Agriculture in Central California

I love to see all the farming that goes on around us in Tulare County, California. We are already past the green season, anything not watered is getting brown and dry. If you walk through any weeds your socks get full of stickers, especially from the fox tails. Fruit is growing on the trees and vines, alfalfa has had 1 to 2 cuttings. Alfalfa is one of my favorite field crops because it is green, smells good, and is not tall and obstructive to the view like corn.
Today my brothers' field behind our house got the winter wheat chopped. Experienced silage choppers can get the wheat straw hauled in with well orchestrated maneuverings of their trucks and tractors. There were 3 mowers, 1 rake, 2 choppers, 10 silage trucks, 2 mechanics/gas pickups, 1 water truck to keep the dust down, and 1 tractor starting to plow. (I'm not even sure if these are the correct names for all of the equipment!)
Ree, of thepioneerwoman.com , always shows pictures of what is happening on her ranch in Oklahoma. I think it is very interesting to learn about different areas and people via blogs, so here are some scenes from California.

You know you live in Central CA when...

This is the Severe Weather Warning for Central California for this week as found on weather.com today. I think we will get a spritz of rain because I decided to do my biannual window washing.

Watches and Warnings

Visalia Forecast

WEST CENTRAL SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY-EAST CENTRAL SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY-

SOUTHWESTERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY-SOUTHEASTERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY-

MARIPOSA MADERA AND FRESNO COUNTY FOOTHILLS-

TULARE COUNTY FOOTHILLS-KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS-

235 AM PDT WED OCT 29 2008

...AN END TO THE DRY WEATHER IS ON THE WAY...

AFTER A LONG PERIOD OF MILD AND DRY WEATHER...A CHANGE TO COOLER

AND WETTER WEATHER WILL TAKE PLACE LATE THIS WEEK AND ESPECIALLY

THIS WEEKEND OVER THE REGION.

A SERIES OF WEATHER DISTURBANCES WILL MOVE INTO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA.

THE FIRST IMPULSE WILL ARRIVE THURSDAY BRINGING JUST SOME CLOUDS.

A SECOND SYSTEM WILL ARRIVE FRIDAY BRINGING A CHANCE OF RAIN TO

AREAS MAINLY NORTH OF KINGS AND TULARE COUNTIES. A THIRD...AND

MORE IMPORTANTLY...WETTER AND COOLER SYSTEM IS SLATED FOR LATER

SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY AND IT WILL LINGER INTO MONDAY. DUE TO THE

STRENGTH OF THIS SYSTEM...RAIN IS EXPECTED OVER MOST THE AREA.

AT THIS TIME RAINFALL TOTALS ARE UNCERTAIN...HOWEVER A WETTING

RAIN WILL UNDOUBTEDLY OCCUR AT MOST LOCATIONS IN THE CENTRAL

CALIFORNIA INTERIOR.

PERSONS PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES THIS LATER THIS WEEK AND OVER

THE UPCOMING WEEKEND SHOULD PREPARE FOR WET WEATHER. CHECK RAIN

GUTTERS FOR DEBRIS AND BRING INDOORS ITEMS WHICH MAY BECOME

DAMAGED BY RAIN WATER.