Larry's successful last fishing day of the season 2010

This picture says it all. A huge catch on the last day of fishing season. Larry went with Jake (one of our young Single Adult's)  fishing on the Touchet River. He released the  22 inch Bull Trout in the river to be caught again. Besides that it's illegal to keep a Bull Trout as they are an endangered species.

Cake pop Halloween Ghost

I have made chocolate cake balls dipped in chocolate, cake balls filled with peanut butter dipped in chocolate that are delicious but Misty inspired me to make cake pops. Cake pops are cake balls on sticks shaped in whatever form you choose. Cake balls and pops are cake and frosting all smashed together dipped in a candy melt coating or dipped in melted chocolate. So armed with her inspiration and tips of what works and what doesn't I made these cake pops for the Young Single Adult's Halloween treat. They loved them!

Larry had it easy this year "Apple Cider making 2010"

After reading Michael's e-mails for the last 2 years about all the service he performed on his mission and how much he enjoyed doing it I had a wonderful idea that we could ask the missionaries here in Walla Walla to help with making our apple cider in the years we don't have family around to help us.  Larry asked them and they were more than willing to come and help.  Larry and I picked the apples that were left over the course of 1 1/2 weeks. The ones I didn't use for my apple pie filling, apple butter, applesauce, juicing, eating and sharing with others.

The Elders at work.

Larry really had it nice this year. See how relaxed he is. He hardly had to crank or twist. I on the other hand did everything I normally do. Wash the cider press and all the equipment,  strain and pour the pressed cider into gallon jugs and then set them aside for settling. Plus odds and ends of the other jobs when their isn't cider to pour. Then cleaning everything up when it's all done. Larry helped with the clean up too.

After the cider settles overnight I begin the pasteurizing of it by siphoning the cider out of the jugs into the pots so the stuff that settled stays in the jug. I then wash out the jugs and heat the cider up to 185 degrees. I then pour the cider back into the clean gallon jugs. We got 68 gallons of cider this year. It took 5 hours to press the cider and 10 hours for me to pasteurize the cider plus clean up. But we have cider for a year, it's work but it's worth it. A large cost saving.

A huge thank you to the Elder's who helped us this year. The thing with having the Elder's help is that we could have new helpers every year:)   Now who can I get to do my job?

Rachel's race weekend October, 2010

Rachel, Sean, Mae and Owen came to town! Yippee! Rachel entered the first ever 10 K, 1/2 marathon and full marathon race held here. They came into town Fiday evening and left Sunday afternoon. I enjoyed their visit:) We took Mae out to the garden because she needed to get the pumpkins I grew for all the grand kids and take them to them. So out we went. She thought that this one was just right for her.

Well let's see. Maybe I want this huge one with the lady bug on it.

Oh my Grandma J, so many pumpkins! I'll stick to the little ones.

We were picking strawberries, pumpkins and apples all on the same day in October.

I do believe that I have Cinderella's footmen living in my garden. They started carving the pumpkin for the fairy godmother to change it into Cinderella's coach. You can see the entrance to their home right below the pumpkin.

Garden fun with Mae!

Papa J and Mae picked some apples to eat. So yummy and healthy.

Ready, Set, GO!!! And go Rachel did. Rachel ran the 1/2 marathon.

This year was the first year the race was held here so their was some glitches like starting the 1/2 marathon 5 minutes early before all the racers were at the start line. Some were in the bathroom or doing the last minute pre-race mental stuff. We missed the beginning because of that and come to find out so did Rachel. She caught up though.

The finish is in site! Wow what a feat (feet) lol. Only a runner can relate to the pain and yet euphoria you get from the experience to where you'll do it again and again. Rachel's asthma started acting up about mile 8 but she persevered right through it. But I was wishing she had an inhaler and used it.

Mae is letting her mommy know that she did such a good job!

Carolyn, Marnie and Rachel. Fellow racers.

Sean, Larry, Mae, Owen and I drove in Sean's car along the race route with Rachel. We'd drive ahead and stop at the mile markers to wait for her so we could cheer her on. Sean being a College cross country and long distance coach could quickly access how fast she was going and what her time would be. 

Owen was sleeping when we were in the garden, he was sleeping when we were in the car following his momma so sad to say I didn't get any pictures of him but I did get a mold of his hand.

Precious!

We had this yummy Baked Apple Pancake for breakfast Saturday morning. Looked good enough to take a picture of it.

~Enjoyable weekend, we fit a lot more into than just the garden and the race but that's to tell another day, maybe~ XO