Apples for the garbagemen

Today I was in the backyard doing some painting when I heard the garbage truck and then male voices. I looked up to see 3 garbagemen on the other side of my fence by the apple trees looking for a snack. One of them had snagged a Transparent apple and was eating it. The other two were looking for an apple but they are high up. I told them the Transparents aren't that good and recommended they eat a Gravensteen instead. The Transparents are getting to the end of their season and are over ripening on the tree and falling half rotten to the ground.

But I could see my recommendation wasn't getting through to them, so I helped out by grabbing my apple picker - a net attached to a pole - and passed it over. One of the men snagged two apples for him and his co-worker and they were both happy.

They can help themselves to the Transparents. I don't like them, but my horses do!

I did make some nice apple muffins with the Granvensteens a couple of days ago.

If you're interested in one of those nifty apple picker nets, I bought it at Lee Valley Tools in Coquitlam last year.

When the apple is ripe it will drop

Our Transparent apple tree is dropping apples. Today I picked up two buckets to take out to the farm for the horses. Transparents are a yellow, soft apple. They tend to ripen on the tree and by the time they fall to the ground are starting to bruise. They're not very tasty to me, but the horses like them.

In 2004 we picked up two mini donkeys from a horse rescue. They "might" be pregnant we were told. That had to do with a gelded donkey they'd bought at auction but they didn't actually check his plumbing. He was intact. We asked our vet about pregnancy test for mini donkeys because they can't be palpated like a full sized horse. Our vet wasn't a big donkey fan to begin with but he said a blood test could be done but was rather pricey at $200 each. His advice? When the apple is ripe it will drop.

The following March each of our mini donkeys dropped a cute little baby.