It has been a while since the last post and I have a lot to report on along with several photos.

I received my paperwork from LegalZoom and Foxtail Farm LLC is now official with the State of California. I still expect to be open around the end of July if I can finish some of the code upgrades most specifically the handrails for the three stairways coming up to the house.

Cheryl was on vacation last week and helped me get a bunch of stuff done including rescuing about 150 tadpoles from our swimming pool. She used a skimmer net and put them into a bucket before emptying them into our seasonal pond. The hope is that they will be frogs before the pond evaporates away in a few weeks.

Cheryl also finished planting the garden and some additional crops on the hugels. We have added cucumbers, squash, sunflowers, beets, corn, onions, rhubarb, shallots, and a whole bunch of herbs into the ‘chicken’ herb garden. She also planted mint and nasturtiums around the chicken run.

I started two new hugels on the property which will be on the hill across from the solar panels. These will be hugels 7,8, and possibly 9, 10, and 11 – we hope to plant table grapes there next season and if that works out possibly wine grapes. Not that I have any aspiration for making wine as it seems to be a great deal of work for what return we might have. I think I would rather drink wine and watch the grapes grow.

I also continued work on the stone walls in the front yard with the hope that I could find a bunch more rocks from digging the hugels unfortunately for the first time in digging holes on our property, there were no stones large enough to add the stone walls. Looks like I’ll need to find a new place to dig.

The wall project with Lavender planted and new fill

With everything now drying out we were able to clear a bunch of the native population (weeds) from the property specifically along the driveway which has dramatically improved the look. I have now reached an impasse as I need to kill some Poison Oak before I can finish “whacking.” And Poison Oak and I have a (let’s call it) poor history.

This past weekend we had a family friend stay with us and we all went to Yosemite on Saturday. Rachel and I hiked the Panorama Trail from Glacier Point down to the valley and we met Cheryl coming up the Mist Trail. There was so much water that there were waterfalls where they have never been before and the big falls, Illilouette, Nevada, and Vernal were spectacular! This was Rachel’s first time to the park and I made sure to give her one of the best possible experiences by hiking 8.3 miles down roughly 3000 feet. I remember doing this my first time with Morgan and Tyler and at the end calling for a wheelchair. Rachel to her credit overcame fear of heights, water (the Mist Trail below Vernal was like hiking through a tropical rainstorm), and crowds of people coming up the trail. I believe she too would have liked to have had a ride for that last mile.

One of the benefits from staying on the farm is the chance to experience new things and we continued on Sunday with a visit to downtown Mariposa (the big city), Rachel also got in some weekend tractor time digging up Manzanita stumps, and the experience of holding the chickens while nursing some very sore muscles. It’s all part of the tour, the sign up line forms on the left.

There is now a Facebook page for Foxtail Farm and I have posted several photos and videos from the farm and from our hike – check them out at https://www.facebook.com/FoxtailFarmBedandBreakfast/

Next up is the Poison Oak. For those that have read the very early posts on this blog know that when we first moved here I had Poison Oak 10 times in 12 months and yes, I do know what Poison Oak looks like (now). So I have purchased a backpack sprayer and massive amounts of herbicide with the promise of killing all the oak. Now the dilemma is this, I need to get close enough to spray and that means being in some cases a few inches away from the plants. With my ability to get Poison Oak by watching it on TV, do I put on a hazmat suit to spray? Or do I promise Cheryl a foot massage and have her do it this coming weekend? Hmmm, tough choice.

Closer To Being In Business! - The Update

Foxtail Farm Bed & Breakfast