Boy, do we need a tractor!

I'll post photos soon, but today I'll just tell you that Jody and I have been making progress on the non-orchard part of the yard. One of the strangest things we have to do is to pull up apple saplings. "But Julie," you might say, "you're growing apples! Why pull up apple saplings?"

That's a fine question, my friend. But here's the story: Real apple trees, the ones you find growing in our orchard and every other orchard, are all grafted in order to combine what's called root-stock and fruit-stock. The saplings that are growing in our yard are just root-stock, so the fruit they produce would be sub-par. Besides, we have 1200 trees. You think we should have more? If so, you can help me thin next year!

We started pulling the saplings with our mighty Forester, but decided not to wreck the clutch on our little project. So we invited our friend Cos and his (genuinely) mighty truck to come over and play. The boys and the truck made quick work of the saplings.

Thanks for the help, Cos! You rock!