Spring Wood Work

We had a very mild winter here in the NW, which is easing into what feels like an early spring. I took advantage of some free time to tend to a few projects. I got my raspberries and grapes pruned and trained up for another year. 

My Marion Berries need a new trellis, so I go the pieces together to do that.

I pruned our Italian prunes, or at least cut back the suckers that grow like crazy from their bases each year. The trees are old and special, and I don't know what their life expectancy is, so I am encouraging a new trunk to come up from the roots, in case the old part of the tree looses its way. Not sure if a new trunk from the same roots will fare any better, but I figured I would give it a try.

And I did the lower half of two of the big apple trees. I will need to get the 17' orchard ladder out to get high enough to do the rest.

I have a row of espalier fruit trees, growing on about 40' of orchard wire. They are a 6 way apple graft, a Gravenstein apple, a Braeburn apple and a Bartlet pear. I really love them. It's fun to be so hands on with the trees, shaping and guiding them over the years. And they do need shaping; they are quite vigorous, and put on a lot of growth each year. This is the 6 way graft, looking down the line of trees.

I remove most of the new growth each year, letting the older branches get more sturdy. It is a little challenging for me a year later to remember exactly what my plan was, but the trees are getting old enough that I can kind of read them to see the shape I have been after.

After I clean them up, they have really nice silhouettes: Open and airy, so there is a lot of light getting inside them. No branches rubbing. Pretty slim, so no branch covers another and it is easy to mow right up to the base.

Last year we had really good crops on the apples, the best yet. I am hoping the same for this year.

My pear is another story. I bought the trees from a nursery when they were three years old, pretty well established for commercially grafted espaliers. The first and second year I had nice pear crops, not heavy, but good. The next few years, almost nothing. I got a tip from the Home Orchard Society that raising the ends of the branches so they don't droop might help. So when I pruned the tree this year I raised the limbs I could, attaching them to the wire above.

I am not convinced that will help, but it was worth a shot. It is possible that the polllinator, somewhere in the area, got cut down. If the branch raising does not do the trick, I may have to learn more about what it takes to pollinate these guys. My father-in-law suggested grafting a branch from  a pllinator onto the tree, which would be an elegant solution.

Soon, they trees will be in bloom. With the pears, it is a beautiful sight.

All of that pruning means the burn pile, which I took care of late in the fall, is already getting big.

 

Up at the homestead, it was wood work of a different sort. We lost two good size Doug Firs this winter, plus one half of a forked tree split off. Burn season started March 1, so Jake, Hank and I went up Sunday to get things going. One of the trees fell a ways off the road in a thicket that will be very difficult to get through. The other was kind enough to fall as close to the burn pile as it could without landing on top. Very convenient, especially because we can back the trailer right up to it. So while I cut up as much of the tree as my 18" saw could handle, the boys built a beautiful fire. (I call them boys, but they are both 31. Old habits...)

All the limbs went right on the fire, which was already a good size with all the fall trimming.

It was 50 degrees and sunny with no wind; about a good a day as you can have for hot, hard work. We got about 30' of the 100' tree cut and stacked. I will need to rent a big saw for the rest of it. I love my little saw, and would eventually like to buy one with a 28" bar, but have not been able to justify the cost. So now and then I rent one. If nature keeps providing big trees like this I may have to spring for one soon.

We got most of the split fork limbed up, and the branches burned. The boys were good sports about carrying these branches the 100 yards to the fire, but it made a big difference. We had such a hot fire going that it took no time to burn them up. If we waited and started another fire next month, it would take more effort to get the fire good and hot than it did to move the branches.

Finishing this tree is going to be a tricky one. As I said, it was a fork that split off. Well, just under the tree was an old shed. The trunk managed to fall right on the shed. 

As readers of the blog know, Phoebe can do amazing things with old sheds, so who knows what this might have turned in to. It may not be ruined, but until we get the tree of it we won't really know.

And getting the tree off it is kind of a big deal. It is actually sitting on the roof of the shed, angling down to the ground over a span of about 50'. I need to get it down to the ground, and I am not sure exactly how to do that. Other than to do it slowly. carefully, and with lots of eyes and brains around to help me figure out how it will work.

But that is a job for another day.

Mid-Winter Update

Our winter has been very mild so far. Tonight is expected to be the coldest yet this year, with a low of 22. It is probably the 5th night this year to dip below freezing.

In some parts of the country it might sound like I am bragging, but those people might not be too quick to trade their cold days with clear skies for our gray and overcast.

Be that as it may, we are doing fine here. Our wood pile is still strong, and a bit of wind last month has insured that we will be fine next year too.

It did not seem that windy that night, but this 100' tall Doug Fir snapped. Fortunately, it landed where no damage was done. In fact, it is in a pretty convenient place: just next to the burn pile, and easily accessed with the trailer. The small branches and fuzzy bits go on the pile, and the rest will stacked and split there, and hauled to town next fall.

