Cherry trees and grape vines

Prelude to planting...

I got an email from FedEx last Tuesday saying that my Cherries and Grape Vines would be at the farm Wednesday!  I contacted FedEx and was able to delay the delivery until Friday (for $5).  Katherine and I got to the farm around 10:30am and FedEx showed up around 11:30am!

I had plenty to do before getting the trees and vines planted though.  The ground was very wet (it was raining on and off Friday) so doing anything with the soil was impossible.  I checked the grape arbor posts and decided that they needed another coat of copper naphthenate.  I got a good coat on them and let them to dry.

Later on my brother Tom called and wanted to know if they could come over Saturday morning to get a tour and then go grab some lunch.  We agreed.    I decided to put the last coat of polyurethane  on the canning shelves so that they would be dry.   I built a good fire in the fireplace to make sure everything dried out downstairs.

"Easter" with the family

Well, mom, my brother Tom and his wife Julie came over around 10ish Sat morning and I proceeded to walk them around the farm showing everything I was working on.  We finished the tour around noon and then Katherine, me and the rest of the family traveled into McConnellsburg for lunch.  Tom took some pictures during the farm tour - here are a few:

A great panorama shot looking out toward the valley from the top of my field.

Me on the left, Tom in the middle and Mom on the right.  Checking out the Pecan trees

Mom next to a Pecan tree - looks like she is checking out the White Walnut trees
The butternut trees are not in the picture, but off-frame to the left.

A view of the wood-house-it made it through the winter!
The box leaning up against the wood inside contains the cherry trees and grape vines

Walking up to the nut trees.  That is Mom in the white and me in the black.

Still on the trek to the nut trees.  Mom is watching her step.  I am ahead there on the left with Julie on the right (in blue)

Mom, Tom, and Me!

Planting the Cherry Trees

After Katherine and I  returned to the farm it had dried out enough that I could plant the cherry trees. First I marked where I wanted to place the trees in the front "cherry area".  I placed the Dwarf Star Sour Cherry trees (6 of them) between the old sour cherries and the house.  My logic was that since they are dwarf trees they would not obstruct my view to the other trees when they got larger.  Meh.  I placed the Montmorency cherry trees (again, 6 trees) to the right of the old sour cherry trees, as you look from the house to the road.  When I was done I placed the spiral "rabbit protectors" around them and then I went to laying out the grape arbor posts.  After that I called it a night.  Later in the weekend I put wood shavings around the cherry trees to help keep the grass and weeds down.  

The new ones don't have any wood chips by their base in this picture.  20 sour cherry trees!  4 sweet cherry on the far left.

The wine grapes

The next day we had to pop over to Mom's to get my post-hole digger and digging iron.  Tom has been working on the upkeep of Mom's fence and he needed a post hole digger.  Anyway, I picked up some old short steel posts that I hope to use for my expanded electric fence around my cherry trees and gardens.  Katherine picked up mom's old electric slicer.  Mom said I could have the old garden posts too - they are the large metal posts that I will certainly need soon when I add to my garden,

Once we got back to the farm, unpacked, and ate lunch it was about 1:30pm!   I got the auger ready and started drilling out the post holes.   I cleaned the holes up with the post-hole digger.  Fortunately, despite being in a rocky area, the posts went in nicely with only a little movement needed to get the deep holes I needed.  I brought the posts down from the barn using the front-loader.  I brought 3 posts at a time since the front-loader can't really hold a lot (more at once would have gotten in the way anyway).   I used a level to get the posts nice and straight and aligned.  It took a few hours, but I got all the posts in.  They look pretty good!  

While I was working on the posts, Jay Knepper dropped by to pay rent on the field.  We got to talking and I asked him about cutting down some of the trees on the other side of the sheep pasture fence - he said they were probably on my property anyway, but even if they were on his it was OK to cut them down.  Until those trees are down I am afraid to plant anything on the hill facing the sheep pasture.  They are BIG trees and would destroy anything in their fall zone.

Anyway, I got back to the grapes and got them all planted.  It was tricky though - that ground has a lot of stones in it.  It was hard to find dirt to cover the grape roots!  I made sure to use the rhizome inoculate and the goop that makes it all stick and hold water.  I also watered them all in.  They will need a lot of luck if the weather gets dry this year!    I planted Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel grapes.

I need to put the tops on the arbors and run the wire too, but that all can wait.  I just wanted the posts in there now because putting in posts after the rape vines are in would be a nightmare!

Between the posts, there are little dirty areas - those are where the grape vines are planted!  

This bank where I planted the grapes and hazelnuts is a drain-way for the mountain.  It doesn't drain through here so much as to be running with water (usually), but it always seems to have moisture without having any standing water.

Wood mulch

I didn't get any pictures of it, but I did put wood chips, plane shavings, and saw dust around all of my planted trees that weren't otherwise protected - the grapes, the apples, pears, peaches and plums.  I even started putting some around the paw-paws - but I ran out of time.  I will need to finish those off next week.  

Preparing for the next wave...

