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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

We bought this place because it is terraced, I guess you'd call it.  The
house is on the top terrace, the horse barn is on the second terrace and the
gold rush cabin and two creeks are on the bottom level.  Being in the
mountains, this was a good deal because the cold slides on down to the
bottom.  AND, the most important was the micro climate (we've now been
informed that we live in the valley's banana belt).

Since everything that she'd done was relatively new it has been easy to move
stuff to more appropriate areas.  We are going to have to put a French drain
at the bottom of the slope we've put the "orchard" on.  It seems there is a
seasonal "swamp" and it will make the horse barn just about useless!

Thursday our grape vines arrive along with a flat of strawberry plants.
We've decided to pick up some more apples and an Italian prune at the same
time.

We may head on down to Mendocino and bring some blueberry starts back up
with us and try to aclimatize them.  Finding cold hardy cherries are next on
the agenda.

Ya gotta admit, living the good life is never boring <g>

Lynda
----- Original Message -----
> On our farm, the previous owner's mistakes included the placement of the
> two plum trees too low down the hill so the frost gets them every year
> without fail.  Another was that he planted a dozen dwarf apple trees
> inside the garden in a 4x3 pattern and spaced them only 2-3' apart.  The
> branches reach into one another and you can't hardly walk around or
> through them.  He also didn't disclose a small leak in the sunroom roof
> (former front porch), whoops.  It is a strange leak that only occurs
> when it's really pouring down for a prolonged period of time and only
> from a certain direction--it could be that they forgot about it (giving
> them the benefit of the doubt).  We had lived in the house for three
> years before we experienced the leak, when my husband went upstairs to
> investigate and opened the false wall over the sunroom, low and behold
> he found a pot full to the brim with water and running over.  The pond
> he made was too shallow and the trees too close, so we modified it last
> summer by having it dug wider and deeper, taking out trees as needed (a
> walking path/road goes around the pond now) and made a small silt pond
> above to collect/filter the silt.  Overall, we feel like the previous
> owner did alright.  We had looked at numerous farms and most of us learn
> by doing, so I doubt there are few perfect farms out there.  The rest of
> the fruit trees were well cared for and well placed, the blueberries are
> outstanding, the house is okay and the barn is hanging in there until we
> can repair it (it's on the list).
>
> Lisa
>
>
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