Cleanup

Storms this past week have left us with some cleanup work that needs to be done. A couple of large limbs snapped in one of our wild black cherry trees. Fortunately the limbs didn’t fall on anyone or anything.

 

This cherry tree is close by the bluebird nesting boxes, and the tree is a favorite resting spot for the bluebirds. They flew in while I was getting photos of the downed limbs. Of course, I was standing in close proximity to the nest box, and they keep a close watch on it.

 

They have good reason to keep a close eye on the nest, because as of this morning it has three eggs in it. I’m not sure if the female will lay any more eggs or not. For a third nest in one year, three or four eggs would be common. We will see.

 

We also lost one of our overgrown apple trees due to the winds. We were excited about the existing fruit plantings when we bought this place, but we quickly found out the apple and peach trees had been neglected. They had never been pruned to any recognizable shape. The apples were huge standard sized trees, and most of the fruit that did set on was unreachable for thinning, spraying or harvest. They also were not getting enough sunlight due to nearby shade trees. This apple tree was uprooted by high winds. Now it’s chainsaw fodder.

 

So once we moved in we set about replanting fruit trees of our own choosing. So far we have planted pie cherries, peaches, Asian persimmons, and pawpaws. This tree also avoided damaging anything on the way down. It could have fallen on the nearby pie cherry or pawpaw trees, but it missed them.

 

So now we need to schedule a chainsaw session. Which will be followed by a chipper shredder session. But not this weekend!

Happy 4th of July to all of my American readers, and a belated happy Canada Day to any Canadians out there. We’re going to celebrate the 4th by grilling some burgers, slapping them on some of Moomies Famous Burger Buns, and then we’ll listen to all the fireworks going off around us!