I am virtually always late when it comes to pruning. Every November I think that I'll plan ahead and get it done early, and every March I wonder where the dormant season went. Some things are still dormant as of early April, but they won't be for long. Better late than never, in any case...
This year I also need to pull out some of the fence circles I put around trees when they were first planted. The trees had outgrown them, were growing through the fencing in some instances, and old enough to stand on their own. That's not to say that there won't be problems from the deer, but it should be relatively minor damage at this point rather than lethal.
This was not necessarily an easy task, but had to be completed before the trees leafed out. I found that in some cases, the wire had to be clipped to free the branches, and some roots had grown over the bottom fence wire (no tree roots, fortunately--mostly grass, and in one case, privet). This points to one of the problems with the fencing: it discourages maintenance activities inside the wire. Speaking of privet, this was growing inside the fence circle next to my Enterprise apple:
Once the fencing was out, the t-posts had to be removed. Several years ago I got a t-post puller, and had seldom used it.
If you don't have one of these and you have to pull t-posts, get one. I've pulled them up by hand and this is vastly easier, quicker, and doesn't tear up the ground as much. The price from Tractor Supply is up from when I got mine, but it still isn't bad at under $55. It's awkward to use in close quarters but does work well, even if it has to be short-stroked.
I was even later with pruning most of the muscadines. Some of them leaked sap profusely after pruning, but hopefully they'll be fine as in years past.
