Our family has a long tradition of gathering and working together to make apple pies each year. They are frozen and then enjoyed at family gatherings. The all time record is a whopping 60 pies. We used to make an annual trip to the Okanagan in late summer to get the fruit for this and other canning. About fifteen years ago we planted three Granvenstein apple trees in our yard. This old fashioned fruit has a tart flavour, and it is used as a cooking apple which is perfect for pies and apple sauce. The harvest from the trees is extra bountiful this year and this week it was time to begin our annual tradition. The grandkids have helped since they were very young and this year was no exception. Becke is the master of the homemade dough, Janis the expert mixer of the filling ingredients. My job is to peel the apples while Peter and the kids slice them up. Today, in a couple hours we made a dozen full sized pies and a couple of mini pies for the kids.
Meanwhile, in Nebraska
While we keep busy in our shop, things are coming along very nicely in Nebraska. The electrician has wired up the light posts and the pond contractor has been busy shaping the ground and building the pools, Randy McFarling and his crew have also been busy forming and pouring the concrete for the golfing greens which are looking pretty spiffy from what I can see in the photos. I’ll be in my way back to Nebraska on Sunday to do the final layout and help the crews make this look more like a golf in the next week. In four short weeks visitors to Vala’s Pumpkin Patch will be able to play this exciting new attraction. Stay tuned…
Tail structure complete
The first question I am asked each time Henry visits the shop is ‘Can we work on the parade float today?’ The parade float isn’t a high priority As I am currently very busy designing next year’s paying projects for customers but we often try to make at least a little progress. We’ve already stripped down the old dragon parade float from a few years ago and set up the golf cart chassis on some jack stands. The driver’s seat was mounted late last week but today it was finally time to get serious and do some actual work that Henry could appreciate. We decided to fabricate the curved structure that would curl up over my seat to form the scorpion tail. Henry measured and carefully cut the steel tubing. He is good with a tape measure! As fast as he could operate the metal bandsaw I welded the pieces together. Henry got more excited with every piece and by the time he headed home this afternoon it was at long last time to climb up to his lofty chair for the first test fit. He enthusiastically approved! Stay tuned for more progress…
