Why our fields aren't under cultivation

Just signed for a certified letter from Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District addressed "To whom it may concern," it states. Satellite images from Google Earth appear to show an agricultural operation on this property. Yep, sure does look that way out the window. See some horses, some cows and calves, a donkey, a few cats and dogs, a couple trucks, stock trailers, tractors, a backhoe and a barn full of hay. No pulling the wool over this particular government agency's eyes.

The letter was asking if we cultivated our fields and if those cultivated fields were within a 1/4-mile of five or more residences. If we did and they were we needed to get an air pollution permit. No our fields are not cultivated and I'll tell you why.

The first Neddenriep families that lived out here on the ranch in the late 1800s had large vegetable gardens and grew orchards of plum, apple, and apricot trees. But they let the natural grasses grow in the fields adding only fertilizer and mountain runoff water. They may have tried planting new grasses or grain crops at times but because of the absence of these crops in any of our fields today it would be safe to assume those attempts, if made, were not worth repeating. Probably because of the rocks in the ground, big ones, lots of them.

My own father, a Minnesota farm boy, came for a visit to see the place I called home in Carson Valley and asked me if we "raised" the rocks he saw covering our fields and lane. No Dad we don't raise rocks.

He may have been asking if we tried to raise them out of the ground to actually move them, but with the amount of rocks in our fields it would be safe to also assume he thought we raised rocks to be fruitful and multiply like cattle. We do not.

In the early part of my husband's attempt to be a better rancher farmer in the 1980s he tried cultivating this sandy rock soil.

He assumed with the advancements of modern machinery, the powerful new motors and heft and substance of new tractors and plows he could plow up a simple 15 acre corner of one field to plant Timothy hay to see if it would grow in our high water table. He selected one of our more level fields to try it in. He tried it for days.

Days on 15 acres breaking plow parts, burning up tractor engines, puncturing tires and just using up a lot of gas and oil. One could mow 15 acres with a push mower faster than he and the hired man could plow up that corner.

Those 15 acres took all the effort put into ripping, cutting, leveling and planting it and just laid there like dirt. We did not find it economical to try to plow up any more acreage.

So, yes this is an agricultural operation. No, we do not have any fields in cultivation thank goodness. And remember to vote.

n Marie Johnson is a Fredericksburg, Calif., resident. Her column, "Fencelines," appears once a month.