We have made it to April. The snow (of which we still have plenty) has melted down enough that we have been able to start pruning  again.  It has been too deep to get out in the orchard since early January.  February average temperature was 5 degrees and it was coldest recorded month ever.

The new chipper is making brush clean up much faster – we need to be faster to get the remaining 500 trees pruned.

The weather has not been cold enough to damage the trees  – fruit buds should be fine for the apples and probably ok for the cherries.  Raspberries have been covered with deep snow and we have not had freezing/thawing that sometimes causes damage. Bloom will be late this year – probably sometime in second half of May – there are plenty of fruit buds.

We are looking forward to Spring !!!

All is well with the orchard – more than enough snow.  We still have a lot of pruning  to do, but it has been too cold to get out – have spent the time instead getting our taxes done.  Looks like pruning will wait until March.

Fortunately the heavy snow (and some ice) has not damaged the apple trees.  Because the trees are pruned each year and the heavy fruit load each fall, the limbs are strong enough to avoid much breakage.  It has been a different story for the trees in the surrounding woods and our standby generator has run a couple of times for almost a day.

We are looking forward to Spring – it will have to come sometime.

The storm last week dropped 18 inches of very wet snow – we now have our power, satellite TV and last but in no way least Internet back.  Standby generator made things much better during two power outages – each about a full day.   Direct TV people said wait until the snow melts.   Internet continues to come and go.  Tractor with snow plow is a big help.

Our pruning will wait until January – pictures are from last week.  Our family is all healthy and looking forward to Christmas.   Best wishes for a good holiday to everyone.

We are enjoying  the wind down after a really good harvest.  Plenty of things to do including putting away all the harvest stuff in our barn, draining the irrigation pipes, mowing to discourage the mice and voles, cleaning up flower beds, putting machinery away for the winter.  Sylvia has made 60 quarts of apple sauce and an occasional pie.

We are planning a short trip to the coast of Maine week after next and then trips at Thanksgiving and Christmas to spoil the grandchildren.

Thanks to everyone who came to help us get the apples harvested.  Pictures show our now quiet orchard plus rainbow and sunset.

We are winding up a great harvest – we have seen lots and lots of familiar folks and many new ones as well.

Wednesday Oct 15 will be our last day.  As I said in yesterday’s post, there are still good McIntosh in the old orchard,  lesser amounts of Cortland, Fuji, and Empire in the new orchard – drops throughout the orchard.

After we close, we will pick remaining apples for the Manchester Food Cupboard and a farmer will get drops to make cider vinegar.  The turkeys, the mice and the foxes will take care of the rest.

If you can not make it up tomorrow, you can get good apples already picked at Dutton’s Farm Stand (tel 802-362-3083) 1 mile east (towards Bromley Mtn) off exit 4 on the new Rt 7.  They will have apples all winter including utility grade for cooking and sauce.

So thanks for making it a good harvest – if we don’t see you tomorrow, we look forward to seeing you next year!