Monday, February 11, 2008

Fear in the orchard

The weekend has passed and it was a beauty! T-shirt weather all day. And that gave me a chance to do some pruning out in the orchard. I’m not through yet, but I do have the remaining trees in a state of high anxiety.

I’ve read books and gone to seminars on pruning and slowly, over the years, I’ve learned to do more than just a light trim. I’ve become bold in my technique, slashing and hacking. Of course I do all of the normal pruning; cutting out crossing branches and opening the middle to allow the sun in. But, if I climb the ladder and a branch gets in my way…off it goes! On the ladder, any branch that tries to get above my 9' height rule is brought down to size. And on the ground, with loppers in hand, I circle the tree as if I were riding my mower; any branch that might spoil my day by removing my hat and a portion of scalp is quickly removed. The ground is soon littered with debris. If trees could talk?

Obscure thought; life is always just like life on the school playground. Always! (I don’t know if it’s an original thought, it could be borrowed.)

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