Green Tip!

Things are really starting to move in the orchard. It doesn't appear that the snow and ice has done any damage to the fruit buds. They were still fairly tight when we got our ice and snow on Saturday. It is still a tad early for us to be in bloom though. Two years ago this coming Saturday, we froze hard for five nights in a row. We were just opening into bloom. Her Royal Highness was only hours old the first night of the freezes (Yup - we are getting ready to celebrate a birthday this weekend). We lost 75% of our crop that year. We remember that season well, however, we are still very much at peace that God is aware of us and our needs!

It is about time to go talk to neighbors about bees and set up our game plan with them. It is also time to look at spraying our copper sulfate and dormant oil. We are still nowhere close to finishing the pruning!

MUD!

It snowed Saturday night. Lots of snow! Of course, it rained before it snowed so there was a lot of ice in the whole mix as well. Then, yesterday, it all melted, leaving a big muddy mess!

Gasp!

The orchard is at Silver Tip!

We Pruned...

...4 whole trees on Saturday. Phew! We have had such a difficult time getting all of our pruning done before bloom - so we do what we can do! We paid special attention to a small Fuji section that hasn't had attention for a couple of years. You might notice the dead apples hanging in the trees still. We lost those to freeze at the end of the season last year.

Thinking of Spring

Back from Colorado!

The Apple Farmer had work in Idaho and Utah so we got to go half way and stay in Colorado last week. We had a great time visiting Doug and Teresa at their neat home! They moved from California to Colorado just before Christmas. Dr. Drug, oops, I mean Doug, manages a great Pharmacy and Teresa is going a mile a minute being a fun Mom!

Here are some of the cousins (and the Dad/Uncle) enjoying Baskin Robins. This was just after we finished a picnic and a hike around a lake.

The kids also enjoyed a snow survival course. They made snow caves, did compass exercises, learned how to make snow shoes out of rope and branches among other great things.

After the course, the kids enjoyed hot chocolate, s'mores and sledding down the groomed sledding hills!

Human Resources is enjoying his Hot Chocolate!

Nataligh and her S'more!

Even my Dad got in on the Sledding!

Doug and Teresa's kids are doing great in their new school. Noelle has already established herself at the local gymnastics gym and is the youngest on the competition team. Nataliegh is anxiously awaiting for her dance classes to begin and Preston is playing violin and possibly joining a baseball league. Emmaleigh just turned 1!

Ahhh! The Apple Farmer enjoys a princess make-over! This was totally worth it!

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

I got this from a friend's blog, and thought this would be fun to do.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me :)

HERE'S THE CATCH: You must post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who follow the directions. Obviously, this is completely voluntary. If you have not seen the movie Pay It Forward, you must rent it or check it out from the library and watch it. It is a good show - tear jerker, too.

OK! Never mind the catch!! I'm thinking of all of these fun things I could do and how fun it will be for you to open your mailbox - and no one else has signed up!! I will do it just for fun - you can pay it forward by smiling and saying HI to someone in the grocery store! So come on and sign up!