What do you say about someone that is able to catch a moth that is extinct. Well last week Super slueth Trapper Christine was able to do it. She brought in this most unusual moth. Irish Extinct Moth It just happens to be native to Ireland and it’s coloring is so amazing we are sure that Christine needs a prize for her find.
I’ll be traveling with Christine to the azores this Nov. for a month on bikes look for us to blog our trip.
Recently Brentwood California the heart of farming as been under seige by the fleeing of people loosing there houses. In Oakley/Brentwood the other day while trapping I found dogs that had been left in the backyard. I’m sure the owners were hoping someone would take refuge on them, but no they were just there no water, no food. I almost threw up when I saw this. Then as i drove to the next trap I was almost again brought to tears when I saw a young couple probably in there thirties with a 10 year old a 8 year old and 3 year old packing there subuaru wagon with everything they owned. On their drive-way there were all of their belongings that said “Take Free” these are the times I will remember, what has happen to America.
Not only have we lost the best part of this community to so called progress, we have now been left with the spoils of what looks like a war zone. I’m not saying that we have bullets flying but to see a community devastated because of greed makes me sick. Our institutions have let us down, our government has been so unaware that we are crumbling in on ourselves. Are we just going to let this happen? How do we change. I want to ponder this because as Miss Wendy and My Dad would have said, “If we are not part of the solution then we are part of the problem.” Lets not play the blame game, lets get our collective energies together.
In Brentwood we have an area called the Agricultural Core. It’s such a sham if you’re a small farmer you can’t make money on your farm. You are stuck with a piece of property to farm that you can’t make a living on. Say for example you want to have another type of business to make your farm profitable, that isn’t Agriculture but would help you to survive through the off season. You couldn’t get approval to do this because big business wouldn’t allow it. They would make sure that you couldn’t compete. You might have some of the worlds best Peaches on 10 arces but that couldn’t sustain you for all the hours and people you need to employee to maintain your crops. If you wanted to add a juice bar to your establishment and use the juice from your gleenings this would not fly you couldn’t get a permit. Even if you pass all the health codes and followed all the rules. This is a crazy thing to do to our farmers. We want pesticide free, raw fruit yet we don’t help local farmers make this happen. I believe the only way to make this happen is to talk about it. How can we help what is it that we do to make local farming a priority.
I would love to get some positive imput. I believe in local food and farming.
Thanks Lulu
I started around 9:30 and didn’t stop all day. At first I was frustrated I couldn’t get the drill to work or couldn’t figure out how to get the screwdriver off and the drill bit on. My sister who was a repairman showed me the secret of tools and at no time at all I was acting like Tim the Tool man. I’m not really a Tom boy and I’m not really a girly girl so I’m sure your getting the visual on this dorky mom using tools…
Well it’s a lot of work to get a path looking like you want them to look. I would like my garden to be something out of a magazine from country living. That would be no problem if I didn’t have a gopher problem AND a ground squirrel problem. I just work around the critters and try to get things that they don’t like. I’m using this great product that they use for tracks at high schools - it compacts but it’s easy to walk on. I have the bender board started and I’ll continue to post picture as it goes along. If you have any guestions about gardening nows your chance to ask.
This is one of the areas I got the weeds clear out and the bend board up.
I love the dewalt drill it’s really easy to use. I’m not afraid at all. I’m using the dewalt saw tommorrow pray I don’t cut off any fingers. I’m going to try and get a bucket of rock too with the tractor. Geesh I think Pelosi has had an affect on me.
This was written a few months ago when I had just started my Bug Trapping job:
“Well this week has been interesting. I found myself almost on schedule, which means servicing a McPhail trap every seven days. It’s hard to get to everything you have to do but it happens. We also have to relocate traps every 6 weeks so I was relocating a Jackson Trio. I had written out the note for the door that we leave if no one is home. Then I started to make my traps and that’s when I heard the strangest noise. I couldn’t tell if it was human or animal - the noise seemed like a cross between a snort and something that might be in pain. I thought maybe an older person had fallen and maybe it was a person hurt on the side of the house. As I peered around the corner and there it was! The biggest cutest pig I ever did see. It was on a chain and it was sitting confortably in a bathtub and the noise was actually her blowing bubbles in the water. She was so happy to see me she jumped out of the tub. I think she must be like the family dog. The interesting thing about this property is that is that it’s located in a place that used to be rural farmland but is now mostly subdivisions. I hope i can get a picture of her she is adorable.”
