That year I lived ascetically, in a one room cabin with a woodstove, fridge, sink, and adjoining outhouse - nothing else. I was so grateful to be able to live here. I loved to watch the trees change with the season, lose their leaves, bend with the icicles on their branches. It seemed the whole orchard was in motion. The second useful orientation which makes my work smoother is economy of motion.
Harvest is a meditation in movement.
I pick forty apples to the bag, twenty-three bags to the bin, three bins a day. The apples come off the tree with a flick of the wrist, repeated almost three thousand times a day. Since I'm paid by the bin, the amount of money I earn depends on the number of small motions I can cram into an hour. When I pick up props or change water, I do a lot of bending. I top off a bin and chalk my name on it, stop to eat an apple.