Red Apple Barn 2019

We were back to the Red Barn Apple Orchard today, and as always, it was a pleasant experience.  Last year's crops were damaged by a hailstorm, and the heat was a bit intense the last time we paid a visit, but this time we saw the overcast weather and the threat of storms coming in from a northeast direction.  The heat would normally be pretty ferocious, but this looming weather gave us cover for a few hours to dive up to Ellijay quickly before the bottom dropped out.

Our plan worked!  Not only that, there weren't as many people in all the orchards as per usual, perhaps because of the threat of weather.  Whatever the reason, we enjoyed a nice quiet time up there in the mountains, picking apples.  Not only that, because we were here on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, we got to spend a little more time doing things than we usually do.  You can see the barn up by the orchards here, this one a good bit off the main road, and only accessible by a small tractor ride.

We climbed aboard the trailer, and as it has done for years now, our tractor pulled us up the mountain along a path towards all the apple trees, and just one look of the trees this time confirmed it:  the harvest was huge.  The trees were dotted with beautiful apples of all kinds!

We were there to pick our usual favorite, Jonagold.  But there were a few other kinds that we picked as well, including Cameos and Gala apples.  We tried a few Suncrisp, but weren't big fans of that.  Here's a new name to us:

Yeet!  Or, at least it's called "Yate!"  these were smaller, and had a different taste about them.  They weren't our favorite, but as you can see, the trees were loaded with them.  All the trees had a lot of apples on them, and there were so many fresh ones.

Here's Madison with the fruit of our labor.  We remembered this time to bring the basket we bought from them last time, and used that to collect all our apples.  We tend to go off over a rise to pick the Jonagold apples first, and then we go for the Cameos and others.  Daddy took the extra trip to go after a few Gala apples, and those were delicious.

Like I said though, we weren't the biggest fans of the Golden Crisp.  It's great though, just picking off apples off the tree to sample.  We aren't wasteful, of course.  In fact, even with the Golden Crisp, we ate most of that apple before turning in our verdict.

In the end, we spent a good deal of time up there on the mountain.  We've grown to really like this orchard, even though last year's crops were a little down.  There were a decent amount of others up there, picking apples as well.  But it wasn't so crowded that you felt as if you were really competing to get the best apples.  And along the way, you could pick up the ones off the ground, and guess where those went?

There were four mules there, and they must love weekends.  All day long it seems, people come up to the fences with their apples, palms outstretched, and these mules just eat the whole apple.

Madison fed about four apples to them, and I have a feeling they could have just kept eating.  And in fact, that's just what happened.  There were others feeding apples too.  It's a wonder that these mules aren't as round as boulders by this point.

It's a perfectly pleasant time up there on the mountain.  It's great looking through the trees for just the right apples, and being tempted to go ahead and take a big bite of one right there and then.  Not only were the mules eating, we were munching on apples too.

We rode the trailer back down, and as always, there's more we do.  Madison, Mommy and Daddy played a game of corn hole, one where both Mommy and Madison got two in the hole right away!  Another tradition has become the painting of small rocks.  They provide the paint, and the three of us sit down to create masterpieces with paint!

Madison did the candy corn and the Ghostbusters rocks, with Mommy doing the "Welcome" rock, and Daddy doing a small red apple barn at an apple orchard.  These take just a little time to do, but that's just the thing about this kind of trip:  taking your time, resting, and enjoying everything there is to offer.

In that spirit, we were up at the store to enjoy the usual apple cinnamon doughnut, and some apple cider as well.  Mommy got peanut brittle and some local honey, and a new thing for us this year was that we could pick a flower if we wanted to.

These flowers were very colorful.  The girls each picked three (as Daddy didn't need to pick a flower!).  Soon, there was a very nice bouquet that we took home and set up on the kitchen table.  Here's the girls posing with their flower now:

It was a fun time there.  The people who work there are super nice, and even recognized us from the year before.  Not only that, they remembered the rocks we painted last year!  Oh, and there was one more new presence there, another sighting!

That's right.  It was Big Foot.  I sense a theme here.  We keep running into Big Foot lately!  It seems as if even he is pretty hungry for some apples.

On the way home, it poured rain, very heavily.  Of course, we got home and there was not a drop there the entire day.  Our house is in some sort of dry zone where all these approaching storms are greatly dwindled by some unseen force.

So once again, no rain for us, but rain for everyone else in the state, apparently.  Oh well.

We got home, and we were pretty zonked, to be honest.  We had a full day.  Still, we watched "Scooby Doo," and had some popcorn.  Madison had a bath, and we did some reading from the latest Star Wars book, now the third book in the series.  We have to get up early again tomorrow for church, but today was a nice day - for sleeping in, and for going to get apples.   We said our prayers, and were off to sleep pretty quickly.  It was a good day, a tiring one in some ways, but a good and unforgettable afternoon in the orchards.