End of the Road

There is something special about living at the end of the road. For one thing not many people drive by this time of the year. The county road leading up to this point is less than ideal but from the Dead End sign on it degrades rapidly into a rock strewn, two-track path. A couple of summer cabin residents travel by when they are here. The folks from Trails End Ranch, which wraps around this area on the north and west sides, access the south end of the ranch from this road. Occasionally a Sunday afternoon tourist, neighbors on horseback or illegal hunter passes by, but that's about it. 

Of course there are always a few people every year who are not convinced by the Dead End sign and plod forward only to get stuck in the snow, lost, or find themselves having to back out a quarter mile or more. In fact that's the reason for the little sign below the Dead End sign - No Forest Access, No Turn Around. Just trying to save people from themselves. 

There's another special aspect of being at the end of the road and that's the spiritual one. It's good knowing that beyond this point it's more about the woods and the animals that inhabit them than people. And it's about our conscious decision to live beyond the reach of most things, to live quietly and in harmony as much as possible, to work together to accomplish a simple yet beautiful life.

I am reminded of the famous poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. I think the final lines say it best.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - 

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

So true.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Cats of Our Forest

Heading into the woods after a fresh snowfall is one of my favorite things to do. It gives me a chance to see who has been out and about. Last week's four inch wet snow was perfect so I laced up my hiking boots and headed for the woods. 

It didn't take long to come across numerous tracks of a bobcat (Lynx rufus). Since bobcats are generally solitary the tracks were probably from one animal moving back and forth across the area in search of food.

Bobcats hunt by stealth, relying on surprise rather than a lengthy chase. Opportunistic, bobcats will feed on practically any prey including mice, chipmunks, squirrels, prairie dogs, rabbits, porcupines, small birds and even deer. Bobcats are active all year and most of their hunting occurs at night or at dawn and dusk. 

Colorado Parks & Wildlife

Bobcats favorite habitats are pinon-juniper woodlands and montane forests making them quite at home in our forest. In fact just after I took the photo of my foot and the bobcat track, the long-legged cat ran across the clearing in front of me and disappeared into the trees. 

After enjoying my personalized visit by "Bob" I continued on, studying the tracks of all the little creatures of the woods. There were the tiny tracks of a deer mouse and the hopping tracks between trees of the pine squirrel (Chickaree). Since the snow cover wasn't very deep I also came across the tracks of a raccoon. 

Just as I was about to turn back I noticed the tracks of the largest winter predator of the forest, the mountain lion (Felis concolor).

Seeing these tracks gave me both a thrill and a chill. This elusive and solitary cat is rarely seen. Lions mainly prey on deer but this time of year the deer have moved to lower elevations and the lions are left with rabbits, porcupines, raccoons, mice, an occasional young elk, and around here, wild turkeys. 

Colorado Parks & Wildlife

Over the years I have found the remains of several lion kills and I am always reminded that with respect to the lion, we are not the top of the food chain. 

From Fleur Creek Farm

Wassailing the Orchard

Original orchard started in 2004

Last Saturday was the day for our annual Orchard Wassailing. In years past it’s been just Don and I with a cup of apple cider, standing in the snow, toasting our apple and cherry trees. This year’s celebration was very special because it wasn’t just us, it was the neighborhood and the wassailing was organized by a wonderful neighbor who just started her own little orchard.

We first learned about fruit tree wassailing in Michael Phillip’s book, The Apple Grower. According to Wikipedia the purpose of wassailing is to awaken the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the autumn. In the cider-producing regions of west England (primarily the counties of Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire) wassailing also refers to drinking (and singing) to the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive.

Heirloom orchard started in 2014

The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements. On January 17th (the old Twelfth Night) a wassail King and Queen lead the song and/or a processional tune to be played/sung from one orchard to the next, the wassail Queen will then be lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she will place toast soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup as a gift to the tree spirits (and to show the fruits created the previous year).

Then the assembled crowd will sing and shout and bang drums and pots & pans and generally make a terrible racket until the gunsmen give a great final volley through the branches to make sure the work is done and then off to the next orchard. Private readings about people in Somerset in the 1800s revealed that inhabitants of Somerset practiced the old Wassailing Ceremony, singing the following lyrics after drinking the cider until they were "merry and gay:"

Perhaps unbeknownst to the general public, this ancient English tradition is still very much a thriving tradition right here in the mountains of southern Colorado. There are already plans for next year and who knows, maybe by then another neighbor will start an orchard and we’ll have a third location to visit. And just in case you wondered we don't yet have a wassail King, Queen nor gunsmen but there is always next year!

