Patience is needed to make wine
By Sheila Donnelly/Austin Daily Herald

I had really wanted to get to a Sunday gathering at the Austin Public Library. But instead, I stayed home, because I had an apple tree that needed tending to. I picked six bushels of apples with my son, Timmy, and my friend Heidi and her daughter, Mariah.

The apples we picked are a variety that is light green with a red blush. The tree was loaded, though the apples were all small in size. We pressed the apples with an apple press that had a motor on it so we didn't have to crank away using our own muscle power. We made around eight gallons of juice.

I am processing and pasteurizing a couple gallons of the juice. When I drink it this winter, I will think back to this weekend in the orchard on the last days of summer. The rest of the juice, Heidi took home and we will be making it into apple wine. We made elder flower wine earlier this summer and it looks beautiful. It is the color of sunshine. We are waiting patiently until January when we can taste our elder flower wine for the first time.

This summer is the first time I have made wine. My sister, Kate used to make lots of wine when she lived in England. She lives in Minneapolis now and has been pursuing other interests but she hopes to start making wine again. Her favorite wine to make was elder flower wine and she even made elder flower champagne. I have made gallons of juice over the years, but now that most of my children are older, I am expanding my horizons with making wine. I will still make juice for my younger son and my grandson, but I am really enjoying making grown-up drinks like wine.

When my older kids were young, I used to gather apples from trees that grew on fence lines and neglected orchards. They were the ones that my neighbors didn't want to pick. My neighbor John and I would pick apples together, tasting them to determine which apples when pressed together would make the most flavorful juice. One of our favorite apples to press for juice was Whitney Crab. These apples are ripe the beginning of August and rot quickly, so you have to pick them right away. Another juice that was a favorite was apple-pear. One of my neighbors had an incredible pear tree that was always heavy with fruit and made a mild juice when pressed with a tart tasting apple.

I am always so amazed by how well things grow in this part of the world. We are so blessed with being so bountiful. Our short growing season is coming to an end with the first day of fall being today. I am dreaming of next season and going inner with my thoughts as the days become colder and I have to spend more time indoors.

Definitions have many meanings
By Sheila Donnelly/Austin Daily Herald

This past weekend, I cut and gathered gourds and Tom Thumb pumpkins from my garden. I have them spread out on straw so the sun will cure them. Each gourd and pumpkin I cut off the vines was prettier than the one before.

My son, Timmy, helped me gather them. I told him to be careful so the stems wouldn't break off the fruit so they will last longer. I have learned that I must give very specific instructions or I am not understood. This is true with almost any chore or explanation.

I have been misunderstood so often and I have misunderstood oral instructions that I try to be very specific when I explain things. For example, I have written down the directions to my house so that people can find it by the county road numbers. This I find has worked better for some people than telling them to turn left at the auto garage on Highway 30, and then left at the cemetery. Some people do better with landmarks so for these people, I specifically tell them the landmarks. My nieces and nephews that live in big cities are constantly confused when they come to visit, as all the dirt roads look the same to them. Now there are street signs and these help, but I never can remember the number of the streets when I give directions.

When we first moved to our farm, we told people to look for the highest tree in the skyline to get to our farm. A tall cottonwood tree is on our property that can be seen from five miles in three directions. It is one of the highest points in Steele County. This cottonwood is on a hill and my brother, Kevin, climbed it once while attached to ropes. He climbed to the top as the sun was setting in the west. When he got to the top he yelled down to us to tell him when we could no longer see the sun. He could still see the sun from his high perch and he counted out loud how much longer he could see the sun from the top of the tree. The sun set 10 seconds later up in the tree for Kevin compared to us down on the ground.

But back to being specific. I have learned that when I give instructions and explanations to never assume that the person you are speaking to will understand what you are telling them. For example, one time I asked my daughter, Molly, to get me a ladle for the soup I was serving. She looked confused, but she went and brought me a potato masher. I said, "No I want a ladle." She went back and brought me a sieve.

"What's wrong with you? Why are did you bring me a potato masher and a sieve? I want to dish up the soup. Go and get me a ladle," I said.

She brought me a metal spatula with tines. "Don't you know what a ladle is?" I asked in exasperation.

"No, I have never heard you say that word before," Molly answered.

I went and got the ladle and now when I say something that they don't understand, Molly and her sisters chant, "Ladle, ladle, ladle."

I understood their confusion as I had something similar happen to me when I was young. When I was around four years old, I would run into the downstairs bathroom in the evening when my father was shaving to use the toilet. He would always say to me, "Where is your modesty? Don't you have any modesty?"

I never understood what modesty was and one time after hearing him ask me where my modesty was, I took my clothes off right in front of him and asked him to show me where my modesty was. I thought modesty was a part of my body. My dad was embarrassed and laughed and told me to put my clothes back on, but he never explained to me where my modesty was.

Wedding brings joy, leftovers
By Sheila Donnelly/Austin Daily Herald

Well, my daughter Mary is married. The wedding that we spent so much time on raising the chickens and finally butchering them last week is over with.

It was a great wedding and now we have a lots to clean up, lots of stories to tell and our pocketbooks are empty. But as my brother-in-law Adrian said, we are full in spirit.

We butchered 55 of the chickens Aug. 28 for the wedding. My neighbors lent me their electric chicken plucker to remove the feathers and that went well. Mary the bride, my brother Dan, his wife Peggy, their two sons, Devon and Brady and my neighbor John and his sister Virginia helped us with the chickens. It was a warm day and a big job and we were happy when it was over with. We cut up the chickens and marinated them in herbs, garlic, lemons and olive oil and froze them. I took the chickens out of the freezer on Sunday morning, the day of the wedding and set them in coolers to thaw.

Unfortunately, the caterers didn't check on the chickens in the coolers when they arrived to and two hours later when it was time to grill, the chickens were still frozen. It was a scramble pouring cold water over them to thaw them out. We had to keep the chicken in the plastic bags because of the marinade. Dinner was late because of this but we had lots of hors d'oeuvres and plenty of refreshments. We also had fish as an entr/e. But because the chickens were frozen, they didn't cook up as nice on the grill as they should have. The chicken tasted OK, but not the way I had planned.

Toward the end of the night the chicken was thawing out quicker and it cooked up better. But of course now I have lots of left over cooked chicken that that tastes better than any that was served at the wedding. I will have to make sure that I enjoy it when we eat every day for the next week. I did learn from the all the mistakes from this wedding. One big thing I learned is that I do not ever want to butcher chickens for a wedding again.

A highlight of the wedding was seeing my husband Tom in a tuxedo for the very first time. He had balked about wearing a tuxedo, but because he is so little we couldn't buy a suit for him. But when he put the tuxedo on for the wedding it fit him like a glove. He looked great in it and he had the biggest grin on his face all night. He even danced with his daughters and me. My friend Heidi said that Tom became a dapper gentleman in the tux.

I guess this proves that the suit really does make the man. Timmy made a little brother speech to Mary and her new husband Dave and told everyone that it was time to relax now that they were married. He did a very nice job and even had written the speech out on orange construction paper. I wish David and Mary best wishes in their new lives together and I am glad to have a new son-in-law.