Five Carmonas: First Week of Fall

Last Sunday we celebrated the Autumn Equinox (a little early) with some great end-of-summer activities. We made tons of pesto using Kelcey's new birthday food processor. We also took all the neighborhood kids to our neighbor Hal's house to pick apples from a old tree that has been all but forgotten about.

We had David and Brandon on the ladders, the older kids in the trees filling bags, Kelcey and I on the ground dumping the full bags into the containers and sorting the apples into "save for eating," "press for cider," and "feed to goats" categories, and Gita and Willow in the back of the truck keeping the apples and the press safe.

After we felt sufficiently laden with apples, we packed up the bounty and the kids, and headed over to Brandon's to make cider and play some music. Kelcey and I took the apples we has set aside for the goats and walked down to the barnyard. We quickly realized that we really should have brought the camara with us! The goats were crazy about the apples and would get one in their mouth and tilt their head back to be able to chew it with their back teeth. Kelcey and I, both being mothers, were ready to rescue choking goats, should the need arise.
When we got to the pressing party, we were greeted with apple juice to drink and a 5 gallon jug of hard apple cider being made. Here is Brandon giving the press a crank.

And neighbors Soliel and Mullein getting in on the action.

So this is the very crazy busy time of year for me. The big conference that I start organizing in November the year before is coming up this next weekend October 3-5th. About 6 weeks prior my friends say goodbye to me and know they may see me at social events again in late October. This year has not been as bad as the last few, in that I am able to manage the work load a bit more and keep my family time, homeschooling hours, and such mostly unaffected. As we were beginning to make dinner last night, David asked if I wanted to invite Meredith, Kevin and kids over to join us. Seeing as they live right next door and I have not been pulled away from my computer long enough to pay them a visit for the past few weeks, that sounded like a great idea. So I got out of my jammies (yes, at dinner time) and tidied up the house while David and Gita made their famous guiche. Gita loves to crack the eggs.