Green

It seems like there are lots of pictures on this blog that show brown dusty landscapes.   Yes, this is the desert, but those pictures have mostly been of winter, and actually there is a surprising about of green here.  So, some pictures to balance out the others.

The acre or so of tree grove around the canal on the land here is absolutely humming with life right now.  

Literally.  The bees are incredibly loud, morning to evening, as they roll in the pollen on the flowers of the mesquite, which will eventually change into pods that I'm excited to harvest to turn into mesquite flour.

And the walnuts are fully leafed out too, creating this wonderful canopy of various colors of green, and various depths of shade.  Which makes for a good temperature with the breeze blowing through.  I'm having all sorts of insights and inspirations about the concept of a "food forrest."  It finally really truly makes sense to me, and I am living in one.

It's been fun to get up in the trees a bit too, harvesting dead branches and finding the straightest bits to make "plugs" with, which are something we will use when watering the field.  Basically, its using sticks and pieces of tarp to block and then open certain passsageways.

And we actually have kale, and an abundance of carrots are looking great below a thick layer of mulch near the greywater of our kitchen sink.

And then.... the field. Yes! Amazingly, the beans and everything else that came up survived and thrived through our being gone and not getting any water yet.

Below is our first attempt as a team-- me and Stevan and a mule- to plant beans.  Stevan was lammenting about the crooked lines to another farmer who said, "don't worry, the beans know which way is up." 

Today we spent the morning with Conrado and his mule furrowing between the crops to prepare for watering Thursday.  Luckily he is a wizard and acrobat with the plow, and even managed to get through the obstacle course in the picture above, leaving no bean unearthed, and neat furrows between rows.  There were jokes about "plowing Olympics."

We both did much watching and observing, and also spend some time under the reins and behind the plow.