Thank you Justin for this picture.

This morning when I went for a walk, I noticed an outside swath of Sudangrass at Jaime’s had been cut.

It was too damp early in the morning to cut, but by early afternoon, the harvester was at work. It sure moved quickly through the field. The operator was an independent contractor.

Incredible to me that all that vertical growth could be reduced to the wide cut rows. The harvester slices the leaves but crushes the stems to enable more even drying which will take 5-10 days.

Nick Ledbetter had a great community service idea for his final Eagle Scout project: a wider walkway from the Dry Creek Ranch House to the (kind-of faraway) bathrooms. The County of Sacramento paid for all the concrete – Thank you very much! I went to take pictures as things went along. I was so surprised on my first visit to find over 30 volunteers working to set the forms.

Nick Ledbetter

Fran and I looked at each other and we both said, “Maria.” She was our common link. Maria’s sister Barbara is married to Fran’s brother. I thought Julie was one of “my moms” but she said I hadn’t taught any of her kids; I’ve known her for 30 years.

Julie Burke and Fran Culp

A few days later (at 6:30 am!), the concrete was poured. More kind volunteers were there to help.



A huge thank-you to Nick, many members of his church, and teammates from his wrestling team for this wonderful project to improve the grounds of the Dry Creek Ranch House. Congratulations to Nick on a successful Eagle Scout project.

Phyl and I went tonight’s Farmer’s Market at Depot Park in Rio Linda. I went one time last year to find one or two vendors. Things have changed since then. Tonight there were about 20 vendors, 3 food trucks, and lots of people shopping.
This is Phyl’s neighbor who sells Watkins products but also sells the vegetables she grows at home.
Faithful organizers (seated, L-R) Charlea Moore and Shirley Breckinridge. At right is Pat Day.

Rickey Hill of Broken Plow Farm in Elverta. Come to find out, I taught both of his sons at Westside School.

What a surprise Tommy Hall and his daughter. Tommy has a t-shirt printing business called Konnected whose goal is to provide employment for parolees.

A couple of weeks ago, Sophia decided she was going to learn to ride a bicycle one evening. 30 minutes later = success. Now she will be able to ride the two-wheeled bikes with the other girls in the Tiger group at daycare.

Up in Lake Wildwood, Tim celebrated with a cigar and took this great selfie.

Work ended on Monday July 21 and there’s nothing on the horizon until mid-August. What to do?

Lots of sewing of course. Noticing how the walnuts on Justin’s trees are drooping with an abundance of walnuts. Justin didn’t prune this past winter as he’d intended, so the trees put their energy into walnut production instead of the growth of the tree itself. Justin thinks there may be twice as many walnuts this year. 400 pounds to gather?

Get-togethers with friends. Walking. Barely seen in the background is Jaime’s house, a neighbor of Justin’s. It looked like corn in Jaime’s front field but the 5-foot tall plants seemed tightly spaced with no sign of ears forming. It was Sudangrass. This is when Justin gave me a mini-lecture on the topic 🙂 Planted on July 1, it takes 45 days to harvest and yields 3-5 tons/acre. This silage crop will go to Japan. Current price = $215/ton.

Rule 93: If it’s possible to have a bicycle and a chicken in a picture at the same time, the picture must be taken.

A friendly neighbor barked hello.

Last Sunday, July 20, the Rio Linda/ELverta Historical Society had its monthly Sunday Social at the Dry Creek Ranch House.

It seems to me like there’s been an increase in small agri-businesses in the last few years, particularly in the northwest part of RL – M St/W 6th/U St/RL Blvd for those of you who know our little town. I invited a couple of these businesses to speak. The Refarmery:

Michael Long, Alice, and Jon Kupkowski explained the experiments they are conducting to meet their goals.

Farmer Deno of The Natomas Farm brought a flat of pluots to share with everyone and told us about the many different fruits and vegetables he grows and his plans for expansion. He gave the 9 lb cantaloupe he’s holding to one of our older members who did manage to carry it to his car. Deno has a great blog also at thenatomasfarm.blogspot.com