Today I spent that afternoon helping in the orchard. The trees are still young and had been topped to ensure proper growth.

Our task today was to consolidate the cuttings so that the mulching machine would only have to go down a limited number of rows.

We had to pick up the sticks and then lay them straight in the row where they were being consolidated.

I of course thought of the counting rhyme:

One, two,

Buckle my shoe;

Three, four,

Open the door;

Five, six,

Pick up sticks;

Seven, eight,

Lay them straight:

Nine, ten,

A big, fat hen;

Luckily I found a nice stick that had a hook on the end. I could use the hook to pull the sticks up to me so that I didn’t have to bend down as much. I still had to bend down quite a bit though and I am sure that I will be hurting a bit tomorrow.

I did get some well needed exercise and easily met my step count goal for the day.

I also helped check the gopher traps and then watched the setting of new ones. Pest control is a very important job in an orchard. These traps work pretty good as more than 20 gophers were caught this weekend.

Some of you may remember my post about The Barnyard Dog. Unfortunately Mitzi was run over this past week. I will really miss Mitzi during my visits to the orchard.

Steven