“Leisure and fortune are difficult to find and life has no duration.” (a short bio)

We live on a couple acres of vegetative sand dune between the Pajaro and Salinas valleys in north Monterey county. Everything grows here. We have been here 15 years. We have small numbers of avocado, apple, cherry, lemon, orange, olive, fig, grapes and berries, along with large and small flower and vegetable gardens. A kaffir lime, a plum and a pluout. Pinot and Chardonnay.

We are in California’s “coastal zone” which means moderate temperatures and afternoon winds. We used to average 25 inches of rain per year. The last 4 years we’ve average less than 15. Everything grows here, but because of the wind and little rain, the cool springs and usually cooler summers, everything doesn’t always flower and fruit.

To some neighbors we are a “compound,” as we are fenced to keep out the deer. To others we have a park. Some days it’s like being in an impressionist painting.

Everything in this landscape is surviving. Everything was planted with the idea that some years there wouldn’t be much rain. And some summers the well might not work. The trees and bushes and vines survive, though few these days are really thriving.

Fortunately, the mortgage doesn’t depend on it. And we always find more to eat and share than we need.

We are organic. In the 70's we grew an edible variety of (organic) soybeans first on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, then in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virgnia, then in southeast lower Michigan. We dreamt of settling on a couple acres and growing what we needed. This farm is a dream. California is a dream state.