One of our favorite fall activities is making apple cider!! Harvesting the bright red and yellow apples, watching them tumble through the press and then tasting the results!! This year it was a group effort as we joined forces with a few other families to process 80 bushels of apples.On Friday afternoon we went to the orchard to pick the apples. With several people picking, it didn't take very long!
Heading out for some Apple-picking!
Silas' first priority was eating......:)
The trees were just loaded with apples!
Teamwork!
Tabitha our cheerful apple-pickin' girl!
Gabe would dump the buckets full of apples into the skid bucket.
Phoebe found a big apple!
Tabitha. 
"Can I have some of the apples from your bucket to put into mine??"
Working together!
Dumping apples.
"Look what I found!!"
The bigger boys had the job of climbing into the tree and shaking the branches.
The ground would then be covered with apples to pick up!
Marveling at God's creation!!
The bucket full of apples! 
The wagon was brimming full when we were finished!!::Making the Cider::
Early Saturday morning we were up and loading into the bus. We enjoyed fellowshipping while we worked away!! Many hands made light work as the day flew by!!
Silas filled bucket with apples for us to wash!
Phoebe dumping apples to be washed.
Between the four families present, there were seven middle aged boys. They loved running the press! They formed teams to see who was faster. They were terrific workers!! Amazingly enough, they still had energy to play football when we were done!! :)
Micah taking a turn cranking.
Mmmm........looks delicious!
Charity pouring the cider into jugs.
Finding unusual apples!
Apple King!! :)
The finished product!!
Silas filled bucket with apples for us to wash!
Phoebe dumping apples to be washed.
Between the four families present, there were seven middle aged boys. They loved running the press! They formed teams to see who was faster. They were terrific workers!! Amazingly enough, they still had energy to play football when we were done!! :) 
Micah taking a turn cranking.
Mmmm........looks delicious!
Charity pouring the cider into jugs.
Finding unusual apples!
Apple King!! :)
The finished product!! (A big thank-you to the Meyer family for the apples!!)
