Another busy but productive weekend! Last weekend I went to one of the local nurseries to order some trees for stage one of the orchard. Unbeknownst to me, I had shown up for customer appreciation and received 25% off my entire order. This was exceptional news as I was placing an order for 12 Eastern White Pine and 10 Blue Spruce trees; not a particularly small order. The trees arrived the following Tuesday with a surprise, four extra pine trees! The delivery guy asked if I could use them because I was the only order on his truck for pine trees and he was not going to take them back to the nursery. I was overjoyed! Not only 25% off but four extra trees! I guess there is some prudence in waiting till the end of the season to place an order. It is actually the best time to plant evergreens too!
On Thursday I began tilling up one of the areas for the trees. It took me about 3 hours to till a 50 foot by 10 foot area. My arms where shaking in a way it was difficult to write out the check to the children's piano teacher when she stopped by for their lessons. I watered the trees still in their pots and hoped they would make it till the weekend. Friday was a blur of activity with Karl's promotion and a library meeting in the afternoon. Finally Saturday arrived but Anton had a midday soccer game causing us to have to break the day in half. Once home from the game, we set out to get to the trees. Karl tried to borrow the neighbor's larger tiller but they found the gas line leaking into the oil, not good! The next idea was to run to the rental shop and rent a large tiller in hopes to get the trees in the ground soon. But as fate has it, Tim, Donna, and their son, Doug, were coming down the drive. Doug wanted to bring Anton a Lego Magazine and the parents just wanted to visit. The two immediately began smirking at my predicament. I had told them when we moved in, I would be chewing up the land in no time. Tim asked Karl to give him a ride back to his house and Tim returned with the tractor and tiller attachment. In about 10 minutes he had the entire perimeter of the to be orchard area ready to go. I was beyond words of gratitude as this was going to take Karl and I well into the night with this project. The perimeter of the orchard includes a 10 foot wide strip along a length of approximately 400 feet. It had taken me 3 hours to till about 50 feet a few days before. I just wanted to cry I was so thankful for their help. After a few more minutes of chatting and prying Doug out of Legoland, they left us with our trees.
Between Karl and I digging the holes and the kiddos helping with watering and filling the holes, we managed to get 6 in the ground before calling it a day.
The next day we broke from our mantra of resting on Sunday in order to finish the trees. Once home from Church and Sunday School, Karl set out to finish the holes while I began a large lunch of BBQ Chicken drumsticks, Anton's request, with last years canned Zesty Peach BBQ sauce and Regular BBQ sauce, potatoes, spiniach salad, and chocolate brownies with swirls of cream cheese. Our neighbor to one side, a Pastor for the Baptist Church, came over to give Karl a hand and inquire about our trees. In the 30 minutes I took to make lunch, the two men had all the remaining holes excavated. All we needed to do was place the trees in the ground and cover them. Stage one of orchard is complete, well, mostly! I want to put some mulch over the tilled grass in an effort to reduce the yardage of mowable lawn. Apparently one of the recycling centers offers free mulch if you haul it away. We really could use a pickup truck!
Why pine and spruce trees around the orchard? The deer hate them because of their texture and bitter acidic taste! The trees will grow in a way to create another barrier and take up the space needed for the deer to scale the fence. Not to mention it also looks pretty!
I have to say this project really sums up how blessed our new life has become. Small businesses that really care about their customers, friends and neighbors ready to lend a hand or tool, and children who are eager to be a part of it all. Yes, Life is good!
