The other day when we went to the creek, we saw a big, gnarly old apple tree.

Rupert said he couldn’t imagine why Dawn found it interesting because it rarely has any apples on it.

I have to say it was fun to climb. Dawn had us help her break off some twigs and some of the greener looking leaves.

We brought them into the house and broke them up in small pieces. I didn’t think these were going to burn for very long in the stove, but it turned out that wasn’t what she had in mind.

Instead of putting them in the stove, we put them in a pot and added some water. You can just barely see the pot on the stove behind me.

After the pot had simmered for about three hours the water got really dark. We added wool yarn and cotton fabric and let it simmer for another hour or so. Dawn says this part is a lot easier in the winter when the stove is going. In the summer she has to use the gas cookstove and it heats up the kitchen and makes the Mister grumpy.

Here’s what it looked like after we hung it up and it dried. Dawn was hoping for a good color to make a doll with. We all think this will work.