A productive day in the orchard

I grafted eleven newly planted apple trees in the Upper Orchard to Liberty and it took me 45 minutes. That is a very acceptable rate in my book. I can knock out about one-a-minute bench-grafting to bare-rooted root-stocks but I have to move my tools with every graft when field-grafting. Today's grafts included wrapping the scion with para-film but not installing a paper bag over the graft.

I also grafted one Enterprise apple next to a Keepsake tree. I think it would make an interesting cross should I ever want to grow some trees from seeds.

I grafted six Harrow Sweet pears to itty-bitty-baby rootstock. It was a lie-on-my-side while grafting deal. That went more slowly and I picked up at least two ticks while doing it.

Then, just before I left, I remembered a tree I intended to top-work. So I threw a graft of Liberty on that one.

Dragging brush

I dragged brush out of the Upper Orchard for about an hour-and-a-half. I am getting to the point where I need to fire up the gas-powered chainsaw because I have a lot of little branches and I have some tree trunks.

Pollinators

Even though it was windy I saw some pollinators that were not honeybees working some Bittercress plants.

The mature seed stalks of this plant are as thin and strong as boot-laces. C. hirsuta shown.

Bittercress is a genus of small "weeds" and there are many species that vary in minor details. I don't recall seeing bees working them before.

Traveling overseas

I overheard some people at lunch talking about traveling to Europe this summer.

Their travel agent advised them to "Go Gray". To ditch the Detroit Lions hats and MSU Spartan sweat-shirts. That is good advice in general. Try to look sort-of-native. You don't have to look like you live in Dublin or Copenhagen (if that is where you are visiting), but you can look like you came from someplace within a couple of hundred miles of there without trying too hard.

I don't know if large, European cities have thrift shops, but that is not a bad place to shop if you want to pick up some local-looking clothing. You can also visit a local barbershop and ask for the haircut that a respectable, up-and-coming traveling sales person would get.

Transaxle update

I drove the minivan to the mechanic's place-of-business. It ran flawlessly. 39mph was about 1200 RPM compared to 34mph at 3000 RPM on Sunday.

The mechanic will pull the codes and check the fluid level. If the level is low, he will look for leaks (the trans-cooler line is always suspect). If it is leaking, I suspect he will advise to change the line and flush the system and pray.