Green House for Propagation

Finishing up a simple 10x12 gambrel roofed greenhouse based off one built by the prodigious DIY'er  Ana White.  It's a simple building I framed with recycled 2x6 redwood deck boards, an old 2x8 bookshelf, and some some old metal corrugated roofing.  The only new items are the clear corrugated panels from the local Home Depot.

Jari Sickle Mower

The beast.  A 1980 something Jari Sickle Mower that I was surprised to learn was still in production.

I had last ran this in my teens for my grandfather on the property.  I'm sure it had sit unused since then, and would have made it to the recycler had a close friend not sang its glories when its appendage removing sickle was directed toward to grasses taller than me.  A few trips to the parts store and she sprang to life.

I call it the Mangler.

Last ran during the Reagan Administration, this self propelled monstrosity is least likely to start a Summer fire other than in your lungs as you desperately try to keep up with its single speed on the steep grades.


But oh, nothing munches on the woody stalks of recalcitrant star thistle like it.

The Honey Bee

Not essential for olive pollination, but can't hurt right?

By the way, the olives are blooming here in Northern California

The great drought of 2014

They keep telling me we're in a drought.  I wish they'd tell the tractor.

Pruning Olive Trees

It's well into Spring -at least weather wise- here in California which means pruning.  A lot of pruning, I see branches in my sleep a lot of pruning.  Here are some tips;

• Sap rises, use this to encourage growth in desired directions
• Go fast, you'll see many options so just pick one and prune.
• The 4 D's; Dead, Diseased, Deformed, Dying
• Maintain the shape of the tree you want - don't let it get out of control
• Heavy duty tree tape - you'll use a lot in a young grove 
• Keep a flat file handy for your cutting tools, you'll use it at least daily
• Keep your tools sterile, I use clorox bleach wipes.  Fast, easy, and effective.

Snapped branch from snow.  Cut.

Farm Sounds; Frogs in the Evening

The kids and I were burning some brush the other evening and thought you might enjoy the crackling of the fire and the frogs enjoying the recent rains.

Recovering from Freeze Damage

It's springtime!  The trees that were damaged are pushing new growth where they had lost all their leaves due to Decembers record lows.

Consistency

All my little soldiers lined up.

Over time a system develops while bottling and packing Green valley Olive Oil resulting in, I hope, a consistent positive experience from the retailer to the consumer using our oil.  It starts with keeping a clean oil free can during bottling, then pour spouts attached all oriented in the same direction. The label is applied so that the front artwork will be visible for a right handed pour and then put in the case with the oblong caps all pointed the same direction.

Now if you're left handed let me know and I'll happily re-orient the pour spout when you order off our page.

Drawing an Olive Oil Sample

Well, here's our super scientific method of drawing a sample.

Just look at this beautiful 2013 oil.

Burst PVC Pipe

That doesn't look right.

Meet Kaya

Guardian of the Grove

Destroyer of Irrigation

She's a helper.

Olive Frost Damage Photographs

Hard hit Maurino. Notice foliage loss on this small tree.

Typical damage.

Notice discoloration of leaf tips. These are now dry and easily crumbled one week after injury.

This large bushy Maurino only suffered damage at the tips.
 

Splitting from freeze on some of the smaller branches

Olive Tree Frost Damage

Looking at the local weather station stats, we had a 7 day run of sub 30F nights with the lowest coming in at 21.3F

Of the three main types of olives we have planted -Maurino, Frantoio, and Leccino- the Maurino seems to have been hit the hardest.  It is the slowest growing tree in our grove and has the smallest leaves of the three.  The smaller the tree, maybe a 3 foot diameter, the more damage.  The larger, more full trees have damage  contained to the outer branches.

Frankly I was surprised that it was the Maurino most affected.  The cold tolerance of this tree is notable and I believe this tree is a selection for less warm and sunny climates such as Oregon.

This link to a report from Bill Krueger, the Glenn County Farm Advisor, details freeze damage from two notable cold weather events in 1990 and 2010.  Particularly worrying are defoliation photos from the 2010 event which had a low of 23F, two degrees warmer than this 2013 event.

