Drive from SJBautista to Placentia on Feb 22nd 03-02-20

I finally spent some time editing the pictures I took on I-5 coming home on the 22nd.  There are a LOT of almond trees; they line the highway and stretch to the rising hills for miles and miles.  In between there are fallow fields, open uncultivated land, other orchards, and, of course, off ramps that lead to gas stations, restaurants, etc.   It is harder to take pictures with a cell phone when I am driving and I plan to go back to a point and shoot camera.  I think the images are better using that method.  Here are some views from along the way.

  

Something that is pretty prominent are the billboards begging for more water for agriculture.  One of which questions: "Is it wasting water to grow food?"  I know that there are new methods for watering crops, very few farms along this route use overhead sprinklers now. 

I have no idea what the actual problem is, other than the continuing drought, but I do get tired of the signs.  

Almond blossoms.

Almond blossoms, bee hives, tumbleweeds. 

Almond blossoms and tumbleweeds. 

Almond blossoms and lowering clouds. 

NOT almonds, another nut or fruit, along with tumbleweeds. 

 More NOT almonds. 

And then it started to rain.  More almond blossoms and beehives. 

Well, you get the idea!  California grows 80% of the world's almonds and they are the #1 exported crop.  

There are other crops growing along I-5 in the valley.  Lots of grapes, both for wine making and produce.  I have seen the pickers packing the grapes directly in the boxes that are shipped to stores. 

Almonds in the distance, grapes in the foreground. 

And there are some orange and lemon orchards. I know these are oranges because I have driven the route when the fruit was still on the trees.  All picked and shipped now. 

Citrus trees have very dense foliage and the leaves are dark and glossy.  

Saw a lot of these low growing yellow wild flowers, but I don't know what it is.  This is uncultivated land.  But almonds in the background. 

A green crop in the background and plain old grass on the freeway verge. 

These are piles of dead almond trees.   It seems they cut down the old trees and let them dry out in the fields, then they are scraped into these huge piles. 

 And the piles are ground into mulch.

There are several facilities along the way to which the mulch is trucked and then processed for further mulching.  The trees have a life span of 20 -25 years and do not bear fruit the first 3 or 4 years.  Almonds are alternate bearing so that a large crop one year is often followed by a lighter crop the next year.  [Google]

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More traveling photos 03-15-17

Driving up to San Juan Bautista on March 2nd it was a beautiful day with little wind.  It was rather clear for the valley and I think I could just see the outline of the Sierra against the blue sky, but the camera couldn't define it. 

The Sierra is in the distant haze.

 

And it became much hazier in the distance.  

 

About half way on the drive, just before crossing Stockdale Highway there is flooded land on both sides of I-5.  The land here is not under cultivation.  Ducks and geese stop by for a rest, don't know what they have been doing the last four years when there has been no standing water here...or anywhere else in California!.

But this time of  year, mostly what one sees is almond trees in bloom.

On both sides of the highway.

With the ground covered in fallen petals like the trees are standing in pinkish snow.

The orchards stretch into the distance - miles and miles of them.

Almond blossom (2013) - the pink cast comes from the center of the petals.

 

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