Kingbird Farm

Pramod and I spent 10 days at Kingbird Farm in northern California (near Sacramento). The farm is amazing and we feel like we're in paradise. Pramod kept saying "this is just like India" referring to the beautiful weather or the plants that grow; and to his suggestions that maybe we consider moving there, I had to remind him that it would be expensive and difficult to visit his family and my family regularly. (However my feelings on that have changed a little since arriving in San Francisco).

Our accommodation were BEAUTIFUL! Mike and Charity had their house built a few years ago and I believe the ideas came from the book The Not So Big House which encourages less square footage and fewer rooms by encouraging shared dedicated space but putting more effort into the details (check it out!). Anyway, they had a great house. They also had a separate house (attached by a car port) for the guest rooms. Pramod and I stayed in this beautiful room with a shared bathroom attached to another guest bedroom. Outside was a walkway, unseen from the main house, with a hammock and lots of plants. Reading in the hammock became one of my favorite things to do there.

The farm is a great size for gardening for yourself. Mike seemed to have a lot of extra produce that he was happy to give away. He uses 1 acre for vegetable gardening and there's 1 acre of fruit trees. It was so nice to be hungry for a snack and go out back to pick a ripe nectarine or plum or fig. He also grows pomegranate which wasn't yet ripe when we were around, but it was pretty amazing. It made me want to look into all of the fruit that we can grow in NH--not just the regular apples, but other fruit as well. I wonder if there is something you can do to trees in the winter to keep them alive in climates that are colder than they like. Mike also grew all his own hops and made his own beer.

Mike and Charity treated us more like guests than farm help. They took us out to parties and events, showed us around the area, and introduced us to family. Pramod and I were even invited to go horseback riding with Mike's sister who has 2 horses. We went over there and learned the basics or riding. It was lots of fun. We had a great time there and we feel grateful to Mike and Charity for their hospitality -- once again, we have been very lucky and we met some great people!