Dear Customers and Friends of Pea Ridge Forest,

 

From the Fields

As I sit and enjoy a delightful August afternoon, I reflect on our busy winter, spring, and summer. The crew stays busy during the good days of winter with pruning and starting to dig on favorable stretches of weather. Spring was spent full-time digging all our ordered trees and then right back into planting our deciduous liners and the evergreen transplants. Of course, this entails that irrigation lines be set up and running on all the new plantings. Then comes shearing our evergreens and more pruning. In between, there is a lot of mowing and cultural practices to keep our fields as clean as possible. This year brought excellent rains, which the trees loved - putting on great growth - but of course, that brings other items that need attention. Now, we are into tagging to see what we have to sell for our fall season: deciduous and evergreen B&B trees as well as our Christmas tree sales. Our Christmas tree supply includes a couple of new fields and some we have used in the past. So our customers will have a good selection - we also have some beautiful large pines to offer. 

 

Our Family Updates 

Mary is thankful for her wonderful, supportive family. Mike keeps customers happy and runs the B&B operation. Tammy keeps very busy teaching at Mizzou and working at the pediatric asthma clinic. Scott runs the Christmas tree operation and irrigation at both farms, plus he does a great deal of the computer work. Beryl works from home as a medical coder and loves to cook. A rundown of the granddaughters: Jess (oldest) is in the PhD program at Rice University for Economics. Jenna (middle) graduated with her BSN from Mizzou in December and works at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis in the PICU. Jill (youngest) is starting her college life at Jefferson College with a volleyball scholarship. They are all well and happy, which makes us all happy and thankful. 

 

Farm Updates

This summer features some wonderful opportunities for networking and socializing at Pea Ridge. During July, we hosted the Missouri Christmas Tree Growers Association Field Day, which turned out very well. Hopefully everyone came away with a useful idea and enjoyed themselves. In late August, we are hosting the Missouri Green Industry Alliance. Hopefully, it will turn out well, with a large attendance expected and Mike on the docket to demonstrate training young balled and burlapped trees.

November is not far away, so we are gearing up to welcome you all to our farm. Karen is working on the gift shop, ensuring we have it chock full of beautiful gift items and great decorating ideas for your Christmas season. We will again have a winery offering samples and sales, kettle corn, Wurst Haus, and food truck - plus, of course, Santa. Fresh greenery will be available as usual - wreaths, hanging baskets, containers, and more. 

 

We look forward to having you visit our little piece of heaven that we call our own. The family who live here full-time love it, and I think the grandkids have developed a love of this life that will stay with them even as they pursue their own lives. 

 

Yours in trees,

The Roods

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