Parkfield has Four Seasons
Parkfield has a gentle four-season climate. I think contrast is good for the mind and body, but there are limits. I don’t want to spend a winter in Montana when, from time to time, it’s 40 degrees below zero outside the front door. But 20 to 30 degrees on a winter morning and 50 to 60 degrees during the day is quite all right with me.
My formula for when the glory of Spring gets its cue to move into high gear is when the high of the day and the low of the day add up to 100 degrees, and then the soil warms to a growing point. In our Diablo Mountains, the start of our six-month-long rainy season is marked by when the grasslands have changed color from golden yellow to a brilliant Irish green. This happens after the first inch or two of rain in early November. At this time, all our Oaks, Cottonwoods, and Willows will have lost their leaves and their sap will have retreated to the trunk and roots. They will slumber until that magical day when the high and the low of the day add up to 100 degrees, and the sun sets a little later. At this point, everything starts to grow with vigor, usually sometime in March. Spring is truly a magical time when everything is born again; my cattle are rapidly gaining strength and weight, and are in a playful mood. This is when all the wildflowers really start to bloom as well. It's a sight that always gladdens my heart.
Then, always too soon, the spring flowers set seed, and our grasses and broadleaf start to turn yellow. By the late part of June, all of the annual growing things are starting to die, having completed their life cycle. All that is left green are the leaves on the trees offering us shade and converting sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water into food so each tree can add another growth ring to its trunk. Summer in Parkfield can be hot, even up to 110 degrees at times, but we cool off in the evenings to the 70’s and 80's, making it a delightful time for stargazing and relaxing the body.
As I add another growth ring to my body, better known as a pot belly, summer is leaving all too soon, and in those places where a faucet might have dripped all summer long, nothing grew. The first week or two in September, a seed sprouts, which only happens when the length of a day gets short enough that Mother Nature says it’s safe to sprout, signaling the very early start of Autumn. For me, it’s time to start receiving my stocker cattle for the upcoming green grass season, which this year marks my 65 years of turning out usually steer calves on the ranch to hopefully gain 300 pounds and then sold to a feedlot in June to be fattened for the next steak on your plate.
Worry not when I’ve gone to live with my lord, Mother Nature will always have a place for all at her table as long as you care for the soil beneath your feet and follow her advice. First, slow the rain that falls, allowing it to go vertically into the soil. Allow creeks to meander and have as many obstacles to slow down waterways as you can. Second, leave a good cover of grass, so soil temperature stays low. All of this helps create an environment that will encourage good soil health. We can’t keep mining our environment with erosion and overgrazing; if we do, everyone in the future might have a tough road to follow.
See Ya,
Jack