Wednesday, September 14, 2011

apple harvesting


It's hard to believe that it was only last week when we picked apples. Hard to believe because of all the work it took to harvest, then freeze them in all their various forms. I've now got applesauce, apple puree and apple crisp in the freezer and a big bucket of apples yet in a fridge for eating and impromptu apple muffins or apple crisp. I figured out some short cuts for those last minute sweetness cravings.


Also hard to believe because it was so hot and this was just last week and this morning I had to scrape frost off the windows because I didn't think to park in the garage. We thought of it for tonight. Who wants to be scraping windows at 6:30am?


Then there has been all the fun to be had. Treaty 4 celebrations are now underway in the Fort and I took the girls Tues. Ivan went with his class today and the girls and I will go again tomorrow. It was awesome. There are a dozen or more teepees set up and in them are facilitators telling stories, doing activities, explaining and sharing the First Nation culture. We enjoyed it a lot and got to cook bannock over a fire, eat fried bannock, have wild mint tea, wild cranberry juice and a mixture of elk pemmican, lard, berries and sugar with wild herbs- all harvested in the area. Although we'd been to a pow wow before, we were mostly clueless because we didn't know all the background meanings of things, but this time, the announcer explained the history of the dances, what they were telling in the dance and information regarding the costumes, traditions...


It was also especially fun to hear some of the older audience beside me singing the songs the drummers sang along with them. Not knowing the language, I had no idea what they were saying, but apparently the songs change with time and the announcer kept saying that these drummers were singing the old songs.










The kids are going to have their first round of after school art/music lessons, so we'll see how that goes. We are looking forward to it. Emora and I are LOVING our time together. So far we haven't done a lot of anything special- like quality time. It seems like once we run an errand and have lunch it's already time for her nap and running back up to the school. But I feel like we are still in recovery/transition mode.





Are there signs of fall where you live?

3 comments:

GMS said...

The trees aren't really changing yet but it is supposed to get down into the 40's tonight and the stonehedge has turned reddish-orange.

Ian said...

We had a killing frost (-5 C) and the leaves are falling. Is that a good enough hint?

Anonymous said...

Did I just see child labour or some kids in training?
Good to see them so engaged. mom