Apples in October

I rode home from work on Friday on Forest Hill Trail after the inspiration of this video of our local trail. The novelty of riding the trails home will never wear off. It's awesome. We watched Rumble Seat Revival play at Benny's BBQ with a few drinks and had a great time.  

Saturday morning, we drove to Grave's Mtn Orchard to pick some apples. Even though it was Oct. 5th, it was 91 degrees out and felt more like August. Wandering through the apple trees provided a little shade, but carrying 20+ lbs of apples made things hot. We picked LOTS of apples and had a great time. I made apple butter, and apple sauce, and hope to make more of each, in addition to any other apple concoction we can come up with.

Sunday was another full day: Ran 2.3 miles with the dogs, mowed the front and back lawns, made said apple butter/sauce, baked 2 quiches, cooked chile rellenos, made baked apple, washed/groomed dogs, and pulled weeds. It was a good day.

Here's a picture album from Apple Picking.

And here's a few pictures from Sunday.
 

August and what not

Here's a few pictures. 

Schools out for a couple more weeks. 

Got lots of weekend plans/trips scheduled for Sept and Oct. 

Hopefully more pics and stories to come. 

Softball just ended. All I can say is that we didn't lose EVERY game. 

Yard work, biking, and birthdays have been the big things the last few weeks. All have been fun and productive and exciting. 

If you'd like a version of my websites bumper sticker just let me know! Different slogans available!

A few pictures

Here's a few fun pictures that got some mild doctoring.

Muggy baseball night

Large beer

Crazy mushroom

Train station

Clock tower

Lights on Richmond

And if you haven't seen our pictures from New Mexico, check them out here: Eagle Nest, NM

What we do with our time

I haven't made much time to write on either blog and I feel terrible about it. But then again, the weekends have been full of fun, and weekdays have been full of work, school and volunteering. I haven't made time for blogging or research or other fun science related items but would like to do so. I'll try and post a couple recipes on www.simplerootstohealth.com in the next few days. Meanwhile, here's a few pictures from the last week or two. I start to lose track...

Orange rose in the backyard

Sherando park summit view

Bee on flower

Garden and Maddog

Pronghorn steaks and elk meat from Dad

Crazy flower

Instruments made from gourds.

Awesome storm clouds

High waters on the James

The view on my ride in to work

Some cool evening clouds

Where did May go?

Spring semester classes ended and I had this beautiful two week window that I thought I'd fill with blog posts and some fun food research. That didn't happen. I've had plenty of fun, including Head and the Heart Concert, a house party, visiting with highschool friend, attending Jason's wedding, lots of biking but also lots of neccessary things. Volunteer work started, I finished moving and then summer online classes started, which have been considerably more work than I expected. Not to mention a short trip to OBX for some fishing, and then before you know it, May is gone and it's June. It's been busy! Well, here's a few pictures from the last little while. Enjoy.

New Trails

Add a little urban riding and some new trails south of the city, and you get an awesome longer ride you can do from the house. Thanks Carter for leading the way.

The weather was unbelievably nice this weekend. Unfortunately, that means the poison ivy is out in full force and the ticks are back with a vengence. And they aren't shy about searching out the places you particularly don't want them to bite! But we made the most of it, riding, planting, and playing in the sun. Hanging out with friends/family for dinner is the best way to end two great days.

Wild and Wonderful WV

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. We stopped by Douthat State Park for a quick evening hike as we made our way to Charleston, WV to visit Kaz's brother Allen.

As we pulled up to his awesome log cabin house at 11:30pm, I turned the dome light on to see what we needed to take out of the car. As it was, we were super tired, since neither of us are night owls, and it'd been a long day. When we tried to go for a drive on Saturday, I remembered I hadn't turned the dome light off. Bummer. Thankfully I got a set of long, burly jumper cables after my last incident of dome light forgetfulness. The bad thing is, if you don't have another car to jump off of, you're still kinda stuck. Well, thanks to Allen, that is no longer an issue either.

After exploring the downtown market, we read, napped and ate, watched some funny internet videos and the movie "Django unchained." It was a good rest day which Kaz and I both needed. Sunday we stopped by the New River Gorge for another hike and then found our way back home again. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and didn't have to do any chores or busy work. It was great! Allen's a great host and we look forward to the next time.