And what is this? Another contribution to the wood pile? Why, thank you. 

The downwind fork split off this tree. It took out part of an old fence, but did no real damage. Between the two of them, that is just about enough wood for next year. And it is only January.

The loafing shed is doing great in its first full winter. Two horses enjoy it daily. Gotta keep up on the shoveling, as a dry, wind-free area encourages them to pile it all up in the same place, but that kinda makes it convenient for removal.

Phoebe is a huge fan of stall mats, and not just for stalls. Once we determined where the horses would spend the most time, we put down mats. Even when the horses track mud on them, or low spots hold rainwater, it is still so much better than the muck they would be standing in.

Stall mats are not cheap, but they make a huge difference in mud control in the winter. The horses appreciate it, and we feel better about their situation when they have a good roof over their heads and a nice place to stand.

Planning for Future Pies and Cider

It's the time of year to start thinking about fruit trees. Scion exchanges are soon and it's good to get your research and lists together before you are faced with the 1000's of choices for fruit trees. 
Since our post on grafting is being featured in this months Home Orchard Society "Pom News", and their scion exchange is just around the corner,  I thought it would be nice this week to harken back to one of our early posts on the philosophy of planting fruit trees.

 Planning for Future Pies and Cider

When we moved into our first house we were neighbors with the very man who was responsible for just about every plant and tree in our yard. Even though he did not live there, he was compelled to plant beautiful things. For the sheer enjoyment of digging in the earth and watching things grow but also, I believe, because he knew then what we are learning now. That when you plant a tree you are planting something for the future, for the people and animals that will be here when you are gone.
It conveys a certain optimism and a spirit of generosity that I grew to admire and then emulate.

In our second home we were the grateful beneficiaries of three aged but healthy apple trees and four precious prune trees. They were planted by a man for his wife and three daughters in the 1940's, but also in the way of such things, for several more families including ours. What a gift! We have derived so much joy and sustenance from those trees. Along with a great deal of community building through apple cider parties and the sharing of bounty.

It's only right then that we start a legacy of apple and pear trees on our homestead.
We had a tough time deciding on the perfect trees: Melrose, Braeburn and Chehalis apples and two pear trees, Anjou and Red Anjou. These will not be the only ones we plant, but they are our beginning. They are all semi-dwarf which will make them easier to pick but eventually taller than a deer.
It turns out that the choosing was the easy part since we ended up having to dig the holes with a grubbing hoe. There were more rocks than dirt! But when all was said and done we felt the trees would do well. The rocks were very loose and there was dirt between them. Heck that's just good drainage, right? Well, like everything else at this point it's all an experiment.

Another experiment is the deer proofing Buck invented with wood scraps, field fence and bird netting. They seem to work so far and we will maintain them until the trees get tall enough to fend for themselves. Since there is so much land, the deer pressure is not too great. There are plenty of other things to nibble on.

If the deer know what is good for their future generations, they will let the trees grow and rain apples every fall for the next 75 years.

Grafted Fruit Tree Update

Because of the cool and wet weather this summer it took a month longer than I had anticipated to see what our success rate was for our little grafted fruit trees. I am happy to report that we had an astounding 19 of our 20 grafted trees leaf out and grow! The only one that didn't "take" was grafted with a questionable scion. It was the last one of that variety of pear, Doyenne d'Hiver, in the bucket at the scion exchange and it had looked a little old when I picked it out. That will teach me.

I have given them a couple doses of fish fertilizer to help them along.

"Potting soil" has no nutrients in it. It is not actually soil. Even if it says on the bag that it has nutrients added, Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K) are all highly water soluble and after a month or two of regularly watering, all the nutrients have washed out of the pot. Potting soil is mostly rotted bark dust and other nutrient void materials like vermiculite and pumice. Other than trace nutrients it has no real food for the plants. It is merely formulated to stay fluffy in a pot for a long period of time.

As a side note,

We're Grafting Fruit Trees

Buck wrote about the Home Orchard Society's scion exchange in an earlier post. I had been tracking the exchange in my iCal for months because this will be the first year we have plenty of room to plant any fruit tree my heart desires, and I knew my heart desired a LOT of different trees.

We have gone to 3 or 4 exchanges,

Tree Protection and Fairies

When Buck and I planted apple and pear trees last June, we did it a little oddly. We had stopped by the local farm store to look at what kind of trees they had so we could start planning a new orchard. As luck would have it the supplier had brought in all kinds of exciting varieties I had never seen at a local store AND they had just gone on sale for half price! We couldn't help it, we bought 5 trees, three apple and two pear.

The original fruit trees on this farm are, like the buildings, on their last legs and we knew from experience that the first thing you want to do when you land somewhere is plant trees.
You can always cut them down for firewood, but you can never get the time that has passed, back. Plant trees right away.

When we got back to the homestead

Fruit Trees

We love fruit trees. Apples are my favorite.  We have planted a few young trees
up here, and will certainly plant many more.  We have some old trees too. 

