Randomness

Our first real crop of apples from our trees... OK, one tree.

The others didn't amount to much, but this one tree made up for it.

This is about 1/3 of the apples.

 The rest of our carrot crop.

This summer we've been slowly working on fencing in the yard.

Dwayne and I chuckle that 13 years ago we tore out the field fence

that surrounded this pasture... and now we're fencing it in again!

At least we have our boys to help this time ;)

We put up almost 300' of fencing today!

It went much quicker than we expected.

We still need to get one more gate and

hang it before we can do the last 200'.

Stretching it out.

This cute little dog is one of the main reasons for the fence...

even though she is very good at staying home and

not wondering off like some of our other dogs!

Apple Cider Press

While we were still on vacation, we were privy to

an apple cider press demonstration...

right on the family farm.

I didn't know this thing existed.

Apparently, Dwayne's grandpa, who lived to his 90's,

bought this at an auction for $2.50!

It's now a collector's item.

Whole apples are ground up in the top part.

You really had to get the crank going to

grind some of the more stubborn apples.

Then the apple chunks drop to the barrel below.

There's a trickle juice starting.

The real magic happens when the apple pieces are pressed.

...and pressed,

...and pressed some more.

Look at that juice!

The "cake" by-product of pressing.

The family which enjoyed the apple cider pressing.

Vacation Part 8 - Ohio High Point

Just for fun we stopped at Ohio's highest spot in Bellefontaine.

To put this in perspective, the elevation where we live is around 666 feet above sea level.

Willis Tower (Sears Tower) in Chicago is 1,451 feet tall.

They had certificates you could fill out to prove you were there. 

"X" marks the spot.

There is a little bit of history at this spot as well.

The short story in case you can't read it:

It was a military radar station part of NORAD during the Cold War.

It ceased operation in 1969.

Now it is a vocational education center.