Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Apples and other natural wonders

Our friend S called a couple of days ago to invite us to come pick some of the yellow transparent apples at his 90 year old mother's house. He said they make great apple sauce. So this morning we went to pick apples. Great fun. The weather was perfect, the trees were loaded, and the kids were a lot of help. In and hour we had picked three bushel for us, two more for S (who said he was getting a bit tired of making apple sauce) and 1/2 a bushel of really nice ones for his mother. Pretty good for two old guys and two kids under the age of 10. Should make us about 45 quarts of apple sauce which will be enough for the coming year for our family. The apples are not strictly Organic, I think natural is a more accurate label. The management technique used on them is get them before the birds do.


the kids aren't as choosy as I am when picking

Doing the chores before we left this morning I noticed that May, our generally sweet tempered Dexter cow, was acting particularly grumpy. She should be calving some time the end of this month (we had May with a friends bull for 25 days last fall so I have a pretty big window of possible conception dates), so I decided to check if she had come into milk. She had! Means we are getting pretty close! I half expected to see a new calf when we got back from apple picking, but was relieved to not find one. I'd like to be there and influence the bonding. Can't have another one like MayZ. Hand raising them is more work, but it makes them a lot easier to handle. If it turns out to be a bull then she can keep him for a couple of months. After that he would be off to live somewhere else. I'd like a heifer.


May, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

On the way back from checking May this afternoon I noticed a few natural wonders that made me smile. Here they are.


4 comments:

jack-of-all-thumbs said...

Great images!

I am continually amazed at where you find the time and energy to run your farm, raise your kids, read your books, etc. and then still have time to notice the beauty around you and think and write critically about the issues of the day.

Sleep?

Alan said...

Sleep is optional.
Coffee is NOT!
Raising kids is easy, they keep showing up for breakfast and I keep feeding them.
Reading keeps my mind occupied enough that I don't run screaming into the night, and writing lets me purge all the stuff bubbling in my brain so that I can sleep if the opportunity ever arises.
Noticing beauty keeps me from perseverating on all the things that aren't getting done as I rush through the day.

Danni said...

Dude....perseverating?! I added to my vocabulary today, thanks! I totally would have lost in a scrabble wager that this was a real word! :-)
Incredible bird's nest, but what is that last image a picture of? Looks very bizarre and alien-like!

"Perseverate: verb (used without object), -at·ed, -at·ing. to repeat something insistently or redundantly: to perseverate in reminding children of their responsibilities. "

Alan said...

It is the nest of a blue mud dauber wasp. They build these nests on the walls of my barn, filling them with paralyzed spiders for their young to eat. They don't sting, or really bother people, and I find their building technique rather interesting. You can see a bit more about them here. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2078.html

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