Our fancy new packing shed needed some fancy new washable paint..apoxy or something (Kyle, help me out)…Anyways, guess who got to do all of the painting? ME! We first tried using a sprayer hooked up to the compressor but it was just making a cloud of white washable paint that did not seem to wash off of me. So we headed down to Lowe’s and picked up some good ol’ fashioned rollers (and John thinks I managed to pick up a boyfriend too. The cashier remembered him when John went back today to get more insulation for the attic and apparently he remembered me too. John is now trying to play match-maker for me). So after two days, 5 gallons of primer, 3 gallons of apoxy, and a very sore neck, I looked like this. Smiling because I finally had a perfect white, and HACCP approved barn. Next comes the floor.

And here is a picture of what I have been writing my blog on. You’re right Connor, the green was worth the wait. The clear would have definitely looked like a giant invisalign.

To go along with our fancy new packing shed, we had to fill a fancy new concrete pad for our fancy forklift (it’s getting high tech up here. No more packing under the pine trees on tables). Here are some before, during, and after photos. Enjoy! I know I sure will seeing as all of this will make my life a lot easier up here. Plus I can add forklift experience to my resume which will be a bonus when I apply for jobs on a vineyard/winery (read: more money).

Recognize those familiar (and very proud) faces? They would be Marcos and Daniel. I am glad to have them back on board this year!

Before

After

And this is what I have been doing for a while now. Also I have to repair the lines with new emitters and splices. It’s time consuming, but very necessary as the blueberries need water! Anyways, I hope to update you more on some other super interesting things I do at the farm. I think Friday’s challenge will be pouring concrete. YAY!

Warning: This has nothing to do with the blueberries but it is entertaining regardless (or at least I think so). http://builttour.typepad.com/builtforthemountainlife/

Check this blog out! It is the Mountain Khaki blog and it has a brief entry that I helped write detailing our adventures at the Horticulture Olympics, or more professionaly called PLANET (Professional Landcare Network). We were able to secure Mountain Khaki as a sponsor (thanks, Thomas) and they graciously provided us with free pants! They even gave us women’s sizes too for the 4 girls in the group. Anyways here is a picture of us and some of my landscaping competition. Yes, I am a HUGE plant nerd. No need to point that out in the comments.

As part of our deal with Whole Foods (or the one we are hoping to nail down), we have to comply with HACCP, a food safety management program. Part of this includes having a sanitary packaging facility. Apparently packing outside under pine trees is not acceptable to Whole Foods. I just think it adds to the organic feel…Anyways, we are revamping the storage barn for this facility which includes sheet-rocking it and other sanitary practices. We first had to haul a crap ton of extra sheetrock pieces, cardboard, styrofoam, miscellaneous pieces of wood, 2 skis, some wires, etc. After cleaning the barn throughly, my job was to take all the junk down to the landfill. I loaded up the big truck, drove it on the very windy road leading to the farm, and out to the landfill with only one or two wrong turns (TomTom failed me, but Tom Cihlar filled in the gaps. Thanks Dad!).

I finally made it to the dump and backed the big truck up. The landfill guys got a kick out of a “spry little girl,” as Armen put it, hauling all that crap to the dump in a big truck all by myself. I began to unload and just my luck that it was a very windy day and I had a copious amount of styrofoam. The landfill employee laughed as the pieces flew everywhere and just pointed to his hard hat and said, “This is why we have these.” However, the two trucks on either side of me did not seem pleased. I finally managed to get everything out and not piss too other many people off. Good thing I am just a “spry little girl” or they might not have laughed as the nasty styrofoam pieces nailed everyone in the head. And of course, I stopped to get pictures of the landfill because for as long as I can remember, our family vacations were not complete until my dad could find the local landfill or recycling plant and take pictures despite my sisters and my qualms. So this post is for you dad and all “landfill guys” out there.

