Tag Archives: trees

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Even trees need a haircut.

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Fall is tree pruning time and since our two mature apples and one small crabapple were in desperate need, we hired a professional arborist.

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That’s him tackling the out of control crabapple.

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And that’s him strapped onto a branch thinning out our (probably 45 year old) Macintosh.

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There were branches everywhere by the end of the day.

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Which made me glad clean up was included in the price.

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Crabapple before, with a 2×4 holding up a broken section.

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Crabapple after. It looks positively naked, but he assured us it would fill back in nicely next spring.

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Mature apples before.

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Mature apple trees after. The lighting is bad, but trust me… they were thinned out considerably and are probably breathing a sigh of relief as we speak.

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The arborist was here for 5 hours and did a wonderful job trimming and cleaning up. He even raked the lawn.

(The pear tree was also pruned, but I forgot to snap pics.)

Cost?

$400…. which I think was very reasonable.

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More from the glorious Kanc.

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Part two of Mother Nature’s amazing foliage display along the Kancamagus Highway.

No narrative required.

( And if you’ve never experienced autumn in New England? What the hell are you waiting for! )

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Now tell me your blood pressure didn’t just drop.

😉

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Apple graveyard

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After my husband cut the wood and dragged off the small branches from his apple tree butchering….

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We were left with a veritable apple graveyard.

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I filled buckets and totes and gave a large box to our friend but there were still hundreds on the ground.

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I love to bake and will occasionally dehydrate but I’m not a canner. Which means we had too many apples. I tried to gift them to our neighbors but they all have trees loaded with fruit this year as well.

Enter our town’s Facebook page.

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I was immediately flooded with messages and let 3 women come over and harvest the bounty. They all filled big buckets but there was still more on the ground.

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Perfect! The porcine owner showed up with her kids, buckets, totes, bags and a wagon. She totally cleared out the area and I thought how nice… their pet piggy will be happily munching on sweet treats. I asked her to send me a picture of the cutie and sadly realized that little piggy won’t be happy for long.

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*gulp*

I thanked her, but declined the offer. Come on, if you name him? You shouldn’t eat him.

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I informed you thusly.

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My husband doesn’t like it when I say I told you so. And oddly enough he doesn’t like it when I roll my eyes at him either. So from now on I shall be channeling Sheldon Cooper and saying “I informed you thusly.”

I uttered this phrase repeatedly yesterday when I walked out to the barn after a rain storm and saw this:

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In case you aren’t aware, apple trees limbs are not supposed to be lying on the ground.

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When we moved to this house 20 years ago, there were two gorgeous mature apple trees in the backyard.

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I put furniture under them, kept trimming the lower branches and spent long lazy summer afternoons reading in the shade. Then, out of nowhere… the husband decided I was hurting the trees and refused to let me prune them. I fought against this ruling for a few years and then gave up. This was the result:

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Every year the trees were so laden with fruit they hung to the ground. It drove me crazy but the husband wouldn’t let me near them with shears. I kept telling him he would regret it, but he wouldn’t listen.

So naturally, this happened:

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A major branch, basically half the Granny Smith tree… cracked and split off.

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I contacted a licensed arborist and he’ll be here in a few days to give us an estimate for structural pruning to save the trees from further destruction.

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And after we’ve paid a small fortune to someone we didn’t really have to?

I shall inform him thusly one more time.

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The price of visiting woodchucks?

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I can’t say this with any certainly, but I’m guessing the demise of our cedar tree was woodchuck related.

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It stood in that corner for almost 20years with no issue and then, wham! It was dead. Upon removal we found this…

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A hole, next to the trunk. And on further examination…

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A hump of dirt with a strategically placed pile of poo. On the other side of the hump?

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Another hole, which meant woodchuck tunnel. I figured they must have destroyed the roots of the tree with their digging, but in actuality the tunnel goes under these other bushes that weren’t affected at all.

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So it’s a mystery, but either way? I’m left with an empty space and a stump.

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Because while my husband loves to cut things down with his chainsaw? He could care less about the mess he leaves behind.

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Smellovision.

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Someone needs to invent the technology and WordPress needs to adopt it.

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Because our apple trees are in full bloom and the scent is beyond heavenly.

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I wish the pictures did them more justice.

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The white and pink blossoms really pop in person.

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And from the looks of the quantity, it’s going to be an autumn filled with pie.

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And cobbler, and torte, and crisp, and cake, and muffins…

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Well, you get the idea.

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Covid changes everything.

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The husband’s brother and nephew stopped by yesterday to check out the man cave. (They hadn’t been in the barn in years and were suitably impressed.) Of course we heard them coming from half a mile away because they drove in with the nephew’s new toy.

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His favorite past time is buying and restoring old cars and this one is looking pretty good so far.

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Although I can’t say the same for the nephew. Pre Covid pandemic? He looked like this…

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Now?

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He’s sporting a Grizzly Adams type beard. But he brought us a jar of homemade maple syrup….

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So I guess I can overlook a little ( lot! ) of facial hair.

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He and his family do it the old fashioned way, tapping 32 trees with metal buckets.

He even built an honest to God sap house.

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Where he boils. And boils. And boils…

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In case you’re wondering, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. No wonder it’s so bloody expensive. ( Good stuff can go for $100 a gallon )

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That was not at all helpful.

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Remember the tree house our neighbors built?

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The one right at the edge of their property line… even though they own 20 acres down to the water?

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The one I was glad was nestled behind a few trees with leafy camouflage?

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Well, there’s my husband cutting down each and every single branch that provided relief from prying little eyes.

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Not at all helpful.

Not one damn bit.

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