Close the windows!

On and on it goes. More wind. Day after day. And I’ve spoken to a genuine elder resident of the Planet Orland and I have been told that this much wind is not normal.

Even though this is a well built house and the windows seal tightly, the wind still drives the dust in and there is a fine film of it on everything and everywhere. But…that’s what happens when you live in the country; where every day the normal agricultural activities create more dirt for the wind to blow about.

Case in point; just east of us by about 3 miles, there is a new orchard being built. This formerly productive almond orchard was hit hard by the winds of January, with lots of trees uprooted. While other orchards in the area were cleared of downed trees and the remaining trees were pruned for the coming season, this orchard was ignored for months. Finally, about 6 weeks ago, a large chipper was brought in and the entire orchard, live trees and dead, was plucked from the ground and fed into the machine. The result was a bleak landscape of about 60+ acres of dirt and upturned irrigation piping. And one huge mound of almond ‘chips’.

Tractors were brought in and the plowing began. After the tractors finished, the laser guided land leveling took place. More tractors. And what I expected to see after this would be the process of creating the rows where the new trees would be planted. Tractors again. But that didn’t happen.

Surprisingly, a decision was made to go back over the newly leveled acreage with a deep ripper. Now a deep ripper uses a VERY large tractor to pull a single ripping shank through the hardpan that lies beneath the topsoil. This shatters the hardpan and allows for deeper rooting of the trees. That tractor has now crossed and recrossed the orchard a half dozen times. And each time we pass by that new orchard, we see a haze of dust and diesel exhaust. It’s been two weeks now and I have no idea as to when they will be through. I can’t even imagine how much fuel has been burned and its cost! Farming is not done by ‘poor folks’ anymore. I’m just guessing, but I would imagine that the ‘farmer’ will have close to $1 million dollars invested in that acreage by the time the trees are purchased and the irrigation system installed.