I know what you are all thinking. “Is that ice on the blueberry bush?” And you would all be correct. Believe it or not, we experienced a frost on May 20th! If the berries would not have been protected, our crop could have been a goner. However, due to overhead irrigation, we managed to protect the crop from winter’s last attempt at hanging on. Sure enough around 11:30, the frost alarm went off. Armen even programed it to say “Wake up, it’s cold out there” in her voice. John went outside and with the help of the neighbors (the circuit was skrewy), he was able to turn on the overhead sprinklers. This system works because as the water overhead turns to ice, it releases heat, thus protecting the delicate fruit from freezing solid. However, this requires a constant flow of water to keep the plants at or around 32 C. In places where the heads were clogged, we lost some fruit. Mostly though, our crop was saved. And in the morning, I awoke to this lovely sight.

Hello and Welcome back to my blog. After many comments from you loyal readers, I was forced to buy a new computer and new camera so I can continue my blog with adventures on the farm and in the great state of California. I am not very sure as to why people enjoyed this blog so much, but I am flattered. I am fairly sure it is a good way for my parents to keep a tab on me, so for that reason alone, I will continue to write.

So I arrived in Sacramento around 11:30 on Sunday morning after a very early flight out of Cleveland (thanks mom for waking up at 3:30 with me)! Coincidently, I sat next to a guy in a Clemson shirt who is a big fan of my alma mater (yes folks, I graduated). I grabbed my bags and waited for Kasey and Will to graciously wake up early on a Sunday after a night out (they are still in college, lucky) and pick me up from the airport. I was relieved to see familiar faces. They decided to kidnap me for a day of fun before the work begins. We had planned on going to Bay to Breakers (a race in San Fran), however it was a little too late for that. Instead, we went to UC Davis, grabbed some breakfast and bloody marys, and embarked on a long day of drinking (I miss college already).

We played a game very close to the hearts of Davis students called sloshball. Basically it is a drinking game of kick ball. I enjoyed it immensely.

Then we saw this huge concrete slide and had a race. Naturally, I won. I have no idea who my partner was. He was foreign though for sure. Kasey and Will were pretty good losers though. Anyways, I had a great day in Davis and on Monday, Will and Kasey drove me back up to the farm. I was very excited to see Armen and John and I felt at ease in familiar surroundings. It is pre-harvest time and we are about 2 weeks weather wise behind schedule which may actually work in our favor seeing as Will has about two more weeks of school. The new intern Alyssa (not sure of the spelling) arrives next week as well. I am very excited to meet her! I will try to have some more updates this week. I hope you are all well!

My time at Sierra Cascade has come to a close. I would have posted some more entries, but unfortunately my computer conveiently broke, just when I was about to write my final paper and wrap other things up (hopefully I won’t get marked down for being a day late). So, I will briefly wrap up my time on the farm and if you are interested in our trip to Napa/San Francisco, check out Rae’s facebook for pictures.

This first picture is of Will on his last day (not mine). He decided not to shave for the last week and then sculpt his facial hair to look like the Tapatio guy (hot sauce that Mexicans put on everything). The workers got a kick out of it and it even inspired Will to find a yellow coat to dress up as him for halloween.


The week after the harvest ended, John and Armen wanted to get me off the farm and experience some things other than blueberries. Here I am in the water after trying to water ski (I got up!).

This is a picture of Will and Kasey in the dollar store (every thing’s a dollar!) waiting for the local tire shop to replace a faulty tire on Kasey’s roommate’s car (long story). We were driving into town to go tubing on Butte Creek when the tread came off the tire. Luckily, at that exact time, a tow truck drove by and Kasey flagged him down and he ended up giving us a ride into Chico (for free!) so we could get a new car and buy some tubes. It was our third flat tire in three days. On the way to water skiing, we got a flat and so as Will was crouched behind a car, a young guy pulled up and asked us for help. Armen said she has had countless flat tires over the years and never has anyone stopped to ask if she needed help and she was convinced it helped to have a young girl around although I am convinced it didn’t hurt that I was in my bathing suit. Anyways, we finally made it on the creek around five and soon learned it was a 4 hour trip down Butte Creek. Needless to say, we paddled very fast and didn’t enjoy it quite as much as if we were basking in the sun instead of shivering in the dark.