Apple tree, apple tree, we all come to wassail thee,
Bear this year and next year to bloom and to blow,
Hat fulls, cap fulls, three cornered sack fills,
Hip, Hip, Hip, hurrah,
Holler biys, holler hurrah.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Season's Greetings

Another spectacular day begins as another year glides to the end. Its been an interesting year as we started an heirloom orchard, had winter in May and summer in November, enjoyed the best grazing season in four years, broke my ankle in early July and hobbled around for three months, and reminded ourselves what is truly important in life. If 2015 is half as enjoyable as was this year, it will be a beautiful one.

We've tucked the gardens and orchards in for the year, started working down the wood stacks and woodshed as winter finally settles in, are studying what a neighbor calls "garden porn" in the form of seed catalogues, and find ourselves enjoying the time when the natural world rests.

2015 will bring a new project to the homestead - beekeeping. We've thought about it for years but finally made the decision this fall. The hives are now constructed and painted and awaiting the bees. In May we'll travel to northern New Mexico and bring two bee colonies home. It will be a big learning curve but Don has armed himself with lots of books and we are blessed with some excellent beekeepers in the Valley who are willing to share their knowledge and experience. 

As the year comes to a close we want to take a moment to wish you the beauty and blessings of the season. Take comfort in the love of family and friends and look forward to a happy and prosperous New Year. 

From Fleur Creek Farm

Heirloom Orchard

It has been ten years since we started our little orchard. In 2004, tempting climate and altitude, we planted two strains of cherry trees (Bali, Montmorency) and three strains of apple trees (Sweet Sixteen, State Fair, and Haralred). In past blogs I’ve written about the trials and tribulations, challenges and failures, and the joys and successes.
     Orchard comes of age
     Keeping up with summer’s chores
     Orchard fencing

Not ones to learn from our past frustrations, we decided 2014 was the year to start our heirloom orchard. Don spent a good part of the winter researching various strains and the nurseries that carried them. Our goal was not so much to create another production orchard as it was to continue these wonderful old strains of apple trees and test them at our less than ideal location (for fruit trees anyway).

Don settled on four strains, all zone 3 or 4 though untested at 8000+ foot elevation, and purchased them from Trees of Antiquity. The bareroot trees arrived in early May, just in time for three nights of 20 degree temperatures. We had already decided that we would start the youngsters in large pots of good quality soil before planting them in the ground this fall so we hustled them into the old cabin where they waited out the cold nights. We have ordered bareroot shrubs and trees in the past and are always a little disappointed by how small they are, looking more like sticks than trees. I was stunned to see how robust and healthy these trees from Trees of Antiquity were.

So here are the new heirloom additions to the orchard:

Rambour Franc (c1535): A 16th century French apple popular with American colonists. Rambour is a French name given to certain varieties of red apples of a large size. Crisp, very juicy, breaking flesh, a great apple for early season eating out of hand and also good for sauce. Large red fruit, bright striped. Precocious, vigorous, hardy and productive tree. Displays some resistance to scab and fireblight.

Bloom: Midseason
USDA Zone: 4,5,6,7,8,9
Pollination: Select another midseason bloom apple variety
Fruit Storage: Fair
Mature Size: Large
Ripens: Early
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking
Rootstock: Semidwarf

Snow Apple (c1739): From Canada and also known as Fameuse, Snow Apple is one of the oldest and most desirable dessert apples, a parent of the aromatic McIntosh. Flesh is tender, spicy, distinctive in flavor, and snow white in color with occasional crimson stains near the skin. Very hardy, heavy bearing tree that is excellent for home orchards. Delicious fresh off the tree, in cider, or in culinary creations.

