The Hunt

We promised ourselves to take it slow with the farming for the end of the year, but picking apples isn't real work, right?

It's almost like pouring water from a tap, or switching on the cotton candy machine, it's easy like...picking up a fruit with your bare hands I guess 😁.
I don't think I will pick all the apples, just because we need to feed the surrounding birds, wasps, hornets; the way I see it: If they're busy with the tree, they aren't bothering me.

There were some areas that weren't really accessible, and sometimes the apples were just too high to reach, I will come back for them with a ladder.
We barely spend time on this side of the property, I am still thinking of planting more trees in a near future,

Trail found

As we don't spend much time on that side of the property, more wild life is coming and going every days, and few clues led us to a trail.

There are always the usual fox , deer, and boars drops on this field. This the very same field where I found one of our chicken (ninja), rest in peace.
We can't see it very well on the pics, but there is a trail that created a pathway, down to the road.

Something seems to have dragged a muddy prey across the road. Of course, we don't have anyone showing us the sings, so it's a lot of guessing. The prey was probably the size of a rabbit, we thought it could also be a bike that had a muddy wheel, but it would have left a tire mark.

Right at the level of the track, with founds more scats, inside a hole. Could that be a badger? They are the only animals that poop in holes, that I know of. This is where I get my info from.

Jacky was observing us from afar, from a shady spot 😁 where he could still enjoy our company.

Funny, because the next day, Jack chose a similar spot, it looks like he hasn't moved from one day to the other.

We've filled up a basket very quickly, and one thing I've learnt with potatoes, don't dig up too many at once, because you might end up with rotten food. For now we are making a lot of compotes, which you call "applesauce" in English if I am correct.

I really enjoy easy work, so when the big apples are easy to reach, I am not going to complain.

What I have noticed though, is that on the side that gets most of the sunlight, the apples are red, and sweet! We already turned these ones into an apple pie once, which needed very little sugar, if you have any apple related recipe, don't hesitate to share it in the comment section!

This is filling up nicely. This rack is normally filled with wine bottles, but lately we've been focusing on fruits a lot (don't worry we still love wine 😁) more, drinking also a lot of carrot juice and tomato juice, excellent anti oxidant, people that knows me, knows that I talk about graphene oxide all day, especially since you can find it in the jab, masks, hydrogel, etc... Don't listen to me, I am just rambling.

This is the famous compote:

There is a hectare, that is left discarded. For those that remember a garden journal from few months ago, I was talking about some more work to do with vines on fruit trees. Well this is a pear tree, which barely yielded any fruits this year, and an apple tree next to it.

I might cut it all during winter, when the grass is lower, and less chances of getting stung by wasps and hornets...Speaking of which...

Privats vs Asian Hornets

I can't really blame them, look how juicy they look. I give you that I might have edited all the pictures, photoshoped them, just to make it all look extra yummy, but still, if I were a hornet, I would straight up dive into that tree, which they did by the way.

It makes life a little hard, as every time I pick an apple, I have to be very careful that there isn't a hornet in it, otherwise it's game over 😁. Though our buddy @rubido got stung at least 4 times the other day and was just fine, but the beers eased the pain I am sure, what a warrior! I ain't taking no risk.

Let me know if you can stop the hornet on the picture below:

As you can see, a neighbour dropped us pumpkins, it was for the potatoes we gave to everyone last month. Great to see that people still remember my potatoes :) I still have some more if anyone is interested!

On that good note, check a miracle that happened today, which has nothing to do with anything, but I thought was pretty cool.

Voilà, that's it for today, now let's eat some apples!