I have arranged to take off some time from work so that I can plant the next wave of trees and get the gardens started.  I pulled up a lot of the barbed wire fencing along the top of my pasture (to the right of the apples as you look from the road).  I also got the tractor in there and pulled most of the posts and brambles.  However, I still need to do a lot of prep work on that ground before I can plant trees there!  I still haven't decided whether to use tree protectors or not.  I am thing that I will put in 2 rows of locust.  Katherine suggests using the tree protectors only on the top row and hopefully that will provide some deer protection as well as a visual guide to whoever mows that field!

Oh - and seedlings are coming along!

We left the seedlings here to fend for themselves this weekend.  They survived!  In fact, some of the pepper plants are finally emerging!

They are reaching for the window light (I didn't leave a light on for them).  Tomatoes, brasicas, and eggplants in there.

You can't see them - but there are some pepper plants coming up in there!

Finishing up some housework and getting ready for more planting

The attic vents 

With the weather warming up I really wanted to focus on getting the attic vents up (before the bees and critters get too active!)  I went to the local hardware store and got some aluminum window mesh and some hardware cloth to enclose then vents.  I found some of the old molding from the downstairs doorways and made a light frame that I stapled together (air-powered staple gun - 1.5" staples!) and attached the aluminum mesh to.  These frames fit inside the front edges of the vents.  The mesh-frames couldn't be made to fit too snuggly because the paint on the vent frames was latex and "sticky".   The fit, however, was tight enough that I decided a simple caulking fit would be ok.  I simply staple (manual staple gun - not air-powered) the hardware cloth on the backs (inside face) to help keep any animals that might make it past the mesh frame cover.  I removed the temporary cover that I put in place last year, surveyed the area, found everything to be ok and then placed the new vent in the hole.  It fit perfect.  I came back and screwed 6 2.5" (3" ?) deck screws through the frame into the wall to hold it in place solid.   I also placed the triangular top piece (I just reused the old one - after adding a thin piece of wood to help fill some extra space that appeared for some reason) and then caulked everything in.  It was messy, but I got it all don!  I even went and caulked some holes that the wasps have been coming out of (or going into )!  I sprayed white paint over tings that looked like they needed it.

Showing the front mesh in place.

Its up and caulked!

Looks much better then the piece of plywood i had covering it last year!

Wasps hole caulked and painted!

Still working on finishing the canning shelves!

After trying to sand the first coat of the polyurethane by hand, I quickly decided to go get a palm sander!  Again, local hardware store!  I have tons of sandpaper and even though it was a little rougher than recommended (100 grit vs 200 grit) I made do.  Sanding the shelves took FOREVER!  Seriously, like 3-4 hours!  It was 54 square feet - times 2!  108 square feet to sand.  I applied the first coat a bit thick and there were some blobs of polyurethane that had not fully set; these blobs load the sandpaper very fast.  I spent a considerable amount of time just changing sandpaper!

I also started applying polyurethane to the shelf frame.  I started by applying poly to the feet since I want to make sure moisture doesn't get absorbed from the damp basement floor!  

I did finish applying the 2nd coat of poly to the shelves but didn't quite get all of the first coat of poly on the shelf frame.  The shelf frame needs to be stood straight upright so that I can get the top areas, and I couldn't do that since the feet were still curing.

Some of the shelves sanded and cleaned before applying 2nd coat of poly

Also started application of poly to the shelf frame.  I did the feet first to make sure moisture stays out!

A new sheep joins my neighbors flock!

While doing a farm survey last week I noticed a new lamb appeared in my neighbors flock!  I finally took a pic of him this weekend while doing another survey!  I swear he grew at least 4" just this past week!  He is still cute little bugger though!

Little lamb!

Grape arbor posts milled

I put a huge effort into milling the posts I will need for the grape arbors for the new grapes.  The new grapes are expected soon and I don't want to delay planting because I don't have the posts!  I had 5 locust posts (3 milled and 2 raw log) that i prepared last weekend, but changed my mind and decided that I would use all milled posts.  I got 8 6x6", 4 4x4" and 3 5x5" posts milled from the logs I had laying around the farm (rotting).   There were some rough edges, but not a problem for arbor posts.  I plan to paint these with copper naphenate like I did for the woodshed posts.  I put them in the barn on sleepers to dry out a bit before I paint them next weekend.

15 posts overall

Most are oak, a couple maple and 3 locust (I think)

You can see I tried to make an octagonal one - it worked, but the method needs to be improved.

 Tree removal to make room

I want to expand the front garden this year - I want to extend it towards the house.  Unfortunately, this meant that I had (and still have to) remove some trees from the front lawn.

The tree that's missing from this picture was leaning toward the road!
I used rope to tie to the tractor and pulled it down safely (relatively)

Closer up - see the stump?  I will have to trim that down too.

Lots of branches need to be chipped and more firewood! Yay!  LOL - I am going to have to build another woodshed!

