Beyond the Spring Breeze: The Orchard Summer novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: Pruning
In February the snow lay three feet deep in the Hendry back rows.
I stood in it up to my thighs with a pruning saw.
Pruning is winter work.
You cut when the trees are asleep, so they wake up knowing where to put their strength.
Abram had a bad pair of snowshoes and a worse attitude.
"I can't feel my feet," he said.
"You're not supposed to feel them yet. That's day two."
"What's day three?"
"Day three, you hate me."
"I'll skip ahead," he said, and I laughed.
The sky was a hard, brilliant blue.
The old Spies stood over us, their branches a dense tangle against the white.
The two of us had spent four weekends clearing them, one tree at a time, and we had forty to go.
Dessa was at her grandmother's in town for the week, learning to knit, which was a threat to all of us.
"Watch the saw," I said, pointing. "See the branch that crosses? It rubs the one below. Cut it back to the collar, not flush."
"Where's the collar?"
"The little ridge at the base. The tree heals from there."
He knelt in the snow, found it, and made a clean cut.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Beyond the Spring Breeze: The Orchard Summer are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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