Some of you may know we spent last weekend tucking hundreds (440-ish, to be more specific) of fruit trees, mainly apple with some pears and cherries thrown in, into the brand new North Branch Orchard. The week preceding orchard-fest was a marathon of using, breaking, borrowing, and repairing equipment: tractors, chippers, plows, disk harrows, and our bodies. It was a close shave, but by the time a crew of about twenty showed up to lend a strong hand on Saturday morning, we were ready for them. Here, after a cute opening photo of our newest lamb, is a series of photos from the orchard-planting party, shot mostly by Chris Yentes and MK Shapley-Quinn.
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| Lamb #2 of 2012, a hefty little guy |
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Orchard Prep Checklist
Step 1: Graft trees, grow in nursery, dig and store in basement.
Step 2: Plan a fenceline.
Step 3: Fell all trees dead near or leaning towards fenceline.
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| Step 4: Haul off logs and chip brush for mulch from felled trees | . |
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| Step 5: Put chips on high bush blueberries. |
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| More chipping. |
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| After step 6, plowing and disking the orchard site, comes step 7: planting party!!! |
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| Women labeling trees. |
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| Tree planting lesson. |
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| Trees ready to go in the ground. |
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| Tyler doing last minute disking in the orchard's Moody plot. |
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| Cousins sleeping. |
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| The crew on cider break, day one. |
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| Last tree goes in the ground! |
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| Victorious! The crew, day 2. |
Thank you so much to all who helped with this wild endeavor.
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