A Fruitful Day

Posted on July 21, 2019 by TJ

We were supposed to get some big storms Friday and Saturday with high winds, torrential rain, and possible tornadoes. We watched massive storms come towards us on radar on our computers but just before they reached us, they split and went around us. Other areas did get hit by the storm, but all we got was a little rain. The storms used to do the same thing when we lived downstate–split and go around us. I’m beginning to wonder if EJ and I repel storms. 😉

The weather today was sunny and cooler than it has been. EJ and I drove to a local orchard and picked sweet cherries. Northern Michigan has many, many cherry, apple, grape, apricot, and peach orchards. It’s beautiful to pass the miles of orchards, both in the Spring when the trees are blossoming, and later when they are heavy with fruit.

EJ and I each had our own bucket and picked from the same tree. It was very peaceful picking and chatting. The trees were weighed with cherries, which I thought looked like beautiful ruby jewels. It was incredibly fun. We filled our buckets and ended up picking more than 22 pounds of cherries. Obviously, we will freeze many of them and enjoy them all winter.

The orchard didn’t have Saskatoon berries, but we had passed a fruit stand on our way there with a Saskatoon berry sign out front, so we stopped in on our way home a bought a pint. We were surprised that the couple who owned that second orchard had stopped at our house to buy eggs a couple weeks ago!

After we got home, EJ did a few odds jobs–washing the cherries, bringing the laundry in off the clothesline, cooking our meal (not sure if it was a very late lunch or early supper), and working on the Xterra. I mowed the lawn, did dishes, cared for the chickens and brought in their day’s supply of eggs.

Yesterday a woman contacted me wanting to buy two dozen eggs each week. Apparently, she uses them to make organic dog food for her pets. She is going to stop by early this evening.

We are getting just enough regular customers now that we are thinking about expanding our flock. We decided not to let our broody hen hatch eggs because some of them, no doubt, would be roosters. We already have two roosters, and though they are nice, two is enough! I went looking online for a place to buy chicks and learned that TSC is having their Fall Chick Days in about a week. We didn’t even know they had a Chick Days at this time of year. This means we can go to the store to pick the chicks up, and we can specify that we want females. We are thinking of getting five or six chicks. There are benefits to getting chicks at this time of year because they will be old enough to lay eggs in the Spring.