David and I used to come down...
David and I used to come down to San Diego from Ventura County on vacation. We were thinking of retiring down here and raising Christmas trees. We had a lemon tree ranch in Ventura, and we thought Christmas trees would be easy compared to lemons. We thought you just put them in the ground.
We saw a “for sale” sign in Potrero. The property was 20 acres just outside the Potrero county park, and it had a well on it. We bought it and planted 2,000 seedlings in 1982. Christmas tree farming had a lot of things going for it. Our children had grown up, our three sons, so this filled a void. It had all the components of child rearing--all these little baby trees that needed to be weeded and watered. We joined the California Christmas Tree Growers Assn., and we’d go to the meetings together and learn how to parent Christmas trees. We came down on weekends, and it was a very satisfying hobby that we both enjoyed and shared.
Christmas, 1984, we sold just a few trees but we really got under way in 1987. By then, we had nice, big, 3- and 4-year-old trees. It was a happy time for us. We made lots of friends in the Christmas Tree Growers Assn. and here at the tree farm. There were times we’d get very physically tired, but it was rewarding work. David had no farming background, not the slightest growing up. Actually I was the one who grew up on a farm. It was kind of a joke in the family that he married me because my father had a tractor. David always liked it though, and he looked like a farmer.
David died May 9, 1988, while he was away on business in Ventura. He had an aneurysm in the coronary artery and he was gone very quickly. After he died, the thought was I’d just sell the tree farm and move back to Ventura County and go back into nursing. But I wanted to see if I could make a success of the tree farm on my own.
It was very difficult. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to do it. Fortunately, Jose had come to work for us two weeks before David died. We had hired him with the understanding it was a very temporary thing. We were going to build a house on the hill above the farm, and we decided we would need additional help so David could devote himself to the building of the house. Two weeks later Dave was gone, and Jose has been here ever since. Jose’s experience before was as a bartender. But we’ve really gotten along well and worked hard.
Last year we planted 5,000 seedlings, and we got extra help for that. They’re individually hand-planted so if you consider the prospect of planting 5,000 trees, it’s considerble. After they’re planted, we run an irrigation line along each tree and beside each tree is an emitter which emits one gallon of water an hour. I have three wells, one I had drilled in November, but we can only water so many trees at a time, because there isn’t enough pump pressure. We water every day of the week, and, when the weather is hot, we water through the weekend. Right now we’re irrigating each tree for about two hours a week. In the summer, we water up to five hours a week.
Ideally, we would water at night but the irrigation lines have to be checked to be sure they’re working. There are constant problems. We have to walk the lines to be sure the emitters aren’t clogged, or that a coyote hasn’t chewed them, or that the ends haven’t been untied. Children sometimes untie the ends, and the water runs right through.
During the summer, we get up as soon as it’s daylight because it gets so warm. In the morning, I get out among the trees and work till 11 or 12. The sun is just relentless on this mountain. During a heat spell, it can be in excess of 110, but the temperature hovers around 100 most of the days, and then we have wonderfully cool nights. The work is endless. Watering and trimming and repairing drip lines. It just never stops.
Then, beginning in November, we’re open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to dusk. People often come out and tag the tree they want in November and then come back in December to pick it up. A lot of people from San Diego come out. The distance, about an hour’s drive from San Diego, does not hamper people when they are looking for a tree. The purchase of a Christmas tree is emotional. People like to make it a tradition. My customers want me to know they come here year after year. They’ll say, “This is our fourth year to get a tree here.” It’s easy to start friendships with my customers and their families. One year, the baby is small, the next year the baby is walking. I watch the children grow. At the high school age, they’re no longer into coming out and walking endlessly down the rows looking for a tree. But, when they are overtaken with the urge to start building their own nest, they come back and say, “I think I’d like to have a tree for my own place.”
After Christmas, Jose and I do absolutely nothing through New Year’s, and then we start replanting in January. I still think about how I ended up out here, but I’m not lonely. I miss David terribly, but there is a difference between loneliness and being alone. My children have been supportive, and I have a real need to see if I can make this work.
