You may be wondering what is keeping Dave busy now that harvest is over.  He is enjoying the nice open (no blizzards!) weather we’ve been having this fall.  It makes it a lot easier to work in the orchards!  Dave is going through some apple orchards and taking out some big branches that need removing.  With his years of experience and learning, he knows just how he wants the tree to look, so it will produce high quality fruit.  You can train others in the basics of pruning, but you can’t impart years of experience.  That’s one advantage to the new system Dave is using now when he puts in new orchards–it’s easier to train people for pruning the trees.

One of the less-skilled (but still important) jobs that is taking place now is that our high school worker is cutting out root suckers.  These look like young trees, but they are growing up from the roots.  They need to be removed right at ground level, so it’s a job to finish before the snow flies.