Y1 on the farm has been amazing, starting with the discovery of a pair of Great Horned Owls courting in the trees out front and wrapping up with 400 sheep showing up literally overnight to graze in the neighboring alfalfa fields. We bring a flashlight out for the last potty break of the night for the dogs and there are hundreds of pairs of eyes glowing back at us. The lambs skirt the fence and wander around our yard, playing King of the Hill on the pile of left over wood chips.
We brined last winter’s olives for seven months, and it was fun marinating and sharing them. We fertilized and watered the trees like crazy and what a difference in the crop, which we harvested a couple of weeks ago and put into brine. We thought they were Kalamatas, but now we aren’t sure. They are double the size of last year.
Randy’s been busy in the workshop with raised garden planters and a perimeter fence to keep out the ground squirrels. He is enjoying the (new-to-us) tractor. Veggies have done well here. That spindly tree in front turned out to be a Pomegranate, and the gnarly old one out back is a Mission Fig, and both produced well this season, so I’d have to pick the most useful new skill is learning to can jellies, jams, relishes, applesauce and pickles.
A dog wandered into our lives in the middle of the night last summer so now we have two rescue pups to spoil and indulge (and also train, starting in January). Lily and Sam are both about two. Lily is an English Staffie who the vet thinks was used as a breeder dog and dumped in the country. What a love bug.
We experimented with natural essential oils and came up with a helpful mosquito/gnat repellent for the community. People seem to like it, and we just finished testing it in a lab affiliated with UC Davis. That was a great, great experience.
We are both working full time still, but the farm calls to us more and more. You know me: I want chickens and a goat, and a couple of those lambs near the fence that are calling my name. Naaaaaaan.
What we will remember most about 2013 is falling in love with country life; sharing it with those who came by; and laughing through the steep learning curve ... like the frozen pipes we woke up to a couple of mornings ago ...
We hope you found our FB page (Cityfolk Farmers) and the family blog (http://cityfolkfarmers.blogspot.com). FB helps us not feel so far away from those we love when we can share all the great things going on in your lives.
Spending Thanksgiving with the boys in Tahoe for several days was just about the best gift ever, so yes, we opened our present early! May 2014 be all about service to others, dessert first and making dreams come true.
Christmas, 2013
Randy and Nanci & the Fassio Bros.
