Pruning the Pear Tree

While B#1 was here he took on a few of the jobs that needed to be done now that Spring is amongst us. One of those jobs, which was a taddy bit over due, was pruning the pear tree. We have lived here for almost 7 years now and we have never pruned that tree. The first year here we had lots of pears and enjoyed canning them and making pear butter but after that they just shriveled up and quit coming. In hopes of getting pears again I really wanted to have the tree trimmed but obviously life took a bit of a detour and we didn't get to it before hubby's surgery. So B#1, his wife and B#5 tackled the job for us and then the littles helped B#5 and 6 drag the branches out to the pasture to be burned...someday.

 

B#10 didn't really want to cooperate for his picture.

B#1 also pounded some fence posts so I could stake up my raspberry plants and helped get a bit of the chicken brooder box ready for our chicks. He had planned on chainsawing some wood for us but by the time he got home from taking B#3 to the Air Force Recruiter's office for me a friend from church had already come and sawed up all the wood for us. It has all been so nice to have such great help.

Just to say we are still here

We are still here...and life is struggling to get back to normal, whatever that will look like with hubby home for at least 6 weeks but in the spirit of trying to keep things normal for us all we added some new members to our "family"...

 

Yes..chicks again. We have 10 Buff Orpingtons, or buffingtons as I like to call them.  We are planning to get 15 Black Australorps when the farm store gets them in in a few weeks.

 

We have done chickens several times in the past. When we first had chickens it went well but then we boarded some horses and had to take the chicken wire down from around the bottom of the pasture fence and it just seemed that ever since then we have not had any success with our chickens. But I really wanted the younger kiddos to have the learning experiences that the older ones have had. The boys are super excited to learn to take care of the chickens and B#6 is doing a great job of checking in on them through out the day to make sure they have food and water.

 

 

Maybe this time we will get eggs...but maybe not the 240 eggs a month that we usually go through.