Playtime at Owl Creek

We've got one more trip up to Owl Creek this summer. On the agenda: our first Apple Cider Press the morning of Sunday, August 11. We'll need a team for this - the more the merrier because we literally have 5 trees laden with fruit. We'll rotate people between jobs: picker, trimmer/QC, washer, crusher, juicer, catcher, sterilizer and  pasteurizer. Everyone who comes out to help will go home with some apple juice and/or cider in the making.

Also on the agenda is enjoying the Perseid meteor shower. Joel, Aaron and I sat outside watching the sky up there this past weekend and we lost count of how many shooting stars we saw while killing a bottle of Russian River Vineyard Zin. We're excited to find out how many we see during the actual meteor shower!

If you'd like to come up, you can plan on any stretch between August 9th and the 18th (although, as noted above, Cider Press will be August 11). Let me know if you plan to come up - directions are in a previous post on this blog.

Pictures from last trip:

Natural hot spring about 10 miles south of the property. It's got just enough elevation to give you both a view of the valley and a sense of privacy nestled  among the natural Modoc sunflowers and thick patches of aromatic mint. Water is perfect hot tub temps!

We walked out past the small diversion dam to the natural flowing area of Owl Creek. 

 Allie loves indulging her natural canine side, chasing rabbits and squirrels... and playing with sticks. She really loves sticks! 

A man and his dog at the creek. Doesn't get better than that. 

We are still trying to figure out where the property line is... somewhere up this mountain.

 (above) Trail out to diversion dam. 

(right) The drill rig is still out there, slowly making their way down to find our future water supply!

Beautiful old juniper tree full of berries. 

Continuing to clear and compost.

(below) This is what it looks like when entering the main gate. So far one person has gone to my north-neighbor and another has ended up at the across-the-street neighbor's!

We outlined a small parking area with stones for those who don't want to drive their city-car up the full length of the driveway. Just let us know you're coming and we'll drive out to get you.

Lots going on at Owl Creek this week.

Three new guests - George & Diana from Greenwave and my pilot friend Aaron - came out for the weekend. Our big project was starting to clear the future build site and pulling invasive weeds that I can't let proliferate and blow into my neighbors' cow fields.

We used about half of the removed brush to cook dinner and breakfast over a campfire.

When we arrived, we found this beautiful piece of equipment staged in the driveway near the future well site. They are probably drilling this very moment as I'm typing this update, so please send your well wishes for the well my way. I'm hoping for good drinking water, at least 10-15 gallons per minute, within the 200-foot-deep price estimate.












You can see a trailer in the background of the photo above, behind George, Diana & Aaron. Joel towed that over so we'd have a more comfortable place to stay. Not that the shed isn't charming, mind you, but it is nice to have options. The arrival of the trailer was exciting, but Joel lost no time getting started on a deck for it.









Aaron helped and it was ready in time for us to have an inaugural dinner on it Sunday evening...

... and breakfast next morning.

Thank you to George, Diana and Aaron for all their help with projects this weekend, and to Alicia who couldn't join us but donated the funds to buy the deck wood and the materials we used to make three off-grid automated watering devices for our trees and blueberry bush. Also thanks to Anand for donating funds to buy two hand-blacksmithed dinner bells... one for mealtime and the other to use as a gate-bell for people who need a ride up the driveway.

One of the most exciting developments for me, maybe because I wasn't expecting it, was the campground. We have an area under the big leafy cottonwood trees that was full of tall grasses and branches from a fallen tree. It's in the human zone so eventually we were going to clear all that out, but we didn't have a clear plan other than continuing to make the human zone less inviting to critters. I took the weed whacker to it and indeed it did look like it would be less inviting to critters so I thought that job was done. Joel had a different vision. "Don't put that away quite yet," he said as I started to unplug. He recruited me and Aaron to pull up the dead branches (creating yet another pile of dead branches for the Solstice bonfire), and then he weed whacked again. He's better at that than I am, so instead of a short-but-shaggy result, he got it all nice and even. Maybe you need to take a couple of passes at it when the grass is that long, so I'll say this was a team effort. The outcome was a pretty area for people to set up their tents under the pleasant shade of the big cottonwood trees and with one of the best views of Eagle Peak. No longer was it just "less inviting to critters," it became more inviting to humans. In fact, it became our go-to shady resting place for the rest of the trip. It will be perfect for people to set up camp - until now, we've been setting tents up in the driveway!

It was amazing to me to see how an hour's effort could transform a patch of grasses into an inviting campground. That's what happens when you pair yourself up with a man who understands your vision even better than you do yourself... 1+1=3. Thank you Joel for the energy and passion you bring to Owl Creek.

I didn't take a picture of the campground - you'll have to come up and try it out yourself. Next opportunity for that is the last weekend of July: it turns out we will be helping with the Eagleville BBQ so best timing for guests would be to drive up Saturday, meet us at Owl Creek in the early evening, and stay Saturday, Sunday and, if you'd like, Monday nights. One of us will be there til Tuesday. We hope to see you out there!