Playing in the Dirt

That's what we've been doing for the past week. We will start planting some of the pecans tomorrow. If the weather forecast holds, we will finish planting over 6,000 nuts in the pots by the middle of next week. And then we will sleep for a week. Just kidding:).

This is one pile of dirt (hubby hauled in fourteen). Unfortunately, they are full of roots, so we have to sift the dirt first. Hubby dumps a tractor bucket full of the stuff through these old baker's racks and they do the job after we clear the roots off the top of the racks.
Then we take it into the designated area in the tractor bucket and begin filling pots. With the bucket, the dirt is at a good height to fill without hurting our backs--which is great since this is such a long project!

Two people fill and two people put them in their holders we made with the fencing. Tomorrow, we will start putting nuts in as we fill. The pots that have already been packed with dirt will have to be planted, which I think will be a slower job. So far, we have about 2500 pots filled. This is definitely a learning project and we hope to get more efficient as we go.

Everyone have a great weekend!

First Tree

Above is a picture of our first pecan tree! OK, it doesn't look like much, I agree, but at least we know that the ones my brother planted in the ground are sprouting.

My husband has hauled in 20 yards of dirt, so far, this week. We will be putting the rest of the pecans in pots sometime in the next 2-3 weeks and then. . .wait and see if they come up.

The weather today was beautiful and I spent most of my time transferring my strawberries to a new raised bed. They flooded last year and I lost over half of them, but they've been busy making babies, so I'm hoping for a fair crop this season and making preserves and jam with my own berries.

Have any of you made strawberry preserves with honey? A friend told me her aunt used to make it that way.