Bailing Wire and Duct Tape!

There is nothing this man can't do with bailing wire and duct tape.  He needed a narrow cultivator to work between the plants in the garden.  Voila!  Enter bailing wire and duct tape!

Apple Harvesting Day!

Yesterday we celebrated our 30th Anniversary by having our annual Apple Harvesting Day!  We had to do it then.  The birds were starting to make short work of some of our apples.  We got lots of apples that are good for just plain eating, and we got two BIG boxes of apples that have worm holes, bruises or bird pecks that we can use for drying, juicing or bottling after we cut out the bad spots.

We had to get a fruit picker to get some of the high ones this year.  Our trees are getting really tall.

This thing isn't as easy as it looks.  We still haven't really gotten the hang of it.  Mostly we just knocked the apples down with it.

Success!  We got some!

Stopping for a lunch break.  Of course, we had ...apples!

We've filled up every available bit of refrigerator space with apples!

We've got more apples stored in the house.  We even have two more HUGE boxes for cutting up.

I didn't rotate this one before I put it in the blog.  This is how many apples we dried BEFORE apple harvesting day.  I hope you all like them, because we're going to be sending some your way.  We've only touched the tip of the iceberg in drying apples this year.

Happy Birthday to Susan!

My baby girl turned 17 today!  Wow! Where has the time gone?  I can't believe that not only is she 17, but she's a high school senior!  She wasn't too old to get excited and wake up early this morning, though!

Susan was very excited to get an Iceberg Augie cd and Color/Sticker book from Amy for her birthday.  Then she opened an Iceberg Augie cd and color/sticker book from Angela and Steve.  She has another package that looks a surprisingly lot like the packages she just opened.  Could it be...

...Yes, it is!  She got another Iceberg Augie set from Brian and Chelsea.  What a lucky, lucky girl!

Susan got a Baby Bundt Cakes pan from Brian and Chelsea.  (Guess who had to make her own birthday cake?)

The McMullins got her a copy of the Hunger Games.  Now she just needs to read the book!

Susan has a Baby Bundt Brownie Cake with homemade ice cream on it.  She is joyfully listening to her mom and dad sing "Happy Birthday" to her with their professional sounding birthday voices.

She is happy that the song is finally over!  Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Corn!

We harvested our first batch of corn yesterday.  We ate some today, and it was pretty doggone good. 

Is that not one good looking ear of corn?  (And the farmer-man holding it isn't so bad either!)

Susan and I shucked the corn and got it ready to cook.  Side story:  When we lived in Los Lunas, we had a pretty big garden, and we grew a lot of corn.  When Amy was pretty small, she helped me husk the corn.  Every time she got the husk off and found the kernals underneath, she'd get really excited, and she'd shout, "Look!   Corn!"  Every ear was just as exciting to her as the first one!

Eating the fruits (or vegetables) of our labors!

A Garden Update... Sort Of!

While I was watering the garden this evening, I decided I could multi-task and take pictures of the garden while I was waiting for the rows to fill up.  I didn't take pictures of everything... just a few things here and there.  Overall, it's been a pretty good garden so far this year.  Our apple trees all have apples, and we've been drying quite a few of those.  I didn't take any pictures of that this time.

Susan is picking grape tomatoes.

An ear of corn

Green beans

Kabocha

Green peppers

Yellow hots

Sunflowers

These are the flowers we put on Grandma's grave for Mother's Day.  Afterwards we planted them here at home, and they are gorgeous.  The picture really doesn't do them justice.

Our tomatoes have been a little disappointing.  We have a bunch of grape tomatoes, but most of the bigger ones--the heirloom ones--all died of the wilt.

This week.

These are the grape vines we bought to decorate for Brian's and Chelsea's reception.  Afterwards, we planted them in the backyard, and then they were a backdrop, so to speak,  for Steve's and Angela's reception. This is the first year they've had grapes!  They were delicious!

You know how I'm a pushover for a good infomercial.  Well, I bought these taco bowl makers from an informercial, and they're great!  They're easy to use, and the bowls are baked...not fried!

We got the dad a solar oven for his birthday.  Sadly, we had a whole week of clouds that week, but it was sunny and nice today, so we started using it.  For our first delicious dish, we made Chicken Divan.  It worked really well.  We didn't have to heat up the house at all!  It takes somewhat longer than the oven, but that's okay!  We had plenty of time.

It's in the oven and ready to cook!

The finished Chicken Divan.  It was really good.

After the Chickden Divan was done, we made an apple crisp.  Our apple trees are loaded.  We'll be making apple crisps like crazy the next little while.  We started the dehydrator going making dried apple slices.

Look at this!

My babies are famous!

The Weekend!

Doug was in Bernalillo all week for a Public Sector Union Negotiations Conference.  On Thursday after Susan got off work, we drove in to Albuquerque to meet him, and we stayed in his hotel for a couple of nights.  It was a fun weekend.

Brian and Chelsea made the dad a German Chocolate Ice Cream Cake for his birthday.  He likes to say he is two score and twelve now.

While doug was at his conference, the rest of us went to see Grandpa!

Me and my poppy.

Chelsea and I went quilt shop hopping with Carol.  It was fun, but I forgot to take pictures of that.

We had a youth baptismal session at the Albuquerque temple on Saturday morning.  Chelsea and I did an endowment session.  Doug and Brian helped in the bapistry, and Susan did baptisms.

Another temple picture.

We look like "American Gothic" without the pitchfork!

After we finished at the Temple, we went to China Wok for lunch.  Not only did Chelsea stick this disgusting octupus on her plate...

...SHE STUCK IT IN HER MOUTH!  AAAAHHHHH!