A Few Things

Some odds and ends to catch up on the last couple of weeks. I have been working a lot on my day job, so homesteading things have been relegated to a few hours on the weekend.

~The wood pile is getting low. It is a bit of a footrace, between the dwindling dry wood... 

...and the crazy spring weather we are having. We had actual snow on the ground twice in the last week. I can't remember the last time we had snow this late in the year. For you northeasterners, that may not mean much, but here in the Pacific NW, this is pretty weird.

~Every spring our local Home Orchard Society has their Scion Exchange. (I wrote about it last year.) It happened last weekend, and Phoebe really wanted to go. A few of the scions we grafted last year didn't take, and she wanted to get some more to replace them.

The fair is held in a big room at the fairgrounds. It is packed, with a line out the door in the morning. There are hundreds of clippings from all kinds of fruit trees. I bet there are 100 apples alone.

She had a short list of replacement scions, and we were able to find most of them. There were no William's Pride this year, so we replaced it with a Wynooche Early, another early season apple.

We got a few others too, while we were there. There were so many to choose from it was irresistible.

And not just apples either, there are all kinds of fruit trees to graft.

Of course, selecting the scion is only a part of it. Rootstock is the other big piece. The scions are free; they make their money off an admission charge and selling rootstock. They have different kinds for different trees. Apples can be grafted onto stock that will end up anywhere from dwarf to full size. They will do the grafts there for you, or you can take it home and do it yourself, as we like to do.

~Finally, there have been some changes around here. Our son Jake and his fiancee have moved back up here, from a stint in California. We are very happy to have them back. Jake will be joining us up at the homestead to help out.

We got started on firewood for next fall today, taking care of some downed limbs and a tree that has laid by the driveway for a few years. It is really nice to have some help schlepping rounds out of the woods.

It will be a while until we continue the woodcutting. I have a lot of work to do, and a pasture project to finish before the grass gets too long. But I feel so much better having a nice start on it.