Man, I had no idea.

High-Hand Nursery is backed up against railroad tracks. Every time a train leaves the Roseville rail yard it comes huffing and puffing through to make it over the Sierras. To this day I still stop and watch the freight train come through. Maybe it’s a guy thing.

Hosing off concrete is a guy thing. Starting a barbecue is a guy thing and watching freight trains? It’s a guy thing.

Did you know Saturday, September 15th is Train Day at Maple Rock Gardens?

Well, now you know. Train Day at Maple Rock, September 15th. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here, at the nursery or at Maple Rock on the day of the event. All aboard for Train Day.

I’ll bet you didn’t know this. The longest freight train in history was over 18,000 feet long or around 60 football fields. I wouldn’t want to wait at that train crossing.

The longest Maple Rock train in history? Six feet.

There are over 107 billion pounds of steel within America’s rail network.

At Maple Rock, 125 pounds. Ish.

There are over 489 million railroad ties in the rail network.

At Maple Rock, within our G scale railroad we maintain about 2500.

You can build 6,667 Eiffel Towers with all the steel from America’s train system.

You could not even build a rivet for the Eiffel Tower with Maple Rock’s steel.

Stretch out the freight train network from end to end and you will wrap the earth 5.6 trips.

Stretch out Maple Rock Garden’s railroad system end to end and you’ll barely make it down the driveway.

A freight train can move a ton of freight 473 miles on a single gallon of fuel. Don’t believe me? Google it.

A single electrical charge of the Maple Rock freight train batteries will take us about a quarter mile. Hah! Pound for pound, I think I have them beat on this one.

The Maple Rock Garden Railroad is now eleven years old. With over 900 feet of aluminum track, the railroad is designed to be interesting and pleasing. It’s mixture of hills, valleys and open scenes that avoids the monotonous circling of most garden railroads. Built with the help of master train builder, Earl Martin, the railroad serves a gold mine, a logging operation, two small towns and a train depot. Its long loops climb up the mountain and return to the valley floor. Out and back trips are about five scale miles, climbing and descending about 300 scale feet (15 vertical feet).

The railroad is part of a 30 acre garden and farm with extensive walking gardens and water features with plantings to fit the scale of the railroad.

On September 15th at Train Day, live steam locomotives will join the tracks. Something you don’t see much on America’s railroads these days. So join us at Maple Rock for this rare treat.

Here’s something you didn’t know. Crazy Dory? Well, she’s actually not that crazy. This Saturday, join Crazy Dory, aka Dory, for a Kokedama class.

Did you know? Kokedama is a centuries old garden form from Japan. Our version uses beautiful succulents from our nursery planted into moss and shaped into cones. We will suspend our ornamental garden onto a branch and create a custom macrame hanger display. All supplies are included as well as a refreshing boozy beverage and treats from our cafe to enjoy while you craft.

Did you know you can reserve your space by clicking here for this Saturday, August 25th? Now you do.

Did you know that succulents got their name from the Latin word “sucus”? This means juice or sap.

Did you know Dory got her name from Dory the Fish? Now, if you believe that, that means that Dory is only two years old since the movie Finding Dory came out in 2016. I had to keep up the “Did you know” theme. Mama said a little white lie don’t hurt.

There’s a succulent named after a donkey’s tail. That’s surprisingly sophisticated, don’t you think?

Did you know there are thousands of things you can make with succulents, including jewelry that will grow as you wear it?

And did you know that the amount of classes and fun ideas that are in Dory’s head are endless? They are so endless that I have decided to build Dory her very own dedicated Crazy Dory classroom. Coming soon, the High-Hand classroom will host a gamut of fun, entertaining activities for all.

But, check this out, in the middle of construction we came across a surprise I didn’t see coming.

I said, “Joe, let’s tear that plywood off the old evaporator platform.”

Now, understand I have pretty much remodeled High-Hand from head to toe and thought I had pretty much unearthed every nook and cranny and every secret this building held. But she wasn’t done giving up secrets.

As Joe tore down the plywood, the paper confetti rained. Who would stuff a bunch of paper between two layers of cooling platform? Who was told to do this?

“Hey, Hank. Go stuff a bunch of paper in between the wood.”

“What paper would you like me to stuff, Harvey?”

“Just grab anything you can find and stuff away.”

Well, I guess if you were a fruit packer at High-Hand this is the paper you would have grabbed to wrap fruit 60 plus years ago. So, it would only be natural to stuff an evaporative cooling platform with High Hand fruit wraps. Right?

Do you think Hank knew that long after he was gone, Dory would come along 60 years later with all of these fun crafty ideas in her head and inspire us to build a classroom and find his time capsule?

High-Hand continues to surprise.

So now you know. August 25th, this Saturday you can join Dory for her Kokedama class. Sign up by clicking here.

And you now know that September 15th the steam engines will be rolling down the tracks at the Maple Rock Garden Railroad. Farmer Ryan will most likely have fresh melons picked from the field if Nature allows. Perhaps even U-Pick flowers from the garden. You can purchase tickets by clicking here.

Join us for these great times and stop by High-Hand Nursery and watch the progress of Dory’s classroom.

See you at High-Hand Nursery.

Scott