Sunflowers

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Robin

I’ve been moving my photos from my computer’s hard drive to an external hard drive because I’m running out of room. As I moved the Across the Road folder I saw yellow flashing by and I thought I’d share. The landowner Across the Road from me often grows alfalfa in those fields. That is usually a three or four year crop. So every fourth or fifth year there is something else there. This year it is tomatoes. Other years there have been sunflowers. I love sunflowers.

There isn’t a story here. I’m just sharing photos of sunflowers…and in no particular order. I just like seeing these flowers.

Planting Tomatoes

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Robin

I didn’t plant tomatoes. They were planting across the road.

Here is the view this morning. It’s a big operation involving lots of people.

Each tomato planting machine is pulled by a tractor. There were four in this field today.

Tomato planting machine operated with a tractor.

There are six people sitting in the machine. Two other people were following. One of those moved the trays of seedlings, keeping up with the planters. The other seemed to be filling in spots where a tomato wasn’t planted. There is the tractor driver too. That is 9 people for each of these machines.

Close view of people sitting in tomato planting machine with trays of tomato seedlings.

Zoomed in view under the canopy.

I was amazed at how smoothly the beds were prepared a few days ago in preparation for this. Three beds are planted at a time, each with two rows of tomato plants.

Caterpillar tractor with a ditcher behind.

I took Ginny for a walk in the evening after everyone had left for the day. The job was not finished. I was surprised to see how much more there is to go. I continue to marvel at the amount of people and equipment involved here. I’m sure that this tractor will pull the ditcher around the field as soon as the planting is finished.

These are the crates that hold the tomato seedlings.

These are stacks of the empty trays. I think I count 28 spaces in a row. These trays are square so that would be 784 seedlings in each tray.

Field of newly planted tomato seedlings.

This is a view of the field looking south to Mt. Diablo, just visible in the haze. Last year I took a photo from this same spot weekly and intended to have a post that followed the sunflower field from start to finish. I still have those photos but never had time to do that. I’ll try to continue with the tomatoes.

Table and benches with sunshade, on wheels for far workers to use.

There were two portable “comfort stations”. I just made that up–I don’t know what they are called. They have seating under a shade and toilets.

I’m not sure if these tanks supply water or fertilizer to the tractors pulling the planting machinery. About a week ago another machine was pulled through that I though injected something as they made the beds–maybe that was fertilizer. I think the seedlings are getting water now to keep them going until the whole job is finished and they can irrigate.

Here is what the planter looks like. There are six chairs facing back.

It’s really hard to describe how this works. I don’t understand it without having seen it in action close up. The seedling is put into that v-shaped thing in the middle. It is on a rotating disc and it gets put in the soil. Every pair of seats had one disc with three of the v-shaped slots and one with two. That means that the two rows of tomatoes in each bed are offset to give the plants more room.

View from where the people sit inside the tomato planting machine

This is the view from sitting in the seat next to this disc. I just found this video to show how one works. It’s not quite the same, but the same function.

Forklift with large crates that hold tomato seedlings.

More infrastructure. There was a forklift to move the crates around.

Front view of tomato planting machinery with water tanks on front of the tractor.

The front view of the tractor with the tanks that I assume hold water. This part of the field is already planted so I think they just took it off the dirt road to park or maybe they needed to go back over this part for some reason.

Field partially planted with tomato seedlings. Planting machinery is in the field.

This shows the beds behind the tractor planted and beds in the foreground not planted yet.

Disc and grader both attached to tractors on a dirt road.

Even more equipment. The disc had gone around the edge of the field followed by the grader to smooth it out. They are parked on the dirt road in this photo.

View to the north.

Field with newly planted tomato seedlings.

Another view. That’s a lot of tomato plants. There are a lot more to plant. I don’t know if they will finish tomorrow. I’m sure they are under pressure to get those seedlings in the ground since those crates were delivered yesterday. At least it’s not very hot right now.

I hope I didn’t bore you with all these photos, but I’m fascinated by this.

Grandkids Across the Road

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Robin

While the grandkids were still here we made an excursion Across the Road. I hadn’t wanted to take three dogs and the two kids on my own because of the part where we have to walk on Meridian Road. There isn’t a lot of traffic but the cars are fast and there isn’t much of a shoulder to walk on. I didn’t want to pull the wagon where Kason was riding and hang onto three leashes, all the while trying to get the dogs off the pavement when cars came. (The dogs want to stay on the pavement because they have learned that when they walk off the pavement they are apt to pick up puncture vine burrs in their feet.) By the way, Rusty shared some photos of this in his blog.

The wagon worked well for Kasen and had the added benefit of taking all the necessary things like water bottles and the doll.

Meryl and I traded off with the wagon, but part of the point of this walk was for Kirby, wearing her black and pink Nikes, to run with Aunt Meryl.

Eventually Aunt Meryl tired and needed a ride. Time to go home. Kirby started to pout because she wanted Sawyer’s leash. I let her take Rusty and all was OK.

Fall Colors and Dogs

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Robin

I haven’t taken the dogs Across the Road much lately. I need to take the time to do that for them and for me. Here are some photos from a few days ago.

Leaves are turning color and falling.

They will be gone soon.

