Dixon's Apple Orchard had a rough year in 2011, starting with a late frost that threatened production at the harvest-time hotspot. That summer, the Las Conchas Fire, which burned more than 150,000 acres in eight days, roared across the property, damaging both the apple trees and the property's pine forest. When the blaze reached the orchard, the forest service and local firefighters called in all area volunteers, including David Old, who is a friend of the orchard's owners and owner of Old Wood LLC. Once the blaze had passed, Old and his crew set to harvesting the burned and hazardous pine trees to use for flooring at the request of the state land office. The smell of the tree sap caramelized by the fire attracted the infamous mountain pine beetles, notorious for killing pine trees in the Rocky Mountain area and leaving a characteristic blue stain in the wood. Then in August, it started to rain. Hard. Without any groundcover to hold it back, rivers of mud tore down the mountain, throwing massive boulders, rerouting rivers, and destroying the one thing the fire hadn't: the orchard owners' home. Old Wood worked through six of these flash floods, watching as more and more logs wound up in the lake at the bottom of the mountain. But something good did come from the natural disasters: The pine logs were brought back to the Old Wood facility and cut into beautiful beetle-kill-blue, end grain tiles, which were laid in the Santa Fe Community College student center.
More about Dixon:
KRQE News 13 interviews David Old about the first flash flood that tore through Dixon's Apple Orchard as his crew worked to removed fire-damaged trees.
Becky Mullane, owner of Dixon's Apple Orchard, describes the flooding to KOAT 7 as friends and volunteers pack up what's left of her family's belongings.
