Rollercoaster

End of May and already feels like we've been on a roller coaster due to the bizarre weather conditions this spring! Those bees really did there job well, there's a lot of pears on the trees and they are growing like crazy!!
That's the good news! Here's a couple fantastic bee pictures that a photographer friend, Rob O'Hoski took on a perfectly timed hike in the orchards.

And you can see here how much the pears have grown in the month since the bees have been.

Here are some Bartletts

These are Giffords

(Early 'sugar' pears)

And the beautiful Flemish Beauties!

On the surface it all looks good, the trees are loaded, it is going to make thinning them a huge job potentially. However, there is still the 'June drop' to come. We are eagerly waiting for the J drop this year, and hoping that not only will the trees naturally abort the smaller weaker pears( you can see the pears that aren't developing in the clusters in these pictures). We are also hoping some of the frost damaged pears will also drop. I found a few of the little guys lying under a Bartlett, there were none at all under the Flemish trees I looked at. 

Some of the frost damaged pears are still growing but they have a green ring around them, though they look normal when we cut them open. Some look normal on the outside but have a black inside where the seeds are supposed to be... don't know why, but these are the ones that should drop, would make our lives a lot easier. 

That's part of the roller coaster, some days it looks like a great crop, some days it looks tragic, just depends where in the orchards we are. 

And those darn suckers just grow and grow! Starting suckering this week, there'll be two rounds of suckering this year. Twice for every tree if we get the first round done fast enough. That's a lot of hours for somebody! 

May Already

Vibrant green everywhere. Rain, sun, fog, cool one day, hot the next. Peepers loud at night, chickadees, robins, chipmunks and squirrels chirping and chatting all day. And the wrens are back!! Nesting in their Swiss cottage by the Magnolia tree and singing every morning.

The bees were taken from the orchard last night (the bee man came and took them while they were sleeping). So early, some years we haven't called them in yet by May 3rd.

The pears are starting to grow... this might be around 1 week from pollination of these babies!

Can you see them, this is just one branch, and one then one bud, must be kazillions of billions in the orchard that the bees and insects had to visit in between the cold and wet weather these past two weeks..

Pears are so advanced over apples. Here's the blooms on the solitary apple in the yard.

Today there are millions of these butterflies, lovin the dandelions especially! 

Ahhh and the fruit of the dandelion, what a healthy crop in the lawn!

Pollination

A week of cold weather after a few weeks of warm sunshine. Monday after work this is what the yard looked like.

Then today a mere two days later I drove up through the orchards, apprehensive of what the blossoms would look like and ...See the baby pears starting to grow! 

The bees are out again to finish the job. Don't know if you can see this little guy, couldn't see anything when I was taking the picture because of the sun, so a point and shoot shot, but the closest I've ever got to getting a picture of a bee doing its thing.

Apparently there was some sleet yesterday, even some hail nearby. Today it is a different story though and looks like there might be some pears this year, so far, despite this roller coaster spring. I'd guess maybe one third of the blossom's petals have fallen, which is the sign that they were pollinated. Those fruit can concentrate on growing, the flower is not needed now the insects have done their job.

And on the home front, the solar panels are going up, finally! The installers put the racking system up last Friday in the sunshine. They planned to come back Monday or Tuesday to finish, but a steel roof is not the place to be when it is wet out, and the snow and sleet would have made working up there a suicide mission. They came back today and began putting on the panels.

And stayed until they finished! 

Spring buds

2012 has brought the earliest spring buds on record. Dad says the earliest he remembers full bloom was April 17th. Looks like it will be around the same this year, although for a time it looked like they'd be out full in March. There is a little damage from a frost at the end

March, but so far doesn't look like it will be devastating to the crop. Getting ready to call in the bees

as this weekend weather has been warm 15 to 20 degrees; some sunshine, some rain and dandelions 

are popping up everywhere.

2001 orchard. Looking good after a dramatic pruning this winter.

and The East Hill

On my walk yesterday saw the Trout Lillys out on the trail around the pond. 

And lots of ducks on the pond, trust me, they are there even though you can't see them here.

They're back! and lots of action too, Loving those dandelions and lillys ...

2011 - What a Year!!

Storage is almost empty, last delivery was Friday and truck returned ... December 2nd ... almost a record!!

Pear Seasons

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