Grapes and Garage Doors

I hope you had a good Fall Break! We didn't go anywhere. We like our farm so we don't usually head out of town when there is a vacation.

We like what we do, we like the hard work, and we like to see what we have gotten done at the end of the day!

Somedays this is what it looks like behind the barn.

I love looking at the beautiful mountains and seeing the clouds.
I love watching the leaves change color. I love the fresh air and sunshine.

Some days it's cloudy when I go out to the barn.
I can hardly see the mountains when the clouds are so low.

I love these days, too. It makes me think of hot chocolate and warm fires after I'm done working in the barn.

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Cool fall days means the grapes are ready to pick and make into grape juice.

Do you make grape juice at your house, too? I like to set up a little kitchen in the garage because it's cooler out there. It's easier to clean up in the garage than clean up the kitchen if I make a mess on the floor.

I load the grapes into the big pots.

I keep some jars nice and hot in the big roaster.
I keep all my lids hot in a small crock pot.

I cook the grapes for a long time.
Once juice starts flowing down the hose I can fill the jars.

I cook the jars of grape juice for another 15 minutes in a
canner on the stove in the house.
I want to make sure the juice is safe to drink and the lids seal tightly.

Once the jars are cooled down I label them and put them in the storage room. Yummy!
This year I worked for 2 days making grape juice. I made 38 bottles of grape juice on one day, and 36 jars of grape juice on the second day. How many jars of juice did I make this year?

I don't get to keep all the juice. The grapes came from a friends yard. She and her husband are older and can't work as hard as I can. She got 38 jars of juice, and we put 36 jars in our storage room.

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Our barn is about 25 years old. We use it every day. We open the garage door quite a few times every day and sometimes we run into it with the truck or tractor when we are hurrying.

We needed a new door, it came today!

The workers are almost done installing it!

Sometimes the animals don't like it when new things are happening that they aren't used to. Sometimes they have a temper tantrum. They don't yell, or cry, or sit and pout.

They poo on the floor of the barn!

Yuck!!!! Then I have extra work to do in the morning! Some days things happen that I don't like. I don't like to spend extra time cleaning poo off the barn floor. I don't throw a temper tantrum, I don't hit the animals or yell at them. I just take a deep breath and clean up the mess.

I think about the things I like to do while I clean up messes.
I love feeding Miss E! 

She is so cute and friendly! It's so nice to go out in the morning and have her run up to me. Yesterday she followed me all the way from the barn, through the gate, and into the back yard! How great is that!

I think about Chippy and her cute chicks that are growing up.
They have their feathers now and I think I can let them out of the stall soon.
They will love running around in the pasture and digging in the dirt.

I think about the tarp we have that covers the hay.
Isn't that a fun thing to see each morning!
It makes me smile every time I go out to the barn.

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I try to do something nice for someone else every day. Some days it's really easy to do something little. Some days it's harder. I make it a goal to do something nice every day whether its a good day and things run smoothly, or if its a hard day and I have to clean poo off the barn floor.

I hope you did nice things for other people during Fall Break!