Thursday, October 29, 2009

From Apples To Cider


We spent Monday working the apples into cider with this press. It was steady but enjoyable work washing, cutting, and pressing out the cider.

We are looking forward to many winter evenings of games and cider by the fire. Cider and fudge. Cider and doughnuts. Come join us.

Thursday, October 22, 2009


We picked apples today for cider. My friend and I took our children and gathered 30 plus bushels of them. Will that make a lot of cider?
This was the first time of picking apples for some of our children so they considered this an adventure as opposed to work.
Since there has been frost already the owner gave these apples to us. He wants to enjoy some of our cider and hinted quite broadly for an apple pie as well.
So much pleasure and play and many gallons of cider!

What Do You Do?

Of Attitudes and Prerogatives


How many of you have had to remind business or medical professionals of your prerogatives? Or am I the only one who runs into this? Here's my newest scenario.
Elv burned his hand on the welder exhaust yesterday while working around his pickup. Joe, the Nortrax mechanic who was also on the job doing a repair on the processor, dug a small packet of Burn Jel out of his own first aid kit and told Elv to use it for pain relief. It worked nicely. It's a bad burn...a big blister on the side of his palm. He was able to work, but part way through the day he called to ask me to get him some Burn Jel at the pharmacy. Meantime a friend of ours offered some hot shot natural burn salve which they gave us instead. Even though it is good stuff; it didn't work as well as the Burn Jel for the pain. So it was later when I called Walgreen on the phone to ask if they carried the special salve and to see if they were still open at nine PM.
The pharmacist trying to be helpful asked, "Do you know that burns tend to get worse before they get better?" and "Does your husband have diabetes or a heart condition?" and "Just what does his burn look like?"
I was thinking, "Wait, what does this have to do with whether or not you carry Burn Jel?!" so finally I braved up and asked her why she was asking all these questions.
She said, "I'm trying to decide whether or not he should be seen by a doctor."
This is the point at which I tend to get snippy if I am not really careful, so I laughed and said, "I'm sorry, we will be making that decision ourselves!"
"Oh!... Yeah, we have burn creams but they're not really for bad burns they're just for sun burns and that type of thing." she was a bit grudging and sparing with her information and seemed to be quite willing to end the conversation.
Lance heard our conversation and went off to the drug store to look for Burn Jel. He came home with the very article!

Or like the time the electric company personal asked me, "And what is the name of your husband's employer?" in her pen-poised voice.
"Never mind, deary, that wouldn't be any of your business." in my mind-your-own-business voice.



Then there was the day I was sitting in the little county health office preparing for immunizations for one of our toddlers.
"Lets see... he needs, besides this routine booster, a Hepatitis B shot." very business like and assuming.
"We won't be doing the Hepatitis B shot, thanks." I said since I had educated myself about it prior and had decided against it.
Which was her cue to engage in a very authoritative I-am-going-to-educate-you tone of voice telling me all the reasons why I should get him this particular shot. I took that as my cue to say that if some day he would do inter-city work or go to a third world country we would then recommend the shot to him.
"But you know this is important..." she was persistent.
I finally realized that she needed to know the jig was up so I reminded her, "I guess you know that as the parent, any and all immunizations are my prerogative , right?"
She subsided at that point.

These times we live in are challenging to our call to non-resistance, and Jesus' words to us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The bottom line here is: how can I be like Jesus yet stand up for what is right?

I have been labeled as self-assured and know-it-all by my friends and family. I find this to be rather humiliating and depressing since I am quite quaky and normal on the inside. Yet, when I face those professionals who would push their ideas onto me which I consider to be optional I find myself needing to tone down and be careful in my responses.
So what is the answer? Tell me what you do.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Wild Beasts In The Land

We had a bear wander into our local grocery store last night.
http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/64651987.html

We have had bears wander through our Northwoods lawn many times. I took a picture of this bear on his foray through here last summer. This kind of thing is so frequent that we have lost our respect and fear of them to a certain extent.

I took the broom after a bear a few years ago...he was walking right past our back door which I consider to be a direct affront to the safety and comfort of our home. He veered only slightly from the end of my broom and continued his ponderous career...no evidence of the attitude of fleeing that I was hoping to instill in him.

One day I had the fun of shooting a sow who was foraging in my garden. Don't get excited it was only a pellet gun, but she did gather up her two youngins and leave. :)

All this to say that we do enjoy seeing wildlife, but I have to wonder if protecting the wild animals has been taken a little too far. The Bible refers to the wild beasts as being a curse to the land. Leviticus 26: 6, 22.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Winter in October


Amy says, "Mom we're gonna have so much fun next spring with all these leaves mixed in the snow!"
It won't be fun. The leaves are on the trees instead of carpeting the ground like proper fall leaves by this time. There's a mixture of snow and leaves and now more snow falling. Amy's predictions imply the waiting and waiting we're going to have to endure for the snow to all melt so that the leaves can dry out enough to rake. We rake up huge piles of leaves every fall and drag them off in tarps to the woods. Then
in the spring we do it again. At least this fall we can skip the raking with this snow coming so early. But next spring it's going to be a lot of hard work to rake up the whole business at once...unless they're still on the trees.
These comments are not meant to be considered complaining, I'm just wondering kind of in a isn't-this-odd? sort of way. But lets think about happier things:



This is one of those pictures that I would like to frame. Not only because these two beautiful people belong to me, but there's an idea here, as well, that makes you think of home and love and family and hope. Or am I just a sappy mom and marmee?!

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