Ready, Set, FALL!

Fall is my favorite time of year in Oregon. The days are beautiful and sunny and the nights get cooler. Time to break out the sweatshirts and jeans. The trees begin to change color and shed their leaves. Guess they need a wardrobe change too. God is so creative with all his creatures. This year has been an even greater time on anticipation for me, not only for the beautiful scenery but for the birth of my son. What a change it will be for us all. But a beautiful one also. As the weather starts to change, the garden begins to beg for more attention. Now it is not the watering and weeding but a cry from all the vegetables, "Pick me please. Can me and put me in the freezer for a later date." So the harvest began..........

First there were apples: 28 quarts of apple sauce, 20 pints of apple butter & 7 quarts of apple pie filling. Yumm!

Making apple sauce was sticky but fun. The kids all wanted a turn cranking the handle and squishing the apples into sauce. Jordyn was the trooper. She came running every time a new pot of apples was cooked and ready to make into sauce. As you can see from the picture Jackson was more interested in sampling, even though the sauce was steaming hot. It is a good thing Grandma got home when she did or I never could have got everything harvested. 

Next came the corn: 37 pints into the freezer!
Blanche it, cool it, cut it off the cob and hope most of it makes it into containers before the little vultures get it. 


Then you get daddy to tear all the stalks out of the ground...
...and haul them to the neighbors cows, minus the very cute nearly naked baby of course.
Woops, this one got a little out of control but Jackson was proud of his capture.
Machete wielding garden explorers.
A little bit of blackberries, a few beans, some zucchini, mix it up with dirty utensils and feed it to Daddy. (Who by the way tasted everything those dirty little hands and expectant eyes brought to him.)
So that is a glimpse into the beginning of our fall.