The Apple Of My Eye

44lbs

37 lbs left! That's what I have sitting on the counter in the kitchen.  I started out with 44 lbs of apples and I have managed to use 7 lbs of them so far. In between it all I'm trying to weave scarves and shawls.

Do you know what you do with 44 lbs of apples?  No?.... Neither do I. I wish I did.  I'm making apple juice right now and this will be my third batch. It takes two days to make apple juice. Then I'm using the pulp from the apple juice to make apple and cinnamon pound cakes.  I will be so sick of apple and cinnamon pound cakes by the time I finish that I won't want to eat a bight.  Still, I just can't throw the damn things away.  So I persevere. But the house smells of apples and has done for several days. It's a bit disgusting actually.  And while everyone else thinks it smells wonderful.... well, frankly they're not around it as much as I am.... in the end I think it's a bit gross now.  At first I thought it wouldn't be too bad.... I'm now starting to rethink that as my fingers are starting to feel raw from all the cutting. Argh. Need I tell you that a friend dropped by with apples?... no... I didn't think so!

Today is sunny again after three days of cold and rain.... I was listening to California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas yesterday... it seemed to fit somehow.

All the leaves are brown.... and the skies are grey ....

So I am glad to see the sun shining beautifully again.  The wind is blowing and is taking the rest of the leaves off the trees around my place.  It was really strange though since yesterday I took a drive to town and noticed that all along the highway on the way to FSJ the trees were actually still a little on the green side. So for some reason our place in particular loses leaves more quickly than anywhere else.  Weird!

I took a walk out to the paddock yesterday with a few apples for the horse.... she didn't appreciate them either.  I could smell the rich brown smells of rotting leaves and wet soil... While reaping a harvest of apples will probably be appreciated later in winter, right now I feel that the added odor of rotting apples to the already rich smells of autumn would be a pleasant outcome to my apple ordeal. However, Teapot suggests that rotting apples in the garden might just add another dilemma... that of bears. All around town bears have been raiding apple trees and this is the reason for my apple inheritance.  The friends who brought the apples had an abundance in their tree and wanted to get rid of a "few". Little did I know when I agreed to take some off his hands that I was agreeing to 44 pounds. I've even thrown a few in for the alpacas and llama. None of my animals want them. Teapot keeps coming back to the fact that a pig would just gobble them up... so I told him to go find a pig... but he had better not bring it home. (No fleece.... too bad pigs don't have fibre to spin!) 

We are getting a pair of rabbits.... yes you read that right.  On the 1st of October I will be getting two bunnies that are angora cross breeds... which means that they are not pure angora... a good thing since they won't have hair issues on their faces. But they do have nice spinnable fibre on their bods.  Hey! ... I wonder if the bunnies would like apples.... hmmmm!  Some good might come of this yet.

Well, I'm off to strain apple juice... hope the "fruits" of your labour make for a bountiful harvest.