Organizing the forest

You may not recognize this but this is an apple tree gone wild.

We have about 20-30 acres of apple trees gone wild.  While we have be able to do some taming of the trees in the past couple of years, usually in the fall, this beautiful early spring weather with bare ground has given us a jump on the tree trimming before the wood ticks get too thick.  Fifty to sixty years ago when this was actually a working farm, the area we now call the meadow was a cleared grain- or corn-producing field.  Since then, birds, other creatures and the wind have worked hard to seed all manner of trees, but mostly apple trees.  And with no one watching them through the years, the apple trees grow wild!

So, last week Leann made a bench out of reused boards from the deck on the old house.  We have several benches positioned here and there up in the meadow to sit and stop to enjoy the view along our trails.  We found a nice spot for this latest new bench overlooking a clear spot with potential for wildlife viewing.  But just to the left was a grove of overgrown--messy--apple trees.  My Older Daughter always accuses us retired librarians of trying to "organize the forest" and I guess that's how we roll!

Here's the same tree from another direction.  Overgrown, dead branches, limbs crossing over other limbs, just a mess!

And here it is after an hour or so of work and three loads of branches hauled away.  There's still more to do, but we're sure what remains of the tree is breathing much easier.

Then came the bonus! Just a couple feet to the south of this little grove was a small wetland area.  We had seen some bugs skimming across the water so we knew there was some life there, but then while we were working we started hearing some sounds--sort of like chirps crossed with a croaking sound and soon we saw two little frogs.  They are someplace in the middle of those two clumps of grass poking their heads out of the water.  Where did they come from since this little puddle is not usually there the rest of the year?

What a great spring!

Thoughts of apple trees & maple syrup

We experience a couple of 40˚ days and our thoughts turn to trimming apple trees and tapping maple trees!  Conventional wisdom says to trim apple trees in March or April, but recently we've heard that modified to...trim apple trees whenever you can!

Our "tame" orchard is a mix of really old trees--75 years old or older--and the ones we've planted in the last ten years.  And they have been shown the results of a mix of trimming styles in these last ten years.  Two summers ago we experienced a major case of fire blight for which we had to cut off and burn all the affected branches.  So they were a little out of control!

We've read many how-to articles in books or on the Internet on trimming apple trees, but this time we decided to bring in someone to help.  So enter our local expert, Konrad, who gave us lessons on what to cut and why, and what to watch out for around the base of the trees.  And we learned a lot!  He was almost like a tree-whisperer as he decided which were the leader branches and which ones needed to go for the good of the tree.  It was an afternoon well spent!

The apple trees look like apple trees again instead of branches going every which way.  And we're sure the trees are heaving a sigh of relief for getting the extras taken off.  I went back over this evening to check on all he had done this afternoon.  The difference was amazing.  He's coming back with a chainsaw to take off some of the large, dead branches in the older--and TALLER--trees.  Now we need another good apple year!

 And because temps were up in the 40s, we had to tap a couple of maples.  Here I am with the brace and bit drill on the first tree.  The key is to drill it up at a slight angle in order to get gravity working for you when it starts running.  It was slightly moist inside the hole but no drips.  It seems really early, especially compared to last year, but we'll see what the next few days brings.

So below are the two trees (looks like one, but two close together) near the house, each with a bucket to catch the sap.   

Every year I ask why we're still using the brace and bit when we have several cordless drills around.  I guess we're missing the drill bit for the size of the hole we need.  And like most of the tasks involved with tapping maple trees and making syrup, the fun is mostly in the journey and not the destination.  Good thing because the journey is usually more fun than the little bit of "destination" that we end up with!  :-)