September and October Recap

I had intended to be a bit more regular in posting over the last few weeks, but our honey work this time of year has kept us so busy that my downtime was mostly spent unwinding or trying to sort out the mess the house had become. Recapping from the end of September to these first two weeks of October includes the successful event that was our Annual Cider Social, attended by 60+ people this year, our baby shower, gathering honey and lots of extraction, and making over 100 quarts of applesauce. The Cider Social alone was packed with fun and lots of people we know. Its been going on for 6 years or so now, and has grown a little in popularity and variety each year. The big change this year was that it was Adam and I's first year producing the Cider Doughnuts. The 2 weeks previous to the event involved a lot of test batches of doughnuts, resulting in neither of us actually eating any doughnuts at the social. We did hear, however, that the doughnuts were some of the best many people had eaten. :) 

The next day was our long awaited baby shower. So many people put effort into making it such a beautiful, wonderful event for us. We are truly blessed by all of the love shown by those who came, helped, gave, and those who gave even though they couldn't come. Baby Bee sure is loved already!

In the weeks that passed after the shower, we've been busy collecting the last of the fall crop of honey from our various bee yards. We could never process this much honey so quickly without all of the updates to our processing equipment made this year. New equipment has made a tremendous difference in the speed and ability we have to go through more honey than we've previously ever collected. God has blessed us abundantly with the honey we've gotten this fall, as well as many new accounts with local stores. We are really enjoying all that goes into this family-run business. It requires a lot of devotion and hard work by all, but it is a huge blessing as well. 

This last week while Adam and Jim were out gathering honey supers from bee yards, Gail and I began our annual process of making/canning applesauce. In talking to our good friend/neighbor, we discovered a piece of equipment we didn't even know existed: The Squeezo. Roberta was kind enough to let us borrow the Squeezo this past week, and boy were we amazed! The 130 quarts we did two years ago took us around a week of long days making and canning applesauce. This past week using the Squeezo we made 116 quarts in 2 days! Its amazing what can be accomplished with some hard work and a much better piece of equipment! And yes, for those of you who think we're crazy and wonder what we do with all that applesauce....well we eat it of course! And we share it too :) Plus with Baby Bee on the way, it will be a great pre-pureed food for when he's ready for that!

On the Baby home-front, I have begun weekly appointments during this last month of gestation. The countdown is on people! I had reason to believe that Bee had dropped, so after discussing this with my doctor last week and a "lovely" internal exam, she discovered I was right. Bee is getting in position for birth, head down, though no dilation or anything else yet. They tell me this could last several weeks, but I'm still excited! Its getting so real! We even had our tour of the Women's and Children's Ward last Sunday. The nursery is ready, and I spend a half hour or so reading baby-prep books every night. Nesting you say? Well people that know me know I have organizing OCD anyway, so thats nothing new really, but Baby Prep nesting, yes thats happening.

 Its so hard to be patient. Not going to lie that Adam and I would both be thrilled if this baby boy decided to arrive a little early! We're so excited to meet him! Ok enough rambling. Until next time....