# I'm drinking apple cider



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

and thinking about November; 45, 50 years ago. Hell, we made cider from scratch...in a cider press. I still have a cider press, and know how to use it.  It was great; kinda off-color, had a distinctive “bite” to it, and by Christmas the “bite” became a “kick” and the grownups hid it from us kids. Seems like we did everything “from scratch”. 

We saved everything, even newspapers…each November we wrapped apples with 2 layers of newspaper and put them in a cold and dark fruit cellar. I carried those apples, newspaper wrap and all, in my lunch to school; so did my friends.

By November the crops were in and all that was left was fall-plowing…and chores…always chores…every morning and every night. November was cold and the coal-burning furnace needed coal shoveled in and the clinkers shoveled out throughout the day….another chore.

The last of the garden’s root crops had to be dug up; rutabagas, parsnips, and the second crop of carrots and turnips. There were walnuts and hickory nuts to gather and shell. Hen-of-the Woods mushrooms were found under the same trees year after year. You just gotta love cleaning a 10-pound Hen-of-the-Woods mushroom. The 3 or 4 bushels of popcorn picked in October were now dry enough to shell. The last of the squash was scooped up with the end loader on the manure spreader tractor and then stored in the grain shed.

It was now cool enough to butcher hogs, make sausage and smoke meat….that is after I took a chain saw to hickory and cherry logs and make sawdust to feed the hungry smoker. There were chickens to put away. My, I doubt if my kids know how to scald a chicken, a good thing I guess.

There were rabbits, and pheasants, quail, Hungarians, ducks and geese, deer and squirrels, a few turkeys to take….after we fed the cows and pigs, chickens, geese, horses, and Guinea fowl. Pheasant season opened the first Saturday in November, and by some weird coincidence that was the same day that corn prices hit their highest price of the year, every year. There’s nothing like being 14 years-old and missing the pheasant opener or getting to skip school to drive a grain truck day and night, back and forth to the elevator in town.

Storm windows! Wow, I forgot about storm windows. Every November the summer screen windows were removed and replaced by storm windows….after 2 or 3 days of cleaning, applying new putty and paint. Gutters were cleaned.

November meant the fur was starting to set on the fox, muskrats and raccoons, so we ran traps in our spare time. The men would take the **** hounds out at night, come home late, giggling, smelling like whiskey.

Rasberry canes had to be pruned of course.

November was something else.



Geezus, I feel like I’m caught up in a Norman Rockwell painting. I’m going to bed. :roll:


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## riptheirlips (Jun 30, 2008)

Chores morning and night teach kids a lot. There are not many kids who could/would do them now days. Chores morning and night teach many lessons. 

Great post


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

You have brought back many good memories with this post Goob. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. In my life, we did not have the mushrooms nor the grain trucks, so my pheasant hunts were all had on the opener. Helping dad make up the sourkrout (sp) and taking the bottled fruit down to the cellar that mother put up were both good chores. The digging up of the potatoes and sacking them before putting them down in the cellar was another back breaking one each year. But it had to be done, or there wouldn't be potatoes served with every meal.
At the time it seemed like there just wasn't any "fun" to be had. It was all work, all the time. But now, looking back, it was a time filled with good old honest pay. Not monetary pay, but pay in the sense of a warm home, family togetherness and good food that came from the chopping off of heads, sticking a knife in a neck or shooting a 22 short in the beasts forehead. You knew what that animal had eaten it's entire life. Sitting against the barn wall with the cats and having Uncle Lou squirt milk at your face when it was your turn. Good times. Good food. Great family.
Thanks again Goob! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. AND Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading this.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Hope you remember how to do all those things, the way the economy is going the lucky ones will be right back there doing all those things to survive.


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

Geeze Goob ya had me walking to school both ways in the snow up to my butt in San Diego. :lol:


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## Ton_Def (Dec 23, 2008)

A country boy can survive. Good post , Goob!

[attachment=0:2y5bjbss]goob-american-gothic.jpg[/attachment:2y5bjbss]


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

Growing up we had an apple orchard in the back and made cider every fall. Some of that was bottled up and made into apple wine. My dad and neighbor would open a bottle of that stuff on occasion and have at it, while roasting some local chestnuts on the fire. They didn't do it often as the wine always turned out to be some pretty wicked stuff that could double as paint remover.

Another fall activity was to take a ride out to the "country" and visit the local maple syrup farm. Driving down the road with tree after tree of maples tapped with buckets hangin off them.

Great memories for sure. Was chatting about similar stuff with a friend recently and we both stated its sad that a lot of those traditions are dying off and those who participated in such activities are getting harder and harder to find.

Great stuff...keep sharing the stories as thats as close as a lot of folks will ever come to experiencing any of it.


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

Ton Def...That is priceless!


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Goobie......don't drink that cider and drive....

Ya know what I mean?? *\-\*


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

We have it pretty easy these days; a lot to be thankful for.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Bears Butt said:


> Ton Def...That is priceless!


+1 :mrgreen:


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