Rancho Chico Days

Well, our tenure at the St. Helena property came to an end back in June. It's against my personal policy to make any negative comments in this blog, so I'll simply say that the whole arrangement was rather lopsided to begin with and was just a downward spiral from there, with constant expectations of "more more more" for nothing in return. The work we put into the property far exceeded the value of living there. In addition to that, and more importantly, we have been called to duty in Chico.

Christine's grandfather recently passed away at the age of 96 and we have come here to deal with his estate and the home/ranchito he built in '71. Gramps as he was affectionately referred to, was quite an amazing and admirable man. He was born in 1913 on a ship ten days out to sea, to parents emigrating from Spain to Hawaii. As such, he saw the two World Wars, the Great Depression, and everything else between then and now. He rode to work with his brothers on the back of a horse, then later drove a Model T. He became an electrician and during WWII, repaired war-damaged airplanes in Oakland so they could be returned to service. In '46, following the war, he moved to Chico. He worked hard, played hard, had fun and never stopped giving to his friends, family and community. Gramps was quite an extraordinary gentleman and left quite a legacy to all who were fortunate enough to have known him.

So here we are...Christine has her work cut out for her in dealing with his estate and I have come to help get the landscape in order. I like to think of the property as a microfarm, with an emphasis on the "micro". It's a cute little Spanish style home on about a third of an acre with several varieties of fruit trees: cherry, apricot, peach and orange as well as grape, kiwi and raspberry vines. At the moment, it's all quite neglected and overgrown, as well as cluttered with stuff. We may or may not wind up staying here and renting this house. That will be determined in due time.

So without further ado...I'll catch up on our adventures in Chico thus far...

We were fortunate enough to be able to bring our 14 hens (Marans, Easter Eggers and a "Trader Joe's" Leghorn) from St. Helena because I had built a coop here last year when I bought Gramps some banty chickens for his 95th birthday. For biosecurity purposes, we gave those away and disinfected the coop prior to our girls' arrival.



As you can see, everything is very overgrown. The grapes are all over the ground and the weeds are knee high...



Although the coop was designed only for a few banties, it does a fine job of accommodating the 14 big girls. It will just need a little reworking of the roosts and nest boxes inside to be ideal, but it is more than adequate. The attached pen is too small for them, so for now they're just free ranging in the backyard, which is nice. Better pictures of the coop to follow soon...





This is a local stray cat which had been hanging around. We were unable to locate an owner and several neighbors have speculated that she likely was abandoned by somebody around the corner who recently moved. Luckily, she and the chickens are totally cool with each other. Another lucky bonus: she's pregnant! haha



She also gets along just fine with Dolly and Dolly gets along with everybody...



Now, on to the yard work. Lots and lots of yard work. I began with the area where Gramps used to grow vegetables, which for the past several years has been overgrown with weeds. I went ahead and planted a small vegetable garden there. It's a little late in the season, but I'm sure it will still be plenty productive. We've also gone organic with everything on the property, using the Dr. Earth line of fertilizer and Safer Insecticidal Soap.

Cleared of weeds...



I no longer have the luxury of a 118-year-old barn full of cool stuff to make use of, but I was able to piece together some adequate support structures with the limited materials on hand. Here are some Roma tomatoes growing vertically...



This is the metal part of an old wagon wheel belonging to Christine. I used it as a support for some cherry tomatoes...



Here is the garden, partially completed for the time being with basil, eggplant and tomatoes. I also have tomatillos, jalapenos and corno de toro peppers waiting to go into the ground, but I'm not sure it's feasible to plant them this late in the season. The tomatoes and eggplants were started from seed a month prior. At this point, perhaps I should just focus on preparing for the Fall planting.



That's all I have for now...I need to get some current photos of the progress made and Marilyn's (the stray cat) baby kitten. Little by little...