In a small canyon in the Southern Cascades
So far this year 2022 I have pruned the Fuyu persimmon tree by the shop side door and the Hachiya persimmon by the YAHB side door. Now I’m starting on the main orchard trees ( Dec. 17th 2022). I’m working slowly and carefully on the tall orchard ladder, taking about two hours to prune a full-size tree like the apple tree in the photo below. I will be replacing a few of the old peach trees this year.
We leave a layer of needles to keep the soil covered.
This Sunday I worked on the small gate to the poultry palace by the shop. I’m building it so the gate can be opened and closed without having to “disconnect or turn-off” the electric fence. Kinda a slick trick but does take some extra tinkering.
Above are photos I took of the cover cropped area of the orchard – the lower part of the fenced orchard. I can grow cover crops now that we can keep the deer out!! I also kept the chickens off it for the first 6 weeks to give the seeds and sprouts some relief. I will now pull up the chicken barrier and see how the chickens like it. When most of the cover crop plants begin to flower, I will mow and then shallow till, add some supplements, and then plant with sunflowers in the spring. Bees and chickens LOVE those sunflowers!!!
I also spent a bit of time pulling up broom!!. This is like the pulling of milkweed of our youth. ( Only much more pleasurable for some reason. ) Pulling out broom can only be done when the soil is really wet. So this year is a good one for continuing the interminable battle of the broom.
The old pecan tree sorta by the big walnut tree by the house had grown reaching out over the ravine too far, and just snapped off at the truck. We will miss the shade. But the view of the canyon from the house is nicer. We will have a lot of good firewood. ( As if that was a problem ).
Deer and bear were damaging the fruit trees every year!! There was just no way to “share” the orchard with them and have any reasonable success at orchard health. A 7′ high fence now encircles the orchard, vineyard, & chicken coop. It now successfully excludes deer from the orchard. We are adding a 3 wire electric fence to the 7′ deer fence. It is nearly complete. I am hoping it will successfully exclude bear from the orchard. It is a race against time to get it up and working. The bears start coming around when the figs begin to turn blue. I have a few weeks left.
So until we get the “master fence” surrounding the homestead to keep out critters like deer, bear, & lions ( oh my). I am putting up temporary fence around the new grape vines on the point. Beautiful day, blue sky, white clouds, calm moist air. HMMMM YUM.
Many hands make light work. Tedious work is much more fun when done together. So this Sunday we attacked the start thistle in the orchard. ( Alina, Alden, Juan, and I )
Looking out over Big Chico Creek Canyon