Work is really cutting into my time with my trees. 
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Try watering your coworkers a bit. It makes them feel a bit like fruit trees.
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Note to self:
Add āsquirt gunā to grocery list.
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I know the feeling. I am taking tomorrow off to plant apple trees that arrived yesterday.
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I am retiring 12/29/2023 !!!
This year has flown by.
After thatā¦ hopefully much more time to spend on growing stuff, hunting, fishing, may add chickens, quail, a hogā¦ land clearing, land development, new home building, selling current home. Got to work some resting and relaxing in there somewhere.
TNHunter
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Congrats. I hope you enjoy it.
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That is wonderful!! Congratulations!
I keep welsummer chickens and coturnix quail. Fresh eggs are so much better than grocery store eggs.
Quail eggs hard boil fast and then I would peel and dip them in batter and deep fry and serve with a variety of sauces for dipping. Delicious.
If you can, try to keep quail in dirt rather than a suspended cage where their feet are on wire.
Not only is dirt better for their feet, they bathe in it, sleep in it and they turn it over so you donāt get smell from their feces and you can replace it with fresh dirt later and have good, fertilized dirt for your garden and compost pile.
They are so much happier and easier to care for with a nice pile of soft dirt over wire flooring you have to clean.
What I did was get a Sentinel Cage from tractor supply, and then my son built a perimeter base using wood good for ground contact, then my husband screwed hardware cloth to the bottom and then we sat the cage on top and filled the perimeter base with mulch and soft dirt. The height from the base holds the dirt in.
Attach the cage to the base and now you have a pen that nothing can dig under to get into your quail cage. Keep the pen near a dog run, and the dogs will keep predators away also and serve as an alarm system.
I read how quail donāt use ramps but they do! Ours go up into the Sentinel cage ānestboxā area. I think it is because the ramp is wide (for chickens) and my husband screwed a strip of hardware cloth to the ramp, so they really have good traction and feel safe using it.
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Iām totally with you on this. everything gets in the way but I somehow still find some tiny sliver of time. today is my birthday (39) so I took off work and the only things I plan to do today are related to my gardening. mostly re-labeling figs and bringing them into my garage for the winter
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Happy Birthday!!!
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I am happy with my majority of time going to fruit tree maintenance harvest and planting over the last ten years. Today I was just dreaming about what to do next 
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A photo on your enclosure?
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Do you ever get the question what on earth do you do all that time you are down in the orchard?
I do. Letās see. Check grafts, release grafting tape, check labels, replace labels, spray, harvest, mulch, fertilize, prune, stroll, soak in the sunshine, encourage them, thank them, check for fireblight, check for a dozen other things, add bird deterrents, remove bird deterrents, add spacers, remove spacers, check for borers, remove dropped fruit, add neem along base, add lures, remove lures, mow, weedeat, check for potential scions, rake leavesā¦
Repeat
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An added bonus, not having the metal frame directly on the ground. Iām sure that will extend the life of the enclosure.
I am reasonably sure that they are safe because they are right up against the shed we sleep in and to the left of them is the dog run where our dogs sleep. We have two siblings that are half German shepherd and half Belgium mallinois that are great alarm dogs.
In front of the quail are our chickens.
If I hear anything, I can literally sit up on my bed and look out the window without ever leaving the bed lol.
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