The orchard beginnings

With so little space it took me a while to figure out the best place for our fruit trees. I've changed my mind a couple times. The place we're going with actually wasn't in the running most of the time. You see really we don't have the space for something like that UNLESS we clear some trees. Once I got over my mental block about cutting trees I can now see that we have some areas that can be used if we clear them. And then I realized that we had the perfect place for a mini orchard. Should there have been no trees it would have been the obvious place. You'll see better when I post the drawing of the land. But as you come in our driveway on the right hand side is this triangle wooded area that's between our driveway and side road. Or should I say WAY a wooded area. Woohoo!

Clay's started clearing the trees in the orchard area. Thankfully he spent a couple years logging in New Mexico cutting huge huge trees so he's more than comfortable cutting down trees. Me, not so much. Most are tall cedars like this one.
It's hard to see in this next one but there used to be tall trees all around him. There are a few trees on the border of the area Clay doesn't want to cut. He really hates losing trees. He wouldn't have agreed if it weren't for the fact that we're replacing with TREES of all things. But I'm trying to get him to get rid of the two big border trees so I can run the grape vines along the border instead. OH and the tip of the triangle that won't get any shade from the trees is going to have blueberries.
And of course the kids are excited now that there's a huge obstacle course of fallen trees to play on.

They won't be there long though. Clay and Frankie are clearing limbs, topping the trees and pulling the logs out. The big Cedar poles are going to be used for the goat barn we're building for the Spring and the smaller yet still fabulous tops of the poles will be used as some of the fence posts for the garden area.

I've been reading and reading about fruit trees and have to decide what we want to plant this Spring. What varieties, what sizes, what are best for Middle TN, etc. It all seems like such a big decision. But 4 years or so from now we'll be eating apples, peaches, cherries, plums, blueberries, and maybe grapes. I can't wait!