A respectable thief never leaves empty handed.

One line summary: Break-in at Carpenter. Filter pods stolen.

THEFT:

Sigh.. Yesterday, we discovered that sometime after 2 pm Saturday thieves had again cut their way into the lockup area. They did not harm the property fence since they were on bicycles (a common modus operandi).

We no longer have a fuel tank in there, and the shed is nearly impenetrable. That leaves the filter station as a target. Four of the eight "pods" were unbolted and removed. 

AFTERMATH:

We found two of them nearby in the orchard. Two evidently was all they could handle on their bicycles (they are quite heavy). 

Tomorrow two replacements will be delivered. We ordered plastic (high strength polycarbonate) because the stainless steel is what the thieves are after. However, even in the plastic, each pod is kinda expensive. The sheriff came out and took a report. 

SECURITY MEASURES:

We are worried about the remaining pods so Lane spent the night out there last night. With an occupied truck there, nobody comes around. 

We are contracting with a patrol service to make three drive-bys each night. They will begin tonight. Next Monday the fence company will again repair the chain link fence and they will install two more razor wire coils at the ground level and at 4 feet on the interior of the fence. 

We put out some ant bait traps out there at Carpenter

Ants are more prevalent in drip- or sprinkler-irrigated orchards than flood-irrigated orchards. Ants feed on other hosts and are principally a problem after almonds are on the ground. Nut damage increases in relation to the length of time they are on the ground. The ants can completely hollow out nutmeats leaving only the pellicle. 

Bloom stages of peach pictures

Click on the following picture for larger view.

Time to take some snaps of the orchard!

Carpenter almond orchard:

Peach orchard at Whitmore ranch:

Eucalyptus tree at Whitmore ranch. This gotta be at least 100 years old.

Tipping at carpenter almond orchard

The branches you see down on the floor are intentionally cut down to relieve trees of undue stress and future balanced growth.

Thieves strike again at Carpenter and actually get something this time..

With apparently great effort, they breached the security of the shed and stole a Honda 4-wheeler we had in there. There was not much else of value in there and they apparently were not interested in anything else. We thought the lock mechanism was sufficient, but it wasn't.

We will be beefing up the shed security. There is a radio sending device on the Honda, and the sheriff has a helicopter up right now looking for a signal, so there is a remote chance we will recover the Honda. Let us pray for a miracle. Maybe they can catch the bad guys too. Needless to say, we are anxious to move ahead with the fence and lockup fence repair.

This only serves to remind us how important it is for someone to live on the orchard.

Carpenter almond orchard!