An amateur for sure, but
these days the personal job classification by self-evaluation is best put as a beyond-elementary-hobbyist genealogist, a wild bird watcher & winter birdseed source devotee, a capable cemetery headstone
caretaker/cleaner, and a planter-tinkerer holding amateur-horticulturist skills. A true amateur who holds expanding interests and abilities, but certainly a master of none (while simultaniously clutching-to diminishing technical electronics skills and expertise).
Our small apple orchard started from seed three years
ago now sports a mix of twenty-one Honey-Crisp and Macintosh apple trees, where some trees are now beginning their third year, a few starting their second year,
and a couple beginning their first full growing year. All trees survived the winter of 2025/26! In early April 2026 a new six-foot high 14-gauge
welded galvanized wire fence was installed replacing the older rabbit-hole infested 5-foot
plastic fence, hopefully to offer better orchard protection from our hungry and significant winter browsing White Tail Deer and Eastern Wild Turkey population. We have an additional ten+ apple trees surviving in different locations on our back lot, a couple of these older trees now
bear fruit.
On Arbor Day, Friday April 24, 2026, our customary ten
new Norway Spruce Trees were transplanted to their final locations in
our back lot grounds. These two-year old Norway Spruce trees were
purchased from Herkimer County Soil and Water Conservation District
Office. One new 2026 horticulture project is presently underway to
plant 25 Rose Of Sharon Tree/Bushes (Hibiscus Syriacus) in the center
of our back lot. Rose Of Sharon seeds were gathered from one of our adult bushes in Fall 2025 and are now started in small peat moss cups
to be transplanted in mid-May.
Subject back-lot photos dated late April 2026 are
presented below –
New apple orchard 80'x45' enclosure, a 6-foot welded wire fence.
Northwest view, tree base protected by white cylinders.
Orchard Northeast View. New fenced enclosure late April 2026.
Prospective Rose Of Sharon Hedge planting location, a northwest view.
Horseshoe-shaped Rose Of Sharon Bush-Hedge planting location,
a southeast view now ready and awaits a mid-May planting.
Three of ten Arbor Day 2026 Norway Spruce Trees transplanted site.
Our several hundred Norway Spruce Trees planted in
Spring 2003/04 now exceed 30 feet tall.
