Our Someday Orchard

How I wish I had an orchard. Apples, pears and cherries, peaches and plum trees would be lined up all in a row. We would also have hives nearby with busy bees buzzing among the flowers. We'd have to make extra shelving in the basement for the pie fillings we would make, canned peaches for mid winter, apples dried or nestled in boxes, twisted up in newspaper. We'd have cherry pie and strudel, an apple crisp or two, some homemade jam and jelly and all the wonderful creations I've seen you all do.

So the hubby took chainsaw in hand and started cutting down trees. One after another they are coming down, he's chaining them up to the tractor and dragging them down the road to our fire pit where they will be cut up for winter wood and maybe a cookout or two. The John Deere tractor might look like a typical lawn tractor but the way it is built it's more like a tractor with hydraulics and cast iron parts. It's pretty strong but the last tree took the power of the his big Dodge Ram. "Cummins, turbo diesel," he just interjected (LOL).

I understand my granddaughter, Taylor, has requested a log home playhouse so I am certain Pop's will give that some major consideration!

I've been looking at everyone's pantry challenges and love seeing all the pretty jars filled with colorful canned fruit. I hope by Spring everything is in place and we've selected our trees.

I will have to figure out where the best place is to purchase the trees so if anyone has suggestions, please send them. Do I use a local nursery? I don't think I want to select Wal-Mart, Lowes or Home Depot since they ship into the whole chain from wherever. Local sources might have things better suited for my area. I know I have to start small since we are completely rocky so a good on-line source might be OK too. Stark Brothers nursery is not too far of a trip so we may take a drive up to Louisiana, MO at some point.