Winter Upkeep at the Castro

A small group of us met at the Castro Adobe yesterday, December 5 from 12-3:00. Although the day was warm and sunny, it was apparent fall had come and gone with the bare trees and plants. The Persimmon tree's fruit was in full abundance and some in the group were kind enough to lighten its load.

The roof of the adobe has been tarped for the winter (a great job!) done by the State maintenance crew.

We then moved on to checking the palletized adobe bricks. Our method of tarping with thick plastic seems to be working well. The water is being diverted and we brushed the fallen leaves off the tops of the bricks so that water would not collect on top. A few pinhole openings in the pallet covers were patched with duct tape. We found that some of the rubber bands snapped (which bind the top of the pallet covers) and they appear to be very susceptible to UV. We will replace those with twine. Other than that, the adobe bricks seem to be doing well.

Our meeting ended with Charlie Kieffer telling us Castro family stories of his great great grandmother's reminisces of bandit Tiburcio Vasquez ! Wow.

Will return in two weeks to clear around the pallets and continue to monitor condition of the bricks and structure. -JK