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We hauled our trees, more than 12,000 of them, halfway across the Willamette Valley to our new orchard site near Stayton. The logistics of move the trees were daunting enough alone, but with the orchard ground still too wet to allow us to transplant the trees, we’ve decided to store them outdoors on site while we wait for dry weather to plant.

This has required us to bring in five large truckloads of sawdust so that we can heel the trees in, i.e., keep their roots well covered and moist.

With all of the trees now heeled in, we need a(nother) sustained break in the weather to make the orchard planting possible. More than anything, we’re hoping we can get this done before mid-March, when some of the early varieties (think Wickson, Reines des Pommes, and Golden Russet) decide it’s time to break dormancy.

Have a look!