The black walnut leaves are already gone. Or maybe this is one of the trees that is dead. I think the drought took it’s toll on some of these.

The view looking southeast.

Ginny’s ball was cracked and even with the “Chuckit” I couldn’t throw it very far. Rusty runs after Ginny every time she goes for the ball. Then he runs back with her but he doesn’t always keep up with her now.

There were sunflowers in one of these fields and there were lots of seeds dropped on the road at harvest time. Now they are all sprouting.

This is Ginny while I was on the ground trying to take seedling emergence photos.

So you know that she put the ball right under my camera.

Ginny, do you know that broken tennis balls don’t float? She spent time looking for it after she had taken it into the canal.

Back at my driveway there were beautiful leaves to photograph. A wild grape vine.

Walnut tree.

Happy fall!

Yellow and Red

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Robin

Here are some recent Across the Road photos. If I can’t have my own 100’s of acres then at least I get to pretend by living right across the road from bigger farmland.

Sunflower in the making.

I have some weaving plans to incorporate these colors but haven’t had time to get to it.

The tomatoes were harvested last week.

These are canning tomatoes.

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This was the aftermath. There were plants at the ends of some rows and at the edges of the field that were toppled over but not harvested.

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I gleaned 22 pounds on one walk and picked up black walnuts for dyeing as well.

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Tomatoes in one pot and weeping willow leaves in the other.

Shadow Pictures

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Robin

Right now I’m sitting at my desk with one Border Collie (Rusty) at my feet under the desk and the other behind the chair. Ginny has never been gun shy or afraid of things in the sky but this thunderstorm has her rattled too. Rusty is terrified. So I left the loom where I was weaving and I’ll wait it out with them. We don’t often have thunderstorms here.

I had planned to write this blog post about our walk Across the Road in yesterday’s sunshine.

Guess who with something in her mouth?

Ginny watches the Ball and Rusty watches Ginny.

Ginny constantly drops the ball in the water but this year she gets herself. Last year I was fishing it out for her.

I don’t say much about Maggie because she usually wanders ahead and does her own thing out of range of the camera. I called her over to get a photo.

The late afternoon sun gives light to other subjects as well.

Ginny found a ball that we lost at some point in the tall grass. Now the grass is gone and she saw it in a dried tractor track. It’s a good thing because the ball on the right isn’t in very good shape at this point.

Across the Road Close-up

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Robin

It has dried out enough to take the dogs walking again. I haven’t taken my camera lately because it’s cold and I have three leashes and the Ball Thrower Thing and my hands are too cold. (Don’t laugh if you live where it snows. I’m still cold.) Rusty wrote a post about his perspective of the latest walks. Here is what I see when I walk with the iPhone.

You know those gloves with the special fingers that are supposed to let you use your phone even with the gloves on? I have some too:

Do you know what I think when I see these photos? Or when I’m looking at the ground while taking the photos? What if these were satellite photos and these were mountain ranges? Can you see that?

The rain has started things growing. This is in a huge patch of thistles.

There are a few mustard flowers blooming already.

Perspective again. What if that little red rock in the hole was really a house? Then those cracks are canyons.

Uh oh! That perspective thing would make this a very scary photo indeed! Raccoonzilla.

Speaking of another perspective. Three dogs and me.

Orchard Trails

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Robin

It’s dry enough now to ride my bike Across the Road. I take Ginny to try and wear her out a bit. Yesterday I took a different route and decided to veer off the road that borders a walnut orchard. I don’t know why I haven’t done that before–veering off the road. Maybe because at other times of the year it’s muddy or weedy (including puncture vine, also known as goats’ head that puncture tires and dog feet) or being harvested. Or because I’m not the sort of person that goes off the trail.

Maybe it’s that I am not a big fan of orchards in this area. Almond orchards seem to be taking over the valley and the landscapes that I love are hidden once the orchard has been in a couple of years.

Anyway, it was beautiful view from within the orchard.

Peaceful.

Colorful.

Orderly.

However, I still love the broad landscape that is outside the orchard. This is one of the few black walnut trees remaining around the fields.

The mountains are almost obscured by the young almond orchard that is across the big canal but at least I can still see the sunset.

Sunflowers-April through June

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Robin

We have only 10 acres here, but having the field Across the Road makes it seem as though we have much more. We are careful to be good neighbors and we are grateful that we have permission to spend time exploring that property. So I feel kind of like the crops grown there are mine although I have none of the work involved. This summer’s crop was sunflowers–one of my favorites. I have way too many photos so I’ll break this into two posts.

April 12. You can just see the tiny plants.

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April 27

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May 2. Cultivating.

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June 11. They’re growing up. I sound like a proud parent.

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The rest of the photos in this post were taken throughout June.

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Birds and Butterflies

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Robin

Last week it was impossible to go to town or walk Across the Road without running into butterflies. The orange sulphur butterfly (Colias eurytheme also known as the alfalfa butterfly and in its larval stages as the alfalfa caterpillar), I found out by googling, is widespread in North America and can be a significant alfalfa pest in high densities.

The alfalfa field just south of where I walk had been cut, the sunflowers harvested, and butterflies were doubling and tripling up on field bindweed flowers and any other weedy flowers they could find.