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My wife and I live on her family farm in eastern Kentucky. I am a native of Oklahoma, and lived and worked in north Texas for almost 30 years. We moved back here in March of 2014. I am a “semi-retired” electronics technician, while my wife has had various positions at local universities.

Enjoy the peace and quiet and privacy of country life. Beautiful setting on an eastern facing slope in the Appalachian foothills. We are frequented by almost incessant forays of deer, with which I’ve had to battle to keep them from ravaging our fruit and veggie plots!

Trying to learn to be more self-sufficient, especially where it comes to growing our own food, and add to our skill sets, such as some basic carpentry and plumbing, mechanical work, hunting and shooting, small scale farming and the like. Have tried veggie gardening since we’ve been here, especially enjoy growing tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, corn, green beans, etc. Have also taken to doing our own canning of various fruits and vegetables.

Our present “orchard” started with 17 apple, 5 pear, 4 peach, and 6 pecan trees, started in spring of 2016. Have a few old apple (Milam and some unknown varieties) and cherry (unknown tart) trees, along with wild blackberry and raspberry brambles on site. To supplement our fruit and vegetable output, we are also looking into maybe obtaining a few chickens for fresh eggs, and meat.

Here are the trees we have planted (spring 2016):

Apples: Novaspy, Grimes Golden (2), Liberty, Golden Russet, Winecrisp, Goldrush, Honeycrisp, Roxbury Russet, Pristine, King David, Winesap, Cortland, Macoun
Pears: Moonglow, Orient, Pineapple
Peaches: Redhaven, Coralstar

Update! For 2017, we added the following:

Apples: Alkmene, Suncrisp, Zestar
Peach: Blushingstar (white), Contender
Pear: Starking Delicious, aka Maxine; Harrow Sweet
Blueberries: Patriot, Blueray
Gooseberries: Jeanne, Poorman, Oregon Champion
Tart cherry bushes: Romeo, Juliet
Raspberries: Fall bearers: Anne; Summer reds: AAC Eden
Strawberries: Earliglow, Jewel

Update! For 2018 we added the following:

Pluots: Geo Pride, Dapple Dandy, Flavor King
Summer red raspberries: Prelude, Killarney, Nova
Summer black raspberries: Bristol, Mac Black
Fall bearing raspberries: Caroline, Fall Gold
Primocane blackberries: PrimeArk Freedom, PA Traveler
Floricane blackberries: Osage, Ouachita, Triple Crown

Update! For 2019 we added the following:

June bearing strawberry: Flavorfest

Update! For 2020 we added the following:

Day neutral strawberry: Seascape

I have also bench grafted some apples, in 2018- Suncrisp, Goldrush, Snapp Stayman; and in 2019- Honeycrisp, Enterprise, Mollie’s Delicious; and in 2020- Spartan, Melrouge, Dayton, Loriglow. Looking to getting them in the ground soon.

I thoroughly enjoy sharing and learning about not only growing fruit but other things with such a generous, friendly and knowledgeable group of people.