Dragonfly Ranch

Cantaloupe, figs, and nectarine — all from the ranch.

We awoke the last two mornings to the smell of smoke in the air. There’s a fire at El Portal in Yosemite and another over near North Fork. Neither of them currently pose a problem of fire for us, but the air is pretty bad and we can see the smokey haze pretty much everywhere. Smells like someone just doused a campfire under your nose. This is our first experience with fires fairly close.

We checked all our peripheral water hoses to be sure those along the fence do work. And we had already made a start toward having an evacuation kit ready (water and dog food being among the first priorities). We’ll let you know if we need to come bunk with any of you.

As you can see, Callix and Kai are staying alert in case we need them.

From the house across Raymond Road/415 you can see the smokey haze.

…or, as Betsy calls them, the pod people.

We like this mutha’ string weed eater instead. Even Betsy can use this one, believe it or not.

We rented one of those big mutha’ brush mowers to cut the area outside the fence line. Cal Fire has pretty strict rules about fire risk abatement around here. I shaved a couple of boulders before I got the hang of it, but I think Phil is a natural.

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Before:

During:

after a hard day working the ranch.

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OMG… pod people!

Our two cantaloupe and three watermelon vines are out of control.