Karl Morton

Hornitos is a gold rush era ghost town about twenty miles west of Yosemite valley. Denair is a small town in California's central valley, about 80 miles east of San Francisco, in the heart of the monoculture disaster that is almond production in California. I live on an organic walnut ranch/ sheep dairy that I sold several years ago, but retained a life estate on the house and barn. The sheep are awesome at weed control, although they have girdled virtually every fruit tree and grape vine they could get to.

I live in Denair, and recently bought two adjoining parcels totaling 147 acres in Mariposa county.  The land is classified as "wild lands" by the assessor, which is the same as proclaiming it to be useless. I endorse their appraisal, at least as far as large scale agriculture goes, but it has two springs that would support human habitation, and my first project will be to develop the water source.

I am at the point of exploring the property, and observing nature through the seasons. I haven't even seen a full year's cycle. Part of the land was burned during  the Detwiler fire in 2018, and it has significant patches of Poison oak.

I first heard of permaculture 4 or 5 years ago, and find benefits to its practice. Hugelkulture is of particular interest, as there is a considerable amount of partially burned wood on the property that I'd to like to make into swales on the hilly areas.