......farewell, it's been eight years

What began as simple postings for my grand kids to follow the progress of a new project—building a farm from the ground up... and then became a popular blog within the Sacramento Bee online newspaper is quite amazing. The time has come to stop writing the stories. The farm is basically finished now. Instead of blogging, I will be fishing.

This coming year—2017—all the hard work of eight years will finally pay off. The orchards have grown from 3-foot tall "whips" to trees that are now 10 to 14 feet tall. Fruit is borne in vast amounts. All the mistakes of caring for orchards have passed....and boy, were there ever a lot of mistakes! We did, however, make the right decisions about what type of fruit to produce. Plant produce that one normally never finds at the local Farmers Markets.....the supermarkets, or the local fruit stands.....thus having zero competition. Blood oranges sell out in a matter of weeks. Pluots....the demand just keeps getting humongous. The figs draw buyers from the Bay Area... and our peaches are snapped up almost immediately after they are set up on the sell tables! Boysenberries, of all berries....proved to be the best seller on the farm. We have 25 solid crops that yield a lot and are in high demand.

Our ground crops over the years were plagued with the learning curve of irrigation systems and those damn jack rabbits....all which were resolved with higher education :-) Rabbit-proof fencing... and three Aussie Shepherds who enjoyed the occasional meal.Time taught us that growing "salad" vegetables and most squash.....was time consuming and hard to compete with local store prices.... which are much lower from cheaper countries such as Mexico. Most of the squash we grew required too much time educating clients on what it was and how to prepare.

Now we specialize in melons. Black Mountain and Orange Glo watermelons and Hayle's Best cantaloupes that have old-time flavor.....huge in size. Our specially selected tomato varieties ....have become very popular since we harvest only when they are absolutely ripe......and that is our secret to why our produce has so much flavor...we harvest ripe. Everything on this farm is ripe for harvest. Oh....the lessons we have learned over time.

Social networking, internet use such as Craigslist, blogging, and participation in local events are all essential for business promotion.I was fortunate to have a business background as well as experience working on the web. Much of this is time-consuming...usually at night after a full day in the field. A great web page had to be created and maintained, and great advertising took time—and even more time.

Much of the infrastructure work has been completed, and the farm house has been upgraded. Fruit stand and the chicken coops are up. There are only a few things left to do, such as finishing the upstairs of our barn and erecting a large greenhouse.The installation of a white fence around our barn, pastures, and grow fields... to make this joint look more "farm," has begun.

So... was it worth the hardships....stupid mistakes, ....chasing three horses down the street whenever they broke a fence....covering citrus trees at two o'clock in the morning from frost, .....?

Hell yes.