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.

TGIF: "Journey to the Heart"

Here is my TGIF post.  How long has it been since I've written one of these!?

How Am I Trusting

I'm trusting the moment.  I've been so caught up lately in my future, in my frustrations.  It's been very helpful for work and my personal life.  I bought this book called Journey to the Heart.  It says, "Let your mind see what your soul already knows: things are working out perfectly."

How Am I Grateful?

I am grateful for where I am in life.  Even when I get frustrated by it.  I'll be quoting this new book of mine a lot I think!  "Maybe you are where you are today for a reason other than you thought."  I need to repeat that to myself over and over again when I'm feeling lost, frustrated, and confused.

How Am I Inspired?

I know I've used this one before, and it sounds like I have an ego, but I am inspired by myself.  Working with how to be comfortable alone and not be lonely.  And to learn how to be myself!  It's always a continual journey right?  And to remember that I have the power to choose everything (or mostly) that's in my life.  "You have the power to create joy by choosing what feels good to you.  The time for joy isn't later.  The time for joy is now."

How Am I Practicing My Faith?

Probably with this book.  I use to be so good at meditating, and have gotten out of the habit of of it.  This book has helped me remember all that and ground myself again.

Summit

I apologize for not being as active as I use too!  My internet connect is not as consistent, but by next week it hopefully will be - I'm moving (again)!  I'm actually kind of excited about it.

This past weekend I had to work.  No it wasn't haying (though my last entry lied, I am not done haying. Long story and I'll get into that later).  But The Ranch had it's Strategic Planning Summit.  It was a good weekend in the end.  Though I don't feel that The Ranch is going to necessarily be supportive of my ideas of work program, it was great to be a part of this.  I've never had a job that's been organized enough to sit down and plan 3-5 years from now.  Kind of crazy, and gives a good feeling of hope that not all jobs are unstable as the ones I've had in the past.

I brought up my opinion on a stronger work program, which I think was received well.  Though I had supporters, I felt that many people thought that our work program was "cutting edge" enough (those words were used).  I wish I had been able to form the following thought at the summit instead of last night, but I finally figured out how to put what I feel is missing into words:

The Ranch was started to support people with mental illness.  It provides a caring, supportive, empathetic, nonjudgmental environment for those individuals. But now we take people with addiction issues.  A completely different population than that of mental illness.  People with addiction issues are not stupid - they have been manipulating the system for years.  Unfortunately the same thing happens here at The Ranch.  I don't believe our work program is providing enough stimulation for the addicts in our system.  While people with mental illness may be incapacitated by their illness and medications, the addicts I've worked with are not.  Why not provide more stimulation for them here?  Work program is the best place to start.  

I know I have to be careful with what I say.  But it finally feels good to have words with the feelings I've felt for a few months now.  Whether or not I can expand the farm program I don't know yet.  I think that I could.

Meanwhile, remember that garden I started earlier this summer?  Here are some yummy veggies from there!  It's done decent with broccoli and green beans.  The tomatoes not so much.  But I'll throw a bunch of compost on it and it should be fantastic next year!

Haying Complete!

After working through the weekend, Monday we baled 751 bales of hay.  751!  We met our need for the winter, and even had 300 that we couldn't fit into the barns.  Unfortunately the field isn't the nicest that we have, but it's more of a favor to the neighbors (who are some of the nicest people I have ever met, by the way).  

It is so nice to know that I'm officially done with haying.  Hopefully.  There is another neighbor who is anxious for us to start his fields, but we have no place to put it.  Sorry buddy!

Now that I am done, I feel like I can start prioritizing other projects for the ranch, such as our permanent fencing, some minor (but probably will turn into a huge) restructuring of our corral, and starting a new proposal for the farm department at the Ranch.  All very exciting.