For weather fans, this summer the globe over seems to be one to remember. I’m never quite sure, though, reading about monsoon floods in Iowa or Asia whether the catastrophes are that far out of the box for what might be expected. I know that in Iowa, as well as much of the Sacramento Valley [...]
The frigid summer trough held steady over this valley as of the weekend, with my neighbors’ crops of white corn from Michuacan barely busting out with tassles and silks at a time of August when the ears ought to be ripe for tomales. That white corn from way down south of the border is shivering [...]
On Friday the 13th I was supposed to pick up my 13-year old son from the Sacramento airport. He’d been out in Nebraska and Kansas for a couple weeks, visiting his grandparents and extended family. It was a challenge for me because I don’t drive. “I have a suggestion for you,” my ex told me [...]
July turned out to be one of the coldest of its kind on record — locally, especially in Anderson Valley. The air flow patterns raged in frigid breath from the Gulf of Alaska after one of the most shivering springs in memory, and hot weather crops such as tomatoes, melons, and peppers that are marginal [...]
Last week my four year-old son and I harvested maybe six pounds of roma tomatoes. They came in earlier this year on account of the starts were blooming in early June when they finally found their way into the soil. “I’ll probably get a nice crop of early ones,” I thought when we set them. [...]
Her name is “Rohini.” I’m not too sure about the spelling. I never asked. I think she’s in the neighborhood of four years old, a shorthorn cow that was given to me two years ago toward the end of June when the valley’s air was thick with smoke from the legendary lightning fires. Rohini had [...]
The hay harvest this season was too late and frantic thanks to the abundant rains. It caught me with my pants down, as they say. When I finally had a field raked and ready to bale, my four year-old son and I dusted off the baler and set in to grease all the zerks. “Smells [...]
The cherries were ripening in what seemed to be the first warm days of the season, the bings and those yellow-red blush ones mostly for the delight of blue jays and crows. Just the minute you notice the crows tearing into the cherries it’s time to clean the trees and let them ripen fully in [...]
The hay fever kicked in this year before I started mowing hay, the lateness mostly due to the rains. They originally said we were supposed to get six inches last Friday, then three inches, then two, and finally we got about 0.2 of drizzle, though I guess it did rain almost an inch as close [...]
Some gardening friends have been enjoying sugarsnap peas for several weeks, they say. They planted the peas in October. I planted peas in April and the plants are still only six inches tall. On Saturday my 13-year-old son helped out on a farm in Yorkville, weeding their potatoes that are nearly a foot high already, [...]
