keeps us mowing. The latest focus is to create a 100 foot buffer around the solar panels, which we would prefer not get scorched from flames. The mower makes a huge cloud of dust as it hits gopher or ground squirrel throws. The grass it leaves behind is chopped fine and lies thickly 3” deep rather than the 3-4 foot tall, aerated fuel that would throw flames 8+ feet or pitch heated smoke uphill in a wind-fueled roiling flame cloud.

Critters

Fox continues to entertain. Sylvie’s midnight jaunt to the orchard irrigation helped her encounter a friendly fox. Gently speaking to it, the fox calmed then rubbed its face on the ground, scent marking. We regularly hear fox barks. An emergency vehicle’s siren set off a pack of coyotes below the farm last evening – they sang on and on, way after the siren had gone into the distance. 

The 8-strong flock of turkeys roams about leaving droppings and enormous fleshy footprints. They don’t make the gobbling noise much.

The deer have lost the velvet on their antlers and now they rub tree bark off on favorite mostly somewhat flexible tree trunks, mainly coast live oaks. I haven’t heard their antler clacking jousts, yet – looking forward to hearing that! The 3 deer that shelter inside one of our ‘deer exclosure’ fences are grazing on tomatoes. Many of the branches are chopped off. One can watch them graze for hours on tomato plants.  Neil and Levi from the 2 Dog Farm Crew helped a bit to patch the very holey fence but then Neil had to go to urgent care with his face puffed up like he’d been in a fight- poison oak is thick along that fenceline, in places! There’s still a lot of patching to do.

Harvest!

The harvest is ON!! Two Dog Farm is taking dry farmed tomatoes to market. Judy reports that Molino Creek Farm’s first avocado haul to the Palo Alto Farmer’s Market was a Big Hit – “creamy and flavorful.” People rarely get to taste avocados that have been left on the tree long enough to develop to their full potential. Those Bacon avocados had been growing and ripening for 19 months – and they are a relatively quick variety to ripen. The Lamb Haas are just starting to maybe get ripe…some Community Orchardists are testing the first ones that look like they might be ready. Those won’t get to the market as Community Orchardists will mop up even 200 pounds of fruit, which it looks like we’ll get. Two Dog Farm and Molino Creek Farm are busy harvesting a wide array of crops and cut flowers in their irrigated fields.

Meanwhile, we wait for the Really Big-time Harvests. Despite the deer browse, Molino Creek Farm’s tomato patch is burgeoning with fruit, spurred onto ripening with the heat waves. And, our apple orchard has never been so loaded with fruit. The trees droop with thousands of pounds of apples. Looking down the rows, I wonder if I’m looking into opposing mirrors- an infinity of fruit! Each variety is starting to get its signature color. I polished up one last Saturday and it shined a dazzling array of hues: beautiful! We soon get to taste the wide variety of our 50+ types as they ripen one at a time. It appears that the first boxes of Galas will get to market in 2 weeks and we’ll have to start the cider press going at the end of September, a month early. Boxes of gala apples will spur that pressing but so too will the Russian quince, which is getting ripe fast.

Oh WOW – The Bounty!