Dipper Ranch

Windscorpian    It's walnut harvest time. There's going to be a big crop and lots of neighbors and friends to share the bounty...

2015 Snake #1 The Golden-Eyed Rattlesnake - third of four rattlesnakes moved from the farmyard in two days in March and an especially dark...

A sapsucker stretches after its winter arrival at the Dipper Ranch orchard. This one looks like a cross between the red-naped sapsucker ...

Juvenile western yellow-bellied racer pulled from the main springbox on October 22. Will this be the last snake observed on the Dipper Ra...

Forest sharp-tailed snake showing its ladder-striped underside, sharp-spined tail,  orangish lateral stripe, blunt nose and overall small ...

A top view of the forest sharp-tailed snake showing the red-brown line down each side, spine-tipped tail, and blunt nose.   The 2013 wal...

Not an advertisement for Stihl helmets, just a place to keep a small California mountain kingsnake safe while putting down the Stihl brush...

Full moon through California buckeye tree at the Dipper Ranch, February 25, 2013 Late February's full moon is the Snow Moon .  In ce...

The California mountain kingsnake has been elected by popular vote to be the Dipper Ranch snake featured on the 2012 Dipper Ranch walnut...

The walnut crop at the  Dipper Ranch   is huge this year . The guest bedroom is crammed with English walnuts drying in trays, box lids, b...

English walnuts still in their green husk. Every  year, we harvest English walnuts from the two trees behind the barn.  I give many of...

Sunset 11-05-10 One day too early for the walnut harvest party The clouds are back.  I say that every year, don't I?  After the su...

Every year, we harvest English walnuts from the two grand trees behind the barn.  I give many of the walnuts away under the label of Happy ...

--The very first yellow-bellied racer I rescued from the Dipper spring box. --- The English walnut trees at the Dipper Ranch are productive ...

--- Nathan and his very bright grandfather. Photographer: Duncan Simmons --- Last weekend, the first batch of friends and warriors came up...

I've been cleaning the garage in preparation of the annual walnut harvest. I found an old radio in there. It probably belonged to Paul...

I spend winter evenings cracking walnuts while I watch movies. Then I seal the kernels in vacuum-packed pouches and store them in the freez...

Every few days between Halloween and Thanksgiving, I scoop up any brown shells from the ground under the walnut trees and toss any fallen n...

By late summer, plump green hulls hang heavily in the walnut canopy. As the hulls slowly split, they reveal promising peeks of brown shells...

English walnuts have 3 layers: the outer fleshy hull, the hard woody shell, and the inner eatable kernel. If you have just seen walnuts in...