Holiday Greetings

It occurred to me today that I would like to say Merry Christmas (sorry I am late) and Happy New Year to all my family and friends.  Although  my postings are rather sporadic I have appreciated every comment or response that I have received: ).

I am very thankful to have had all the children here for Christmas!  We went out on the property and found a Christmas tree!  We haven't had a real tree in a number of years so this was very exciting.  Thank you 3A's and Mary for making it a beautiful tree!

Below are a few close up of ornaments:

This is a cake A2 made:

Here is a picture of the lighthouse at the end of the peninsula:

Until next year!!

Pictures

My daughter commented to me today that I don't write anything on my blog anymore.  I gave the excuse that I didn't have any pictures.   However, in thinking about it later I decided you don't have to have a picture ( although I really like pictures!).

So here is a blog without a picture (but you can visualize the picture I would have taken if my hands hadn't been so cold:)   Daughter and I went skiing today because of school being canceled due to snow and cold temps.  It was very cold (20?) and very windy but fun except when I was shivering on the chair lift.  (Due to the fact Michigan has hills rather than mountains the runs are quite short so you spend quite a bit of time on the chair lift).  I learned to always bring an extra sweater! We enjoyed all the fresh air and hope to be able to go again soon!!  May everyone be enjoying the beauty of winter!

Fall Colors

The weather has been so warm here that it has seemed almost like summer but the colors of the trees and the fall fruits are definite signs that fall is here and winter will be coming.  We have had to make several one day trips to the farm and on the last one the trees were beautiful.  So here are a few pictures of the beautiful colors of fall:)

These are apples planted on a trellis.  It makes them much easier to pick! 

Hopefully I will get some of these apples processed into applesauce and apple butter this week.  Enjoy all the beautiful colors of fall!

Pictures

Things have been busy with the first few weeks of school.  Lots of senior activities etc.  And writing a blog post hasn't been on my things that get done list.  Maybe because I'm still hoping for a faster way to post pictures. One thing I need to do is convince myself to delete pics from my memory card after downloading them to the computer.  This might even help my camera with speed on taking pics! (Because the memory card for my camera was full I did actually have to delete some stuff to make room for taking new ones).  I have been looking at lots of pictures lately and here are some pictures that caught my eye:

This picture may have been taken by my daughter.  Love the colors.  I am also experimenting on exporting different sizes so we'll see if there are any differences. (After looking at some of the other pics it may be a resolution difference).

We were at a gathering with friends and one of the kids was showing us how they could do a headstand and I snapped this picture:)

We missed going sailing.

I may have put this picture in before but I just think it is an amazing picture.  I wish I could say I took it:)

This reminds me of summer!

The Senior Ladies flag football team!!  Go Seniors!

Such a cute picture!

I do love flowers!

Fall harvest is beginning!

I hope you enjoyed at least one of these pictures and that you'll be inspired to have plenty of room on your memory card and go take pictures!!

August Flew By

When I saw that my last post was August 2 my first thought is now the title.  How do these days fly by so quickly?  August was very busy and now we are in school mode and missing farm mode!  Here are a few pictures from the month:

If you are from Michigan you will know this is the Mackinaw Bridge.  It is always fun to go across!

We were able to spend some time in Door County, Wisconsin where this Moravian church is located.  As I was downloading these pictures it occurred to me that I like white buildings.

                              

This is a picture my daughter took out the window as we were on the interstate.  It wasn't in Door County but it was on this trip!

                                                 

This is a replica of a Stave Church in Borgund, Norway.  They had a very nice prayer path with stopping places that had plaques with a Bible verse that you could meditate on then continue on to the next one.

Here is the interior.

This is one of the viewing towers we got to climb.  It was a beautiful view and kinda scary looking

down from the top:)

This is the view we had from the place we were staying in Ephraim.  Door County is a peninsula that has a number of small towns with some cherry orchards mixed throughout.   It has lots of interesting places to see and is a great place for biking or doing something on the water.  At the end of the peninsula we took the ferry to Washington Island.   As we were biking we actually found a weaving/knitting store:) and it just happened to have some yarn I needed!

These are just a few moments from the month of August.  They say time goes faster the older you get.  Hmm... I hope my next title won't be September Flew By!

Greenfield Village

We were in the Detroit area last week and spent some time at Greenfield Village.  It was a very hot day but there is so much to see that it was still very enjoyable.

This was a very nice chapel.  I like the strong contrast of color.

This was a beautiful group of black eyed susans.  

This was one of my favorite houses.

Lots of different Model T's going around.  We actually saw one being towed by an equally old tow truck.  

This was an English cottage and the gardens around it were so pretty.

This was in the garden:)

This was part of the Thomas Edison workshops.

I really like the work island with all the drawers.

This was the glass blowing building.  Great windows.

A pleasant little building with just the right colors.

This is just a small sample of things to see so if you are near Dearborn  do try and visit.  We also were in several other very nice towns:  Birmingham, Lake Orion, etc.

The Process of Cherry Harvest

Today I am going to try and show what is involved in machine harvesting cherries.  Of course you can always pick cherries one by one into your bucket and climb ladders etc. but someone figured out you can do it by machine and it is much faster:) The first thing you need are cherry trees!

This is a one man shaker.  You have to shake each and every tree.

This is a close up of the front of the shaker as it is ready to clamp on the tree trunk.

The umbrella part of the shaker comes around the tree (to catch the cherries).

The tree is ready and it is time to shake.

                                      

This is how it looks while the tree is being shaken.

The tree is shaking and the cherries are falling onto the tarps and down on the conveyor belt.

The cherries go up the conveyor belt and then into a tank of water that is on the back of the shaker.

The tank is full.  The racquet is used to clean the leaves/branches that often fall with the cherries.

Waiting to exchange tanks.

 

When the tank on the shaker is full it is dropped off and will be taken back to the cooling pad  The lid is put on the full tank and then the new tank is put where it can be picked up by the shaker

           

The full tanks are put on a cooling pad.  There is cold water running into each tank to cool and firm the tart cherries.  All the tanks are filled halfway with water before being taken out to the shaker.

When about ten tanks are done it is time to start loading the truck.  The tanks are cleaned of leaves/sticks and damaged cherries and then drained of excess water.

The tanks are loaded on the truck.   This truck can take eight tanks at a time.

Next they are strapped down.  (I love this pic!)

              

                                       

And then they are taken to the receiving station.

Next they are measured and graded.   Each tank has about a thousand pounds of cherries.  From the receiving station they are taken to the processor.  Then the process starts all over again:)