Honeycrisp Apples

One of the fun preparations for the long winter on Cable Lake is the apple picking. We have four trees surviving out of 8 planted. They kinda take turns producing. This year we had normal rainfall after several years of drought. The trees all enjoyed the rain and the crop was the best ever................

......the trees are bred to be short, which is good because the picker is short..........

.....for the high ones we shake the tree and they fall. Then we pick up the ones we like and leave the rest for the deer. The deer start sleeping under these trees in about September, waiting for their treats..........

....long arms and a ladder come in handy................

....Rena patrols the perimeter so the deer don't attack us while we are picking. A pack of ravenous and aggressive deer may scare some dogs, but not Rena............

....we got about two bushel. They are organically grown, and not perfect in shape, size and color. But they are Honeycrisp, a recent and very popular variety. A local orchard was advertising them for $95.00 per bushel. Two bushel is more than we can eat so we give some away, feed Hannah's horse some, and fend off packs of attacking deer with the rest.....

Uncle Hans