Pruning the peach tree

4 weeks ago about 250 wards (a ward is a congregation of about 350 people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) in our area were asked to fast and pray for moisture. Just a little info, congregations are divided up geographically.  Since then our dry winter has changed dramatically. 

The weather has been amazing the past 4 weeks in the valley. We've had a few nice snow storms and a lot of rain. Most of the snow has been in the mountains which makes for some epic ski days which we have enjoyed as a family. Some may call it a coincidence but as we looked at the doplar weather report the storms were directly over these 250 wards. The Lord was quick to hear our cries. I wonder if it has something to do with the increase in temple attendance and the 20,000 person increase in people serving full time missions. Snow pack levels went from 26% to over 100% in the mountains in just 3 weeks. I am so grateful, and I'm sure my garden will be grateful too.

Today we finally had a little sun and it was warmer too. So I got out my new fleece Jacket. I bought it yesterday at Kohls. You can see from the price tag it was marked down to $9. Then I used a coupon in addition. My very inexpensive fleece Jacket was the perfect thing to keep me warm on the shady side of the house. If you need a few warm items for Spring (and since it's suddenly the end of February, fall really isn't that far away), check out the clearance rack at Kohls.

I grabbed my pruners and my favorite pair of garden gloves and headed out front to the peach tree. You should never cut more than 1/3 of the tree or it will become stressed and die. But at the same time, you don't want crowded branches and peaches that can't get any sun. I always have a hard time cutting them back but I do it and feel better once I can distract myself by digging in the dirt.

I did save a few branches for snow men next winter.  And I trimmed a few branches so I can use them as natural supports for my pepper plants and such.

I'm looking forward to seeing the apple and peach trees bloom, and as always we are looking forward to the fruit.