Safe Temperatures for Winter Pruning

This is our Royal Red Honeycrisp block. Originally these trees were Red Delicious. We grafted them to RR Honeycrisp in 2016.

Mild Winter Until This Week

Our crew of pruners has been busy pruning our acres of Honeycrisp trees for the past couple of months. The winter pruning temperatures so far have been fairly mild, allowing few interruptions for adverse weather.

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Birds of Prey On Our Organic Farm

This beautiful red-tailed hawk visited our front yard last week on a bright sunny afternoon. Usually, he’s a welcome sight on the farm because he’s the big guy in our pest management system. This time though, he really pissed me off. I snapped this shot of him after he tried to make Hazel his afternoon feast. If he looks perturbed, he is! We both were! I interrupted his banquet when I found poor Hazel.

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Chelan Butte Bighorn Sheep

The view from our kitchen window shocked us one evening. Bighorn rams were dining on our front lawn. The impressive horns that represent both status and a weapon for epic battles were everywhere. Groups from the Chelan Butte Bighorn Sheep herd had visited us several times this summer, but this was our first encounter with the rams.

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Our Deer Friends During COVID

In May, when I drove around the fruit trees by our house, I noticed a single doe mule deer in the orchard at different times. I thought how unusual to see one all by herself so often. Later around the end of June, on my way out of the house, I looked up and saw a mama deer with young twin fawns.

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