The take home message from this report is;

• Plant hardy cultivars for your climate
• Reduce Nitrogen after July
• Avoid major pruning in the Fall
• Don't over water after harvest
• Water well in Spring to promote recovery
• Request no temperatures under 32F in your prayers

Frost Tolerance of Eight Cultivars by Barranco, Ruiz, and Gomez-del Campo
University of California, Lessons From a Record Breaking Freeze

California Cold Snap

    It just doesn't seem right that those words in the title should belong in the same sentence.  Well, after a week plus of night time temps dipping to the low teens twenties at the grove - that's Fahrenheit you those of you afflicted with the less precise scale of Celsius- , we've finally broken into more proper December weather with temps in the mid 60's.  Shout out to Chris in Maine...

    The trees seem to have taken a little bit of a beating but hopefully no losses with the smaller trees.    I'll post later some photos of frost damaged leaves.  The affected leaves have a brown coloration and the margins roll ventrally towards the midrib, or center vein.  No damage to the trunks seen yet.  The propogated trees from Summer I kept indoors at night so all are still thriving.

    Also, some larger olive trees at the 2500 foot elevation seem to have weathered the cold healthily as well.

Olive Curing

My daughter is trying her hand at curing some olives.  Here is a great resource we found from UC Davis, Olives, Safe Methods for Pickling

We are using the water curing methods, no lye.  Frankly lye scares me.  It's more popular uses are for the production of methamphetamine,  food curing, and  soap.  My grandmother-in-law was just telling me the other day about her adventures making laundry soap as a child.  After butchering large animals on the farm She would mix the tallow and lye in a large cauldron over an open fire reducing it to soap.  She advised the soap was not for contact with human skin.  I'm sticking with the water cure method.

Kawasaki Mule Charging Problem solved!

Finally
I think...

It only took 8 hours of  disassembly, google search, head scratching, crying, bargaining with God, and luck.  Mostly luck.  It was a somewhat anticlimactic solution; a loose connection.  Ask me which one and I'll tell you I have no idea.  All the parts in the charging system tested good individually, so after cleaning the connectors and re-assembling the parts the system performed within normal limits.  We'll see if it lasts.

Usefull resources:

Charging Troubleshooting Flowchart  Print this out, it was a lifesaver

My Mower Parts  Online Kawasaki manual for the fj400d engine

ElectroSport Industries    "How a Motorcycle Charging System Works"

Olive Roots!

I had another small disaster with the propagation table a few days ago, some small creature had plowed through several rows.  Luckily whatever it was, it confined its digging to the mostly dead outer perimeter.  It did expose this cutting however, and I was thrilled to see these fine roots.

How cool is that?

I'll pot in a week or two and start the Autumn propagation with a few improvements to the table.

Check those irrigation lines!

I like to walks the fields while the irrigation is on.  It's good to check for leaks and proper functioning.  It's one of the reasons I've been so hesitant to add a timer system, I know I'll get complacent and let it go for too long.  For example, last week I had a whole block not come on.  Had I not walked the field I would not have known this.  Luckily I fixed it the Fonzie way, I banged the solenoid and flushed the system of some two year old pipe glue, and all was well.

Propagation Table Progress

Well, I'm halfway through the 2 month cycle to produce viable trees and let's just say it's been a fantastic learning experience.  About 2 weeks ago we had an afternoon power outage on a 110 degree day - that's about 43.3C for those of you stuck with a less precise temperature scale - that wreaked havoc on the perimeter plantings.  I'd estimate over half the cuttings were lost.

Other than the loss of mist for an afternoon there were several other negative factors that played in, operator error as they say in the military.  First, the bed is not in a greenhouse and only protected by shade cloth.  This exposes the cuttings to the drying effects of the wind.  Second, I did not initially compensate the misting schedule to account for the open air bed.  Misting times have been increased slightly and the pause between misting is now halved to around 7 minutes.  Thirdly, the cuttings were coming from water and nutrition stressed trees.  It's very sad to look at the now decimated bed.

The good news is all the above problems are being addressed so that the next round of cuttings late August will hopefully fare better.  Also after pulling several cuttings from the center of the bed, roots are forming!  There is hope yet.

Trash Patrol

I hate leaving clutter behind in the grove.  Especially all that green orchard tape.  It goes in my pocket and can add up fast in a new grove while training trees.  Here's a sample collected from just one row.