The one where I juiced.

I'm tired tonight but inspired.

Got up this morning at 5:30 to get the girls ready for school when we realized Scooter wasn't feeling well and would be staying home. I'm glad she didn't have to deal with tummy troubles at school, but I was exhausted. I ended up with only 4 hours of sleep, and I desperately wanted a nap. That didn't happen. I couldn't take a nap, if Scooter didn't, and there was no talking her into it. So I got busy.

We've had a Jack Lalanne Power Juicer for several years, but we've rarely used it, because, well, life got busy. I remembered it the other day when I was trying to decide what to do with the all the apples we'd picked in our backyard. I lent it to a friend over the weekend and got it back yesterday. So after Hopper took off for school, I washed and sorted about 3/4 of a bushel of apples. I started with the ones that Hopper had picked herself a few weeks ago and had put in the crisper drawers in the fridge and then made my way to the 1/2 bushel box that was overflowing.

It was frustrating to see where a worm had gotten into the middle of an apple and practically hollowed it out. Of course they tended to make themselves at home in the larger apples. Stupid things. Almost makes me want to spray for bugs next year. Seriously. Thankfully, the apples that weren't usable only made up about 10% of the total number of apples I cleaned. Of those that were left, I kept probably 60% back for us to eat whole or to use in pies or to make applesauce, and I chucked the rest.

I love this particular juicer, because you can put entire apples, oranges, cucumbers, etc. in them without having to cut them up and spits the unused seeds and pulp into a collection thing. The fruits and veggies only need to be washed and fed into the hopper. It also gets so much juice out of the fruit when it's being juiced that the pulp is practically dry to the touch. Needless to say, I really like the thing.

We ended up with just over 3 quarts of apple juice today, and it was the best and freshest tasting apple juice we have ever had. It was incredible! We'll definitely have more. Not only do I still have a full bushel of apples to sort and juice, but we also have several hundred apples on the tree that we weren't able to reach last weekend. We'll be working on getting as many down as we can Saturday and Sunday. We're not willing to give them all up to the squirrels and birds!

It was also warm enough today that I was able to get some done on the painting projects out on the back porch. I was able to sand several of the things I still had to work on and get the first coat of primer painted on them. I'm hoping to finish up with the primer tomorrow on all of the things I have left, so I can possibly get the first coat of the oil based paint on them tomorrow, too. Weather permitting, I may still be able to get them finished within the limits of the deadline I made for myself a couple of weeks ago.

I'm hoping my day tomorrow is as productive as today has been.