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[Ralphie]

Weeks of heat and very little rain means the veg garden and berries need a lot of watering.  Sig loves to ride around with Bent and supervise.  He has a special interest in the watermelons!

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Looks like you have a field of something growing in the background.  What is that?

[Bentley]

The house is surrounded by farm land.  The parcel Kristin owns and the house sits on is about 15 acres, of which about 13 is in dying soybeans right now.  The other 175 is owned by my uncles and lease to local farmers and also has dying soybeans on it.  I think that is what you are seeing way behind the golf cart is the small cut parcel in the center of this photo.

This Google maps taken in Oct of 2017 caught them harvesting Soybeans.  You can see the combine in the upper left and distinguish the cut fields from those that have not been harvested by the difference in color and the cut pattern.

Looks like you have a field of something growing in the background.  What is that?

[yorkdude]

Bentley,
Is the bottom of the picture the area that you 2 are clearing all the trees from?
I miss living that remote, it is a pain for some things (store etc.) but awfully nice to have the peace and quiet.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Who uses the softball field?

[Bentley]

Just local teams, there are 2, was supposed to be 3, but that is way to long a story...My Uncles donated the land and the money for the fields, the pavilion, the band shell and the playground.  Also all the land down by Mountain run, which has a model airplane park and a boy Scout area for their jamborees!  All of the land in this picture was about half of my uncles working farm till about the early 80's when they retired from it.  The upper left was their old home and farm out building including the barn.  The old cow areas are still in operation and are used in beef cattle production.  The barn and many of the out buildings are used by Kearney & Associates a company that does Exhibits & Custom Millwork.

[Bentley]

Yes

Bentley,
Is the bottom of the picture the area that you 2 are clearing all the trees from?

[yorkdude]

Just local teams, there are 2...My Uncles donated the land and the money for the fields, the pavilion, the band shell and the playground.  Also all the land down by Mountain run, which has a model airplane park and a boy Scout area for their jamborees!  All of the land in this picture was about half of my uncles working farm till about the early 80's when they retired from it.  The upper left was their old home and farm out building including the barn.  The old cow areas are still in operation and are used in beef cattle production.  The barn and many of the out buildings are used by Kearney & Associates a company that does Exhibits & Custom Millwork.

Wow, you have some very nice uncles. That is a xxxx of a deal !

[Kristin Meredith]

I miss living that remote, it is a pain for some things (store etc.) but awfully nice to have the peace and quiet.

The thing is, I had more peace and quiet living in the San Rafael hills of Pasadena, 7 miles from downtown LA.  Unfortunately, Stevensburg Rd (the paved road running the length of the front of my property) has become a shortcut between two busy commuter roads and there is traffic and even big rigs and heavy trucks on it all the time.  Old House Vineyards is our nearest neighbor and they have now added a distillery and brewery for an drinking trifecta (in addition to weddings and special events) and the brewery is open later into the evenings from Thursday through Sunday. Their entrance road borders my property and it can be full of traffic -- and dust! -- for good parts of the weekend in spring, summer and fall.  And the adult softball leagues practice at least three nights a week and then have games and sometimes all day tournaments about ever other weekend from April thru Sept.  The Pavilion my uncles built is now so popular that it is booked every weekend sometimes from 7 am to 9 pm.  What use to be sleepy dairy country has changed a lot and I am surprised at how most of the change has happened in the last 5 years.

[yorkdude]

Yeah, I made that comment not knowing all that the area surrounding you has to offer.
That kind of changes that a bit anyway.
One problem we did have is that if someone had a flat, got lost, looking for cow/dog etc. they always came up the driveway and asked for help, it was sometimes a pain because I was always worried someone might decide to do something not so good when we were gone. Never Happened at least that I know of anyway.

[Kristin Meredith]

Yeah, I made that comment not knowing all that the area surrounding you has to offer.
That kind of changes that a bit anyway.
One problem we did have is that if someone had a flat, got lost, looking for cow/dog etc. they always came up the driveway and asked for help, it was sometimes a pain because I was always worried someone might decide to do something not so good when we were gone. Never Happened at least that I know of anyway.

I did not mean to sound so snitty.  We have lots of very bucolic days when I can sit on the back patio and look out over green fields to the Blue Ridge Mts in the distance, so I know we are lucky.  I am just surprised that there have been some big changes -- especially in weekend noise and traffic -- and it was unexpected for my part.  I am serious, my home in Pasadena was on a cul-de-sac and up in the hills and very peaceful, so this can kind of be a double whammy!!!

[yorkdude]

Not to worry, you didn’t come off as snitty, not even a little. I just had no idea.

[Bobitis]

Looking really good. They are a lot of work keeping them that clean.

It's part of the reason to go to raised beds.  Hopefully with raised beds and a heavy mulch, we can reduce the weeding -- and the raised beds will be a bit easier on the back!!!

Have you looked at using woven landscape fabric? Nothing but rave reviews on youtube.

[Kristin Meredith]

Looking really good. They are a lot of work keeping them that clean.

It's part of the reason to go to raised beds.  Hopefully with raised beds and a heavy mulch, we can reduce the weeding -- and the raised beds will be a bit easier on the back!!!

Have you looked at using woven landscape fabric? Nothing but rave reviews on youtube.

Have not even thought about that.  We have hundreds of used cinder blocks which we got for free.  So we were going to use those -- I am cheap that way and like to save my money for plants where I can.