Cidering! Fall is here

Geesh, I've been trying to upload these pictures since Monday and finally got them to upload.  Will I always have computer issues!?

Here's the weekly foliage shot.  I promise you, it is getting more colorful out there!

Tuesday Farm Crew was a little different.  We made cider!  It was my first time making cider, and I really liked it!  It reminds me of pasteurizing milk (I know, I know.  It's all about cows with me...)

Step 1 was dumping the apples into the cider crusher (very technical name).  When the apples got dumped in, someone hand cranked the machine and crushed the apples into a mash, which fell into a little basket.

After the apples were crushed, the basket was pushed forward and a wooded disk was placed on top.  Someone turned the black piece you see in the picture, so it pressed the apples and all the juice came out.

 

Once we had enough cider, we put it in a sap finisher, brought it up to 170 degrees to pasteurize it, and then shut the heat off.

Then, we bottled!  We made 16 gallons.  Woo woo!  

Fall is really here uh?  I'm loving Fall in Vermont.  

Monday Monday...I mean Tuesday!

I spent all day thinking it was Monday.  It's actually Tuesday, but my Monday because I had a three day weekend.  Woo!

Here's my weekly foliage shot: 
 

Some changes...it's looking a little more brown I suppose...

Today was a festive day at The Ranch.  Our annual Harvest Festival.  It's to celebrate the work of the ranch - the cider that was pressed, the meat that was raised, the veggies grown.  We spent this cool fall (though it's still technically summer) day setting up for the dinner, where past and present Ranchers came to celebrate.  It's a fairly big celebration, and very sweet.  It starts with everyone standing together in a circle, and words of appreciate are said about the the work that the community does all year.  Then we eat!  Everything we ate was from The Ranch which is really, really cool. Yay for eating local!  It may sound funny, but I like knowing exactly the cow that I'm eating (well, not exactly, but I have a 50/50 chance of guessing which cow it was).  I know that sounds weird to many people, but for me it makes me feel better.  I knew exactly what went into that animal.  It's reassuring.

Oh, here's my beautiful flower arrangement for one of the tables!  Very proud of my work.

Long Time No See!

I apologize for not being around as much as I use too!  Things are a little busy for me now playing rugby and taking a class, and obviously still farming.  Here are some highlights from the past week or so!

We finally got our pigs outside.  They were scared at first, but they love it now.  It's so great to see them out there - pigs are meant to be outside!  I feel like they have even grown since taking this picture!
 

We also "tried" to let our turkeys outside to get some grass.  Fail.  We watched them for a good 15 minutes while they explored their new surroundings.  The minute we walked away, they flew up and over the fence (and it is a fence that's even taller than the one showed in this pictures.  These little turkeys are just that - to little to go outside yet.  Kind of bummed about that, but I don't feel like chasing turkeys...

We have also power washed our barn - yay! Hopefully this week we'll be starting to paint.  And hopefully I'll be spreading manure if I can figure out what is wrong with the manure spreader!  That's my mission for the next week.  (hhmm, there are a lot of hopes in those last couple of statements.) 

I don't know if you remembered last year when I tried to take a weekly picture of the foliage change?  I don't think I ever finished that little project, so I'm trying again.  Here's a view of some gorgeous VT hills, and you can very faintly see the beginnings of change.  Fall is coming, and winter will soon be here.  Not sure how I feel about that.

Home Sweet Home

Finally.  I'm home!  Last weekend I moved to a small apartment in the same town The Ranch is in.  I'm so in love with it.  The apartment is beautiful, the surrounding 130 acres that the land lord owns is beautiful, and it has one of the best views I've seen!  It's a good, grounding vision that I see every morning, afternoon, and night.  

It also feels very good to be settled.  I haven't felt settled in about a year.  It's been a long year because of that.

Work is going well.  Haying is officially done.  I did not get a count on the last haying, but it unfortunately got rained on after some mechanical difficulty.  It was given to a neighboring farmer who in exchange will give The Ranch six hours of milling lumber.  Now we'll just break down the equipment, prep it for winter, and get some other projects together that need to get done before winter comes.  And believe me, the list is long.

I should be blogging more now that I have consistent (I hope) internet.  But rugby has started!  We had our first game yesterday, won 55-5 against Morris, NJ.  It was a fantastic start to the season.