Bloom: Midseason
USDA Zone: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Pollination: Select another midseason bloom apple variety
Fruit Storage: Fair
Mature Size: Medium
Ripens: late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter)
Rootstock: Semidwarf 

Cox’s Orange Pippin (c1830): Highly esteemed in England as a dessert apple; produces excellent fruit in cooler summer climates. Medium sized apple, red and yellow, usually striped. The flesh is yellow, firm, crisp, very juicy, richly aromatic and some say almost spicy. Flavor is enhanced when fruit ripens off the tree. A heavy bearer and one of the best apples for espalier.

Bloom: Midseason
USDA Zone: 4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Pollination: Select another midseason bloom apple variety
Fruit Storage: Fair
Mature Size: Medium
Ripens: Mid Season
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
Rootstock: Semidwarf 

Smokehouse (c1837): Smokehouse is a seedling of the ancient American variety, Vandevere. Smokehouse originated in Lampeter Township, PA about 1800's adjacent to William Gibbons’ smokehouse. Tender, but firm, exceedingly juicy, yellow tinged flesh. Fresh cider flavor. Young, productive bearer and a reliable cropper. Flattish, red-striped yellow fruit. Hardy to -40 degrees F. Excellent keeper, very good quality apple for multiple uses. Shows some resistance to fireblight.

Bloom: Late
USDA Zone: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9
Pollination: Select another late season bloom apple variety such as Grimes Golden and/or Newtown Pippin
Fruit Storage: Excellent
Mature Size: Medium
Ripens: Late
Uses: Fresh eating/ dessert, cooking (puree, applesauce, apple butter), baking, juice/hard cider
Rootstock: Semidwarf

Wish us luck!

From Fleur Creek Farm

Its Spring Somewhere - Right?

The wild turkeys who have spent the last four days with us are finally ready to get back to the task at hand - breeding season. This big tom is doing his best to impress the others but unfortunately there are no females in the small group. None-the-less, I was impressed enough to zip back inside and grab my camera. The scene seems strangely like one that might play out in a bar.

With camera in hand I captured a few more beautiful scenes. As I mentioned in the previous blog, there's a lot to be thankful for!

The Natural Resources Conservation Service SNOTEL website on South Colony Creek at an elevation of 10,800 feet recorded 19" of snow with 1.8 inches of moisture from our last storm. That's 4.3 inches of moisture more than this time last year.

The horses and cattle are content in the morning sun and with the big bale to munch on. By tomorrow plenty of fresh grass should be showing again. We are boarding two rescued Thoroughbred horses for a wonderful neighbor down the road and seven replacement heifers for a nearby ranch. It feels nice to have horses here again.

In case you missed the previous email about our mid-May snow storm, click here.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Nature's Seasonal Battle

Nature’s seasonal battle is underway, a battle that occurs nearly every year when spring attempts to arrive only to be ­blown back by winter. This push and pull of the seasons leads to wonderful sunny days in the 60s followed by a snowstorm.

The last few weeks have been so beautiful that we tackled all kinds of outdoor projects from fence repair, irrigation ditch cleaning, and garden preparation to fruit tree pruning and fertilization. We woke up yesterday morning to 14” of wet snow and temperatures in the low 20s. Last night another 3” of snow fell. 

We had some warning that this winter blast was on its way when I received a text alert on Friday from the National Weather Service. In a desperate attempt to save the blossoms on the cherries and native plums Don took a clue from the Florida citrus growers and sprayed the trees with water as the temperatures dropped below freezing Sunday evening. The concept is that the blossoms encased in ice are warmer than the 20 degree air around them. It will be several days, maybe weeks, before we’ll know if it worked. The apple tree blossoms have not yet opened so we are hopeful that they were spared the damaging cold temperatures.

Several weeks ago, I started squash, pepper and herb seeds in our small indoor greenhouse. Today the little seedlings look out the windows at all the snow and I’m sure they are thankful for the heating mat they are sitting on and the bright lights that hover over them.

Last week we ventured over to our favorite garden center in Salida to take in the scene and buy our geraniums. Last year we waited too long and missed getting the color I like the most. I was not going to make that mistake again this year so we came home with a dozen beautiful red plants. I’ve had enough experience with the give and take of the seasons to know that these flower plants need to stay indoors for a few more weeks so they are currently in the old cabin.

The scene will be spectacular as the clouds slowly lift off the high peaks. Once the ground reappears, we’ll see bright green meadows, brilliant blue skies and snowy, white mountains. Its lot to be thankful for!

From Fleur Creek Farm