2018 Peaches - another bountiful harvest!!!

Our two peach trees have periodic harvests - 2007 was a decent year and 2008 was HUGE as was 2010 (no pics), followed by 2012 which provided a MONSTER crop ... which had over a two thousand peaches, but many broken branches ... so we then called 'em Franken-Tree's! ;-) We got basically zippo the next 3 years ... but 2016 was another big year, and even with fewer branches (and aggressive early season pruning), I'd estimate we got about 1,500 peaches from the two trees! 2018 wasn't as big ... and even though Franken-Tree has lost even more limbs, we still had over a 1,000 peaches. Once again, we gorged ourselves during the harvest and after hours (!) of peeling/slicing, we'll being having lots of yummy peaches in the winter. I didn't take near as many pictures, but refer to the links above as the process is similar! ;-)

Aug 23rd: This was "Peak Peach" as most of the peaches are hitting full ripeness
Allready have a dozen gallon bags in the freezer, plus not shown are 100+ peaches waiting to be sliced!

Aug 22nd: Living room with almost 250 peaches

After a LOT of slicing & dicing, out freezer is packed ... plus inside one is half full of 'em! ;-)
Peaches in fridge are to extend 'em for a few extra weeks

BBQ'ed peaches on the grill - Kyle says hi to the ladies

100+ pounds of peach "guts" in the trash can - note bloated bags from fermentation

Morning pictures of the peach trees AFTER over 500 peaches have been picked

Aug 6th: One of several BIG broken branches - closeup - note all the peaches on the rocks too

Video of the monster peach harvest in 2012 ... since then, all hand-picked by yours truly

Raccoons showed up this year for the peaches!

So I have had a couple of peach trees in my backyard for two decades ... and about every other year, they produce a HUGE amount of crop. 2018 is going to be pretty good ... but I was puzzled that a week or two before full ripeness, a number of peaches were dropping from my trees.

I got my answer Monday night (August 13th) as I was on the back deck around Midnight last night with our new puppy and heard some noise. When I aimed the flashlight at the peach trees, two sets of eyes glowed back at me ... and one climbed up the tree. The other stayed on the ground and stared me down - so needless to say, I was "go pee quickly Bliss!" because I was worried they might come over to see her.

I didn't have my "zoom" flashlight, so could only see the glow of their eyes and a faint outline ... but the one on the ground looked quite big. They knocked down dozens of peaches last night ... and I'm sure they will be back every night as they know there is a yummy food source. Haven't had this major of an issue before with our peach trees and I don't have an issue "sharing" with animals. But the raccoons knock a dozen+ peaches off while nibbling on just one, so it's pretty darn wasteful. These raccoons will really thin it out before full ripeness - darn!

So I setup a webcam - this footage is taken while it's pitch black and is using the Infra-Red LED for light. I count at least 3 raccoons.

So after 3 confirmed nights in a row (I'm sure they were coming earlier) of raccoons "visiting" (decimating!) my peach trees, I setup a light to see if that might spook them off. No luck ... although does provide a LOT better image quality for the webcam! Bonus end-feature of this video is you get to see a peach fall ... and me pick it up! ;-)

August 17th: Borrowed a Motion-activated Sprinkler ... but no raccoon action overnight

Since no raccoons that night, here's a SUPER EXCITING video of a peach naturally dropping from the tree! ;-)

Use the controls to play, step, pause, slow-down, and/or speed-up the animation.

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BIG rain/hailstorm the night of the 18th and no raccoons - two night in a row!
But the motion activated sprinker scared the sh*t out of a bunny! ;-)

The combo of the shop light plus motion activated sprinkler was enough to cause the raccoons to move on.

2018 Peaches - bountiful harvest!!!

Aug 23rd: This was "Peak Peach" as most of the peaches are hitting full ripenessAllready have a dozen gallon bags in the freezer, plus not shown are 100+ peaches waiting to be sliced!