The first signs of Spring!

The grass and trees are starting to turn green and the first blooms are coming out. 

Chick Update

The chicks are growing soo fast... here are some pics of them after just a week.

Chicks!

We got our very first batch of chicks this weekend! They're so cute and fun to watch, we can't wait to see them grow up and start laying eggs! 

Winter Wonderland!

Since the first snowfall last week, it's just kept snowing and snowing. So far, we haven't had a problem driving up and down the mountain thanks to 4 wheel drive. It's really beautiful and feels so festive.

Here are a few pics of the snow so far.

Violet's first snow! She loves it.

The driveway.

The backyard

The commute to work in the morning.

Bathroom Before and After

So it's been a while since our last post... Here are a few Before/After pictures of what has been keeping us so busy!

Bathroom Before...

Tearing out some flooring.

Say goodbye to the yellow!

All primed up... Sneak peek at the new flooring for the bathroom.

AFTER!

This was our first accomplishment in the house... It felt so great to get something completed.  A great moral victory!

Cider Day

Saturday (11/17/12) was our very first day of Cider making. I built an apple grinder out of a garbage disposal (brand new of course) and a cider press out of some lumber and a car jack. It was a long day of hard work, but a big success, resulting in 8+ gallons of delicious cider. We drank some of it fresh and shared some with friends, but most of it is in the fermenter, destined to become hard cider.


Here are some photos of the process (click to expand the pictures):

Apples fresh from the tree... it took me about 3 hours to pick a few hundred pounds of apples.. in the rain. There are about 10 trees, all seem to be different varieties that we have not identified yet.

Washing and sorting the apples...

Cutting the apples to fit into the grinder...

Here's my custom built apple grinder, it's a garbage disposal mounted to a board...

Here it is in action...

The apple mush goes into a mesh bag, or is wrapped in cheese cloth and placed in the pressing bucket...

The bucket goes into the press and the jack squeezes out the juice...

Each batch in the press yielded about a half gallon of cider.

Mmm.... I'm very happy with how it turned out, sweet, with a bit of tartness and great fresh apple taste.

Here the remaining 7+ gallons in the fermenter. I've added yeast, and we'll let it ferment for a month or two. I can't wait to taste the results.

This is the view of our backyard/field on a beautiful fall morning.