Planting an Orchard – with Friends

God is in them trees there.

Sorry the farmer talke came out just now.

For anyone reading this blog religiously (bad pun) you’ll know that there are many things that have happened to me in the course of getting this land and trees that has felt more than coincidental. It’s felt inspired by God to happen. This weekend was a much larger example of that!

I’ll explain what happened and put in Red the miracles I saw this week from God’s hand in my orchard. I have an orchard now!!!

Everything had to be ready to go by Saturday since I’d put out flyers and people were planning to attend. I took a week off between jobs (Tuesday-Tuesday) to plant my orchard

Picking up the trees (Wednesday)

I had been given the measurements from the place Novavine. The tubbette holders come in 5×5 tubettes, which measure 13×13.  For size reference here are some folks planting it.

Mark came with me to help pick up the trees. Often when doing these new crazy things I need to bring along someone to be my courage when I freak out. Mark was my courage, and he’s very helpful/handy. When we got there I wasn’t sure it would fit in this box trailer and the bed of my truck. But somehow all 1054 trees fit!

Tractor Rental (Thursday, Friday)

I rented a tractor with a disc harrow from All Star rents in antioch.

I was excited to play farmer for a couple days. Unfortunately I mainly used it to cover up my old lines from digging the irrigation. Once I attached the harrow I realized I was going to run out of time before I could fully till and berm the land.

Instead, since this used to be farm land… I decided I’d berm my trees using my newly purchased garden bedder from Tractor supply

It came in a wooden box and Hannah put it together like a heavy metal IKEA tool. 

Regrettably, once attached to the tractor it was not long enough to create any berms.

My neighbor suggested tilling the land first so that there was loose dirt on top to move… The next morning I attempted to disc where the rows would go, but even freshly disced…The birds loved it. As soon as I’d disced they came out of nowhere! It was a fun morning pretending to be a farmer…

However,  it didn’t work. Even lowering the hitch using different pins was not any more helpful. Since this was Friday afternoon and planting was happening Saturday. I figured it was best to give it up and prepare for planting.

God to the rescue! Via missionaries

I was stressed because nothing was going to plan. I knew I needed to refill the tractor on Diesel, but only had a 2 gallon gas can. I emptied what was in it into my riding mower. A small miracle to me that God was still looking out for me. The total gas fit perfectly into my riding mower, to the last drop, and emptied my gas can. Which would be necessary if I filled it with Diesel.

The local missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were going to come over and help mark the land for trees. When we went to pick up lunch, the place only took cash. When I went to the ATM to get the food, there was a $20 sitting in the tray. Exactly how much it cost to feed the missionaries lunch.

Elder Knight and Elder mower (closest to the camera in this picture) stayed marking the land with us for 6 hours! I do not know if that is allowed, but I couldn’t have done it without them. They were definitely angels from God sent to us on Friday. We all got involved in marking the land. Thea loved marking, and Hannah was great at organizing.

God’s army and a Fury of activity (Saturday Planting Day)

We only got about half of the trees marked on Friday before it got too dark to do any more. I was nervous about who would come Saturday, if anyone would…

Brandon Beckstrand and his family showed up about 15 mins before starting time. Man am I glad he did, he got to help me figure out how to start the process and said he’d do whatever I needed done. Great friend I haven’t seen in like 15 years! Once 10 o clock hit, I had no time to plant!

I was too busy showing others and teaching them to plant. They I’d give them a flat of about 34 trees and take a family/group who had arrived and tell them how/where to plant.

Another miracle was that 2 sets of 34 fit perfectly in a row (2 varieties)

 There were about 70 people who showed up.

As well as that, there were 17 missionaries at one time.

 Since they had marked the trees before we had them finish marking all 1000 trees.

We planted the first half in probably 1.5 hrs. And the last half took until after 2pm. Brandon Beckstrand and family showed up again to help finish planting.

All 1000 trees were planted on Saturday!

Unfortunately no bounce house arrived. But families enjoyed planting. Even if kids showed up bummed about helping, most were excited by the end and felt very fulfilled!

Gratitude

My heart is full of gratitude and joy for all who came out. Whether you were a long time friend, recent friend, or hardly knew us. Thank you!

To help remember all of you I’m putting their names here as a digital thank you. If you are forgotten or mis-spelled, please reach out to me, I really do want to remember you. Or if you’d rather your name not be somewhere on the internet, let me know that too!

For those of you who couldn’t come you truly missed out, but here is a slideshow of pictures that a wonderful friend took the time to take. I wish I’d gotten pictures with everyone. Now you can feel like you were there.

God’s Orchard

Since I’ve moved back to California this was what I felt inspired by God to do. There were tough times getting the land, and the house. And this was also a challenge. When I was on the tractor wondering why nothing was going to work out I realized… This isn’t my orchard, or my neighbor’s orchard, this is God’s orchard. He’ll have it done the way he wants it. And however it ends up is what he wanted.

Definitely I think that is true now. Especially having 17 missionaries come and help out. God was definitely in the work and in the Orchard that day.

Thank you all!