More pruning

So Bob is not quite referring it to as "pruning" as I am.  He is calling it "butchering" instead. Ha ha! Okay, I guess you all can decide :-P

Before:

After!

So... maybe I did go too far with this one.  But I couldn't reach hardly any figs last season! I am just so glad I didn't electrocute myself with those overhanging wires and/or take any of our wires down with those big branches!  Even the gardener next door was impressed when he saw me working - said I had all the right tool.  Pat on the back for me! :-P

Charlie was such a big helper - cutting up the limbs into shorter pieces.  I almost hit him a few times - while tossing the big branches to the ground near him.  At the end of the morning, thankfully no injuries and Charlie earned some tablet time/points for helping Mommy:

Next on the list, our apricot tree.  Only 1 fruit on the entire tree last season! Maybe more this time around?

Before:

After!

Maybe not as drastic for this tree.  I had to mostly get all those branches away from that roof line.  The twigs from this one was definitely more manageable:

One more fig tree!  We were able to get more figs out of this tree, assuming I get it before the gnats and the bees!

Before: 

 After!

Bobby says this one looks like an alien tree. LOL!!!

Okay, so moving on to this BIG job - the BIG lemon tree!

Before:

After!

I'm not sure if Bobby was impressed or upset or shocked because all I got from him mostly was, "That's my shade tree for my hammock!!!".  Well, assuming that I didn't kill the lemon tree, we should be good for all the leaves to come back by summer.  Fingers crossed!

So here is all the drama that went on while pruning the lemon tree.  First... just trying to figure out where to start!

I managed to climb up the tree to cut the taller branches.  Just glad I didn't fall over or cut myself!  I had a good branch to put my saw away while trying to toss the branches over.  And then my hat fell over a couple of times but glad the tree caught that one too!

So much saw dust!

Yay, all done! But look at all those branches.  And lemons!!!

One of 3 big bags of lemons.  I still have them sitting in the back porch.  Not sure what to do with them:

 Another look at what I have to tackle with.  Unfortunately, the green bins were not picked up this past weekend so I can't get rid of ALL of these until another week or two! InsyaAllah or God willing, as they would say in Abu Dhabi:

I managed to get the boys to help out but Graham ended up IN the tree and Charlie is on the swing-seat.  Both were playing some sort of game.  Ha!

And then, it's Charlie's turn to get up into the tree.  Graham is so sweet - helping out Charlie. If Charlie only knew how much his big brother cared for him!

Here's the pile so far under the gazebo.  Some of the branches are still too large so the work is not quite done yet:

In time, I suppose.  The branches aren't going anywhere!  If anything, the place smells so lemon-ie :-)

The last and final tree which is the apple tree, still needs to be pruned.  It is probably shivering in the corner, afraid to see me coming with my saw and trimmer in my hands. Ha ha!  The apple tree did produce some good fruit last season but some of them did end up being too high.  The squirrel did enjoy those. Soooo... yeah....

Until next pruning season! Oh wait, also pruned the rose bushes.  They seem to be coming back nicely.  They all looked so gnarly and sad earlier this winter:

Oh, look! Some pretty purple flowers!  These appeared last season too.  Bonus from the previous owner:

And one more last thing.  I gathered all the green bottles that were hanging on the fig tree and put some water into it.  I hung them back up on this big thick limb and TADA! Graham managed to play some music!

As usual, never a dull moment in this household :-)