The remaking of our village lot

[highlandcattle]

Well Ron and I survived 1 year here. Last summer so busy painting and cleaning and organizing our stuff. Hard to downsize from a big barn,saphouse,garden shed,etc. To a tiny 1car garage and 2bedroom mid century ranch house. Sold or have away huge amount of stuff. Happy to have a big open full size basement. I'm just getting around to unpacking totes of collectibles. We had a tree service trim up the maples. The huge silver maple had a lot of dead branches and was hanging over the garage. The 3 front lawn maples had broken branches. One is shedding bark. Sap suckers have really gotten to it. Will need to keep watch. Had 6 big arborvitea put in on the side where are neighbors garage is way too close. The 4 Apple trees are doing amazing. Will be adding peach, cherry,plum,pear. Had a garden rototilled. Covered up front walkway. I don't want anyone using the front door. Planted shrubs and perennials all over to block out neighbors. Putting in a tiny pond. Canned 3 bushels tomatoes and have 3 deck totes ofotatoes. Homesteading in a mini scale. I will keep planting and experiment. Ron is ready for maple season. Going to make this work. Had a great visit with Dave and Joan Plush at there place. It was good to get out. Until next time...

[maple flats]

While you're adding fruit trees, look at an asian pear, especially if you still can fruit. They are hardy in central NY and most pests don't bother them. We have several of them, some ripened about 2 weeks ago, others in about a week and still others going into mid and even late October. They are a rather hard pear, we eat some out of hand but many more get canned. The grandkids love them canned especially.
Still opening totes and boxes, we are too and we moved 6 years ago this month. Last year the yield was low but this year we kept having to thin because the trees are too heavy. Last year we had a hard frost when in blossom.