Grapefruit

By now you all know my love for grapefruit and the three tree's that we have here in our yard, ok, not my yard my aunt and uncle's.  Today I drank my 3rd to the last glass of grapefruit juice while here in Phoenix (for now)  from the 3 grapefruit that I picked on 2 different tree's.  The grapefruit are getting to be so juicy and sweet because it is nearing the end of the season.

Can you tell I got another hair cut today?

Tomorrow I will pick as many as I can to bring home and to take to work.  I'm pretty sure I'll be all scraped up because those limbs are thorny like and not very nice.
Did you know a big grapefruit tree is like an umbrella?  We have 2 smaller tree's here and one huge one.  I love to go underneath the huge one and pick my grapefruit with my grapefruit picker; yes there is such a thing as a grapefruit picker for the grapefruit that is too high to reach, even with it I can't reach the really high ones.

The grapefruit picker has a lovely basket that the grapefruit falls into.

When I first got to AZ it made me sick to see any grapefruit wasted when they would fall to the ground, however I think I'm use to it, even though I still hate a wasted grapefruit.  The scary thing is when I'm reading on the trampoline and I hear from the top of the tree a grapefruit falling through the leaves and then the boom onto the ground.  I cover my head hoping it isn't headed toward me when I start to hear the leaves shuffle.  

This is got from the two grapefruit above.  The one was huge.

When I was 8 we got a box of grapefruit one Winter.  I have no idea where it came from, but I was happy to have it.  I had a half of one every morning for breakfast.  That June we drove to see Phoenix on our way to Disneyland where I ate more grapefruit.  On our way home I developed some really bad right flank pain (side pain) and had blood in my urine along with some nausea and vomiting.  It took at least a week, but felt like forever as different doctors poked and prodded and finally determined that I had a kidney stone.  According to my mom it took 6 weeks for it to pass, even though I still think it took all Summer.  I remember rolling in circles in a fetal position on the kitchen floor and puking because of the retched pain I was in.  One night my parents got a babysitter so they could go on a date and my parents bought me this art set I think so they wouldn't feel guilty for leaving me under such circumstances.  Every so often I would have to have a study to see where the stone was, so they had to clean my poor little 8 year old body out.  Do you know I really don't like mint because of this?   It stems from my mom putting castor oil in a mint milk shake, which I didn't really drink because of the disgusting taste, but my siblings did.  I still wonder what effect it had on their bowels.  Eventually the stone passed and all were happy.  The pathology report:  a citric acid stone.  From:  eating too many GRAPEFRUIT.  Since then every time I eat grapefruit my mother reminds me to drink a glass of water to wash it out.  And since I've been here, my mother continues to remind me to drink my water.  I drink plenty of water, however I drink a lot of grapefruit juice and I hope and pray I don't develop a stone ever, let alone in the next 15 weeks.  What a way to ruin a Summer.
I will admit, I think I'm just about grapefruited out.  But I'm sure if I'm to come back during the Winter I will be back to a glass of grapefruit juice with lots of ice every day!

The newly growing grapefruit look like limes.  I wonder if they taste like limes at this stage of growth?