Another Youth Night, Another Great Turnout

Last week I wrote about the great turnout we had from the youth. I didn’t think it could be much better. But last night surprised us with even more youth turning out to help with the orchard. In fact the turnout was so great and the number of cars trying to get into the orchard at the same time caught us flat footed. We just don’t always have enough service missionaries to do all the jobs that need to be done. That is why all you volunteers signing up is so important. We can better prepare. The sign up sheet when we printed it about 3 PM, had about 80 people signed up. In the half hour between 6:30 and 7:00 over 250 showed up. And what you did was absolutely great. All y’all (That’s Texas which means everyone, y’all is singular) finished “de-blooming” all the trees in the orchard.

De-blooming is needed on certain trees when the tree needs to have more ‘structure’ so it can be more and better fruit in the future. If the tree is allowed to blossom and grow fruit, its energy goes into growing fruit and not making a better tree. It is grand efforts like what happened last night that helps this orchard produce such an abundant harvest each year. So everything you do helps us. The orchard can be very demanding to manage and maintain so for all of us service missionaries, our heartfelt thanks to all of you for doing this.

And the ice cream was good too.

Thanks again. The orchard service missionaries.

Youth Night. Amazing Turnout.

Over 400 youth from the Farr West Poplar Stake showed up at the orchard tonight. An absolutely wonderful turnout. I’m going to compare some numbers from tonight, just 1 night compared to the total turnout of all Stakes for March. Now it’s not a completely fair comparison due to many factors including the time of the day for volunteering, the weather, and the challenge of pruining. So…

For all of March from all 16 stakes the total number of volunteers was a bit over 1000 people. These include those who took time off from work, mothers and fathers who brought their young children, and many who came several times. I’m now on a first name basis with so many of you because of that. And that’s not a bad thing. The pruning was done, done well, and the orchard looks good.

But in one night, tonight, we had 464 people from 1 stake. That’s almost half of the total for all of March. And how having so many was truly a blessing that is hard to express in words. So much more was done than we expected. Grass was planted in areas that really needs grass. Hundreds of trees were painted. This painting protects the trees from some of the herbicides that we spray to control weeds. Raking was done to help us add mulch between the rows. All of it needed. All of it appreciated.

So tonight you all are our heroes. You have lightened our load more than you know. And we appreciate it.

The orchard service missionaries.

PS. Charlie Brown really liked the snow cones.

Pruning is still finished…

Yes. It’s done. Do you see that big grin on our faces. Thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who pruned over 9000 trees. Thanks to all who raked and brought their children. Thanks to all who took the time to work in the orchard and give of themselves. We are finished with the pruning. The orchard looks good this year. The efforts of everyone last year and this year have certainly paid off. The trees look good, the rows between the trees are wider. The service missionaries replaced the old irrigation system. Roads are leveled out and the ruts are filled in. It’s been a good year plus. We have been blessed and we hope you feel blessed.

So the next few weeks before thinning starts, the orchard will be spraying, fertilizing, and putting out pheromone bands. All to help produce a good yield. So enjoy the month. We hope to see you soon.

The service missionaries.

Pruning is finished.

We finished pruning Wednesday evening. There is no need to show up Thursday to prune,

One last push to finish pruning…

The following was sent to all the stake leaders last Saturday…

From Bruce to the leaders

Sent to your Stake Leaders

Stake Leaders,  we will need a large pruning on Wednesday April 2 and Thursday April 3 of this coming week.  We are not working on Tuesday because of possible weather conditions.  Please encourage your membership to get as large a group as they can out on these days.  If we can get a big turnout we could finish early.  Please help us finish before conference weekend.  Thanks Bruce