95. A Sigh or Two

Our apple tree sighed with relief yesterday, almost audibly.  It has been neglected for six years, at least that is the last time we tried to trim it.  I'm sure, no, positive it had not been tended to for probably twenty years or more.  We were afraid to go too crazy six years ago, so we didn't trim it near enough, apparently.  I have killed several lavender bushes because of the word "ruthless" in conjunction with the word trim.  There are varying degrees of ruthlessness and apparently mine can fall in the killing level.  But as you can see this poor thing was a mass of limb suckers and branches criss-crossing each other, a fruit tree no-no. Well, I would imagine that it is a bad thing for most trees.

 

I went to the "completely amazing internet," typed in "trim apple trees" and lickety-split, there were tons of sites.  I chose one that touted pictures, scrolled down to "neglected trees" (an understatement) and  "Voila!"  Armed with credible information, gloves, trimmers big and small, plus the newly acquired Fiscar extra long handled limb lopper and saw combo, my mostly eager husband and I set out to free the tree to fresh air and a new lease on life.  One comment that helped spur on the trimming was "to clean out center branches enough to allow a bird to fly through."  Now that is brutal trimming.  But ten hours of unrelenting sawing and chopping later a small bird could indeed fly through the naked tree.  We may not get many apples this year, but we didn't get one last year, so maybe in a couple of growing seasons we will get some.  They are wonderful apples and really great cooked.  Hopefully our energy will prove fruitful.

 Not much goes to waste at our house and since apple wood has a high sugar content, it makes for great fuel for the Franklin.  Bob is now industriously at work trimming and chopping the branches into little logs for future fires.  It has to cure for a while, but that's OK as we have time a plenty.  My busy wood worker keeps a small stash of kindling and short ends available, too.  He hates it when people are afraid to get rid of even the smallest pieces and they end up with mounds of wood useless for anything except a snake condo.  That makes me sigh with relief!

It was such a beautiful day out here at our Gopher Hill Cottage that it felt good to breath in the fresh air and do some physical activity.  Actually, it felt more like October because the wind felt like a Santa Ana.  It really blew last night and this morning we found the small chuck wagon that Bob made turned over on it's side.  It's about three feet high, so that was quite a breeze. There wasn't much damage done, but it is time for a tune up and some re-painting.  There will be no damaged chuck wagons allowed on Gopher Hill.