On Friday we held a fiesta for the workers in appreciation for all their hard work this summer. It was funny to see everyone wearing normal clothes and I think they got a kick out of me wearing jeans and with my hair down. At the end, John held a raffle and got Marcos to translate for him, thanking everyone for all they did and explaining the raffle. John said in english, “The first person called will get twenty dollars, then..” and instead of saying forty dollars, he said cuarenta, and Marcos translated into English. He got so used to translating back and forth all summer and Will kindy thanked Marcos (jokingly) for translating because he didn’t understand. After the fiesta, we decided to go put-putting and Kasey came up with the idea that the losers had to cook the winner’s breakfast. Ironically, Will and I tied so Kasey made us breakfast burritos in the morning.

Another task I had to accomplish on the farm was to shoot something. They set up a little shooting range with pop cans and handed me a twenty-two and on my first shot I blew that pop can away (or soda can as I was told). I also tried to hit some clay disks but the gun was a little too big for me to hold properly and I came away with a bruised arm.

Needless to say I DID experience much, much more than blueberries this summer and I had a fantastic time. The Carlons became my family this summer and I know I gained lifelong friends. So thanks to everyone who read my blog. I truly enjoyed writing it and keeping ya’ll up to date on my adventures in Forest Ranch, California. But mostly, thank you to the Carlons who gave me an amazing, interesting, educational, and fantastic experience on their farm. They took a huge risk taking me in and I am forever grateful for that. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

One night at dinner Armen and John became curious at the behavior of some of the younger guys (and girls) on the farm. See, at first, they all wore work clothes, but after a while, the guys started wearing nicer stuff and putting gel in there hair, and well one girl seemed to have her eyes only for Will as well. Armen found this absolutely hilarious and said it was like a soap opera. I then told her about my “The Hills version 2″ post and then we (minus John) went on a roll thinking of possible soap opera titles. “As the Blueberry Turns,” “The Days of our Harvest,” and my personal favorite by Will, “The Young and the Mexicans.” So in honor of this, I am going to post some pictures with comments on my boyfriends..and maybe more.

This is Marcos, and without him I could not do my job nearly as good. He helps me with everything and is always one step ahead, like a carpenter building stairs (Office reference anyone?). Anyways, we spend a lot of the day together and one day, Jessica (more on her later) told me Marcos had a little crush on me. Ha! He is so cute and helpful. So there is boyfriend 1. Here comes 2…

Now here is Miguel, or Roberto, or Beto (many names and aliases), but his friends call him Senor Guapo. I call him Beto even though his W4 says Miguel. Anyways, he is 27 and super nice and helpful and also a huge flirt. He even got Marcos to translate for him so he could ask me out on a date (Taco Wagon and a Movie, naturally). Then I learned he had a younger girlfriend (and I don’t just mean younger than him, but younger than me, significantly, something apparently more common in Mexican culture). And to boot, she works (or worked) here, that is until her Mom found out about Beto. Anyways she was not too happy that he talked to me.

Now I have another boyfriend, Gerardo, who just recently asked me on a date to the movies and also Jorge (the dude in the Walsh Jesuit shirt and weird haircut) who said he would ride up on his bike to pick me up for the dance. So there you have it, 4 of my boyfriends. I have more, but just not a whole lotta pictures. And for those males out there. Feast your eyes on Brenda, Will’s girlfriend. Will likes to tell Kasey (his real girlfriend of many months), that Brenda is “3 times the girl she is.” See for yourself.

This is a view of the creek that Will, Kasey (Will’s girlfriend), and I visited one hot, sunny Sunday after a long day on the farm and after Kasey took a blueberry bath.

I convinced Kasey to drive up from the Bay with us (she helps out at the farmer’s markets) and help us on the farm. It actually was a huge help because some of the normal crew couldn’t stay in the afternoon because Brenda (see next post) hurt her knee (lucky for Will because TWO girlfriends on the farm could get tricky). Anyways, this beautiful creek runs all the way down to Chico from the Mountains (very, very cold water). Whilst at the creek, we saw this big dog and I was like, “Dude, Will, that looks part wolf.” Well the dog swam over and hopped that big rock with such agility that I was sure it had to be part wolf. The dreadlocked owner came around and we asked him and he said “Naw, it’s not part wolf, it’s 100%.” It was a 17 month old white wolf with yellow eyes and a dog collar. I am pretty sure it’s illegal to have a wolf, but I felt like I was watching Planet Earth live in person as it swam toward us and shook all the water off on the rock like a big puppy (who will eventually get up to 200 lbs, Geesh)!