BOB PRATTE
There is sad news for lovers of Idaho peaches shipped to Hemet High to benefit the school’s cross country team. The annual peach delivery won’t be annual this year. Two spring freezes in Idaho damaged blossoms on flowering fruit trees in Idaho, destroying crops. Hemet High won’t receive its eagerly anticipated September shipment. The juicy peaches are so tasty that Bambi Galloway picks up several cases to bake into pies at her Hanger One Cafe at Hemet Ryan Airport. She holds peaches for pilots who fly in for the juicy fruit. They will have to be satisfied with apple pie this year. Janice Kelley, a member of the Kelley Valle Vista farming family and an esteemed distance running coach at Hemet High, organizes a shipment of peaches grown by relatives in Idaho. They truck a big load of peaches to the school, where cross country kids busily load them into customers’ cars. They also deliver a fruit called pluots, a hybrid that is a combination of plum and apricot. The trucking is coordinated with Jim Connor of Alta Nursery. The peaches and pluots normally are delivered the third week of September. “The cross country program will be OK,” Kelly wrote about the loss of the fundraiser. “The parents and I have decided to put more effort into our Bulldog Run Invitational, the cross country meet we host out at Diamond Valley Lake on Sept. 28. “Weather is a big factor in farming and we all hope the weather cooperates and there is a big crop next year.” Kelley suggested that fruit lovers in the meantime visit the San Jacinto Valley Certified Farmers Market, which is held at Farmers Corner from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursdays. Members of her family, Susan and Ken Kelley, are founders of the market. BOBCATS STOP BY Readers continue to see bobcats around homes, which is a sign to me that the wildcats, which are not considered a threat to people, are seeking water around homes during a very dry year. Douglas Hermmann, who lives in the hills above Loma Linda, frequently sees a bobcat in his yard. His daughter, Stacy Knight, captured a photo of the bobcat while it was sipping from a bird bath, which I am happy to add to this summer’s collection of bobcat photos submitted by readers, which can be viewed on my blog. “We were all standing by the window watching the bobcat for several minutes,” Hermmann wrote. “My daughter got off several shots before he wandered away. We’ve seen him several times. The best view we’ve had was of a bobcat and a fox facing off in our front yard.” Mary Vuong wrote that her family has run into trouble with a bobcat at her home on Vista Road, a rural area south of Hemet near Diamond Valley Golf Course. It is near the site of a recent brush fire. “We didn’t get a picture but about a week ago a bobcat came into our back patio area and killed one of my 12-pound guinea hens” she wrote. “He tried to pull it up through the grape arbor to make his escape but my husband poked him several times with a rake handle and he had to drop her and run off. It was glaring at me. We speculate the dry weather and the fire have driven the starving cats down here.” She isn’t overly concerned about the bobcat visit, which really is part of life in the country. “We are just being more careful with our pets,” she said. Contact Bob Pratte at 951-763-3452, [email protected] or 3400 Wentworth Drive, Hemet 92545. Find Bob’s blog at blog. pe.com/author/bobpratte and follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PE.BobPratte and Twitter: @bpratte