Why I Oughta...

My 2020 to-do list for the yard included this item in #8:  "Find cheap fruit trees (that include pollinators) and plant a Belgian Fence (somewhere)."  Welp, I found eight apple trees at the same Home Depot tree sale last week and brought them home to start a Belgian Fence.  Here's a look at some of them below. I have documented the Belgian Fences that we came across in Disneyland over the years.  Here's the first one that caught my attention on a trip .  And here's another from a different trip . I ended up picking apple trees for this because they had the right amount of them and had a variety that I was most keen to get:  Honeycrisp.  One of the things that I've picked up while researching the Belgian Fence was to learn that it is best to select two varieties of apple trees that are 'pollinators'.  In a look at the list for Honeycrisp apples , one of the selected pollinators is Yellow/Golden Delicious.  They are cross-pollinators

Over the years, we grew into some food 'habits' during our repeated trips to Southwest Michigan and Coloma.  These were places we went , food stuffs that we picked up and fell in love with over time.  Now that we're spending more and more time up in Wisconsin, that same pattern is falling into place.  It seems like we're already coalescing around some favorite spots and foodstuffs like the King of Club cheese spread .  On a Saturday this month,  I packed the kids into the minivan and headed up to the Lake Geneva area to pick up some fishing supplies at Walmart.  After we left, I wandered around the the various big box stores and strip malls near the highway and came across the Lake Geneva Pie Company .   It was open early and there was a crew in there baking. Having never picked up a pie from this place, I pleaded my ignorance and asked for help.  She lead me to the Lakeshore pie.   From their site : Lakeshore Berry Crumb.  A customer favorite is our tantalizin

No, I'm not talking about New York City.  I'm talking about "Big Apple".  As in..."big pharma" or "big tobacco" or even the recently-coined "Big Uni" by the guys at Uni-Watch . That's the best way to describe Apple Holler in Sturtevant, Wisconsin. We've been to a bunch of these apple orchards and pumpkin patches.  Apple Holler is a combination of those two experiences and it is - based on how crowded it was when we went - quite popular. So, why is it, exactly, "Big Apple"? Well, let's start with the parking.  It costs you $5 to park your car. Then, if you want to go pick apples, they charge each person $20 to go in the orchard.  Yep....$20.  Sure, they give you a little tiny bag that can hold like a dozen apples.  But, every person that goes in, it is $20.  Kids, too!  That means, for us it was going to be $80 just to pick some apples.  No thanks. We went up there with some friends, so it was great to

Well...we don't actually have it on hand, but I've cut a deal and my Dad is picking it up this week while he's in Coloma. That's right, we're the proud owner of that beauty of an apple press.  I found it at a yard sale up in Coloma and after passing on it initially, we went back later in the afternoon only to find it closed.  The woman told me that they bought it from a farmer back in the 1970's but she had no idea how old it was.  It has two parts: a grinder in the box (that's the wheel on the side) and the 22 lb press on top (that's the handle on top). Fortunately, the house was for sale, so I took a shot and emailed the agent with my story about wanting to reach the owner of the house she was selling to try to buy their apple press.  Well...a few days later a lady calls me and....yada, yada, yada....we now have an apple press.  (Or...we will have it this week when my Dad comes home from Michigan!). And...yes...I yada-yada'd over the good p

I had one of these tasty cans of Vander Mill Blue Gold Michigan Cider last week and it was a tasty combination of apples and blueberries.  Both from West Michigan.  Vander Mill looks to be from close to Grand Haven on the west coast of Michigan.  Further up the lake than Coloma/St. Joe's is, so I'm not to familiar with them or the place.  I've been drinking more and more ciders and based on the menu expansion, I'm not the only one.  I had this one over ice and that's the way I normally roll with ciders.  Maybe that's why I'm into them?  Can't have a craft beer on ice and not get sideways looks from the waxed mustache'd crowd.  But ciders?  Nobody bats an eye.

If you click on the photo of the building above you'll see the new sign above the door of this place that is *now* called "The Bainbridge Beverage Company".   You'll also notice the big dark(er) red Circle above the door that *used* to have the Grandpa's Cider Mill Logo.  You can see the circle Grandpa's logo here on their site . I covered Grandpa's Cider Mill before here on the blog, but we made a stop there yesterday when we were up in Coloma.  The Babe spoke up and said that she wanted to go to the 'Apple Cider Bar' where you can taste different flavors of cider.  We've done that trip a few times and always had a good time sidle'ing up to the bar where we can grab some stools and enjoy the experience. But...with the new name change to Bainbridge, it appears that they've expanded the bottling facility and moved the bar to a new location.  They've appeared to make this a much more professional facility with a lot of machine

Imagine my delight when I fired up gmail and saw this promo email from the fine folks at Disney.  They're promoting some new mobile apps tied to the new Pixar movie 'Inside Out' - which my girls loved. Squee!  I couldn't wait to open the note and then download some stuff to show off to the girls tonight.  I mean...anything to get them away from watching unboxing videos on YouTube Kids, amirite?!? I open the email and my excitement quickly turns to frustration.  See all those iOS app store logos?  Hrumph.  All three apps that they're promoting are available in the Apple App Store only. What about us Android users?  No apps for you, I guess. Add this round of disappointment to the pile that exists because they rolled out their cute "Disney Side" app that allows you to overlay a Disney character image on a selfie.  We'd love to do that, right? Oh...too bad.  No app for you, Android user.  iOS only. Come on, Disney!  I *get* that devel

This little spot is right at the exit ramp when you get into Coloma.  It is run by the same folks who run Jollay's Orchard and Grandpa's Cider Mill.  We stopped here on the way to pick some peaches and Nat picked up a (what she said was) tasty iced coffee and even (gasp!) a few apple cider donuts.  You loyal readers will remember that we covered our quest for 'off season' apple cider donuts back on the blog earlier this summer .  (what my baby wants, my baby gets, right Vince?!?)

Just six days after I peeled and carved a little apple into a head shape , we're starting to see a little bit of 'shrunkeness'.  The rice teeth turned out pretty great, but the eyeballs aren't skrunch-ing up enough for my tastes.