Piles and piles of limbs and vines stack up every January. Art has successfully cleaned the entire orchard, (800+ trees). He focuses on keeping the trees free of the new growth at the base and thinning any mature branches that cross. This year marks the fourth year for the pomegranate orchard and they officially look like trees and less like bushes.
Art has began the clean up of the trees and vines. Several plums and few pears did not survive and were pulled. But we did plant a few more apples, persimmons and figs to add to our many varieties of fruits. One of Art's favorite hobbies this time of year is tying trees to make them arch over to other trees with the hope of creating natural shading and of course beauty to the property.
And like the beautiful arches he has been creating we had a few blessed over the homestead this month.
We've added a third pig to the mix and they are getting along fairly well. But Houdini is still up to his escape plans. We've had to add a row of barbed wire to the bottom of the fencing at the end of the orchard to prevent them from wondering off and patch a few holes in our woodland fence. Hopefully with the spring grass we can keep them occupied.
Our chickens and ducks have started laying again. We've been up to eight eggs on a single day. They've also learned to give the pigs a wide berth. We discourage the chickens from hopping to the fence into the orchard due to foxes that cut through. But one hen hop the fence and fell at the playful jaws of Houdini. Not our brightest day of cohabitation.
We have started talking about planting spring greens but have a few more days of below freezing coming up so are on a pause. We have two or three days left of vines to clean up. And then we'll begin the great reset of the garden. Currently we have some kale, spinach, spring onions and garlic readily available to pick.
We've noticed a bit more life come back the trees with the thana (cornelius cherry) trees, plums and loquats. Bees have even returned to the hazelnut trees.
We've been wandering up the hillside for a little extra exercise over the last few weeks and have found a few new birds to add to the list of 72 birds here at Homestead Albania. This a little rock bunting.
Our Orchard Guard Tower has been open for nearly a month and we've received reservations from four different countries. Art and I are beyond thrilled to share this corner of the world. Who's coming over?
I've been busy inside working on our audiobooks. Protectors of Time, Book Three in the Ember in Time Series has been published wide. We have one more left, Guide Time Inside, Book Four in the Ember in Time Series. This will complete our current novel collection at Homestead Albania Print.
