RAIN

Some of the sunflowers have not bloomed yet, but others have 

reached the seed stage. I find these dried, withered blooms 

to be as beautiful as the plants that are in their full glory.

We have had a lot of rain these past few weeks. This was after 

the last significant rainfall, when the soil of the property 

was saturated. I took a tumble in the mud on the way over to 

this spot of halted construction.

The above video is of the lush growth along the north property wall. The plants underneath the bamboo consist of fava beans, sunflowers, leucaena seedlings, cuttings from the neighbor's apricot tree and pioneer plants.

Growth along the west property wall.

After so much rain we decided to test the irrigation system again. Water was coming in at a very sluggish rate due to mud buildup on the other side of the wall but eventually, it filled the olive and garden beds, overflowing in to the house site. This was valuable because it showed us where the berm walls were not sufficient. The water eventually reached the end of the overflow trench and made its way down the bamboo berm to the first tree, six places in.

A walk down the pathway after the irrigation water had sunk in. The pathway doubles as a dry "creek" bed when we irrigate, retaining some of the water and passing some on to the trees and garden beds on the north side of the path.