Farm - snow - pruning

The sun came out today for the first time we can remember, probably since mid-December. The ground is covered with fresh snow, but it's not too deep. After I checked out the barn progress, the dogs and I walked around the south side of the vineyard/orchard. Rosie follows right behind me and when she does that I always think "a girl and her dog," even though I haven't been a "girl" for many years. Here we are:

When it snowed a few days ago, I got a picture of Thunder in his element:

People often ask about pruning and  what it entails. A friend of ours, David Vertacnik, was featured in the local newspaper talking about pruning. He said you need to prune the tree so you can throw a cat through it, and that was in my mind today while I was pruning in the sun and snow. I tend to think of it as giving the trees a butch haircut. In any event, the snow afforded a good opportunity to silhouette a tree before and after pruning. The tree is an Earlygold, but they all work about the same.

Here it is before:

And after:

Notice all the prunes on the ground. We'll need to clear them away eventually.