Skip to main content

Apple Festival

...otherwise known as, why I didn't post this weekend =).

We were up in the mountains at a Lutheran camp for apple festival. The basic idea is that a bunch of people get together to harvest apples from the wild apples around at the camp, and then we make apple cider, apple crisp, apple pie, apple muffins... This is along with typical camp things like campfire, crafts, songs, and so on.

Last year there was a great apple crop. We walked to a few known trees, the counselors climbed them, shook down lots of apples, and the kids picked up the fallen apples and put them in the counselor's backpacks. I am sure we had more than a hundred pounds... Michael would have a better estimate of how many we got.

Unfortunately, this year was not a good year for apples at the camp (due to a wet, cold spring and a dry, hot summer). So a crop of apples miraculously appeared on the front lawn at the main lodge! The kids ran around collecting the apples that were nowhere near any apple trees... There were even conveniently empty boxes that just held all of the apples... I hear that they had a good time: I was back at our room, trying to get Luke to take a nap.

This was a very relaxing weekend, little schedule, just playing with kids, talking with old and new friends. Eleanor is already planning next year =)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...

Comfortable

Last night Amanda was sent to bed early for gross insubordination. I did snuggle with her for a bit, but then went to wash dishes and other exciting stuff. When I came upstairs, 20 minutes after her usual bedtime, she was still awake and flopping around. "Amanda, are you comfortable?" I asked. "No," came the answer. "What do you need?" I asked, thinking she wanted water, to be tucked in, her doll, something like that. "A mama," she answered. I could do something about that. I snuggled her for about 5 minutes and she fell fast asleep.