When the Almond Tree Blooms

On the last day of 2011, three brave souls--Katy, Evan and Rawley--came with me for a farm tour at Pleasant Grove Farm.  Here's a little of what we saw: Grain Bins, Christmas Tree, Fuel Tanks Katy, Evan and Rawley do their thing on the catwalk Seed Cleaner Inside the seed cleaning mill Rawley on an old land grader Old electric well motors--may be where R2D2 is from Parts from cultivating implements The old parts (not junk!) yard John Deere CTS Rice Combine Tractors enjoying their 2 week farm vacation Rawley getting ready to harvest some rice...it's gonna be a long wait Corn Harvester This machine spends 3 months harvesting and 9 months as a very expensive cat perch Tractors and combines The Pleasant Grove Farm Machine Shop The Sutter Buttes to the north Harvesting the last bits of rice ' 'Winter' Wheat We celebrated the New Year together at Katy and Evan's farm in Esparto, eating tamales, black eyed...

It's been nearly three weeks here in California, with many adventures taking place. I have a lot on my mind as I try and figure out work, life and all the rest, but I'd rather just share some pictures I've taken so far. Check them out on my picasa site: The first set (some repeats from previous post): https://picasaweb.google.com/rfadam/CaliforniaEnRouteSantaCruz# More recent ones from Davis, Capay Valley: https://picasaweb.google.com/rfadam/BackInCalifornia# That's it for now.

Well folks, I am here at the farm at UC Santa Cruz, listening to chirping frogs outside the library. It's been an eventful past couple of months meandering and adventuring since I left Park School. I'm tired from all this moving around so I'm not going to write too much tonight. After my trip to the Mojave and Eastern Sierra, I returned briefly to the Bay Area, but finding the urbanity of it strange and unfamiliar after so much empty space, I quickly departed, heading north to Full Belly farm, where my friend Rawley Johnson is working as an intern. My two days there were eventful, full of all kinds of experiences from digging holes and planting fruit trees until my hands and muscles ached to milking cows and goats to cooking a farm lunch. I savored the taste of fresh goat milk and the beautiful greens of springtime in the Capay. I also appreciated being able to work alongside some of the crew, speaking in Spanish and sharing a difficult job that is a reality of farm...