The famous poet Robert Frost once said "You can't get too much winter in the winter." I've got 37 Meadow Lakes (eastern Fresno County) residents, a ski resort that couldn't open, and a crushed apple stand who might say different. Major kuddos to all who survived, helped each other out, and remained kind during this winter's discontent.
Here's a picture of the path coming out of our front door, and OVER our front gate after the eight feet of snow we received in late February.
We were also without power for the first four days. I boiled snow all day, every day, on our wood stove to keep the toilets filled up and for general needs. To those of you who have some sycophantic notion of the glories of yesteryear before there were cars, electricity, and directed waterways, it's possible you're insane. Did you guys know that it takes approximately 3,000 large pots of snow to make enough water to flush one toilet? On the bright side, I did take more steps per day during the first four days of that snow storm than I have in the three years prior.
That's a bunch of snow piled in the shape of our Subaru. It would be three weeks before we would see that car again.
Most structures did pretty well, just not the one's we want to do business in. ;) The apple stand has seen better days and I finally understand why James kept telling me not to open in the winter. Apparently there's a river that flows through the retail store, every 30 or so years and it was very much resurrected with all of our atmospheric hurricane tornadoes, or whatever those were.
Fare thee well, apple stand.
We've had our contractor take a look at it, and though we don't have a final date yet, we hope to have it open by apple season (August/September) where we will sell apples (McIntosh, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Jonathan, Empire, Mutsu, Red Delicious, Fuji, Arkansas Black), honey, apple pies, fresh bread, and more! We will likely open the retail store earlier (May/June), so please keep checking this page for more updates.
And, this is why we live here.
This winter was destructive but it reminds us that it was time to replace old structures and make way for new design. We're excited to have two construction projects this year (the apple stand, and the barn) that contribute to the health and well-being of our surrounding community. We'll be happy to see your smiling faces when we re-open the retail store this summer, so please check back for more info!
Cheers,
The Orchard Team
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