The Santa Ana winds may have prevented a good night’s sleep over the last two evenings, but it has kept temperatures in the mid to upper 30’s. They do impose some additional stress on the trees, but we’ve been irrigating for frost protection, and we get some residual benefit from that. If nothing else, our trees are hydrated and as ready as they can be for wind.
Meanwhile, 10 miles to our North, friends in the wind sheltered Ojai Valley have continued to struggle against temperatures in the mid to low twenties. 10 miles to our South, friends are scrambling to protect their orchard from a brushfire being driven by the same winds that have spared us.
Such is farming.