Day 46 - Ode to Our Apple Tree

Good bye old apple tree - we will miss you!  We will miss your yummy yellow apples.  We will miss the boys playing on the picnic table under your branches.  We will miss picking fresh apples each day in the fall after nap time for a snack.  We will miss your applesauce, apple butter, apple crisps and apple pies.  Good bye apple tree.

During the storms last night our old apple tree fell in the wind.  Our new apple tree that was just starting to produce apples was taken out by a nearby dead tree a few weeks ago in a storm.  Looks like no more apples around here for awhile.  We will need to plant some new ones in place of our beloved old tree.

In other news, the garden flooded this morning.  Hopefully the water drains off quickly.  We know that with heavy rains and flooding years the areas of the garden that will flood so we only plant our extras or items that aren't of as much value (like decorative gourds) in this area.  However, it rose up in the garden higher than normal so much of our corn crop may be gone.  Drat!

After taking stock of the damage I did go to town and go to some garage sales with a good friend and garage sale companion.  We each found some good deals (after we found the garage sales)!  I found a nice juicer so when I need fresh lemon juice I have a hand held juicer to better get the juice out.  Which after doing some reading on utilizing fresh lemon juice I found that you should use them at room temperature and roll them between your palm and the counter to help squeeze out more juice (just a helpful tip of the day).  Other than that just some clothes for the boys (no exciting finds in the ISF competitive arena).

This afternoon I ironed out my cross stitch pieces.  I have narrowed my collection down from 12 to the best 6 but I need to get that down to one (for that size class).  I guess I will have to give them a more critical eye when it comes to the stitch work and choose the best.  Other than that my extent of working on ISF projects involved cleaning up the house; especially the kitchen so that I can start working on some more entries next week.

I also decided I should take some pictures of my hollyhocks.  I don't remember them ever being so tall (or thick).  Clark happily posed with our cat "Buddy" out by the holly hock patch.  He enjoys searching for bees and watching them crawl through the pollen.  I actually took a lot of photos of the holly hocks - some really nice close ups.  After looking through some scrap booking magazines I picked up at the library today I think I could make a nice scrap book page layout with some of them (which works in a class).  I'll have to look through some of my scrap book paper and see what I come up with.  I also have an idea for a decorated wreath.  Well, since getting out to the garden in the next few days seems out - heading to my craft/sewing room in the basement is in!

And finally - Grant has figured out how to open my cupboard doors.  He managed to grab the box of couscous and it spilled all over the floor.  He started to cry and moved as far away as he could get as fast as possible.  Not sure if a. he knew he did something he shouldn't, b. didn't like the feel of the stuff falling on him, c. it startled/surprised him, or d. all of the above.  I think answer D.  He did leave the cupboards alone after that.  In fact, he stayed away from the kitchen after that incident.  No fears, he'll be back at it tomorrow.