THS Acappella Choir

Beautiful Christopher in his first tux:

And a brief excerpt (Offenbach's "Neighbor's Chorus"):


Grandma and Grandpa came, and Grandma Gene. We had banana splits afterwards.

Red Red Rose (More Choir)

You can hear the high tenor (Chris' part) throughout this section, especially at the end.

John's Fall Harvest

Look what John has done this fall--peaches, tomato juice, white grape juice, purple grape juice, pear jam, and apple juice. He's used up all the quart jars and sent us scrambling for more. Now he's making applesauce and preserving it in pint jars because we have tons of pints and we only use that much applesauce at a time (this way it won't go moldy in the fridge). He says there's one more batch of tomato juice and he's done for the season.

Apple Rain!

So we went down to the Farm to pick apples and make juice. Usually that is a multi-day effort (well, they had been picking for a few days before), but this time, because of the hard frost which froze all the twigs and leaves, the apples were dropping (like apples!), and Kendrick got up in the trees and shook the fruit down onto tarps and it was much speedier than picking them all off the branches by hand. And then we made juice that same afternoon. We weren't there for the whole effort, but we got 20 gallons and John was able to pack it all into the freezer except for one batch to bottle and a gallon to drink straight.

Apple Juice!

Betsy and Ethan are ready to work at the orchard--and get busy with John picking up the fallen apples.
J.Lynn picks up the fruit that Kendrick shook out of the tree:
We're done! Grandpa carts the equipment back down the lane to the barnyard:
The Lane:
Bryce and Shane wash apples while Cindy rinses out the 5-gallon jugs:
J.Lynn, Kelly, Pesi, and Grandpa run the apple press:
Trent and Tana jug the juice. Yum!
And one gratuitous picture of Ethan.

Rainbow

I was going to write a post on health care reform, but rainbows are easier.

Dave Came to Visit

Here John and Dave eat Smores from our new fire pit (above), and Mike visits with Dave, Nicolle, and Ethan:
Roasting marshmallows:
Brett drinks coke:
Marshmallows are serious business:


Colette makes a new friend:
Backyard camping:

I really like the firepit. It is lightweight, cute, and $59 at Lowe's. But dang, we've got to finish that one little corner of the garden (or at least get the buckets full of rocks out of sight).