The Trees Are Coming! The Trees Are Coming!

Phil ran errands in the morning, and then installed three hydrants in the afternoon. It was dark by the time he finished, and there was one little leak, but that’s the first little plumbing leak he’s had since being here. That is reason to be thankful. And I have a hydrant now between the house and the barn—so close!

I received an email from Cummins Nursery, asking whether I would like most of the trees delivered this month, rather than waiting until March. After considering, Phil and I decided that, yes, we would like to receive those trees (about 350 of them) sooner rather than later. Which means, Lord willing (and weather permitting), the week after Thanksgiving.

We’ll have to heel them in, which means dig a trench and bury them shallowly until ready to plant. I had expected to heel some in, since no matter how fast we are, the bareroots on trees number 20 and up would dry out before we could get to them. This way, though, we’ll have them “in house” to plant at our leisure until March, when the remainder come in.

Tomorrow Phil will (hopefully) finish the massive water line project. He brought home a ton of gravel in the back of the truck, and he and the boys will have to shovel it out of the truck and into hydrant holes to help them drain well. (Without the gravel, the drainage holes would get stopped with standing water whenever it rains here.)

And at some point tomorrow, we will get our shipment of 305 apple tree stakes; then we can lay out our orchard in situ. I confess I am a little bit concerned: just how much of our clearing will 408 trees take up, anyway? We will see soon!