Putting on my Lorax Hat!

Spring is my favorite time of year, I think, because I like to see nature awaken and bloom!

Now it is Summer and the leaves on the trees are full so we can see how healthy and how tall the trees have grown.

In the 2nd and 3rd year of my life here in Paso Robles, I planted over 82 trees. Today, I walked around and took several photographs to compare the growth!

PS: I planted over 80 trees because the only trees on the entire 10 acre property were around the house (they are very nice). The horses had no shade.

HERE WE GO!

This California Pepper tree (I love them) was planted 2 years ago. It struggled the first 2 years, but coming into year 3, it is finally taking off!

These trees are in their third summer. They are actually HUGE. Way taller than I am, and very full. I should have put a person in here for you to see the differences. This is all part of Marty’s Alley.

This is another part of Marty’s Alley. Here you can really perceive the growth in the California Peppers. This is a nice wind break, too.

Here we have the alley between what was the Norma/Dodger pen on the left and the catch pen on the right. These trees, two fruitless Mulberry trees and a Poplar in the middle, are going nuts! This little corner provides a lot of shade for the residents of these two paddocks.

Here are 3 Raywood Ashes. You can only see 2 in the After photo… but they are doing really well except the third one, which snapped during heavy wind. But, it still lives, it is just short now. Short and bushy.

I’m not standing in the same place here, clearly… because the sheds are so much bigger on the left… but I had to stand back to get the entire tree in the photo. (Yes, I hope to paint those sheds this summer while we are still on lockdown.)

Yes, this is a bush that looks like a weed… and grows like a weed. These are what were the tiny grape vines that were here when we moved in. They are creeping and getting huge!

Here is a cluster of tiny grapes!

Here we have the orange tree that was here when we moved in… and 2 years ago I added a mandarin and a grapefruit tree. As you can still see, there is one grapefruit on the little tree on the right. The orange tree on the left was LOADED this year – approx 100 oranges! the Mandarin tree has not fruited yet, but it did have blossoms this year.

And this is my cherry tree. It was a sickly twig when it was planted. Last year it was healthy but small. This year, it is reaching for the sky! (You can see Marty’s Alley in the distance. There are 29 trees creating shade and a wind break in Marty’s Alley.)

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I visited the Grass Valley house…

I’m kind-of in shock.

My mini ranch in Grass Valley, that I loved so much, looks like it has been abandoned.

My previous tenant was promoted in his legal firm and therefore had to travel often. Consequently, he moved his horses into boarding. Since he was gone a lot, and there were no horses, the pastures are way overgrown with a mixture of grass and tall weeds. The barn has cobwebs everywhere. The tack room is dusty and dirty. The light in the barn seems dull because all the fixtures are covered in dust.

As for the house, the exterior is dirty and messy. Stuff laying around. A major dump-run has to happen. I did already send over 3 guys to weedwhack. They spent 3 days just cutting back all the growth to get fire defensible space.

Wow.

I’m heartbroken that the place looks so sad. Even with a clear path of 100 feet around all the structures, everything looks dull and forlorn.

Hubby and I are going to take a few days to travel to Grass Valley and do all the things we can do. I’m looking for a handyman and fence guy right now – to do the things we cannot do.

All of this weighs heavily on my mind right now because I went to GV to hand over the keys to the brand new tenant who was moving in sight-unseen (based on the photos and her friend taking a tour of the place)… but she backed out today after “sleeping on it”. She had seen it yesterday and changed her mind.

I was so surprised… probably because when I look at the Grass Valley house, I remember how it was and how it can be. She just looked at it as a place that needs too much work.

I could maybe understand since the place is very sad looking IN THIS MOMENT…but it just needs some horses, some love and a deep clean. All that can be achieved easily.

So now, my lovely, wonderful, horse-heaven is waiting for us to arrive and fix it up – while we wait for another person to fall in love with it like I did.