I wasn’t able to get a picture of this adorable pig but maybe next year….
I’m winding down my trapping season. It has been really fun and the days and weeks go so fast. I can’t tell you how much fun it is so have a job go by so fast. There is always something to be doing. I would guess after a while the driving in circle would make you crazy but for now it’s really been fun.
I had my camera in the car and I want to share a picture of one of my favorite stops on my route. The women that made these did an incredible job.
The turtles on this are great. I just didn’t get the detail with the bad lite, but they are both beautiful. Doesn’t it make you want to do Mosaic.
I worked in retail for about 17 years as a nursery person. Every year at the end of Oct. the stockton red starts come into the nursery. The phone for the next couple of weeks rings off the hook. Farmers from all over calling in to make sure your going to have enough Stockton Reds. They call in and say “Hey have you gotten the Stockton Reds in”. We actually called it “The run of the Onions” it the most amazing time. You don’t see farmers all year but no matter how old they get they come in to get these onions. It’s no wonder why, Stockton Reds are the sweetest onions you’ll ever eat. They aren’t good keepers but they are so good it’s worth giving them a try.
My old boss grows them for the crew every year and he gave me a few. They can weight up to 2 pounds.
While out on my route today, I saw one of my gardeners pulling the shoots off the end of her pumpkins, so just before I left her garden plot I asked what she did with them. She said in her culture they take the tips of the pumpkin shoots and blanch them and strip the membrane and then when they have enough to make soup. They don’t do anything with the pumpkin itself they just use the shoots. She uses coconut milk, chicken, and pumpkin shoots. She says it’s simple but good. She also gave me a jar of kimchee base and rice seasoning for California rolls it. I really enjoy all the different people I meet.
It’s funny just before I started this job I drew a pencil sketch of a women that reminds me of Priscilla - here it is below. Also, if you try the pumpkin soup let me know what you think?
This is the time of the year that the County has to do a idodine bath with the Granny Smith Apples to see if they are ready; the County releases them when the starch content is at 2.5 or better. Chris (the new biologist on the team) and Patty work on this project together. They went out to the field and took random sampling from different areas. The apples are not ready yet as you can tell they need more white to be ready. The the center of the fruit should be white and the pattern in the center of the apple should resemble a white pansy similar to the one Patty is pointing at.
Here is Patty showing off her starch chart.
Last year the records showed that the apples at the same time were at 3.5. One other interesting fact is that at 2.5 or higher the apples will continue to ripen when they are picked but if you pick them before that they will not.
This was a pretty eventful week, I talked to a farmer on a new property for me. He had a great story about how the swallows every year around this time start lining up on the telephone wires. It begins with one or two and then as the weeks go on he gets more and more. He says they glean the fields and eat. I wonder if the birds all show up for the food and then make there way back home to San Juan Capistrano for the winter. I wonder if it’s like our Portuguese festas where we all show up, eat, and migrate to the next one.
Well like I told you everyday as a bug trapper I am looking for a needle in a haystack. The scavanger hunt today was like the day you go to the house and the lady at the door has everything you need. I walked over to my gypsie moth trap which is in the middle of Gursky Ranches walnut orchard. I walked up to the trap and looked in to see a Gypsy moth in the trap. At first I thought, wow! It was much bigger then I expected. It was easy to identify with it brush like atennas. You can’t mistake it for anything else. So I took the trap down and called our office to report the find. Then I was back on my way. I got to this site that is new - it’s an area that I had set a new trap in. I looked in the melon trap and sure enough there was a Melon Fruit Fly. In my Med Fly trap there were pieces of a Med fly, it had been twenty days since my last rotation so a spider had been feeding on it. If I hadn’t seen parts of the wings I might not have brought it in to be identified. I also found a Oriental Fruit fly in my OF trap. It is really fun to find the bugs that the State puts out for you. I was really afraid that I would miss them but I got lucky and didn’t miss any. I will be taking pictures so you can see them soon.
I am working on a painting for Don and Gail. It’s the first time I have used a full sheet of water colored paper. The paper is 22 inches by 32 inches. I think it’s taken me about seven hours. I have really enjoyed it.