July 10

Mr. Dang, a local landowner and financial advisor, lived up to his name today when he failed to show up for our appointment.

Not to start off negatively but it turns out the California prune crop is not going to be so good this year. That is because according to James, one of the farmers I am dealing with, it was too warm out last March, and March is when the buds form. And the buds have a big affect (compared to other fruits) on the success of the crop. So the prunes might be too small. If the prunes do get big enough, the harvest will be around Aug 10-20.

The peach harvest is just starting. Sarv, another of the farmers I am dealing with, gave me several peaches from his orchard in Sutter County (just over the river) and they were the best ever. There is even a Marysville peach festival in 2 weeks. The walnut harvest is November. Persimmons are harvested in october. What are those anyway, students at Simmons??? Steve, yet another farmer (I am talking to many farmers), is gradually switching from growing walnuts to growing persimmons because, he indicated, persimmon growing is more enjoyable to him.

Today at lunch I looked at some model houses at a new subdivision called Orchard Estates just outside Marysville. The subdivisions are popping up everywhere around here, and who would not want to see what the jillion new homes under construction are all about? They are open concept houses with 9-10 foot high ceilings. There are three types of cookie-cutter houses at Orchard Estates and they are named after fruits grown in the area: fuji, pippin, I forget what else. You can get a Pippin, 1600 SF in the low 3's. So naturally I asked Christine, the sales agent, why did they not name one model the Prune? Since prunes are grown more than anything around here?? Houses for the older folk? Christine was all haha and thought maybe for the over-55 community but such a concept probably wouldn't fly with marketing. Then somehow out of that came a lively discussion of how the meat sauce at the Dancing Tomato has no meat in it. Then back to work, with her farewell sales pitch that I should have a look at some of the other subdivisions like Hunter's Creek.

Garrett and Ron from GEI are here from our various CA offices, working on the engineering field studies for same levee project as I am working on. I saw them but for a brief moment in our temporary field office. Because then I had to see Clark at the county office before he took off for the rest of the week. It was good to see Clark and catch up since last year. But I did not see Gary or Lynndie because Gary was out having a baby and Lynndie moved to the building department.

This coming weekend is kind of a blank canvas.... I am thinking a bout hitting Napa Valley!!