We gave this old gal a big structural pruning a few years ago, and it looks like it is time again. 

There we go, much better now.

Trees That Raised Me

 "God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying,"Ah!"

Joseph Campbell

I've been thinking a lot lately about the trees that raised me. Now that they have lost their leaves I can see how they have grown or how they are dying, and it is bittersweet. Most will live on long after I am gone and some had lived two or three hundred years before I ever met them. Of course I was not thinking about that when I was using their mossy north sides to wipe my hands many years ago, but I am now.

I slept in them, under them and near them. I climbed them, hacked at them, swung from their blistered pitchy limbs every single day. They were my constant companions. I would fill many days, sopping t-shirt muggy, raining hail frigid, trudging from one tree to the next. Eating a sandwich here, picking an apple there, climbing to the top, falling down from the top and digging for treasure at their roots. I  wallowed in the trees. Often my mother, who was a bit of a free spirit herself, would let me pack my dinner and my old plaid sleeping bag and sleep in the woods as I pleased. She knew where I was, safe with my favorite trees.

Over the years I've given each tree a name, some poetic, some practical, and they each have a place as rightful, in my childhood mind, as my grandfathers house (which is made from the trees here).

 

Let's go on a little walk around the homestead and I will introduce you to some of my childhood friends.

This is Littleoaktree. Littleoaktree was too small to bother climbing when I was a child, therefore he barely qualified in my mind as a tree, but it was a great meeting spot so Littleoaktree got a name anyway. I am now very fond of Littleoaktree because he is not so little anymore. Unlike all the giant trees who seem to be the same size as they were back in my childhood Littleoaktree is visibly much larger and I see my history in his growth. He now shelters my Top Bar bee hive.

This is Treehousetree, nice and close to the real house so essential supplies packed in feed buckets hung on baling twine ropes could be frequently hoisted high into the limbs. I think Treehousetree bears me no ill will, even though I pounded nails into a few limbs.

 

This is Octopustree or Umbrellatree, depending on my mood or the weather. She is a very old Vine Maple. Being under her when she had all her leaves, years ago, was like hiding in a shimmery green tent. She's in too much shade now. It's the other trees' turn.

This is Cherrytree.  She is not doing so good. She has one small limb left. I know that she was planted before my grandfather bought the property, so she is a little old. I used to sit in her limbs and look down on the horses. It was very shady and cool under Cherrytree so all the horses would always hang out there, kicking and shaking their heads "No" to the flies.

This is Homesteadertree. She is the tree under which the family who filed the original settlers claim on the property built their house. We used to dig in the dirt under her and find bits of china and old melted glass. I lost my Afro Barbie under Homesteadertree one summer. My brother found her three years later with lichen growing on her long-lashed face.

 

This, last but not least, is Mothertree. Mothertree is an ancient Madrone. Everyone in the family knows where Mothertree is. My dad slept under her when he was a kid and I did too and then my son and then my daughter after that. Bruiser is posing at the bottom of Mothertree so you can get an idea of how old she is.

These trees serve me now as anchors to my past. To a little self sometimes forgotten in the overwhelming neediness of the now.

Back then they were my bridge from the earth to the sky. They could make me feel very small and safe in their great arms and at the same time vast and old. Flying, but still touching the ground.

Both then and now they are a salve for my spirit. No trouble or joy can be better shared than with a beloved tree.

Tying Up Loose Ends

The field is full of daisies.

There were a few past posts I left unresolved and a couple I'd like to update.

One was the mystery of the egg eating hens, which turned out to be a Blue Jay. My dad, being the resourceful farmer he is, solved the whole problem by painting golf balls the color of the hens eggs (a light brown) and keeping the real eggs picked up. End of problem. Someone else will have to ascertain why that worked for sure but my guess is that the Blue Jay doesn't like eating golf balls.

Another chicken and egg issue was my dismissal of our Cuckoo Marans' first egg as "nice brown but not dark brown". Well, I think they are listening and had a rather strong reaction to my criticism.

Just look at these beautiful eggs! The two lightest eggs are from our other flock of Domoniques.

But wait Girls-

Aren't you going a little overboard? Are they all double yolkers? I take it all back!

Our apple trees are all doing fine except for the Chehalis. When we built our little tree guards, we were thinking of deer. We should have been looking closer to the ground.

Wabbits! They chewed so much of the bark off that the poor tree couldn't pull through. We reinforced our cages for big and small nibblers.



Also, I realized I had forgotten to wax poetic about our first crop of raspberries so I will just let the picture speak for itself.



I ate half of them while still standing in the garden. Where was Buck?, I don't know...
I cooked the rest into a light syrup and then added olive oil and balsamic vinegar for an amazing salad dressing! Double Yum.

Oh and this dog

now smells like this.

Way to go Bruiser. I thought the first time would be the last time. Maybe he likes smelling like Peppe LePew. We don't.