Peaches III Peach Days 2010

This is the site of my earliest peach experiences...my grandparents' home in Brigham City.



Every year, about the 2nd weekend of September is the annual Peach Days celebration. For a small town, it is a big event. This year was especially noteworthy as the parade was held on 9/11...the anniversary of the tragic events at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania. The flags in and around the parade were a reminder of how our lives have changed.





There is always a display made of various fruits and veggies, but featuring peaches, of course!



The parade lasted nearly 2 hours!



Honor was paid to members of our military. Sadly, we were too late for the first 20 or so entries in the parade where the current military folks marched.



Judging from the number of people riding the floats, it is a wonder there was anyone left to watch the parade, but the sidewalks were filled with parade watchers.











The local politicians were all represented. Is that a Kotter sign I see?












Some folks found a perfect vantage point to look down on the parade. It wasn't such a good spot for catching candy that was thrown though, as everything thrown up to them landed on the ledge below them were nobody could get to it.









This group had a unique feature....identical noses and glasses. Look at those eyebrows!
















Even the local mortuary showed up with a fancy hearse from the past.








There is such a thing as a high school tractor team?



Box Elder High School band uniforms have changed a lot since the days my mother marched in the parade and complained of how hot the uniforms were.











Comment from the little girl in front of us: "Look Mommy! A pink potty!"









The meeting of the rails at Promontory was featured in several floats.



Even the letter carriers had a band.





The cub scouts marched proudly.







There was also a host of local dignitaries.





Who IS that on top of that fire truck with the white shirts and black badges!?



All in all, a fun parade to watch and great Saturday entertainment!

Peaches II

What to do with all those peaches!? Today we spent figuring that all out. Some are saved in the refrigerator for eating in the next week or so. Some are chopped up, ready to be made into jam, and most of them we spent the day peeling and canning. It took a little longer than usual since they are so small this year, but they taste good, and that is what counts...right? I always think canned peaches are one of the prettiest canned items. I know I'll be happy to have them to enjoy next winter.

Peaches!

When I was young, we traveled every other year to visit our grandparents who lived about 1500 miles away. It was more of an adventure at that time as there were not as many interstate highways built. It took us 2 1/2 days to make that drive. We always went in the summer, and surely we must have usually gone in August, because what I remember best is that there were always fresh peaches on Grandpa's peach trees. Eating those fresh peaches with cream, sugar and nutmeg was a real treat!

As an adult, I ended up living in Alaska for many years. There was NO chance of growing a peach tree there. None. The peaches in the store were not a good substitute. Did they purposefully send the nastiest, worst fruit to Alaska, knowing we'd eat it anyway? I don't know. It surely seemed like it. Certainly, the peaches were picked quite green and were tasteless and dry when we bought them.

When we left Alaska and moved to our little valley, we found the climate not exactly conducive to fruit growing. In fact, the old timers told us that the only month of the year when there had never been a frost was July. Still, we went to a local nursery which carried plants suited to our climate, where we purchased a couple of peach trees.

This year I had no hope of getting any peaches from them. June was cold and rainy...and it even frosted at least once. The areas across the mountains, where peaches usually grow much better, have a smaller than usual crop this year due to lack of pollination because of the cold and rain while they were blooming. Not a good year for fruit.

Nonetheless, we pruned our little trees, though not nearly enough as it turned out. I realized that somehow, our trees must have bloomed at just the right moment, because we had peaches....lots of peaches. All summer I have thinned and thinned and thinned them...and still there were too many peaches on the tree. Thus, they are smaller than they should be, but we intend to enjoy them. They are not dry and tasteless...they are juicy and delicious! Today we picked most of them. They have been falling to the ground for about a week, although many were not yet ripe, but I can no longer stand to watch from my window while the birds feast on them!

Tomorrow I think I'll be canning peaches!

Ft. Bridger Rendezvous 2010

Today we decided to go visit Ft. Bridger during the annual rendezvous there just to see what it was all about. We did lots of looking around and came home with new pioneer socks, fancy scissors and tweezer and a whole bundle of leather strips to use with some woodworking projects.

Admittance to the rendezvous was $4 a person unless dressed in period (1825-1840) clothing, so lots of folks were dressed up which added to the ambiance. In actuality, I thought some folks' standards of period clothing left something to be desired. The only rule I actually saw said no jeans and no sneakers. These fellows, however, seemed pretty authentic!

There were many folks there just camping and taking part in various activities as well as a rather extensive traders alley.




Dogs were allowed on a leash, but this lady I thought, took things a bit far...



For my favorite shrub maker, I especially took this picture:



The grounds also include a permanent museum with a nice exhibit. Since we often have occasion to tell people about handcarts used in crossing the plains, it was interesting to see the cart they have there in the museum, fully loaded.




All in all, it made for an interesting day trip.