Spring in the Lost Sierra is a glorious time! The temperatures start to warm and the river swells with snow melt. Everyday a new kind of wildflower pops up. Longer days are marked by the arrival of various bird species and other creatures. It all seems so normal and natural, except for one thing…we have not been able to share it with guests.
We have been temporarily closed per Sierra County order since March to protect our guests, staff and the local community from Covid-19. As of now we have not been advised on an exact date that we will be able to reopen, but we remain hopeful that it will be sometime in mid-June. We have been working with the county to create a plan to safely welcome guests back to The Lure as soon as we are able to. We are still accepting reservations for later in summer, fall and winter. We miss everyone!
While it has been tough to not have guests, there has been a silver lining. We’ve had The Lure property to ourselves for a few months, so we have been busy working on some important projects:
Winter Clean Up
In March we had a huge snow storm. Some locals say they have never seen so much snow fall so fast. The weight of the snow took down trees and our power went down with them. After the snow melted, we needed to clear lots of debris. We used a rented Loader to move giant trees. Guess we have a lifetime supply of firewood!
Bridge
Our iconic bridge needed some love! With a few strong helping hands we worked to replace the top deck boards. The bridge is now looking good and strong.
Water
Access to water is essential to keeping things running around here. I thought it would be easy to turn all of our water systems back on, but I was wrong. Thankfully Kurt spent almost 2 weeks exclusively on water projects. Water on the property is fed by 2 different springs that give us delicious fresh water straight from the mountain as well as irrigation and fire suppression water.
Garden
We are bringing our garden back to life! After 8+ years of neglect, we have finally cleared and prepped the garden on our upper property. What a joy to have our hands in the dirt. We have so many plants started from seed with the hope that we will get to share our bounty with our guests.
This year will be experimental as we don’t know how things are going to grow. What we do know is that we have found some cool treasures so far. We had heard rumors of asparagus that used to grow here in the 80’s. Well, we found it. It’s the most tender, delicious asparagus we have ever tasted.
Grapevines that had twisted and climbed our fences are now showing signs of life. New leaves and vines are starting to take shape. Wonder what kind of grapes they will be?
In a small fenced off section outside of the main garden were a couple trees and a huge vining plant which we thought was also grape. Upon further inspection and some knowledgeable eyes, we discovered that the large vines are actually Kiwi fruit! How exciting. We are patiently waiting for the flowers to see if it will give us fruit.
Next steps are to install deer fencing and put our plants into the ground! We cannot wait to show our guests the garden!