Category: job

What’s in your day today?

Mine contains: tax association meeting (I’m on the board), pie-baking (apple, ollalie, etc), annual industrial wastewater permit application, chasing down a chlorination system for a community water hookup, trying to finish writing a column for our new local newspaper (I’m going to fail miserably on this one), figure out what needs to be done to get some phone/data lines into a facility, conferencing on an app design project… I think I’ve forgotten five or six other things. Oh, yes. It’s my turn to close our organic farmstand as well.

Stay busy. It’ll keep your heart beating.

The view from my office window

This is the view from my office window. Second story, looking southwest. The line of trees hides the river, an upside down river full of quicksand, willows and small encampments of hippies who got lost there in the 60s. The fields visible to the right of the road are planted with strawberries, as well as herbs, flowers and rhubarb. The vegetable plots are further to the right, though not in view.

Anyway, this is my typical view as I sit and consider how to conquer the galaxy or, at the very least, think up new pie recipes and stories.

Farm Well

This, folks, is a well on a farm. I took the photo crouching down and focusing across the pipe leading away from the pump. These go down about 600 feet or so and usually pump about 1000 to 1500 gallons a minute. There are several aquifers in this valley here, and that’s one of the reasons why Salinas is called the Salad Bowl of the country. We farm, you eat. The next time you buy a bag of salad in the supermarket, remember this well.

Ag Advisory

I sit on our county’s ag advisory committee. We make recommendations to our county Board of Supervisors on matters concerning ag. Today, we had to discuss whether or not horse stabling is a compatible use with agriculture. Horse stabling on a cattle ranch. Aargh. This, folks, is a good example of how crazy California has become.