Almost finished

I took off from work today and pruned trees.  We almost finished.  We are down to about 5 to 8 more trees.  As I was pruning I noticed that some of the trees were starting to show some green. So at the end of the day I mixed some deciduous spray and sprayed the trees.  This will burn the green that was showing and cause them to be undersized this year which affects the size of the fruit but there wasn’t that much.  The benefit for the rest of the trees will far out weigh any harm done.

Esther and I will finish the rest of the trees this week.  I will move on to planting more stuff in the garden next week, getting 2 hives ready for the 2 packages of bees I ordered and reworking my chicken house and yard.  It may be a busy week. 

Late Again

Well, we have made the start. We are pruning trees or at least Esther is.  We started in December, continued in January with some of the hardest to prune trees.  In February we continued to work through the trees.  Now in March we must hurry and finish for they will start budding leaves soon.  As soon as I feel the last freeze is past and have a calm dry day I will spray with deciduous oil.  This is a substance that soaks into the bark killing boring bugs and that helps with fungi. 

    

I am planting; actually I began in February with peas, kohlrabi, salad greens and onions.  Now I have planted some flowers set out some cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprout plants.  I impatiently wait for things to sprout and grow as I decide what to plant next.

Chickens!  I will have some chicks soon.  Mike & Julie at Three Fold Cord are starting some chicks and will give me 12 of them.  I traded them some apples back in the fall for them.  They will not start laying until later this year so I will probably try to pick up a couple of older chickens to fill in the gap until then.  I have had chickens in the past but it seems every time I get some established someone’s dogs get loose and reeks havoc on them.  The last ones I had met their fate by a huge dog that tore under the fence and killed every one of them.

I haven’t written anything for a while for several reasons.  One I have been busy.  Work is one reason I have worked some overtime but generally I have been stressed about my future at my current job as I suppose lots of other people have been.  At least I still have a job.  Another reason is that it’s birthday season, starting with Esther in February, Ada, Amy and me in March.  Believe me that’s a lot of food.  And then I have also been spending time in the garden, orchard and with the bees.  The last reason is that it seemed every time I have tried to write something lately, it came out… well like… well my wife said it sounded like a terrorists rambling.  I have been so upset about the direction my country is going I can’t get my mind off of it.

Oh yes!  Did I mention I have with God’s support I've been losing weight… say about 20 to 25 pounds so far.  Like other things in my life that were harmful like smoking and drinking He has slowly positioned me to have the desire to accomplish an end.  GOD is good.