Last summer, during one of our many wind storms, a few large poplar branches in the orchard area broke off. In order to maintain strict site safety, we hired a company to come in at the end of January to prune vulnerable branches and trees throughout the orchard area. It was a big job, but we can rest easy now knowing that hazards have been removed.

Our thanks to MEGlobal for bringing in the snow moving equipment! Cynthia Pohl, our Head Gardener, was on site during the Big Prune and got these pictures.

On Saturday, Feb 18th, a small but enthusiastic group of Lacombe Scouts helped haul some of the bucked up wood out of the woods. On hand to help was Shelley Macauley, Denis Hainsworth, Ron Biel and Rick Zemanek. We loaded up several half ton trucks with wood, which will be used for woodstove/fireplace burning. We will finish hauling more pieces out in the spring. Some wood will be left to rot (for butterfly hibernation logpiles) and some will be rolled to the water for spring beaver munchies.

Here are some pictures of the day's work!

Rick Zemanek hard at work!

Ron Biel counting tree rings on one of the large Northwest Poplars that had to be removed. He calculated that the tree was 40 years old. It would have been planted by Charlie and Winnie in the early 1970s.