Apple Picking!

Hi, everyone!
It’s been a while since I wrote because I’ve been busy helping Grandma and Grandpa work on projects! Grandma made a Christmas stocking for Thomas to match the ones she and I made for Aunt Kara and James two years ago. Grandpa polished both of the cars. Doesn’t Grandma’s car look shiny?

Yesterday the Young Families dinner group from church came out to Sodus to pick apples. On Friday, I helped Grandma make a big pot of chili for everybody to eat after apple picking. I had to make sure I remembered the recipe from last year! Grandma says it’s a good thing I don’t cry when I cut up onions! After the onions were cut up, I helped Grandma dice the green peppers we got at the Fairport Farmer’s market last weekend. We used canned tomatoes and kidney beans, so I didn’t need to chop them! Then I helped brown the meat and stirred in all the spices! Grandma says chili tastes best when it’s made ahead and the flavors get a chance to blend.

We started cooking the chili in Fairport and took it out to Sodus to finish and cool. While the chili was cooking, we found out which tree the eagle sits in next door! The sun is setting over land now, even when we watch from the very end of the lighthouse pier. So on Friday we just went down to the end of the road for sunset.

Apple picking on Saturday was lots of fun! We had six families meeting at Alasa Farms orchard. I was a good helper by paying for the apples before we began to pick. Then Grandma and I picked honeycrisp apples, because they are some of the earliest ones to ripen. I got the apples that were high up on the tree by climbing into the long-handled apple picker! After we had picked our apples, my friend Hannah helped me find some apples on the ground to feed to the farm animals.

We all went across the road from the orchard to Crackerbox Palace farm animal sanctuary. I made friends with a donkey, and my friend Hannah helped me meet the goats without getting eaten! There were more horses in the pastures this year than last year, and some of them didn’t get as many apples as they wanted!

We had a parade of cars to drive back to our place, and then we had yummy snacks while the chili was warming up. I had dinner with my friend Hannah and visited my other Young Family church friends. I even helped wash the dishes afterward!

Fall officially started today! In another week or so, the apples that Grandma likes to use for pies will be ripe. I think I might be going apple picking again!
Love,
Lion-san