The view from my tractor

Harvest is here and once again I'm in my trusty John Deere with loads of apples on the trailer. This year the apples were quite large so we the first pick about a week ago and are back to clear the trees. Usually second pick is quick bit this year we are following the pickets with the tractors an fork lifts so they don't have to walk so far. This almost doubles the work time since we have fewer pickers and fewer vehicles to transport the fruit.


It should be a good year though. With larger apples (although fewer in number) hopefully the size will make up for what we lose in quantity as far as price goes. The weather has been mild and fantastic!



These are my nieces Madi and Aurora. The cab of the tractor is pretty small bit the kids always want a ride so they sit in the window opening or anywhere they can put their little bums:)



Grant and Brock needed a ride too. They lasted longer than the girls.




Nearly 1000 pounds of apples in each bin! On 30 acres of galas this year we will probably be close to 1000 total bins so close to one million pounds of apples! Our orchard is just a drop in the bucket up here- I can't imagine having 5,000 acres! Some years we have picked a lot more than 1000 bins too but the weather was just crazy this year.

Next week we are on to the grannys which is one pick and will last only a couple days.