How to get the perfect cherry pie

Frank makes a delicious cherry pie, as you know.

But we have struggled with the difficulty in finding cherries for said pie.

We usually buy canned cherries, which are not always available at the store and when they are, they are very expensive.  We often pay $5 per can...and we use 3 cans of cherries per pie. We have even resorted to buying them from Amazon by the case. So, yeah, we are crazy.

One day I was complaining about the problem finding sour cherries and my neighbor piped up that her family actually owned a pie cherry orchard and that when it was time for harvest she would see if I could get some.  I was ecstatic! And then I forgot all about it.

The other day she says to me that it is harvest time and asked if I would like to come see how they harvest the cherries and maybe pick some.

Frank and I jumped at the chance to check it out!

The orchard was HUGE. So many trees!

They use these big machines/tractors/conveyor belts to shake the trees and knock all the cherries down and into these huge bins.  It's amazing that the shaking doesn't damage the trees, honestly. 

Here is a really bad video of the shaking (I had a hard time finding a good place to stand to see it well...after all we were in the midst of a lot of trees):

The farmer told us that we were welcome to pick the cherries left on the trees after shaking (not too many are left...it's pretty amazing) or to pick from the young trees that are too small to shake.  We grabbed a couple of buckets and got to picking.  

I can't tell you how grateful and happy we were to get all those cherries!

We told them we'd bring them a cherry pie for a thank you and were informed by the farmer's wife that they didn't really love cherry pie! Haha so funny. We will probably still take a pie for those that do like it.

We ended up with a 5 gallon bucket and another smaller bucket full of cherries (we guessed that the smaller bucket was about 3 gallons).  The next night Frank and I pitted the smaller bucket of cherries together and it took about 2 hours.  

The day after that, I pitted cherries for about 7 hours straight while watching "Parenthood" on my computer.  It was a long, sticky time.  

This is a huge cooler that we have and it was full of cherries by the time we were done. 

Full to the very top!

It was my day off so I knew I had to finish the job...So then I got to canning!  Frank helped and we canned 28 quarts and 16 pints of cherries.

I still have one more canner load to do tonight and then we will be all set for over 28 cherry pies!  That's a lot of pie.

And they will be perfect!

The "new" job

I haven't written anything about my job change but now that I am settled into the new job I have decided that it's time.

I liked my old job ok...liked the people I worked with a lot...but the sitting all day was not doing me any favors and I was developing carpal tunnel symptoms from being on the computer all day. And so I started looking around a bit. I wanted to be able to move during the day. I wanted to not be on a computer the whole time.  I applied for a couple of jobs closer to my home and talked to some people I know about possible opportunities.

I like interacting with people (though I always forget about the perfume issues until I am interacting with lots of people and then I'm like "oh, yeah, I should stay in a room by myself!") and decided to look for something where I could move around a bit more and also see people in person, rather than just interacting by phone.

Long story short, I got a job working for a local chiropractor.

And...after two months I can honestly say that I really like my new job!
I don't dread work. I don't get anxious or sad on Sunday night.  I usually leave work actually feeling kind of energized after the day of pleasant interactions and tasks successfully fulfilled.

Other plusses to the job: I have 1.5 days off each week! So, yes, I am working fewer hours overall which might contribute to my happiness level as well. Just maybe.

The doctor is very nice and I like my coworkers (though one is leaving soon so I'm really hoping to like the new person!). I'm learning new skills and new computer programs. I get adjusted for free!  Since it's a small business, I did lose some of the perks that I enjoyed at my old job: 401K, wellness plans, immediate paid time off (I will eventually get that at this job but not for awhile).  But my hope is to stay long term at this job because I can see myself being fulfilled there while still having time for a life.  If something dire happens in my life where I need a job with insurance, I will have to rethink this but for now it fits my life really well.

I'm grateful for the skills I learned at my old job which helped me get this new one and I still keep in touch with a variety of the friends I made there.

I sort of imagined that I would forever be just ok with working full time--managing and adjusting--but never really being happy about it. I suppose the new job is really more like 3/4 time rather than full time but it does feel like something I can keep doing without feeling trapped.

Yay for life upgrades!