End of winter chores....

We are finishing up the last of our winter projects and trying to prepare for spring. Josiah and I spent last weekend trimming apple trees. We planted a small orchard years ago but the trees have not been cared for properly. We are trying to remedy that this year.

Years ago we hosted a fruit tree workshop here on our farm for a local non-profit organization. They brought in two local experts on fruit who taught about all kinds of home fruit production. They showed the attendees the proper way to plant trees and then everyone was divided up into groups to plant a tree. Great for people to learn and we had a dozen trees planted for us!

Then they taught us to trim trees. We have three large trees on our farm and they probably hadn't been trimmed in decades. They were used for demonstration purposes. Each tree received a small trim but we have lots of work left to get them into shape. It was a lot of fun and very informative. If you are in the Bristol TN/VA area...you can visit Urban Homestead to get apple trees that are native to this area - or visit their website here. Tim and his family do an amazing job!

While Josiah and I were trimming all the little trees in our orchard, Jeremy was busy working on fences. This weekend, weather permitting, we will tackle the big apple trees again. I was amazed at how much Josiah remembered. I thought I would be teaching him but in reality he knew more than I did and was able to explain to me why different limbs needed to go. They say you should be able to throw a cat through an apple tree without harming either the tree or the cat. Not something I want to try :)

Jeremy also managed to bush hog the apple field and most of another field. It was so good to see all of that weedy brush disappear. Spring will be beautiful! This week we also had a group of ladies come out to help us pull the weeds from around each tree. The boys and I had done 3 trees - and it took us about an hour for each one. We pulled the weeds out about 1.5 feet from around the tree, worked in a shovel full of compost, covered it with a thick layer of newspapers and then applied a deep layer of mulch - but not up against the trunk.



Once the ladies arrived it was amazing how fast the work went. We had fun chatting and getting to know each other better and they just flew through the work! They finished another 12 trees in just a few hours! Many hands truly do make light work!!



We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch together and spent another hour or two chatting about our desire to serve the Father, herbs, canning, soapmaking, and gardening. I look forward to working with them often.

Next week we will be getting the greenhouse cleaned up, potting soil mixed up and seeds lined up for planting. I am excited again about spring.....I love my little greenhouse and all of the miracles that seem to occur there on a daily basis....each little seed "casket" that contains a miracle of life that feeds my family. I can hardly wait!

It is time to start talking herbs again...I'd like to talk about some of the things that will be coming up next month so that you can harvest them for your own needs. Some I have written about before but I'll tackle some new ones too.