Peak Bloom

What a beautiful day!

The sun is out. The thermometer is up.The bees are buzzing. I took the motorcycle out this afternoon. As I rode over a bridge I could look out and see the Valley waking up from its winter hibernation. I could see from the Sierras to the Coast Range. It was an unusually beautiful Spring day.

   It has been a long week.We have had frost and we have had rain.
We got the twenty acres of almonds planted.

Each white carton is protecting a young almond tree. It will be three years before we have any real harvest from these trees. It will be five years before we get a commercial crop from them. Can you see why farming takes patience?
   Each tree will be pampered so it grows strong and healthy. In fact, as soon as they were in the ground each plant got a splash of water and fertilizer to get it started.
   The older trees are about peak bloom. They are pushing hard. We go from dormant trees through bloom to fully leafed out trees in about a month. It is pretty amazing to see.

I know there is still some unsettled weather before Spring, heck it is only the beginning of March. Still, I would like to share another Spring memory from the days when we had cattle.

Some Days Are Diamonds

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright February, 2012

                We used to run cattle out the other side of Coalinga. We road for five days gathering cows off ten thousand acres we leased so we could brand and doctor the calves. One morning I rode to the top of the far ridge. When I looked down I could see a red tail hawk circling below me. What a view!

There’s just something special an early morning when you are riding above where hawks are soaring. It was a cool Spring day, I was miles from anywhere, the sky was blue with white puffy clouds. It kind of made up for some of the other days on the farm. Some days on the farm are hot, dirty and stressful. I know you have days like that too.

There is an old John Denver song where he sang, “Some days are diamonds, some days are stones.” That is true on the farm and it is true in life. This was one of my diamond days. Working cattle is a hard way to make a living, but there are some priceless benefits.

You can find more of my radio posts on the blogs at www.940kyno.com.

I hope Y'all have a a great week.