Things in the Fall

 

Breakfast after our visit to the orchards. Yum!!

Such a rainy spring and summer. It was hard to get anything planted in the garden, then harder yet to wade in the mud to get the weeds out.  Oh well, there is next spring... it is bound to be better we hope.

Just as the trees were starting to turn their brilliant colors for Fall, I took a photo from the 3rd floor. Today the wind is blowing and those colors are ending on the ground. I love the crunch of dried leaves under foot.

My memories of tree ripened peaches from the orchards on the Western slopes of the Rocky Mountains were haunting me. We decided to make the trip to Palisade Colorado at peach ripening time to 'get me some' of those juicy tree ripened fruit. I contacted a couple family operated orchards and chose Peach Fork Orchard as my main stopping place. The peaches were excellent. Higher priced due to the shorter peach crop, but worth every cent they cost. Darn that late spring frost the region had suffered this year.

I bought 5 boxes that I knew would need to be canned within a few days. I had taken clean jars, my canner, and the business part of my turkey cooker as I knew tree ripened ment they would not travel well for very long. The remaining boxes I purchased were packed with dividers for the peaches and they would travel just fine as long as I did not leave them in the heat for very long.

Fortunately we had family visiting from Ohio and New Mexico the same weekend we planned to stay at the old family homestead. They all pitched in and we had those peaches canned before the day was done.

Bless Charlie's heart, he scalded all those boxes of peaches so Virginia could peal and pit them.

 My job was putting them in the jars and loading the canner racks. We had the rest of the crew sitting around the turkey burner with the canner full of jars... timing it and unloading the jars so the next batch could be loaded.  Thanks to all you guys for helping me.

 

We harvested our grapes this week, so grape juice and jelly is the next thing on our agenda.  Fall is such a glorious time of year.

 

Beautiful snow

Memories from 2011... We do not have this much snow this year. Plenty of wind though.

We left during the start of this blizzard in December, to meet some friends in Branson Mo. A good thing we had 3 people left behind in charge of any chaos this storm might cause.
The aftermath was absolutely beautiful. Our 3 caretakers did call us with a bit of whining about how cold it was. Hey! It was not all that warm in Branson, either.
I can't think of anything more beautiful then the sun shining on snow covered branches.
I am thankful Michelle, Fred and Donya kept the home fires burning while we were gone.

This was just the start of the snow season in December. We have had many more snow storms, wind blowing and drifting the snow, and way more below 0 days this winter then I care to remember. I'm very anxious to see a January thaw... just 1 week left for it to appear. The garden catalogs have arrived !!! yea !!! Spring must be on it's way.

Dog Days of February

Dog days of February?!!!

 We usually try to visit our grandchildren during February... but not this year. Repairs and improvements to the barn have been keeping us busy. It feels like we hardly get one thing repaired and something else decides to break down. Today the heating element to the oven had to be replaced. Horrors!! no cookies or home made bread when you have no oven. 

I found the funniest very short video on the internet and will put a link for your entertainment.