Orchard is Fenced!

Creating the orchard has been a priority, but it has also been one part of the integration of many parts of the excavation for the structures. Roads have grown out of discovering rocks in the fill that needs to be moved from here to there, for example. Same with the compost: bringing beautiful soil to the orchard also creates a more seamless transition between orchard area and fence line next to the road, all of which is worked simultaneously to account for how water flows down the hillside above and must be routed to not end up in our foundation!

That said, the orchard is the beating heart of this project, and after many years of work, having the edges wrapped up and fenced is an enormous accomplishment. To be clear, that’s 700’ at 10’ tall, the posts 4’ down in doughnuts of cement and crushed rock, intended to be strong enough for elk to rub. Joel intends to also integrate an electric line at the top against raccoons, as well as a grid at soil level to prevent coyotes from digging. The man is thorough. I’d like to integrate ducks into this system, so that’s why the extra precaution.

But why the beating heart? Look at climate change, monocrop mining, decimation of soils… We lucked into a property with amazing natural resources, and we want to use them with reverence. It’s the least we can do in such a rapidly shifting context. Plus, beauty is love.

The photos are a timeline showing what we started with, a monocrop of doug fir. He dropped it, turned it to firewood, disassembled the stumps, and we planned the roadway. I planted 4 year old trees that I had nursed off-site, but then he found beautiful compost from the old mill area, and started bringing it over. Untold semi-truckloads- truly a permaculture re-boot! We cleaned it of rocks and weeds, combed and finessed it into a truly geriatric-friendly new swath of highly friable growing area instead of the subsoil that was there before.

So Joel has had his work cut out for him and he has done a beautiful job. Finally it is all coming together, and neither of us could be more happy about it. As much as possible with limited irrigation, I will seed cover crops and keep them happy during the dry months, and he will be able to move on to structures, content that he did the best job anyone could do creating this fertile space for me… It’s a bit of a joke but still rests in my heart: I was never meant to bear human children, but instead, plants…..