Taking Care of Business

Well, about five months ago the wife told me: If you spent half as much time working on the yard as blogging it would look a lot better. Now she was angry about some other things at the time, but there is a kernel of truth. I took a good hard look at the yard. It wasn't pretty. So I took a blogging vacation to clean it up, and let's face it, to passive-agressively react to her comment by cutting back on my third favorite thing, after family and beer.
But then I figure- hey- she never reads this anyway....

A reciprocal roof built in the sandbox with some bamboo (the  plastic livestock and funky  boots are the youngest's)

"Daddy, make a bridge and tunnel for my dump truck!" so I did.... I don't know what to call this type of birdge- any help?

Nectarines in bloom in early April

The expanded paddy. 100 square meters this year!

Will it keep boars out? Only time will tell. (but it worked last year)

Indian Blood Peach blossoms in Mid April.

Strawberries are blooming. I would feel safer if I could see bees....

April Showers Bring Orchard Flowers

I thought I would do a post about my orchard and what is flowering. Mmmmmm.... I sure hope that we get a good harvest this year!

A yellow cultivar of Rubus crataegifolius a wild raspberry of Japan

It is hard to see, but hidden in the garlic is a Actinidia arguta (hardy Kiwi)

My water supply. I stuck a hose in a small pool on  the creek, and let it siphon down. When I am not using it, it drains into the same creek.

A loquat Eriobotrya japonica, Cultivar "Tanaka"

My quince Cydonia oblonga is about to flower.

Asian Pear Pyrus pyrifolia Cultivar "Hosui"

Indian Blood Peach Prunus persica

Santa Rosa Plum Prunus salicina

Nectarine Prunus persica

Peachy!

Everything is just peachy here.

This year my Indian Blood Peach tree, which I grew from a seed I got at Bountiful Gardens, grew another 3 feet and gave us about 50 peaches. Man I love peaches! But these are the latest, reddest peaches I have ever seen. Who ever heard of peaches that ripen at the equinox? 

There is very little to compare to wandering out to your garden, picking a peach, and eating it in the sunshine while you smell the soon coming autumn in the breeze.

Well, anyways, the peaches were discovered by wasps last Thursday, so the boy and I picked all of them, and spent a rainy Friday morning cutting them up and freezing the harvest. Twenty peaches, most with at least one wasp hole in them. But we cut around those, and have been drinking sweet peach lassi ever since. Put some frozen peaches, yogurt, and milk in a blender- it isn't rocket science, I don't measure them- and blend it up. Sometimes I put in a dash of vanilla or a spoon of suger. Maybe dust the top with some cinnamon. Bliss!

And, on another note, I saved all the seeds from the fruits we ate, and have been planting them all over the place. So maybe in 5 years or so, we could have a regular peach paradise here.