I have had a complete time of it lately. It's been a bit of a roller coaster, but a fun one. Mostly. I've been pretty swamped by various classes, prepping for a Debate coming up, SAT studying, and I think the season is beginning to close for apples and such. I'm going to post again on Nextdoor Neighbor soon just in case there are still some people, and there might be a Novato branch in the works depending on whether or not I finally get around to contacting some friends. This is a post covering the last two picking sessions, one of which we just dropped by a single house for apples and pears. The trees were young, which made it really convenient for picking. The driveway was stressful though. Very nearly terrifying actually. It was really steep and there was a really tight corner at the very top that took forever to navigate around. On the way out, I got the car tire stuck on a curb, but it's all good. No harm done, thankfully.
The second day was a bit busier. This time we were able to pick up two bags of pears, and then head to Mill Valley for two more houses; one had apples, and the other had plums. (Do you see my SAT studying paying off?) The apple tree was actually really nice to pick. It was tall, but absolutely loaded, and old enough to climb. I was able to get more pickers this time as well, so things went a lot faster that day, and we ended up getting 123 pounds from that single tree. The second house had plums, and that's a whole different story. Let's just say plums are a lot more annoying to pick than apples. A lot. The pickers aren't nearly as affective, and plums are so soft they tend to smush really easily. And since they're so soft, they fall of the tree at the slightest breeze, so for every three you get, at least one falls on the ground. And then you step on them. That's not to say I won't ever pick plums. I actually enjoy it; it's a good break from being a junior in high school. There's something methodical about figuring out how to navigate a tree with an unnecessary amount of branches. My friend and I made a competition out of it, because we are both too competitive for our respective goods. I won, obviously. But that might have something to do with the fact that her arm was injured and she couldn't wield a picker correctly.
... I still won.
Between the two days, we got 232 lbs this time! Considering the way the season is wrapping up, I think that's a pretty good amount, all things considered. It's mad to think that I now consider 232 less than usual, like the first day I was surprised to get over one hundred. And now two hundred is less.
Also, if my last name is spelled wrong on the form it still counts right?
We also stopped by a house for the second time to get the apples, and we ended up getting over 150 lbs from her tree alone. It was a little insane. We spent a good two hours at that house figuring out how to not stab ourselves on a few stunning rosebushes while picking the apples. What we got probably wasn't even half of what we could have. Not because we didn't clear the tree, I actually think we got really close to getting everything, but between the bad apples and the few we couldn't reach, there was probably the same amount scattered among the branches and piled into a green can for compost.
Anyway, that was my last two pickings. This blog post is.... really overdue, so this is me doing my best to catch up. I'm going to set myself a reminder to talk to some of my friends tomorrow about this... organization? Can I call it an organization? And see if I can expand into places a bit too far for me to travel, especially with school.
Anyway! Thank you to all the donors who let us into their yards for their fruit! I really, truly appreciate it!
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