Wolf Creek Lodge Newsletter Adult Cohousing in Grass Valley, CA July, 2017 Welcome to our Garden Tour.   The gardens are a feature of Wolf Creek Lodge.  Tended by members of the Landscape Team they are enjoyed by all.  Readers of our regular "Digging in the Dirt" column have learned much about our gardeners' work.  The gardens are exceptionally dramatic at this time of the year when the plants respond to the sunshine of summer while still benefiting from the moisture in the soil from winter's rainfall. Grass Valley has a so called " Mediterranean Climate" -   rainy winters and dry, warm to hot summers.   I am writing this just before going to the common house to work with my cook team for tonight's common meal.  Attentive newsletter readers will be aware that we have been perfecting our Austrian Goulash. We now also offer "Semmelknoedel" bread dumplings. This is our last try of the season before we move to a different menu. Magdalene has been working with the butcher at SPD to get the right cut of beaf (shank) and to persuade him to remove the bone and saw it into chunks for our pot. Currently only a two bedroom home is available at Wolf Creek Lodge. There is interest from a prospective buyer.  We anticipate another home becoming available in the fall. See "Available Homes" below. Contact us if you are interested so we can be more specific. Bob Miller, Editor. Let's begin our garden tour entering the driveway from the street.

Lavender and roses greet us at the entrance

As we walk down the driveway we see the displays shading the ground-floor homes.

Here we can turn right to the stairs leading up to the patio - roses on the right and strawberries on the left.

And here are the strawberries (catch them quickly - they don't linger!)

Turn the corner up the steps to the patio, past the out of control buddleja (or butterfly bush)....

and along the lavender lined path ...

down to the cutting gardens

The cutting garden flowers are often used as center pieces for a common meal.  These plots are carefully tended by the Carters..

and check out our fruit bearing trees. We have a number of fruit bearing trees - persimmon, apple, pear and cherry as shown on the right. We had to be very nimble to harvest them before the birds. And you should be able to see our apples above.

the peas growing in one of our four raised beds are almost ready to eat.

On our way out - more lavender.                                                                        Can you see the bees?

The Gardeners

A small team of gardeners makes all this happen.  They plant, weed, make compost, spread it, irrigate, water and talk to the plants. Others are recruited from time to time to work on specific projects. Butch mows the grass. Mike is always ready to help with his truck.  We must especially recognize Krista's horses' contribution.

Some gardeners spread great mulch provided free by the Nevada Irrigation District - thanks.There was a quota per household - we have 30 households! It's important to wear a funny hat.

Our pile of mulch - drop round sometime and help with the spreading.

Our two compost enclosures - one for new stuff, the other where the worms are working away.

More mulch spreading by your regular "Digging in the Dirt" columnist.

Richard trimming the climbing rose.

We have come a long way!

The gardens are not yet five years old.  On the left is August, 2012, on the right is today. Letter from #104       Suzanne Marriott                                Lake Tahoe Now

I recently went up to Tahoe City to see The Lake and I wasn’t disappointed. I recommend walking or biking the scenic Lake Trail in Tahoe City and enjoying a sunset dinner at Christy Hill Bistro just above the trail. It has a lovely view of the water and serves delicious meals.  Now is the perfect time to visit Lake Tahoe, only an hour and a half’s drive from Wolf Creek Lodge. According to a recent report, Lake Tahoe is 6.5 feet higher than it was in October, before heavy rain and snow fell in the Sierra. That leaves the lake's level a little more than two inches from reaching its maximum legal elevation of 6,229.1 feet above sea level.  Officials are ramping up the amount of water being released from Lake Tahoe, to make room for the snow melt that is still flowing into the lake.  Three feet have already been released from the Tahoe City Dam this year.

Here are two views of the gate in Tahoe City where water is released from the lake into the Truckee River. One shows today’s abundance of water and the other the dearth of water during the drought. Amazing, isn’t it?

This is from the other side of the gate during drought conditions showing the floats on the ground.

Living in the Lodge        Magdalene Jaeckel I am especially pleased to see the pictures of our beautiful gardens. Since the gardens are as close as I can come to my beloved “outdoors”, not being able to do any hiking, swimming in the Yuba river nor do extensive gardening myself, I enjoy them every day. I am grateful to our dedicated garden team. Occasionally I volunteer to do some watering, and I maintain a very small flower spot under my balcony, which I can actually water from above without coming down the stairs. I appreciate the trees in front of my apartment which have grown enough now to give me some shade. We have a variety of trees: Oaks, Maples, Dogwood as well as shrubs like Azaleas and low rosebushes that are covered with blossoms.

Available Homes A two bedroom home is now available. There is interest from a prospective buyer.  We expect another home to be available in the fall.  We try to keep the latest status on our website. By checking on these links to the website  during the month you will get the latest updates. Here are the links:    A list of the Available Homes with details and prices Information about the Home Owner Association Fees A Picture Gallery of homes  Contact us: phone: (800) 558-3775  email:  info@wolfcreeklodge.org  For details of Open Houses and much more visit our website at:   www.wolfcreeklodge.org  .

Grass Valley and Nevada City   Want to know more about  Grass Valley and Nevada City?  Here are some links we have found useful:    Down Town Grass Valley -                      www.downtowngrassvalley.com  Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce -                     www.grassvalleychamber.com/  Visit Nevada County -                      www.visitnevadacounty.com Bear Yuba Land Trust                   www.bylt.org GIS Receational Viewer -                     gis.nevcounty.net/MyNeighborhood Go Nevada County -                      www.gonevadacounty.com/  YubaNet Calendar -                      yubanet.com/cgi-bin/suite/calendar/calendar.cgi   Grass Valley Travel Guide - www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/California/Grass_Valley-752833/TravelGuide-Grass_Valley.html

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