Only Time Will Tell

Our new water machines has arrived. Unfortunately, the City has not been upfront with all of the permits so we are in the process of having our engineer make corrections to the blue prints. In the meantime, Mr. Zippys is spending quality time in the field making friends with the goats, chickens, turkeys, and whomever else lives in the shadows of the pasture. Here are pictures of Jordan and his friends, Vic and Vince, unloading the machine. Although it is comical that the machine is in the field, it is frustrating all the same because it seems as if the red tape is never ending. If people could only do their job, then all of this could have been avoided because we would have had all the proper permits and corrections made long before the machine arrived in California. We will immediately be securing a lease and pulling permits for the next machine before we even order it!

Jordan had shirts made up for our water vending business. Both Garrett and Noah have Mr. Zippys attire. Our next family picture will be in our new shirts! Hopefully, we can take a picture in front of our machine! To the left you can see Garrett in his Mr. Zippy shirt. The boys have white shirts with the logo embroidered on the shirt. The adult version has racing strips on the collar and sleeves. In the background, you can catch a glimpse of our garden (and some of the field). We have been working hard on using our land to help us become more self-sufficient and to allow our family to eat less processed foods. We are going to add several trees next spring including oranges, nectarines, peaches, apples, pistachios, macadamia nuts, almonds, pecans, and grapefruits. We are also going to add some vines including grapes and kiwis. We are going to add more raised beds and cover more weeds with landscaping cloth and gravel. We are also going to build a greenhouse. I am surely going to have learn how to can fruits and vegetables!

Speaking of trees, walnuts are now ripening. Every year we have lived here, the squirrels have gotten the walnuts before we could harvest them. This year I have help. Julius, Sean, Garrett, and I pick some every day. Even if they are a little under ripened. If you leave the nuts in the sun, they ripen just fine. We have gathered several pounds already! Now my TA will spend the next few weeks cracking them all. This past Saturday, Sean, Garrett, Noah (in his new EllaRoo sling) and I were gathering nuts. Because we have one tree that is really tall, we had to knock them down with sticks. Since we do not grow walnuts for a living, we do not have all of the fancy harvesting equipment. Garrett was more worried about the goats eating his leaves (for his leaf collection) than gathering the nuts. Nevertheless, we had fun!