Massive day of activity today! First all the compost was tilled in and the rows were made for our maize and beans. Here you can see David using the tiller to break up the soil. We put a ‘hiller-furrower’ attachment … Continued
Finally we are getting the milpa going at Sol Feliz! The first part of the process is to clear the field. I use a brush-cutter or “weed eater” type of machine to do this quickly. It can also be done … Continued
Today we got a visit from Jesyka Ortega, a senior at Chrysalis Alternative School, and her niece Alexis to help with moving some small chokecherry trees. Alexis is a student at Enos Garcia Elementary school and remembers planting Parr Field … Continued
This is our second annual acequia cleaning where we bring together students from Chrysalis Alternative School and students on a spring break adventure from the University of California, Santa Cruz. We cleaned a lateral of the Acequia Madre del Sur … Continued
Today we got some ‘Sembradores’ together to initiate the coming growing season by clearing the fields. We basically just cut all the dry weeds and raked them into a pile. We will save the dried up weeds as a carbon … Continued
En el espiritu del Sexto Sol… Today we mark the shadow on this sundial at sunrise. This is the third time we make marks on the level flagstone altar with a plumb rod. Last time we marked the Fall Equinox … Continued
We are doing our best to keep track of the accumulated snow fall here at Sol Feliz in hopes of being able to correlate how much acequia irrigation we get in relation to the total number of inches of snow. … Continued
A nice little snow makes me think of snow pack potential and acequia flows in the spring. I think of these five rows of garlic that are now nestled under a blanket of snow, absorbing moisture through the pores of … Continued
There is growing interest in using biochar to improve soil moisture, organic matter, and crop yields. Biochar is basically reducing carbon from wood to a charcoal-like state and then using it to amend the soil. I first heard about biochar … Continued