Petty Ranch / Chris Sayer

To be be clear that it wasn't the ad we hated.

What was meant to be inspirational is now the equivalent of a "You are here" sign.

Granted Southern California tree farmers are a bit left of your typical aggies, but I've had a few interactions with peers recently that I found very reassuring. One even confessed he'd gone to a No Kings rally!

Avocados getting ready to flower in foreground, snow-capped Topa Topa in background. Why I live where I live and do what I do.

I haven't seen red shouldered hawks eating avocados, but I have noticed that they are more common in our orchard since we replaced the last of our lemons with avocados a few years back. Also hat tip to @kanejim.bsky.social for his caption.

Hidden by the covercrop/ filter strip is our primary orchard drain. It used to move a huge volume of water off the property, but now we perc nearly everything in even during heavy rain events. Considering whether we will need it in the future.

The clover #covercrop didn't take in one corner of the orchard, so ahead of the rain we disked and put down the mix we used elsewhere. But I had to indulge in a ground level look at the soil while it's visible. Love that biomass!

Sunny, peaceful morning in the #avocado orchard. This doesn't accurately reflect my lived reality today... it's been pretty chaotic. But if I post this, I can pretend that this accurately captures the day.

Training progress: Hope is proud of her "stay" without the leash being held. Roscoe is just out of frame trying to distract her, but without success (in this instance.)

They're right beside/behind me. Thought I'd mix up the content a bit.

A nice day for growing #avocados

Implosion > Explosion

I wish more farmers (and other people, but specifically farmers) recognized that not only is Trump not their friend or protector, but he's an existential threat to the lives they want to lead. Glad to see some in the industry starting to say what should have been obvious for a long time.

This is either an Anatolian Shepherd pic or a covercrop pic. Interpretation is up to you.

"But how dumb can I be? I mean... I have a lot of money."

Heads are going to explode 💥

Cato Institute just nuked the lie. Immigrants have cut U.S. deficits by $14.5 TRILLION since 1994, slashing the national debt by a third.

All that “immigrants are bleeding us dry” noise? Absolute bullshit.
1/3

Hope is very professional at the office, but she's is happiest on the farm.

An issue with growing #avocados next to the 126 freeway is that once a year or so someone drives off the perfectly straight road at high speed and into the orchard. Hope inspects the latest damage.

This has nothing to do with US security. Trump’s tariffs disrupted critical mineral supply chains, and now he’s escalating threats to cover the damage. When economic self-inflicted wounds turn into territorial pressure and military ambiguity, that’s not strength, it’s desperation.

Unhinged

#avocado blossoms that will become the 2027 crop. Meanwhile, 2026 is already seeing huge volumes of fruit. Prices are low, so remember that guacamole tastes just as good during playoffs as it does during Super Bowl. Practice, practice, practice!

Hope surveys her domain on a California "winter" day.

Evenly spaced rainfall and lack of much extreme heat or wind made 2025 our lowest groundwater use year in quite some time. Less than an acre-foot of water pumped per planted acre! Anyway, here's a daikon radish growing through some mulch.

Field peas starting to bloom. 2 underappreciated #covercrop features: food for pollinators and helping to draw water *out* of the soil after the drenching we have received since mid November.

Disappointed #farmdog Hope thought we were going to get a "truckload of steaks."

Very weak sauce

Snapshot: A Deeply Appalling Press Conference It's worse than I thought. Trump plans to "run" Venezuela and does not pretend he cares about anything beyond taking the oil.

“We should take it as a call to arms—that Trump’s America is not our America, that on the 250th anniversary year of our nation’s founding we won’t remain quiet as these thugs escalate their attack on the rule of law & our unbreakable commitment to democracy.”
www.americaamerica.news/p/snapshot-a...

Always on the lookout for a new crop. I might have to go back to Sicily.. for business reasons of course.

If the limb is broken it is better for the fruit to be no longer attached. The leaves can braw moisture from the fruit. At this time of year they may not be mature enough to ripen properly.

DNA results back for Hope. 70% Anatolian Shepherd, 20% Great Pyrenees, 10% German Shepherd. Multi mutt Roscoe photobombs in foreground.