Apples Everywhere!

 This year was a great year for apples.  My apple trees were loaded, my daughter's apple tree was loaded, everyone I know with an apple tree (or several) said their trees were loaded.

So, since about the middle of September, I've been picking apples, using apples, storing apples.  And I can't keep up with al the apples!  If it weren't for the fact that the chickens and the rabbits and deer and other wildlife at this little place here also love to eat apples, I'd feel rather bad about not being able to take care of every single apple on my trees.   This Fall is just too busy with projects and other things (like picking up DS1's kids after school on days he has appointments after he gets off work--he works first shift.  And emergency babysitting Buck--a 9 hour day--when his regular babysitter has gotten sick; or Buck himself is sick.)

This year, I'm doing what I can handle, and just not allowing any guilt to creep in (from myself or anyone else) over the apples I just can't handle.  They'll get eaten, just maybe not by humans.  I did, briefly, think about putting and ad on Facebook or Craigslist for anyone looking for apples and getting them into the hands of humans.  But you know what?  I don't have time to deal with answering an ad, setting up times for people to come u-pick, making sure strangers aren't coming by my house at times that aren't good for me--like if I'm gone babysitting unexpectedly, or dealing with any of that.  I certainly don't have time to pick them and transport them to food pantries or soup kitchens (which honestly aren't all that prevalent in my immediate vicinity).  So the wildlife get what me and my family don't get to.

Meanwhile, there's been apple crisps and apple pies for desserts.  Fresh hot chunky applesauce with meals. Apples for snacks. Applesauce canned, and still more apple sauce to be canned.  Apple juice yet to be made, and, hopefully someday soon, apple rings dehydrated into apple chips (which is a process that consumes more hours than I so far have foreseen being home to keep an eye on the dehydrator on any given day.)

MacIntosh from September

More MacIntosh in early October

Cortlands and Red Delicious in October

Granny Smith in late October

The Yarn Thief 'helping' me pick apples.

Thankfully the weather is cool enough now, but not below freezing yet, that I can just let those approximately 3 bushel of apples sit in my garage and wait for me to get to them a bit at a time.