More Rain. Tree status

I am doing this update almost a month later!  I have just been that busy at work - ugh.  I still am but I really want to record some of this stuff.

Fruit Trees

Despite the rains, its been a good year so far for the fruit trees.  My trees didnt get hit by the frosts.  It was close though.  There was some frost damage in the lower areas new the forsythia, but the fruit trees seemed ok.

Cherries!

The new planting of sour cherries.  I discovered as I was planting that this area has more clay than I would've liked.  Oh well, as the wheel wills...

The "old" sour cherries have a good crop on them now... 

We will see how they do with the deer and bird presence...

Here is one of the new cherry trees blooming!

The grape vines are even getting ready to bloom!

Lots of peaches setting too - but we all know peaches tend to drop...

Braces that I put on to spread the limbs are holding surprisingly well.

Pears.  Asian pears coming in.

Crab-apple tree - fighting for its life.  I think that when I put these young trees in the "tree sleeves" that caused fungus or disease to bloom.  I am not putting new/replacement crab-apples (or any fruit trees) in those tree-sleeves.

I am not sure if these are crab-apples or regular apples...

Cherry trees all caged up!

Signs of life in these new tree-lings!

Rain...

LOTS of rain this spring.  2-3 inches per week lately.  Here are some random shots are the place.

 

Just a big screen shot of the orchard

Strawberries

Blueberries

The "old" blueberries

 Tomatoes

I managed to (just) get the tomatoes in the ground before the rain!  It was a herculean effort because I also had to put up the fence and put down the black plastic.  I cant remember if I tilled that day too - maybe!

The rain really battered them down.  Some even broke off!

Long distance shot of the garden.  Only tomatoes in there now (the strawberries and blueberries are in the back)

Cottonwood blooming again!

Elderberries

 Locust trees blooming!

I cant believe I never noticed these things blooming before.  Now I can't look anywhere without noticing them!

 

 

Elderberry jelly

Making Elderberry jelly

Weather was kind of uncooperative this weekend so I decided to do some work indoors.  I grabbed 2 gallon bags of frozen elderberries from the freezer to get ready to make some jelly!  I used the old standard recipe and made 2 batches.  The first batch made 12 half-pints and the second made 11 (although I canned one pint and 9 half-pints because I didn't have enough jars!).  Good stuff.

Old potatoes

I checked out the old potatoes downstairs and was not pleased.  They are not keep too well!  I gathered a couple handfuls up and made some fried potatoes.  I will have to go through them and see if maybe I should can some of them.

They fried up nice!

Funny how much more yellow they look because of the purple ones in there!

Tree cages and trimming new trees

I worked on putting more cages up on the new trees.  I used the remaining of one of the old rolls of fencing and another whole roll of the 3 ft fencing.  I got the new apples mostly done (all but one I think) and some of the new cherry trees.  I can't remember if I did the walnuts earlier or just this past weekend.  Its all turning into a blur!

No pictures of the cages, not terribly exciting and I forgot!

Trimming

I got around to doing some yard trimming and trimming around the old blueberries.   After trimming the blueberries I cleared around the base of the plants.  There are quite a few struggling to survive - maybe 2-3 dead.  I am thinking it might be worthwhile to put some blood meal on them to see if that helps.

I actually took this picture the weekend after I trimmed around these.

Auger Stand 

I also started work building a stand for the auger/post hole digger.  I got the base done.  I made it out of old locust fence posts.  I will try to use only locust for the project, but not sure I have enough of suitable size and quality.