The season is starting to heat up around here. Looks like the lowest chill peaches we grow (florida prince, tropic snow, early grande) have decided that they have rested long enough and are preparing to bloom. Its going to be about a week earlier than normal, no big deal, but I wasnt quite ready. Now all the chores I had planned for next weekend need to done now. Mainly finishing pruning and spraying dormant oil/copper/insecticide (no small project on 200+ trees).
Anyway as I was getting in the groove of pruning and sizing up the trees I popped my earbuds in pressed play on the old mp3 player. As the sounds of George Strait filled my ears, the cool breeze blew by and my hands and brain got busy with the task at handā¦I thought to myself about what happiness working with my trees brings me. Its a deep satisfaction tending and growing them. Im lucky to have a wife that puts up with all this foolishness.
Am I the only one who gets such zen pleasure from silly fruit trees? Im sure not.
All of the above! Although if you really want to put me in heaven then play some George Strait doing covers of Bob Wills tunes! He was greatly influenced by Bob Wills and he does a amazing cover. Love it!
Very, very cool post! Itās so fun hearing from others that seem to enjoy fruit growing, even the mundane tasks,as much as I do. Iāve had many afternoons almost identical to the one you just describedā¦right down to the choice of music! (really). Understandably, it seems like our posts on here often revolve around some tree problem, disease, pest, etc that we are dealing with and need help on. So itās nice to see a thread just about the pure enjoyment of the hobby. I can have an extremely stressful day at work worrying about some huge capital project with implications for the next 20 years for the entire town, but within 10 minutes of getting home and getting in my orchard, the biggest and only problem in the whole world is whether or not to prune out a particular branch on a fruit tree! No therapy like it.
Even though Iāve spent half my working hours pruning fruit trees every year for decades now, it often brings me similar joy, and without the music track- Iād need wireless headphones, for one thing, as I spend a lot of time climbing through brushy apple trees.
My oldies inspiration comes from Jazz of artists like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and John Mclaughlin (first album, āMy Goals Beyondā). Only a few rockers could really help me, including Hendrix, Santana and some of the great songs of the era (been listening to āUnder Pressureā since Bowieās sad departure). Then thereās the huge Motown portfolio and Aretha.
Iām not sure which music would most be appreciated by my trees.
Its probably that joy we get from working and being around our fruit trees that is the common bond among us and why we read this forum. Great therapy for the soul for sure. I am usually out in my orchard on Saturday mornings when the local gardening radio shows are playing but enjoy also shifting over to some relaxing music. David Nevue is usually at the top of my list.
I listen to garden show podcasts while in the garden. Iām kinda of an audio snob. I listen to music on high end equipment only. Well most of the time. I might review something on lower quality equipment. I have been listening to outtakes Bowie discarded in 1999-2004. He had a creative surge at that time. Putting out Iām Afraid Of Americans and other ditties. I like jazz too, mostly Weather Report, 11th House. Return To Forever, Dave Holland. And some other more modern groups too like Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Medeski, Martin, and Wood. California Guitar Trio is awesome. they cover the Good, the Bad and The Ugly by Ennio Morricone, awesome version.
In rock I like Progressive like King Crimson, Soft Machine, and The great Pink Floyd. I could list a couple hundred artists I listen to. I enjoy sound tracks too. The Sopranos, both soundtracks are fantastic and must haves. I have played them every year, multiple times for the last ten years. I recently added Guardians Of The Galaxy because it includes a lot of 1970ās one hit wonders that I never had in album form. It has some classics too.
Itās sports talk radio on Sirius XM for me while working in the garden. Mostly the NFL Network. On the patio with a refreshing drink after all the work is done, itās usually a custom commercial free IHeartRadio station for specific artists such as The Black Keys, Death Cab for Cutie, or Broken Bells. Iām especially fond of Indie rock for chillaxing.
Iāve got 60 hours of mostly classic rock on the iPhone connected to a portable Sony speaker. Put it on shuffle, the next song could be Supertramp, America, Phil Collins, maybe Enya or Phantom of the Opera.
āAudio snobā. LOL, I know what you mean. My Anchorage house has a Harmon Kardon 7.1 with 100w/channel driving Polk speakers. It will rattle the windows - and I mean the windows across the street.
Now weāre talking! You know all those old Quad Lpās? Well my friends have working quad stylus and record players and receivers for quad sound. We converted the 4 channel records to DTS. They sound fantastic!! I also have most vinyl converted on high end players that range from 5 thousand to 10 thousand for the record player and stylus. Absolutely pristine vinyl with no flaws converted to 24 bit 96K stereo Wav files. This is better than CD quality. Yes, Iām definitely an audio snob. CD audio is low quality to me.
I was in the yard listening to music when all of a sudden the the trees started shaking. Thatās odd, there is no wind blowing. Then I realized that a song from the Allman Brothers āEat A Peachā album was playing.
So I settled them down with a better choice for stone fruits - Hendirx, Willie Nelson and one Bob Dylan song.
