Pink Pearl Heirloom Apple Tree

Look at all the apples on our Pink Pearl Heirloom Apple Tree. They should be ready to eat in about 3 weeks, if not sooner. I've written about this tree before on my blog--the flesh is pink and you can easily make pink applesauce out of the great apples, without adding any food coloring!

R.I.P. "Big Connie"

Our very old Araucana chicken, "Big Connie" died today and I buried her in the backyard. She had been getting progressively weaker and we had to isolate her from the other hens, for they would attack her rather viciously. She used to be the top on the pecking order, but with her arthritis, deformed foot, and aging, she fell to the bottom of the pecking order.

She used to lay bluish-green eggs, but had not laid many eggs in the past two years. We didn't feel comfortable just killing her off for lack of productivity, so she died comfortably and at a quite advanced age. We weren't sure how old she was when we got her, but we've had her for almost six years. She may have been around four years old when we got her, so she had a long life for a chicken.

Here's a photo:

Jubileum Plum Tree

Our new Jubileum Plum Tree has its first plums this year. They are so very pretty on the tree.

We purchased this tree through Raintree Nursery, a nursery located in Washington state that has many interesting cultivars. I have ordered many of our fruit trees through this nursery.  Jubileum was bred in Sweden and is a pink-purple plum.  Much larger than our French prune plums, this plum looks like it will be great for eating, jam or jelly, and plum tarts!  We dry most of the harvest from our French prune plum trees.  I'm curious to find out what color the flesh is of our Jubileum plum, but we'll have to wait a few more days until they are fully ripe to find out.