Blueberries!

First off, thanks for all the advice about the irrigation, everyone.  Especially Cousin Donny who took the time to come out to the property to see what was going on.  Donny had some great ideas of how to fix the leaks and have a better system.   But first we needed to check with Tieton Irrigation about the water shutoff and some other questions.  

The receptionist wasn't very helpful with Erin, but a technician came out to the house to see the leaks for himself.  The main leaky shut off valve was technically property of Tieton Irrigation so they replaced it without batting an eye.  The old grey valve that had a major crack going was most likely originally installed by Tieton Irrigation back in the day.  So the nice technician just replaced the valve and put our hose bibs back on!  The best part is that he extended the run with PVC which will be much easier to work with when we finally do need to revamp the whole system.  But for now, it's no longer leaking and we can water the tree/blueberry bushes.  Thanks Tieton Irrigation!

Here's the new set up:

So now we have a nice drip line set up around the bushes and the tree:

I think the bushes enjoyed the heat from a few weeks ago followed by the rain.  Look at these berries!!!

I've been looking at blueberry message boards to see if it's worth the time to thin the berries.  Some of the bushes are clumping up worse than others, but with only five plants we may just have to experiment!

It was a beautiful day out in the canyon.  Here are some shots I took, trying to be artistic.  I don't think Erin is losing the title of family photographer anytime soon:

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day everyone!

Spring Planting

Ever since we bought the property, Erin has been plotting a U-Pick-Em Blueberry farm.  Well today we went out to a farm in Naches to pick up our first couple of bushes.  We heard that the farm was selling their bushes from our friends, Clint & Jenn.  Evidently, the family isn't interested in farming blueberries anymore because of impending food safety regulations.  Their loss!  Anyway, the guy was really nice and gave us three Duke variety bushes that ranged from 8-10 years old and two pollinator bushes (one 8-10 and the other only 4 years old).  So five really solid plants and and a nice trip out to Naches.  Score!

On to the fun part: planting!  After picking up some peat moss and mulch, we were ready to start at the house.  We got the biggest one in first:

Then Erin and I split up and started working on either side.  The small pollinators are on the ends:

Per our handy-dandy transplant sheet, we dug shallow holes and filled the bottom 3-5 inches with peat moss.  For how big some of the bushes were, the roots were surprisingly shallow.  

After all the bushes were planted we soaked them with water and covered them up with some mulch.  Even though we are transplanting the bushes, we are still hoping for some blueberries this summer.  But to make that happen we will need to figure out the water situation.  As you may remember from our issues with the tree, the irrigation pipes are not in the best shape.  Anyone with irrigation experience in the house???  We need to figure out how to take the following cluster of old and leaky pipes into a drip system:

Seriously though, anyone that could point us in the right direction on how to fix the current situation and get a drip system in play would be first in line for some fresh berries!  Or a couple of beers.....

One last shot of the planting operation today:

Sorry I don't have a nice clean pic of the finished product, but as we were finishing I took the truck down to the barn to put the tools away and store the extra peat moss that we bought.  I opened up the door and it was not as smooth as normal but I didn't really think anything of it.  I put everything away and was closing the door, when I finally looked up where the door scrunches up into a tight roll at the top:

SNAKE!!!!!!

SNAKE IN A BARN!!!!!!!!!  

SNAKE IN OUR BARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Now, I'm sure my extended family that grew up way out in West Valley won't even blink an eye since they have to deal with rattlers often.  But since I'm a city boy, I'm not use to dealing with any snake, let along a snake this size.  Granted, it was a bull snake, but look at it!  It would have swallowed me whole if it had the chance!!!!

Erin was nice enough to get close enough to the snake to take a picture of it and even took the action shot of me taking it to it's final resting place:

 

So our buddy was mostly minding his own business, killing vermin on the property and was just unlucky enough to get caught in the door as I scrunched it up.  I feel bad that I killed it since it was a non-venomus bull snake, but on the other hand, IT WAS A HUGE SNAKE AND I AM NOT A FAN OF SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erin and I needed a milkshake after the snake ordeal so we'll post a final picture of how the blueberries look next time we go up to the house.  Until then....

Progress!

Well a few steps forward at least!

Fred and I have been working on a set of house plans and we are in the Final Review process with the architect! The house ended up being a tad larger than we had hoped but in order to squeeze everything in it was necessary! The house is a 2240 sq. ft. rambler, with four bedrooms, three full baths, and the most amazing pantry ever! This will be one organized house! J

Hopefully in the next month or so we will have a more concrete timeline!

Happy May everyone!