Took stock of the orchard and found that 27 trees had died or were otherwise missing.  Decided to replenish, a much bigger job than I anticipated.  Dug the holes with an auger on a bobcat loader, that ended up being the easy part.

Bought the trees from Stark Bros. nursery online, a mixture of various apple types in a semi-dwarf size.  Planting them ended up being back-breaking work over about 3 weekends.  Then I put up a 5′ diameter fence around all 27 trees to keep the deer out until they grow large enough.  Way more then I had bargained for, but it should be plentiful in a few years.   We now have an orchard that has 55 trees, mostly apple, some peach, pears, and cherry though.

Digging the holes, the easy part

Last tree in, note the rock pile

Uncle Sonny, my Mom, and brother Mark help put up the final cages