Fruit is getting ripe!

Jack picked a small selection of two varieties of peaches & two of nectarines.  They are all about halfway to picking.  They all look great - no bugs, no bird pecks, no dings from rubbing against the branches.  We can hardly wait.

Well, well, well

On Sunday, St. Patrick's Day, Jack noticed that one of our water tanks was not filling.  A short investigation led to well #1 where the pump had stopped working.  Jack called our well man, Don Vickery, immediately.  Don's crew came out Monday afternoon to pull the pump.  It's 270 feet down & is attached to 20' lengths of pipe.  It takes a crane to pull it up.  The picture is of the wires that go down into the well & communicate with the pump.  Don's crew took only 3 hours to pull up the pump.  After 5 years of use, it had just had enough work.  It was a good thing this happened in March & not July when the trees need the maximum amount of water.  A new pump was ordered on Tuesday morning & installed on Thursday morning.  By lunchtime it was all over.  Jack & I went to Rick's Cafe to celebrate! 

Planting new trees

My own personal Johnny Appleseed, my husband Jack Brian, is planting the last of 32 new trees.  We have peaches, nectarines, pears, & apples.  We used a new supplier for the apples & the trees look terrific.  The only problem is waiting.  It will be 3-4 years before we harvest any fruit from these trees.  No instant gratification for the orchardist!

Replanting the orchard

We have removed 30 old trees that aren't producing well any more.  Replacement trees will be arriving in a week or two. Here Chocolate is inspecting the holes awaiting the new trees.  Want the old trees for firewood or smoking meat?  We will be giving away all the old wood.  Call me at (661) 261-3216 or email felice@brianranch.com.

Fall at the Orchard

Who says you can't get fall colors in Southern California?  All the fruit has been picked & the peach trees are turning mahogany. It's been a great season for the orchard in 2012.  We had lots of u-pickers:  families with young children, twenty-somethings looking to can fruit for the first time, even two church groups.  We had a grand time hosting them.  Jack particularly likes to take kids out on the hay wagon.  But fall is upon us & it's time to start thinking about pruning the trees.  But we can't prune until the leaves have dropped & that's about a month off.  I guess we just have to enjoy the fall colors.

Bees!

We walked into the orchard two days ago to find a swarm of bees attached to an apple tree.  They obviously came from nearby but we don't know where. We used to keep bees but we got rid of the last of our hives about five years ago.  Each of the hives had swarmed several times & we always see lots of honey bees on the blossoms in the spring so we know they are around.
We thought the swarm would have found their new home by now.  They'll be gone soon, but we tiptoe around the tree until they leave.

Summer's Bounty

It's so great this time of year in the orchard.  So many fruits are ripe.  This is what we have to choose from today: three yellow peaches, one white peach, one white nectarine, one yellow nectarine, two apples, one pear, & one Asian pear.  The stone fruit are all sweet, tangy, & juicy.  Don't dare eat one without a bib!