FRUIT HARVEST 2019

Our Heavenly Father truly blessed us this year with a bountiful fruit harvest.

 Today Janice and I took three and a half hours to harvest our apples and Bosc pears.

 The variety of apples we picked are Spartan (a cultivar of Mackintosh) these were the two boxes at the front of the bed and the two buckets, these were the most numerous. Then there were the Liberty apples which are the two boxes stacked next the Bosc Pears (the dark green fruit in the left rear of the Gator. 

 Then came the Honey Crisp, love these, they are the box just left of the two buckets.

 The next variety was Freedom Apples, in the box on the passenger seat. the Liberty and Freedom Apples were both developed is a study in New York State. The freedom trees are still very small in fact this is the first year some trees started producing. we have a total of six Freedom Apple trees, one stating to produce pretty good several only had four or five apples this year, a couple had none yet.

 The next variety is the mystery apple. When we purchased the tree it was supposed to be a Yellow Delicious, when it produced it's first fruit it was green and stayed that way into November, so we assumed then it could be a Granny Smith. Well then the apples started to get a slight blush, and were decidedly sweeter, so now they are the mystery apple.

This is not to mention the Bartlett Pears and the Asian Pears that were ripe a month ago. I absolutely love the Asian pears, really sweet and supper juicy along with pretty crispy. We have three Asian Pear trees but this year we only harvested one tree, and one tree the Racoon's got to before we could, the other is not producing yet. I did not mention the two Fuji Apple trees, they actually produced very small apples but we need to move them to better locations as they are in well tiles alone the driveway and don't do well there. I also did not mention that many of these trees I grafted myself while teaching grafting for the local Master Gardeners.

CLEAN UP AND FIREWOOD

Well it is time to get the place cleaned up a bit. The hillside behind the house was getting pretty over grown, so we hire Matt Bailey, Budget Tree Service, to remove several large trees that were pretty dangerous and could have hit the house, with the neighbors permission. It took them several days to down the trees and chip the brush and it sure opened up the hillside, but there are still some to take down. We did not take any of the evergreens as per the neighbors directions. 

Well at this point I have most of the wood at least cut up, just a few logs left down here to cut and a couple up the hill to the south end of the property left to gather and cut.

 We have quite a bit of the wood split up also, between Janice her father, Emil, and I we have built a pretty good pile. Just for reference, that square garden frame leaning against the dirt pile in the back is four foot by four foot.

 some of the stuff cut but still needing to be split.

Every year we get very familiar with the splitter, and I think I am developing calluses on my bottom from sitting on that log. 

During the splitting process we generate quite a bit of kindling, hey it burns right?

All that is left of the large pile of wood, at least out of the woodshed, is some scrap bark.

The area all c,eared out.

the next two pics are the wood we put into the woodshed minus what we have already burned.

 Not a bad amount of wood for the winter, roughly three cords.

I had a picture of the kindling that we got from all of the chips, but at present have lost track of it.

THE PROPOSED NEW GREENHOUSE

As mentioned in another post this is going to be the second structure we ordered. it will be 12 foot wide by 40 feet long with a roll up door at each end, and will have teen foot side walls.

 This view is looking north toward the stalls we built for the horses, which is now the equipment shed. I had to excavate the areas for the pier blocks in order to get them level. we also had to tuck it up next to the back flower garden so we would still have enough room for driving into the carport.

 this is the view looking toward the house. Holy cow, this area has a lot of rock after being used as a driveway for the last forty years of so, we are going to have to dig out the interior and remove a lot of rock, then add a lot of humus and some good compost.

Sadie has been supervising all of out projects on the place sine we got her.

Well the frame is almost complete. I still need to add some support between the up rights and roof trusses to support some polycarbonate panels that are still to be ordered.

Another view, showing the roll up doors on each end. This is to allow me to drive the tractor with rototiller through the greenhouse after I dig out the rocky soil and replace it with good gardening soil,

I am going to post this now, but it is far from being done, I will add more as this project progresses.

Making progress on the new greenhouse. Our eldest son came over and was helping us start installing perlings and poly-carbonate siding on the new green house.

 This is the east side or back side, there is a lot of vegetation that needs to be trimmed up for more light.

 another picture of the back.

 This is the west side of the green house along the upper drive way. this side is not finished yet.

This is looking through the greenhouse toward the north east.The item under the blue tarp is my back hoe attachment.

making more progress on this project.

 as of today the shell of the greenhouse is almost complete. This end, the sides, and the roof are done, as wll as some short pieces of poly carbonate on the other end.

 We still need to clean up some of the brush up on the hill behind the back side wall and install some treated @x12's on the inside walls at the bottom to protect the plastic.

 This side will also have a path around for maintenance.

 looks a lot bigger since most of the shell is on it, 12x40 is a good sized greenhouse.

