We picked for three straight days. Exhausting work. We started juicing on Thursday and produced a whopping record-high 39 gallons in one day.
We have had some great helpers:
Pam C came 3 days, Jim H, Cindy W came twice, Nancy J (twice), Madi R, Gail and Jonny came to our rescue and helped two days. Ray and Twila came Saturday. All over a few days span. Mike overdid it on Thursday/Friday and took Saturday off to "just" deliver juice and watch the BYU football game.
Monday was a bit slower, as Mike was still not up to snuff, but DID get a chiropractic adjustment that helped a lot. I spent some time between helpers to get my (mostly green) tomatoes picked and the vines, stakes and cages all pulled up. That was hard. I now have lots of green tomatoes in the garage, ripening. It was still warm and windy Monday.
But then today, Tuesday Oct 29 (Kaylee's birthday!), it snowed ALL DAY LONG. Not a lot, but it sprinkled a lot of water out of the sky. So we BOTH took the day off. I got to spend time with Mom, give her a haircut, eat lunch with her, we shopped at Smith's and got some great-grandchild photos ordered and picked up ( but forgot to leave them with her☹️) Mike got some deliveries of cider done and we BOTH had a much- needed nap. We are old and we are tired.
2 or more inches of snow on Tuesday morning. Brrr .
But, I still have about 30 boxes of apples in my garage. They seem to multiply, because I SWEAR I have cut up thousands of fruit already. It should have made a substantial dent in the amount. And I have terrible dish-pan hands from washing everything from apples to strainers to pitchers, floors, , table tops, cutting boards, rags, trays, bowls....
Did I tell you that Mike changed methods of pressing juice yet again? It's an evolving process for sure.
115 gallons produced over 4 working days.
Mike's pleased. I'm exhausted .
Halloween Day. I sorted the apples left in the garage. Mike's pressed about 140 gallons and we STILL have this many left. Crazy!!!!!
We get a little break, as Mike has to manufacture and purchase some more parts for the press because he was borrowing Jason's basin and lumber and trays and straining cloths. I think Mike thought we'd be done before Jason needed it back. We should have been done.