• Chicken waterer
• Homesteading books

I needed some good visuals for my tree-planting chapter of Weekend Homesteader.  Oh, how sad, I had to order a few more fruit trees!  (Don't throw me in that briar patch!)

We settled on two Asian Persimmons (Ichi-Ki-Kei-Jeiro and Saijo) that are supposed to be hardy enough to withstand our winters, along with a Starking Delicious Pear.  All are now installed in current or future chicken pasture areas.  The persimmons are diminutive enough that they could fit in our smaller pastures while the pear is (hopefully) willing to deal with somewhat waterlogged, heavy clay down in the floodplain.  The long term goal is to give the chickens some protective cover while producing late season fruit that they and we will share.

I love planting experimental trees more than (almost) anything, but I do have a tough time watching the ones that die.  Last year's hardy almonds were a failed experiment --- I thought they might have trouble fruiting because of being at the edge of their hardiness range, but what they had trouble with was being eaten alive by Japanese beetles.  I also lost one Carpathian Walnut because of planting it in the woods and forgetting about it (although I'm happy to report that its sister tree and the transplanted Chinese chestnut in the same area survived my neglect.)  But all of the rest of last year's perennials are thriving and I figure losing two trees out of eleven isn't terrible when so few of the varieties are tried and true.  (One of the almonds is clinging to life for another year.)

Let's hope 2015 is the year of the persimmon and pear!