Cider Pressing Party

I am finally sitting down to write this post after an eventful day to say the least.  More about today in a future post.  Some days I am sure we could bring some cash in as reality show.  Regardless, the house is finally QUIET & clean! Well, for the most part.  I have certain criteria that must be met before bed …dishes, counters, floors washed.  Notice folding laundry and clean kids rooms are not on this list. LOL 

Back to my original story….last weekend we hosted our first annual cider pressing party.  The weather was beautiful and it was well attended by friends & family. 

Please excuse the shadowing of the pictures.  The sun was nice & warm but made picture taking a bit challenging.  Kind of entertaining to look back at these pictures from last Sunday because today we received about 6 inches of snow and the conditions were brisk & windy.  Kids will be wearing boots and snowsuits out trick or treating tomorrow night.  I do not ever remember seeing snow this early in the season.  For the last couple years I have pressed apples at my friend’s house just across the river.  Here are posts from 2009 and 2010 if you have any desire to look back.  Last year my farmer friend attended so he could  check out her operation….this year he made me my very own cider press.

Isn’t it a BEAUTY?

This is definitely one of the nicest things I have ever received. I will FOREVER cherish this gift!

Not only did he make this without plans, he sawed the lumber with his mill.

My farmer friend…one AMAZING man!Dolly & my nieceBiker Stacy, Dolly & Country BoyMaine Man’s baby begging for food.  It’s about the ONLY time you’ll see her sitting still when she is outside.  My SIL’s cool jug full over cider.  It’s perfect!Aunt JQuite a crowdFriend of the family …but now I’d dare say she’s  becoming more and more like family.Cousins at play…..LOVE these shots

Mission Accomplished!

 

300 miles in 3 months update

I am nearing the end of my 4th week and I have fallen a little behind but am currently working on catching up.  As of tonight I am 72 miles into this competition (against who I don’t know…lol).  By the end of this week technically I should be well into my 100th mile.  Sometimes life circumstances come first .  Maine Man’s dad recently became very ill  and passed away.  The blessing of this unfortunate situation is that he is no longer suffering, he is in a place of rest, a better place I’m sure!

I feel better emotionally & physically but I’ve yet to loose an ounce.  My big girl jeans are still fitting just as snug when this all started.  However, I am hopeful that I will someday squeeze back into my skinny jeans.    

Jodi from Living the Road Less Traveled has joined along and her last update is here.  She is also one crafty chicky, you should check her out. 

Anna from Dragonfly Hill is also doing the challenge although honestly this is something I think she does on a regular basis.  She kicks butt and honestly looks fantabulous!

Yart from Grim Wythe Farm also mentioned she was in.  I was just pawing through her previous posts to see if there were any 300 miles updates….didn’t see any but a lot of other good information I’m interested in and hope to return to when I have more time.  You see when I first started blogging it was just reading them, then it evolved into reading lots of blogs and writing a little, now I find I have very little time to write or read them.  Funny how that all worked out!

Will update on this again sometime soon.  New joiners WELCOME.    Next post will be of our Apple Cider Pressing Party and a book review to follow. 

Feel the Love!

After a long, emotionally taxing  day I came home to this  yesterday.

Dolly broke out of her pen and made friends with T-Bone!

Made me smile, LOVE IT!!

Time for learning

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Tragedy Strikes!

Country Boy  & Flower Girl begged and pleaded with Maine Man for his permission to get a lizard.  I didn’t really care either way.  It was their money, a science project of sorts, and heck what’s one more  animal. 

So Saturday the kids and I picked up our class pet “Levi” and the kids settled him into his new home.  Sunday CB reviewed the details of his care with FG & I.  He and his father were headed up-country to my dad’s house on a hunting adventure.

Monday I awoken to the phone ringing at 6 am.  Jumped up, surprise the ER calling for MM to come in….arggggg, let the dogs out, peak over at Levi’s cage to find a lifeless, cold, non-breathing reptile that I am suppose to be in charge of. 

At this point I am completely freaking out as I know how devastated CB will be upon his return.  So I wrap Levi and a paper towel, pay bills as there is NO possible way I can fall back asleep after this discovery, and wait until the pet store opens.

9 am the pet store opens so I call to discuss my situation.  Unsure if it was something we did to kill it.  Was it warm enough, was it able to access it’s water in the water bowl, stress of the move, who knows?  Levi had a stubbed tail so I even went as far as asking if they had the other one that looked similar.  (In hopes that CB would never know he had been replaced).  Even asked the lady if she could help out with a discount as I was now the one paying for replacement.  She agreed and even asked if I had the body if I’d bring it in so they could try and figure out the cause of death. 

Despite the madness of the day ahead we squeezed in some time to head a  few towns over to the pet store.  As we where about to leave I grabbed Levi wrapped in the paper towel, peaked down as I went to place him in a plastic bag and he blinked at me.  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  He had in fact became too cold during the night and went into some sort of hibernation state.  What a relief on many levels: emotional, financial, and time saving as we had an afternoon appointment to follow.  This mad situation also made for some good laughs throughout the day.  The best was when I had to call the pet shop owner and explain my mistaken diagnosis.  Guess I wouldn’t make the best veterinarian, better stick to nursing…LOL

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I finally broke down yesterday and colored my grays.  Every once and a while I protest and swear I’m going to stop coloring and let the grays come in as mother nature intended. Then….well, I come to my senses.  While I sat at the salon I observed a few ladies come in and get a few pink hair extensions.  I couldn’t help but inquire.  Brilliant!  They were for breast cancer awareness month.  What a GREAT idea!  Never imagined myself sporting a pink streak of hair but I love it….mostly because I love the cause it supports.  Guess what?….A whole bunch of my co-workers went straight to the salon to get their own pink hair extensions after work today.  We all work in radiology and we see a great deal of cancer patients from diagnosis on so I’m thinking this may become a yearly tradition!

Comfort Food

GOOD MOMS HAVE

STICKY FLOORS,

DIRTY OVENS,

AND HAPPY KIDS!

I am currently in the midst of cooking up some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the munchkins. I snuck in some wheat flour….they will never know!  I used  locally grown wheat flour and I am at awe at the quality  compared to store bought whole wheat flour.  I will never go back to that!  Here is a pumpkin custard recipe I shared here last year.  Try it, it is DEVINE!

300 miles in 3 months

As part of a challenge seen on Facebook I have committed to completing 300 miles (bike, walk, run, elliptical, swim) over the next 3 months.  I will intermittently post my progression here to help keep me on track.  If anyone would like to join along I ‘d love a little company (competition)

If anyone decides let me know and I will post your progress here or link to your blog when you update.  Should be fun, hoping to slip back in my skinny jeans come Christmas.  Nothing wrong with dreaming BIG!

Saturday 3 mile walk

Monday 5 mile bike ride….. 17 more miles for the week to meet my goal.

For the Love of Mother Nature

The kids captured several caterpillars, identified them, made them cozy homes and supplied them with plenty of food.  In addition they named every one of them.   What happened from there per Country Boy… “They ate for a couple days, they slowed down, they either wrapped themselves up with their leaves or they formed a chrysalis, then in 2-3 weeks they hatch into a butterfly or moth.”

Pictured above was “Rose” the very first Monarch Butterfly to be hatched in our old farmhouse.  It was a VERY cool experience to be a part of.  As soon she hatched we brought her outside, watched her dry her wings and before long she took flight up above in the maple tree. 

A simple everyday encounter that we normally take for granted.  Who would have ever thought that witnessing this metamorphosis would touch our souls so deeply.