Weight-Loss, Autumn Leaves and Concord Grape Juice

This is Becca's second Sunday helping a friend at a farm. She's holding a four-day-old calf in this picture. Becca really loves interacting with the animals. She also gets to bring home milk fresh from the cow.

She's also really enjoyed responding to adds on the internet from people trying to give away excess produce. This is an enormous banana squash that she came home with the other day. So far she's used an eighth of it to make six loaves of banana squash bread. We've already given a couple of loaves away.

Becca has also picked lots of pears and grapes. She borrowed a big juicer from a friend at church and has made many jars of apple and grape juice. She also made pear sauce, which is a lot like apple sauce. I'm not sure why the apple juice came out in different colors.

I hiked to the peak of Provo Mountain again. It was my third time since we moved here in late March. As you can see, I brought Lucy along. I was a little concerned about taking a chihuahua/pug mutt on such a long hike but she did great.

We took four short breaks and did the whole hike in about three hours. I remember the first time taking about four hours and the second taking longer. I looked up the length of the hike on Google: 3.2 miles one way. That's much shorter than what I had originally calculated but it's still a good hike and I'm glad I was able to do it in a shorter time.

One of the things I like about living in Utah Valley is the four distinct seasons. These pictures are all from my hike on Saturday.

In addition to a hundred lizards and grasshoppers I saw two deer on this hike. They took off before I could get a picture.

When Garit and I did the hike in May this mountain you see here was covered in snow.

I've been stuck in my weight-loss. I'm still about ten pounds away from my goal. Becca was going through some old pictures and found two that she put side by side in a single image for me. One is from a month or two ago and the other was taken at Garit and Lorena's wedding, about a year ago. I don't know if I will put this picture on Facebook but I am proud of the progress I have made. Now I need to hunker down and lose those last ten pounds to hit my goal!