Crabby...

What is this we see? It is my BlamMa car in front of my Tuesday afternoon project. Behind my Buick is a crabapple tree. This tree sits on city property in Sadieville and had a lot of crabapples on it. I noticed it a few weeks ago while walking the street (Get that? Singular.) of Sadieville with Cindy Foster to take pictures of her in front of the Mt. Pleasant Church. Cindy told me it was city property and the crabapples should be free for the pickin'.

I went home and told Claude I had a great idea--again!! I wanted to pick those crabapples and make crabapple jelly. The jelly could them be sold to raise money for the Friends of Sadieville Renaissance to help restore this old church and the school behind it. Yesterday after Claude's city meeting and my swearing in, I had him drive me to the crabapple tree to get another confirmation this was city property and I wouldn't be stealing someone's crabapples (even if it is a worthy cause). Claude assured me it was city property and to have fun. We were anticipating rain yesterday afternoon and the rest of the week. (We haven't had it yet but we can always hope.) Claude spent the afternoon with Papa at the Family History Center in Lexington being trained to work there. He came home and started to mow the lawn before any rain came. The cloud cover was beginning to form. I determined that was the moment for picking. So I headed out to take part of my afternoon and pick me some crabapples.

I carried my gardening gloves, my sunglasses, a bucket and an old metal dishpan. I back the mighty red BlamMa steed into place beside the tree and set up my pickin' area. There was enough cloud cover till it was not too hot. I was reaching and pulling down branches to get the crabapples picked. It just felt good to be out pickin' and movin'. Then I realized I have spent most of this year not doing these kinds of things because of my surgery in March. I still can't and should never lift 25 lbs items. But I've been so careful that I haven't been out pulling weeds or anything. This just felt good. Work is a good thing and it makes us feel good. I totally enjoyed this picking experience. Then I noticed little berries on some of the 'limbs'. I realized this tree was FULL of vines and had different leaves than the crabapple leaves. I realized that there was lots, and lots, and lots of poison ivy growing all through this tree. I tried to be careful and not scratch any part of me. But I'm having fits with allergies and figured I would probably spread it all over me somehow dealing with sneezing and itchy eyes and blowing and coughing. I determined I had already been exposed so I would gather all the crabapples I could and hurry home and clean up. Since I'm highly allergic to poison ivy I rushed home and hit the hot water and soap to clean all that stuff off me. So far, no sign of a reaction. I poured all my crabapples in the metal dishpan. This was a pan from my mom's home. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't belong to Gramma Fisch (my maternal grandmother). Here is a shot of my haul.

I had a great time pickin' crabapples. Now I plan to make the jelly on Thursday. Hopefully it will turn out. I made some years ago when we lived in Denver and it is just a really good light jelly. I'll let you know how it turns out.