Homestead mailing list

["Karen L. Black" <karen AT plamondon.com>]

I thought I'd change the subject, as the topic has shifted from Tvo's
original.

One of the problems with talking about the "Coast Range" is that one is
talking about at least four different geologies: the Olympic penninsula,
dominated by glacier-topped Mt. Olympus, the Washington-Oregon Coast Range
from roughly Olympia to Eugene, mountainous southern Oregon to Yreka, CA,
and the California Coast Ranges from Humboldt County south.

Although all areas share a wet-winter, dry-summer climate, in general the
southern parts are drier and warmer than the northern parts, and the west
side of the hills are wetter through the year than the east side. In
addition, there is a fog drip in coastal areas that serves as most of the
summer moisture -- I've seen it when I used to live on the coast.

Where I live, just east of the Oregon Coast Range (and within view of Marys
Peak, at 4097' the highest point in Oregon), we have about 60-90" of rain a
year, mostly from October - June. This year, there was snow on Marys Peak
until early July, but usually it is gone two weeks earlier -- local planting
lore says to put in the corn when the snow is gone -- so you can see that
direct snowmelt has little effect on summer moisture. Groundwater can last
some time, but by late September, most of my pastures are pretty dry.
Shallow-rooted bentgrasses flowers in May or June and goes dry by August;
clumping grass like fescue stays green the longest. Our chicken pastures are
staying green longer than the ungrazed pasture.

I don't know if conifers make the best humus, but they do decompose into
something crumbly. Personally, I like to use them in my chicken offal
compost pile, which will probably take anything carboniferous and turn it
into compost.

Karen Black
Blodgett, OR