Sage Garden Olives!

This morning we harvested olives!  There are 5 mature olive trees at Sage Garden.  It's late in the season, and most of the olives have dropped or are overripe, but a few remained, and that's all we need to cure our first trial batch.

I've never harvested or cured olives before, so even though this batch is small and potentially on the overripe side, the learning experience will be invaluable preparation for next year, when I predict we'll have a crop of well over 1,000 olives.

Here's our trial batch of 75 olives, washed, scored, and ready to cure.

Final Lease Signed

Tonight I signed the final lease agreement.  All residences are now filled.  I immediately took down the FOR RENT sign and the CraigsList ad.  Although it was fun showing the place to prospective residents, answering questions and explaining my objectives and goals, I'm quite happy to turn my attention back to caretaking.  It's time for more planning, scheduling the first planting season; it's time for digging and plumbing.  And this weekend's rain is perfectly timed to soften the ground.

The first compost bin is started!

I was running out of containers to put compost in.  For starters, we'll have one bin in the front of the house and one bin in the back.  And now I have a use for my dishwater, too.

In other news, I've been busy showing the place to prospective residents, and the last 2 units are pending - just finishing the screening process.