Greetings from Tahoe

Merry Christmas from Lake Tahoe.  We are spending Christmas with Terrys Mom and Bob this year in Tahoe.  Patrick flew in from Atlanta and being on Georgia Time got up early to see the sun come over the hill and caught this gorgeous picture from the window.  I love the icicle..  Hope you all have a greet Christmas.

This is how you do it

As being demonstrated...you fill your cup with two fingers of brandy then hold it under the outflow until the proper mix is obtained...then drink...... but caution......you could break out in spontaneous song....not much appreciated by spectators!   And as I remember it ....a good time was had by all!

The Whole Fam Damily

Melissa, Dan and Granny posing at the apple press.

This picture has 4 generations (minus me cause I am taking the picture) of us.  My grandma, My mom, and my daughter!  Dan is helping chop the apples we are dropping into the bin for pressing.

We even made my 90 year old grandma work at the apple press.  In the picture is also Melissa, Dan and me.

More cider shots

Part of the process is taking the pot with the fresh cider, and transferring it to individual jugs for people to take home. I am doing this and as a bonus you get to drink the foam from the top!  It is awesome.
More crew pictures.  Mom and Alvin are sorting and cutting out buggy spots.  You can see they are neither one too far from the motivational jug of brandy!Here is a close up view of the squeezing process.  We keep a pot under the outflow to catch the cider as it is pressed out.  This is the hot spot for filling your cup.  Nothing like fresh, fresh, fresh cider.

Apple squeezing time!

This fall we had a record breaking apple season! So in the spirit of fall...we made cider! We have a friend down the road that has a press so we gathered apples...invited the whole clan....and had a blast. In this picture you will see Terry at the press, squeezing the cider, Lisa and Mark assisting, Emily watching, Jenny standing by, Damon supervising, Terry Fletcher from Twin Falls checking it out, Lori (my sister from Arkansas) and my Mom cutting apples and checking for bugs! This time we got about 15 gallons of cider to share. What is the best is to hold your cup under the fresh outlet while the squeezer is pressing and then add just a finger or two of brandy.....oh my.....we finished a whole bottle before we got all the apples pressed!! What a day. We weren't done yet. we got the fire pit lit, roasted marshmallows and sang songs while Lisa and Jeanne played guitar...Great end to a great day! Thanks neighbors, friends, and family!

Mom and Seth with an apple treat!
Mom, Lori, and Emily with buckets, wheelbarrows full of apples getting ready to press again. This was a couple days later after the first round....we still had tons of apples left so we had to squeeze again. We got another 8 gallons of cider.