More Dirty gardening

  The olive trees are in the ground!  Of course, it took longer, involved more effort, and there were some issues.  The deer fence had to be moved, as expected.  That took awhile.  The # of fence posts req'd was greater than the # on hand, and the ground was harder than anticipated, even after liberal amounts of water were applied.  Oh, well.
   A second round of effort was necessary to get a drip line installed for the trees.  Of course, I needed a new bag of drippers, so off to Friedman's, my chief source of all materials for the ranch.  They went in w/o too much hassle, and the hanging wire was easily adjusted for tension and height.  The last step will be the placement of milk cartons, like the grape vines, to protect against wind, frost, and excessive heat.
    They look good and should do well in their new environment.
The grape crop is taking a beating from the birds.  These voracious feeders are demonstrating their effectiveness at harvesting weight: stripping complete clusters in no time.  Next season-Nets!  Like everybody else around the neighborhood.
    The pruning and setting of cordons will have to wait until after the season is over.  Gophers continue to make their presence known: tunnels exposed, mounds extended, and lots of them.  A few traps were placed, but the effort is hardly systematic.  More work in this endeavor is required.