The Living Without Series
Coal Creek Farm on Facebook
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There are a might few of ye that know ye stuff aboot that apple pressin’ thar. Oh, sorry, I’m watching a little Scottish film while I’m writing and I read a might lot of James Herriot today.
Ahem, anyway. Yes, The Big Squeeze was an apple cider pressing party. The hosts have been throwing this party for 34 years. That’s a lot of pressing cider.
 This is the pulp of the apples. One of the neighbors stopped by and scooped it into feed bags to use for bating the deer. I wanted to take it home to compost and feed to Daisy and Tulip, but I wasn’t quick enough.
 The washed apples are poured out onto this wire mesh to be checked for worms or seriously yucky spots. These folks get to sit around and visit while they peel apples.
 This is the press. The fellow with the white shirt is Steve, he’s the host. He and his wife bought the press in 1972 at an auction for $50. The farmer selling it thought it was a wine press, but they knew better. Even though $50 was not chump change in 1972, I think the little guy has paid for himself by now, I meant the press, not Steve.
 While the adults had fun with the apple press the kids found a multitude of things to do.
 And very pretty mommies pushed very cute toddlers on swings.
 And more people picked more apples.
 One extremely overcome lady walked around and took photos of everything, gathering material for her blog. Uh?
 After the apples were picked they were dumped in this old tub. I KNOW!! How freakin’ cute is that?! Would someone please put an old bath tub in my yard so I can give things a bath…outside. Can you imagine how much I would use this? Hello? Clay? I really need this to make our farm complete. And a cow. And meat chickens. And a couple turkeys. And bee hives. And a bigger garden. And, and, and, Hon, I’m talking to you. Hello?
 Oh, sorry. Back to The Big Squeeze. Everybody got a chance to taste the apples.
 And to make a vintage T-shirt. This sultry one was from 2005. I was tempted to get this one, but I didn’t.
 I didn’t get this one either.
 Because, this one was too cute to pass up. Goodness.
 Here’s the guys working hard, pressing on. Pressing on, hahahaha.
 We came home with two jugs of the most delicious cider and we gulped it down. Yum, yum. What a fun day. I hope I can crash it again next year…..and I seriously want an old apple press now, then my farm would be complete? Clay? We need an apple press, that’s the last thing, I promise. Clay? Clay? CLAY!
Speaking of Craponastick, there was a lot of stick action at The Big Squeeze, but not one bit of it was crap.
Look, here’s an old man with a stick…..  Boots on a stick….  Corn tucked in a tree on a stick….  Cute boys playing by a big honkin‘ stick….  Playhouse made out of gigantic sticks….  Dog wishing she had a stick…. but absolutely no crap on a stick.  This was my favorite, the tricycle with flowers. I mean, come on, how stinkin‘ cute is that? These folks have lived on their homestead for 24 years and in that time they have been able to paint their personality on nearly every spot of the three acres they own.
Clever, very clever. And cute. And clever. And cute.
 Does this screened porch make you want to say, “I’ll pour the tea, darlin‘, you pass the biscuits”.
 One more thing as I drag out the posting on The Big Squeeze, which I promise I’ll reveal tomorrow, maybe. This is James and John. Son and Dad. They asked me to take their picture together and then I wrote my web address on James’ hand in permanent marker because he wanted some pictures of the event. So, here’s one for you guys, great photo of you both, I must say.
On Saturday we were delighted to get an invitation to a party in the country called ‘The Big Squeeze’.
But, first we got lost and were trapped in the middle of the old west. There were cowboys and Indians and
 gates and
 airplanes. Well, okay, maybe not the old west. But, someone sure does like to play with the metal.
 This is my friend Kelli. She is the reason we GOT to go to the party in the first place. We didn’t actually receive an invitation from the party throwers themselves, but Kelli knows how much I adore country stuff so she asked if it was okay if we crashed the party. Isn’t Kelli cute? Later, in the evening she asked me if I’d seen her sunglasses because they had fallen off her hat. I told her I’d never seen her glasses and I was pretty sure she wasn’t wearing them in the first place. Uh, whoops. Kelli, you were wearing your sunglasses, they’re on your head. This is why I would fail miserably at being a detective and also I made coffee three times in a row today and thought my coffee pot was broken because the pot was full of clear hot water. The third time I went to make it I realized I hadn’t been putting the COFFEE in the filter. So, please don’t ever ask me to answer anything important….ever.
 This is the house where The Big Squeeze happens. Pretty ding dang darlin‘, ain’t it? Now, I’m super tired because I went to a Standing Game today and toted boys to a birthday party and hung laundry on the line and had to make coffee three times before I could actually drink it, so I need to get to bed. But, I have loads of awesome pictures and I promise I’ll post more and explain what The Big Squeeze is.
 Until then, what do you think a big squeeze is?
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This is the pulp of the apples. One of the neighbors stopped by and scooped it into feed bags to use for bating the deer. I wanted to take it home to compost and feed to Daisy and Tulip, but I wasn’t quick enough.
The washed apples are poured out onto this wire mesh to be checked for worms or seriously yucky spots. These folks get to sit around and visit while they peel apples.
This is the press. The fellow with the white shirt is Steve, he’s the host. He and his wife bought the press in 1972 at an auction for $50. The farmer selling it thought it was a wine press, but they knew better. Even though $50 was not chump change in 1972, I think the little guy has paid for himself by now, I meant the press, not Steve.
While the adults had fun with the apple press the kids found a multitude of things to do.
And very pretty mommies pushed very cute toddlers on swings.
And more people picked more apples.
One extremely overcome lady walked around and took photos of everything, gathering material for her blog. Uh?
After the apples were picked they were dumped in this old tub. I KNOW!! How freakin’ cute is that?! Would someone please put an old bath tub in my yard so I can give things a bath…outside. Can you imagine how much I would use this? Hello? Clay? I really need this to make our farm complete. And a cow. And meat chickens. And a couple turkeys. And bee hives. And a bigger garden. And, and, and, Hon, I’m talking to you. Hello?
Oh, sorry. Back to The Big Squeeze. Everybody got a chance to taste the apples.
And to make a vintage T-shirt. This sultry one was from 2005. I was tempted to get this one, but I didn’t.
I didn’t get this one either.
Because, this one was too cute to pass up. Goodness.
Here’s the guys working hard, pressing on. Pressing on, hahahaha.
We came home with two jugs of the most delicious cider and we gulped it down. Yum, yum. What a fun day. I hope I can crash it again next year…..and I seriously want an old apple press now, then my farm would be complete? Clay? We need an apple press, that’s the last thing, I promise. Clay? Clay? CLAY!
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