We want to be like this guy…kinda. Sipping apple cider and contemplating life. Except this guy looks like he’s drinking alone, which is saaaaaad. So, minus the sad lonely drinkies, we want to be like him.

And that’s going to happen this September!! Last year year when our neighbor shared her windfallen apples with us, we mostly fed them to the sheep. Then as mid summer turned into deep summer, we started saving some of the apples for ourselves. We made some apple sauce. We also painstakingly hand-squeezed a few quarts of apple cider. Basically one for each birthday this year, plus anniversary and Christmas. We knew we eventually wanted a cider press, so we could make more cider.

So we looked at prices then decided we did NOT want to buy an apple cider press. But this week I found simple plans (in a library book) for a DIY Apple Cider Press, and we just happened to have all the supplies (except for some lag bolts, which we picked up yesterday).

The 2x6s came from Jake. The 4×4 pressure treated lumber came from Jalen’s dad. The buckets came from Blaine Jemmet. The extra 4×4 non-pressure-treated came from our neighbor John’s friend’s house. There’s a huge spike in lumber prices right now, so the fact that all this wood was gifted to us over the past couple months is a huuuge blessing.

For the cost of 8 lag bolts we got ourselves a free apple cider press. We’re going to test it out this fall!

I love that we can make apple cider. We’re not huge juice drinkers in our family, but sometimes you just want something special to drink that reminds you of the happy, long days of deep summer.