The Second Day of Harvest

Often, the true test is found not in the first day of work, but in the second day of work, when the exertion of the previous day nags at your muscles and you might be feeling a little more tired than normal because your night was filled with dreams of being chased by giant apples...

So today we tested gravity. 

These rollers were recently greased!

Defying Gravity:

Mortal fear of Gravity:

Gravity is much more fun with two:

We did manage to get some work done!

Honest!

We also gave the dog an apple...

First Day of Harvest!

Simply put, it was a beautiful day!

The weather was sunny and cool!  Such a relief from what we've been suffering through!

And the family was very anxious to be a part of every last little detail!

I heard things like, "Mom!  This is so fun!"  and "Mom!  I love this job!"  When we needed something done, one of the boys would jump right up to volunteer and tape up boxes or cover a table that unexpectedly filled up.

Even our little friend, Sam, needed to be apart of the day's operation!

Now, I don't expect the perfection of the day to last much longer than... today. 

I am so thankful for what today was.  It was a taste of heaven! 

And since we don't have heaven on earth, I fully expect that next week my children will not be singing the, "I Love Working in an Apple Orchard Song," well, that is unless they happen to be driving a piece of farm equipment.

Farewell to Summer and Fall...

Farewell to sunny picnics

and yummy melons to share with friends!

Farewell to the flower garden and catnaps at the well.


Farewell to camping in old Nauvoo until the warm weather returns!

Farewell to orchard tours.

Farewell to the employee parking lot until next harvest time!

Farewell to barefeet and sundresses!

Farewell to creepy spiders too!

Farewell to beautiful suprise apple pies from neighbors who care!

Farewell to super swing rides until the weather turns nice and fair!

Farewell to harvest parties until next harvest year!

Farewell to carmel apple boats



Farewell to crispy apples too!



Farewell to Aunt Michelle until you can come to stay again!




Farewell to halloween!







Farewell to summer and fall!

Lookin' forward to you again next year!!

Why the Apple Farmer Won't Fire Me!

10. He likes my website design.

9. He likes my newspaper ad design.



8. He likes how I sell apples.



7. He likes how I manage to end up with homemade goodies from our employees.



6. Even though my math skills stink, he can read my writing in the reciept books better than his own.



5. He likes that people still recognize my voice from our radio ads from a couple of years ago and strike up conversations about the orchard.



4. He can't figure out how to work the apple orders data base and use the queries to print out reciepts for commercial orders.



3. He is color blind and can't tell if an apple is green or red and I can.



2. I have an innate ability of bossing people around.



1. He can't fire me because I already fired him a couple of weeks ago.

First Day of Harvest

Today was the first day of my annual temporary insanity!

Gala is the first of twelve apple varieties to be harvested.

(oops, got some Amish arms in this clip - Joe was trying to grab a couple of wormy apples without interfering with my kodak moment).

Human resources does floors, too!

After our hired help went home, the Apple Farmer and the boys all had some fun picking and grading some apples too!

Apples getting ready for their bath -

Pulling out the ugly apples so they don't end up on the tables -

Photo 'Phun!'

I've had the opportunity to spend some time with Camille! These photographs are from Tuesday of this week. Camille is the daughter of some friends of ours and she has just finished her first year at BYU. She is home for break and while home was hoping to be able to compile a portfolio so she can apply to BYU's art department. She really enjoys photography so she has asked for my help!

I'm really thrilled she has asked me for help and it has been inspiring for me.

I really need to get my cameras out again.

It is Camille's first time working with black and white film. She is shooting with a manual Japanese version of the Nikkormat FT2 (I have the US version of the FT2, which dear Uncle George gave me)! She is doing a great job and we are both anxious to develop her films to see what she got!

Our 15.7 Ounce Honeycrisp

New Harvest Trends

Not only did we manage apple harvest yesterday, but we managed a bit of walnut harvest. We also got more than we bargained for! I like to call moments like these, Missouri Moments, because they are just so incredible.

Brother and Sister Miller came out and Brother Miller demonstrated how to harvest black walnuts. He shimmied right up the tree and started jumping around in the branches. Down came the nuts! If only apples could be harvested this easily! (Isn't he just amazing!?!)
And down came the tent caterpillars!
From a distance it looked like the Apple Farmer was holding up an intricate seed pod - there are a lot of intricate seed pods in Missouri, too. I turned around and wasn't paying much attention to what he was holding. He came up behind me and told me to check it out. I turned around and right in the front of my nose was this! If I was 10 years older than I am now, I would have had a heart attack that would have killed me. But instead, my heart tried to jump up my throat, along with my lunch. Being that I am quiet youthful at my advancing age and stage, I managed to control these faculties and keep all things where they were meant to stay.