production notes

For future reference:

• Apple mania! 46 quarts of applesauce (7 + red hots) and maybe 4 sheets of fruit leather - another box and a half of apples went to a friend. Hooray for the food grinder attachment! Next year, let the apples ripen more.
  
• ~110 lbs tomatoes = 50 quarts. I peeled and chopped, mom processed. We should be covered for at least a year.
  
• ~70 quarts of grapes = 18 + 10 quarts of grape juice - The second batch (5 days later) was darker; next year, try to be patient and let the grapes ripen longer. Put a dead animal over there to keep the critters from stealing the produce.
  
• 3.5-4 gallons of plums = 10 pints of plum jam + 4 sheets of plum leather (4 cups/sheet)
  
• 10 sheets rhubarb leather - this might be my favorite flavor. Rhubarb/watermelon was good but just a little wacky at the same time, but Max can't get enough of it. Rhubarb/raspberry is fantastic.

For fruit leather: 3 cups/sheet seems to be optimal. Rog would vote for thicker, but then it takes forever to dry in the oven. Cook for 10 minutes, sugar to taste, blast through the food processor - the blender doesn't allow enough heat to escape, but works for pureeing 2 cups MAX at a time. 170 degree oven for 8-10 hours.

today

Today Katie had her first swimming lesson. She didn't love wearing the goggles, until her teacher found some purple ones, and then we were set. She's such a little fish.

Later, we went to Oma's to hang out. The kiddies were making up stories with the Fisher Price folks, and the following went down:

Alex: Do we love daddy?

Katie: Oh YES! We totally love daddy.

Alex: Do we love mommy?

Katie: Well, not quite as much as daddy.


At least my little barnacle Max is still all mine. :)

lakeside

Here's a little blast from the past. As kids, we went down to Lakeside a few times for AT&T family days. On Aug 10 we took our own troops down to there. I was trying to make up for missing the carnival every time it was in town this summer. Boy, was that a great call. Unlimited wristbands and all the ladybug rides they could handle.

Max took a little warming up, but once he rode one ride, he was all in.




Katie's favorite ride was NOT the roller coaster.

A bunch of people from the ward were actually down there that night, so the kids even had little buddies to play with.

It's nice that our little guys are so close in age, because they were all happy riding the kiddie rides - just the right pace for everyone, although I personally thought that canoe was never going to make it back around on it's 20 foot 'river.' Funnel cake for dad and snow cones for the kids, and lots of great people watching for moi. Good summer fun.

zoo babies

Here are some pictures to tempt you, Mag:

That's right - 4 adorable baby tiger cubs, just waiting for you to come and check them out! You have about a year to come out and seem them, before the keepers say they get too big and start bugging their momma too much and get shipped out to other zoos.

There is also a baby orangutan - buried under that blanket on the front right. 10 weeks old, and she'll be with her momma for at least 7 years, so you've got time on that one.

We missed the baby flamingo, but got to see the polar bears get fed. Boo at the Zoo is coming up . . .

katie

Perhaps I need to ease up on the smack talk while playing the Wii:

Katie to Oma: Watch, and learn!

(With 'appropriate' intonation, no less!)