Here are some “before and after” photos that attempt to capture as clearly as possible what we’re up to, friends and family who have wondered!... Except we’re not done, so there is no “after” yet.

This is looking North from one basic spot near the trailer. Notice the twin trees at the right of the right image. We call them the Sisters, they still stand, and they are the NE corner of the orchard. (East of them will be the sauna, and east of that, our future home)

The opposite view, looking SouthWest. most of 2018 looked like something like this until we got the tractor. At which point firewood went west and construction timbers went east, and stumps were slowly hacked to pieces in place. This became the orchard, but the soil was very poor until….

The Sisters, now you’re looking East. Fall 2018 on the left, March 2020 on the right. That teardrop shape is a 4-season access road to the orchard, the center of which was planted with trees in winter 2018 and seeded with meadow mix winter 2019. You see the black compost coming in by the bucketload along a future trellis area.

and this! (I have to move a lot of them out of the way)

2018, that’s the same tree in the middle of each frame, and it is in the middle of the driveway denoted with pink flags. (looking East)

Nov 2018, Winter 2019, Spring 2020, looking East from the same basic spot as above. “The Pit” is off to the right, which will turn into a studio on the ground floor and residence above. You can see just one of the many logging cables and water pipes buried in the left photo, then the way rocks revealed themselves. Flags again, on the right, marking roadways and the places where they split. The orchard is to your left (North)

In the left of each frame is the one pre-existing apple tree in the sun (1 1/2 more in the deep shade). I pruned the living snot out of it and it liked it. You’re looking east still, the Pit on your right. That aluminum trailer on the right is the future kiln site. winter 2018/9

So, hopefully that helps you forgive us for being hard to reach! I hope for electricity (and with it at least dial-up wifi) this year….

love-C and J

Flip-Book Spring 2020