Getting ready to plow

Weather turned nice and dried up lots of the moisture - so much so that I think I could have actually plowed!  Well, except that my plow was in pieces and the main part was in the barn, behind tons (literally) of logs!  Well, I managed to get the plow body out of the barn using chains and creative use of the front loader.  I hauled the plow body over to the garage and found the missing plow blade (I had removed it last year to help dig a ditch).  I got smart and used a ratchet-chain-tightener to help move the heavy metal pieces so that I could align the bolts and re-assemble my plow.  I think it is good to go now!

All together!  No room in garage right now.  I don't want to put it on the tractor until I have augured out my grape arbor holes!

Seeds started!

Just a quick little post - I got the seeds started!

Here are some pictures (I am using the blog to record the types I have planted).

Of course, a while flat for tomatoes.  half of this flat (36) is for roma.  The other are Big Rainbow and Principe Borghese.

Pepper, brussels sprouts, and eggplants

I got some short season eggplants and Brussels sprouts this year.

One flat for cabbage and broccoli - I am not doing cauliflower this year.

Here they are all in and under the lights!  Now to just wait for something to grow!

Finally planting some trees!

Nut trees!

Well, just as I got back into the city I received an email from Willis Orchards informing me that my nut trees were on their way and should be at the farm Wednesday morning!  Ack!

So I make arrangements at work to take Wednesday off and work at home Thursday and Friday.  I head up early Wednesday morning in order to be there for the Fed-Ex delivery.  I was just starting to head down the final road to my farmhouse when I see a Fed-Ex truck coming toward me!  I figured that I had missed it and got real depressed.  I unpacked and texted Katherine the situation.  As we were texting back and forth I see the Fed-Ex truck pull into the driveway!  YAY!!

So I got my tree shipment on Wednesday and immediately started reviewing my planned planting locations.  Its one thing to plan something out on paper, but quite another when you take a look at the terrain and soil.  I made a few changes to my plans that involved removing quite a few trees back along the upper-north edge of my hayfield.  It was a lot of work, taking me all of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening, and a good portion of Saturday.  I finally got to laying out the pecans and walnuts Saturday, but didn't get anything planted until Sunday.  Sunday I got everything planted!  After planting the pecans and walnuts I laid out the hazelnuts and planted them too.  Then I put on the trees protectors and mulched in all the new trees.

30 trees total planted!  10 pecan, 10 hazelnut, 5 butternut and 5 black walnut.  I hope they survive.  I have concerns about the suitability of the soil and the climate.

Here are some pics:

The hazelnut trees to the left of the grapes

closeup of the hazelnuts.

There are Yamhill and Jefferson varieties there, alternating rows.

If you look close along the upper part of that field you will see the tree tubes around the pecans.

That dark trail is where I dragged down a log.  It was a poplar tree that I cut down that was straight as an arrow for 35 ft!  I had to cut it to mill it (I didn't mill it this weekend, but i will soon)

Looking North from the top of the field - these are butternut trees - also called white walnuts.

I left a few spaces for the english walnuts that I am getting from the Fulton County Conservation District.

I still need to cut more trees out to allow for these trees room to grow - but I think I have the difficult ones out.

The pecans - looking south.

Some of the logs that I have left over - these are mostly firewood.  There is a sassafras tree in there - biggest I have seen on my property - but mostly decayed and in pretty rough shape. 

The stump left from the poplar tree

The northward side of the hayfield after I cleaned it up.  Its a lot steeper than it looks.

Almost cleared all the way down to the stream.

I still need to saw off those stumps closer to the ground.  I hate leaving them up this high.  Sawing them off makes it safer for the equipment, but its hard on the chainsaw chains!

Looking down east from the upper north end of the field.

Here are the black walnuts.  They are just across from the neighbors sheep  barn.

Some of those trees on the right in this picture need to be removed yet, but i think there will be room to take them out between the pecan trees.

 Getting ready for the grapes!

I am taking steps to get ready for the grapes I have coming soon.  Some of the trees I cut down in the upper field were locust, so I milled them for grape arbor posts.  I got a 6x6 9 ft post and a 5x5 9 ft post from one tree.  The other locust wasn't big or straight enough to mill, but I can strip the bark off of them and still get 2 good arbor posts.   I found one old locust log that I milled to another 6x6.  So I have one row of posts ready.  Just 10 more to go!  I don't think I will be able to find enough locust trees handy so I will probably just mill some oak and maple for the rest of the posts.  non-locust posts should be treated with copper-naphthalate before placement.  I hope I have time next weekend!

I still have to strip the bark off these two.  Ugh.

Last, but not least...ventilator progress!

Yep, I have not been working on these much but they have to go in soon - hopefully before the bees and creepy crawlies awaken!  I used the framing left over from the pre-hung basement doors that I installed last year.  I used deck screws to attach the framing to the ventilators because this framing is how they are attached to the house - it must be strong!  I did pretty good at screwing it all together, but I did break out the sides in a couple places, so I had to use a little wood putty to patch things up.  Here ate the vents laying in the basement waiting for the putty to harden.  I will need to sand and paint them yet.  I will paint them with spray paint because I just don't have time (and am not fond of) for the exterior latex paint.