Local Flavor: Apples, Apples, Apples

I have to admit that I've been a terrible communicator the past few days. I have had so much traffic for "light repairs" in the shop that my schedule keeps getting pushed-back like crazy and I've wound-up with customers in-shop awaiting "clinic-style" repairs all day... a process that's been going-on for weeks at this point. It's fun and it's satisfying to see gear pressed right back into use again, but I was absolutely exhausted by Sunday morning and not at all excited about serious house-fixing-stuff needing to get done.

This Sunday and Monday I simply went AWOL with the family so I could recharge a bit -- we spent Sunday on an outing with the kids over at Happy Valley Orchard (apples! ...so many apples) and hung-out and wasted time doing not-productive things for the rest of the day. Yessss...

Above is a video from Sunday morning after breakfast -- clearing my mind via random old multi-effects pedals...

What I love best about the orchard are the glimpses of the work behind the scenes. I love seeing things getting done -- whether it's frying cider donuts or tractors moving pallets of apples about.

While the main part of the orchard is lovely, there are older trees on the Eastern portion of their property that look beautiful -- they're entirely loaded-down with waterfalls of apples instead of smaller clusters spread more evenly.

We picked-up a couple pumpkins, too. Bonnie's turned-out nice this year but she's leery of using pie pumpkins for carving because she wants them around to, you know, use when needed. We definitely get pie and soup out of them.

What kid doesn't like drinking cider and eating donuts in the top of a treehouse?

Yessir, I'm feeling lucky.