Married...Unmarried...and married again!

Hello there!

When our daughter Nicole was 4 or 5 she was absolutely convinced that if Derek or I took off our wedding rings, we were thus UNMARRIED.  Oh the fun we used to have at her expense...

Now, TRUE STORY...

Last week while Derek and I were cleaning horse hooves, tossing hay bales and just generally taking care of evening chores he stopped abruptly having noticed his wedding ring was no longer on his finger.  He happened to be standing in one of the horse stalls with Tye at the time so it was logical that that was where we began our search.

Though in the stall for a very short time while we brushed and groomed, Tye had already urinated a nice sized puddle so looking through the dirt and straw was not going to be "cut and dry"  ;)

With parent interviews at the high school on the agenda that evening, we decided to wait until the next morning and I would retrace Derek's steps from the paddocks to the hay loft in full daylight.

The next morning I studied the ground between the gates and the barn.  I poked through the hay loft going slowly with my fingers; checked the open bale on the main level and then with trowel and fingers took to digging through the stall that Derek had been in the evening before when he had noticed his ring was missing.

It was a stinky, dirty job... and I was not successful.  Deciding to call it quits for a bit and return with fresh eyes, I gave the barn a quick sweep and thought I saw a flash of gold.  I once again dug through the clean hay but didn't find anything.

The missing ring really ate away at Derek so with Canadian Tire money and a competitors advertisement he set out to get a good metal detector at a good deal.  And of course he did.

So a beautiful Saturday morning was spent on hands and knees in the barn with a beeping machine and us digging right where we already had.  After 20 minutes or so I stepped out to stretch my legs and thought, "Heck, I'll peek through that hay again"... and within a few moments I had the missing wedding ring in hand.  Ofcourse, right?  In the clean sweet smelling hay where I had already looked.

Finding this treasure opened up time for the little Schnicks to "treasure hunt"... they found many interesting bits and bobs but unfortunately no "treasure".

 And wouldn't you know it, when the neighbour stopped in for eggs, he mentioned he had lost a ring in his pond a year and because the pond is so low right now he had thought about finding someone with a metal detector to give him a hand...


... finding the neighbour's ring made the purchase a bit easier to swallow for me.  :)

So there you have it from MRS. "once again married" Schnick
xox
Jeanette

Cider Party

Happy Sunday!

Late last school year our girls got to know a few friends on their school bus a little better and in turn, us grown ups formed friendships as well.. isn't it wonderful when that happens?  These people are quirky fun and soooo friendly so when they invited us to what I called a "modern day barn raising party" we were in!

Their property has one large apple tree that was just packed with beautiful red fruit... so packed that they decided it was too big of a job and too many apples for just one family.

So call in the reinforcements!

Thankfully we had a beautiful sunny 20 degree celsius October afternoon and many many hands!  The yard was full of frolicking kids, working adults and grandparents with trays of food!

I hadn't met many of these folks before and as a somewhat socially anxious person, making conversation while quartering and coring apples was perfect.  I do so much better visiting while my hands are busy.  :)

 Our friends had purchased a manual cider press earlier this fall... so after the apples were quartered and cored, they were mashed in a bucket and then put into the press...

As youtube had been the only experience with apple pressing that anyone had had prior to this, it was an experiment as we all became familiar with what we were supposed to be doing!  lol  We did find success eventually!

 In the end we all enjoyed some delicious home pressed cider and left with tummies full of good food, hearts full of good company and a few more apples for the freezer.  ;)

Jeanette