On Tuesday my general helper arrived at 8AM and said she wouldn’t mind working outside. So she went out and started putting the spiral guards on the Little trees.
She started with the new little trees and had to remove the cage from the peach tree first. It only took her an hour to do all of them, including the older little trees.
There were 3 little trees that were too small and shrubby to get spirals on in the new trees. In the older ones, just the Juneberry wasn’t done.
It grew a lot of new branches this year, but hasn’t gotten very high.
With the new little trees, I had hunted all over trying to find the tall cages we’d made for the older little trees 3 years ago. I could have sworn they were in the rafters of the woodshed. I did find some up there, but none of the tall ones except the peach tree one.
So my helper friend and I set about making 2 more tall ones out of spare wire. But we decided they weren’t tall enough and there wasn’t enough wire to make them taller. So we put little caps on each cage that wasn’t high enough to deter deer.
We re-installed the peach tree cage. It was tall enough to not need a cap.
We’d gone out after lunch when it warmed up to 40F. We’d had no sun all day and I’d kept the stove going so it would be warm when we came in. The masonry heater did its job and I didn’t have to light it until 4PM.
Here’s some shots of the older little trees:
13. Sugar maple
1. North Star cherry
It’s hard to see them, but the forsythias that were part of the older little trees have done very well this year. They are slowly filling in as a hedge along the driveway.
Once my general helper finished, I had her take a couple things to the post office. They accepted one, but not the big box. It was a repurposed priority box that had been sent to me as a repurposed box. So I wrapped it in brown paper and she went back, but it was rejected again. Sigh.
So when my helper friend arrived at 9:30AM I sent him off to try at a different post office and he had no trouble. He ran a few errands and did a few chores when he got back. One of the errands was to get the cloves and oranges to make pomanders.
I was trying to not do too much standing so I could manage doing the little trees’ cages. I did finish the laundry and got the kitchen cleaned up.
Larry helped me rest in the afternoon. I was pretty tired and only managed to sit and edit photos for this post.
On Wednesday I plan to try to finish the bills/budget. Wish me luck! My general helper will be here in the late afternoon and I plan to have her help me get the lights plugged in. I don’t know it I will start the bubble lights of not. It would be nice to have them done.