Goodbye Brother Don

When you come from a large family you assume that everyone will always be around, you take each other for granted, you visit, see each other at events, visit eachothers homes and enjoy their company.
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My older brother Donnie went to the Doctors, they immediately put him in the hospital up in Burlington Vermont, they found he had cancer, this was on the 21st of September, he started chemo treatments,  while in the hospital we talked, I woke with severe diverticulitus, i was rushed to Lowville hospital;  my older brother and I called each other while in the hospital, I was released after 4 days of heavy antibiotics and went home, On October 20th my brother Donnie passed away in the hospital. 
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Above is John, Jim, Janice, Donnie, Roland, Beverly, me, Ronnie, Ronnie and Roland are twins.
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This is my family, My father was also 73 when he developed cancer and my brother Donnie had the same type, a fast and agressive type.
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The above picture was taken in October, my dad could barely stand, right after this picture he went in the hospital and passed away November 20,  my brother passed on October 20th.
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In memory of my brother, Donald Theodore Wood.
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The above picture is my Brothers family, Arleen, Donald Jr. His wife Linda, Jeanette, Donnie and Fred.
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Donnie lost his youngets son Fred on July 1st this year from a heart attack.
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So thankful we had our annual Wood Reunion in July and we were all home.
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Rest in Peace Dear Brother !
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Fall fresh cider.

Fall is in the air, it is our yearly trek to Burrville, NY to the Burrville Cider Mill,  We have plenty of apples, Anna Mae has been making Apple Sause, Apple Crisp and whatnot.
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The Cider Mill presses apples and makes delicious cider, this year they are NOT pressing on Tuesdays and Thursdays because there is a shortage of apples.  MOTTS which is a big apple juice and sause company up here has been buying up any and all apples they can get, apple prices this year are 200 % to 300% higher than normal,   we went in the store and got a nice glass of fresh squeesed cider and a home made Apple cider doughnut,  "Delicious"!!
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I am standing in front of the original dam built back in the 1800's that was used to power the mill and the apple presses.
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The bottom part of the dam is solid rock and the top 4 feet are hand cut and placed stone.
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The leaves are beautiful around here and very colorful as usual !
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. Most of the apples come from down state but now thyere are many, many newly planted orchards around this area for apples.
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As you can see from the picture above they were down to one crete of apples, usually they are 20 to 30 cretes standing to press, they "Blend" their cider using Macs, Red delicious, northern spys and grannys.  The green container on the right side is mull from the pressed apples, it is saved and sold to farmers for cattle feed as they mix it with their regular silage for the cows, also it is cove3red in BEES !!!
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The Mums are ready to transplant, the pumpkins were early this year,  Cider is expensive this year and they are not making it by the gallon but only putting it up in half gallons,  the nice part is you can freeze frese squeesed cider and have it all winter.
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