Plum Sky Orchard - A Project

10/04/2024

Apples are more efficient at waking you up in the morning than caffeine.

05/26/2024

We bought this abandoned farm 3 years ago. Today, it looks like we’ve finally found the best tool for picking up barbed wire fencing. These wire fenceg “jenny” do-hickeys are sold for putting up fencing. We found a way to make it work for reclamation too.

03/24/2024

And 🐝 🐝 🐝! We have spent a little extra time planting natives every year for pollinator support as we build our orchard. Love to see the bees and butterflies make their homes here.

It's mostly the latter. 🌻

03/03/2024

Crazy weather. Hit 71° at the farm today. Made some firewood yesterday. Little warm for that.

Today we were able to cross our spring swayle with a truck and tractor to start clean up the last stretch of fence line since we bought the place 3 years ago. After lunch, we pruned 6 wild apples in desperate need, checked some of the Maples we planted last year, and made it back to the farmhouse in time to put everything away before the rain and straight-line winds came.

Glad to end the day with rain, though. We need it. No more swayle crossing.

02/18/2024

Learning our way with some salvage logs. These barely look like they would be worth the time to make them into firewood. But after some effort we have 13 1” by 8” and more narrower boards …

Making a little value from some salvaged down trees from trail clean up … I use: Bensound.comLicense code: BYAO9EXVCSUDDXTJ

07/31/2023

We had some interesting companions as we worked around the orchard this weekend rearranging our spring pond, tagging some wild apples for picking and pruning, and tubing some of the butternut and maple trees we planted this year.

First, meet the not-so-wild grouse we have named Deathwish. She has adopted us and appears to have been raised around humans. You can see how close she got to us in the woods yesterday. She is so friendly that she will dash into the path of the tractor or 4-wheeler when we are passing by. Hence, Deathwish. Earlier this summer she was spotted with a clutch of babies and at one point, we flushed their papa as we worked, so she’s not a complete imbecile when it comes to living wild.

We are also fortunate to have sooooo many butterflies. This Tiger Swallowtail was not bashful at all as he blocked the path to our project area and vogued for the camera.

04/25/2023

In the last heavy snow + big wind event we had 10 days ago, we lost a grand dame on the farm - one of our glorious old oak trees fell. Mostly.

On the bright side, we spent the last 5 days planting 260 walnut, butternut, and sugar maple seedlings by hand on the orchard.

Today, we’ll be potting 35 small maples to save for a part of our forest where we still have some cleaning up of dead ash trees. Hat tip to emerald ash borer and the fact that we had soooooo much freaking snow this spring that kept us from being ready to plant.

At the end of our planting efforts yesterday, we had a very friendly grouse march through our new maple grove, around the Allis D15, and up into a tree. With luck and the right management, the diverse environment we are striving to create will bring more wildlife to call our orchard-in-progress home.

04/20/2023

Help save a loon.

12/25/2022

10/06/2022