 This is the end away from the house, that is yet to be completed. it is hard to see from the picture but there are only two pieces of poly carbonate about half way up from the bottom, there are still five pieces to go up.

 This is an inside view from the opposite end looking toward the house, color me happy!

WARM WINTER

It’s going to be a warm winter because we almost have all of our firewood cut split and in the woodshed. Thank you to our friends Ron and Sherry for the availability of the wood.

I thought I should give folks a little update, there has been a lot going on, in fact so much I have had no time to do any fun posts with pictures and all. This time of year, actually starting at harvest, it is time to deal with the fruit, nuts, and vegetables that our Heavenly Father has provided for us this year. As it looks right now, we have about a couple weeks with food preservation, then we can get back on the retaining walls, and other projects we have planned. 

ENJOYABLE DAY

Today was a very nice day here, sun shining, helped the neighbor move a tree for him to use as a side on a garden bed, a little on the cool side with a slight breeze blowing, but all in all a very enjoyable day. This first picture is of some flowers from bulbs that came out of my deceased mother's yard. They are related to the hyacinth, but I find the way they bloom interesting, They send up a spear, and then the blooms open from the bottom to the top over a span of time.

 This second is of some of the Allium blooms from bulbs my cousin sent me. I love these things the ball of flowers is as high as my head.

 I had to take this one to show my cousin that indeed there are six not just four blooms.

 I also liked this photo as it has the Calla Lilly's to the forefront, then on the lattice some Jasmine, going down to an azalea in bloom, and at the bottom of what I wanted to capture, a Viburnum Meta-file. 

 I strolled down the upper drive and the Torch Lilly's caught my eye. In this shot I tried to line up the Red Hot pokers, then some red flowering currents in back and farther along.

 This shot is still on the upper drive, I liked it because the Filberts framed the Viburnum Mete-file very well.



This last shot I came closer for, shows an Azalea about to burst bloom in front of the Mete-file.

 

Spring....Right???

Well it felt that way yesterday. The sun was out with clear skies and fairly warm temperatures, in the high 50's. So Don and I decided we could go out and do something. You know like GARDENING. Well it felt good but wrong thing to do. We got some garden beds cleaned up, planted some Chinquapin seeds and planted some grass seed in the horses paddock. It felt good to be outside since we both have been battling colds but this morning I woke up to a terrific headache and I think it is now a full blown sinus infection. Oh well I will live through it. but what a beautiful day......

SUMMER and GRAND CHILDREN

Janice and I love summers here on the mountain, especially when we have visits from our grand children. A week ago we had a visit from Robert and Madison, the children of our youngest son, Jon. It was a very good visit, and the Kids (no longer kids, Teens) were a big help with the chores.

We had arranged with a local girl, Hannah Hooker, to give the grand children some riding lessons while they were here. Hannah is in her last year of 4-H and is a very accomplished horse woman in her own right. They started each day by grooming the horses, before tacking up.

 Both of the horses love being groomed and handled.

 So very pretty when they are groomed.

 Hannah was very good with explaining why things were done in a certain way.

 All tacked up and ready to ride!

 Some last questions.

 It was decided between them that Robert would ride first.

 The last Picture along with this one and the next one are when they returned from their ride.

 Robert likes riding horses.

 When leaving, they walked the horses down past Charlie's place (the neighbor) then Hannah ponied Flash down the road.

 Once turned around Flash was ok about coming back without stopping and not wanting to go.

One of the days Robert and Madison were here, we all went over to Frog Lake and took a hike up the trail part way over the mountain. 

 Madison also really enjoyed riding the horses.

Nice to be home after a good ride!

 Once home Flash wanted to go immediately to the paddock.

 But that was not going to happen!

 I don't remember what the devil my phone did to get my attention.

Natasha getting ready for her first ride with Hannah.

 Hannah was not under as much pressure when Natasha was here as she has had much more opportunity to ride horses and actually has a good relationship with Flash, my, er her horse...LOL.

 Our horses really do enjoy having a job and going and doing most of the time. Flash however can be a little lazy and he was really out of shape, but with these rides he is starting to get back into shape.

 Natasha Flash and I before their ride on Natasha's first day here this summer.

 And away we go!

Natasha and Hannah walking out for their first ride, exciting!



 On their way home it appears they are riding a branch, but only in appearance.

 No, don't wave you will cover your face,... Too late!

 Whoa, Flash, you can not walk over Dancer.

Natasha finishing a very good ride.

Natasha had to show off just a little for the camera.

On Natasha's second ride with Hannah, they decided to take the trail over the mountain. When they returned Natasha was all wound up and so very excited. The ride had been perfect, wonderful day, horses were good (for the most part), and though it was a very warm day they had a lot of shade on the trail so they stayed very comfortable.

Today Janice and Natasha went for a ride and they were very happy with the actions of the horses, and on their return they gave both of the horses baths, Wow clean horses.