Quick and dirty

A quick post about my work - unfortunately, not the orchard work (hopefully tomorrow) - but the inside-ish work. I think I will love this job forever, as much as I complain about it. Where else would I love all of my coworkers, be able to work outside and with plants (my dearest loves, most of the time), and still do some science? Only here.

The dreaded apple boxes. I think I've been scrubbing these guys (and their ilk) for 3 months now, between other projects. They hold apple trays during experiments, are incredibly heavy (the ones in the foreground, at any rate), and there are hundreds of them. This is only a small sample, drying and waiting to be stored.

This is a sample of my potting efforts recently. It looks like nothing, but it's really quite a lot of effort to get these guys into pots, and into a potting mixture that I put together myself. With my muscles. Indeed. Ahem. In the foreground are cedars; in the background are apple trees. A dozen of their compatriots have since been planted in the orchard. This is the trough with water and quaternary ammonium where I soak and scrub the dreaded apple boxes. I actually have muscle from lifting those cinder blocks on and off of the boxes repeatedly, for hours at a time.

The dreaded garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata),

an invasive species, encountered just outside the greenhouse.

The dirt pile (also dreaded). This is about 200 meters from where I had to take it to mix it with other components to pot trees. I have cursed at this pile a number of times, mostly because of its rock content.That's it. I just wanted to give you a quick picture of what I'm doing as we speak. So exciting.

More later!