I have just netted my Satsuma Plum Tree.
I can say that pretty quickly, but it was two hours of ladder shifting and climbing, stretching my arms and the netting only to find my arms weren't long enough and the netting was snagged on twigs. Down again, and unhooking the netting (which I sewed into a sort of tent shape last year) and trying again from a different part of the tree. I had laid the netting on the ground and thought I could just sort of pull it up... er no, not that simple.
And the tree has grown since last year, so I ended up using the vineyard trick of clipping netting together with the tags from the necks of bags of bread - I added a length of grapevine netting to make it long enough to pull together at the bottom.
Then I threaded through some oldish elastic - it still had stretch, but I wouldn't use it to keep my knickers up! - and finally my clothes peg trick to keep the birds out and to give me an easy access to the plums when they are ripe, and I shake the tree and they fall into the net.
The tree was a gift in 2009, it's a beautiful tree with delicious Satsuma plums, and if I don't go to this trouble, the birds strip it of plums.
I'm pretty sure I won't be wanting to tackle physical work for a couple of hours, but I am very proud of myself.
Pai te mahi Kuia indeed!