Closing up shop here for awhile. I just can't get into this anymore, but possibly when we get back to the northland. So in the meantime, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentines Day and A Happy St Patrick's Day too! See ya in the spring...maybe!
Oops, I guess it's been awhile since I updated this. Nothing very exciting has been going on up here, except for the first snow that came on Saturday. Didn't like that at all! But with the snow came freezing temperatures and that's what the high bush cranberries need to sweeten up. At least that's what I've read.
So I bet you're wondering what in the world are high bush cranberries? Well, instead of me trying to explain them, here's a short explanation about them. Last year we saw someone stop by and cut some off of our bushes so that's when we decided to figure out what we had that they wanted. Hmmm, so those red berries are edible and are used for jelly, juice and sauce.
I check out some recipes and knew I didn't want anything to do with making juice or jelly, but the sauce sounded easy enough. Jim was all for it and he went out yesterday and picked 4 cups for the sauce.
See, they do look like cranberries, just a little smaller and redder. I followed this simple recipe.
Simmered, smashed, strained, added the sweetness and cooled. I tasted it after it cooled and it tastes like a combination of cranberries, cherries and rhubarb. Quite tasty.
Then I found out that this sauce goes well with moose meat. Okay, I'm plum out of moose and don't have any beef either. I think it would taste great on ice cream, which I also don't have. I guess I should've done a little more reading first, but now I know all about high bush cranberries or saskatoons. Guess what's on my grocery list? No not moose meat!
Another day, another batch of mushrooms. I've never seen one like this before. It has a hole in the center of it. Sorry, it's kinda blurry. Picture was taken shortly after my first cup of coffee and before I had breakfast.
I took this one yesterday of a clump at the base of a dead popple stump.
This is what it looked like today. Apparently deer (or some other critters) like them.
Looks like some little critter took a couple bites out of this one.
One more, but this one is on a dead log.
And for something that's just pretty. Look at that blue sky!
On Tuesday we found more Chicken in the Woods mushrooms growing on the tree where we harvested some over a week ago.
I wanted to do so thing different with them, so I did a google search and found this recipe and decided to make it for supper. I had almost all the ingredients and hoped that 5 hours of marinating would do...well, it was long enough and the end result was awesome!
We've become somewhat obsessed with looking for them and were doing the happy dance yesterday when we spotted some growing on a tree down the road from us. Too bad they were past their prime. Besides looking for mushrooms, we've been enjoying the fall color, I really wish it would last longer. Anyway, whîle out yesterday I got a picture of an eagle and deer along the same road.
And another wooly bear caterpillar.
These leaves wanted to go for a ride with us.
Surprising how long they stuck to the window.
And this last picture is from one of my favorite places up here. It's at Bear Lake...a beautiful spot with only one home on it.
That's real wild rice growing in the water along most of the shoreline.
It's raining now and is supposed to continue for most of the weekend. That should take care of most of the leaves, but who know about the mushrooms!
The last day of September! Wow where did that month go?
We were busy last week. Monday we had a nice visit with my brother and his wife. They stopped on their way up to Duluth. They arrived in this bright yellow convertible, compliments of The Dream Foundation, which is like Make a Wish for adults. My brother has cancer and wanted to travel in a convertible. The Dream Foundation came through for him.
On Thursday we took a trip up to Ely, Minnesota to drop off a donation at the North American Bear Center. Earlier this summer they asked for donations for their new addition, Jim decided it would be a nice place for the bear mount he had done several years ago. We had a great time up there and they were very appreciative, showed us around and took our picture with Dr. Lynn Rogers.
Friday night was the fund raiser for our local fire department that lost everything in a fire the week before. It was totally unbelievable! The organizers did a fantastic job of getting donations, preparing food and all the others details necessary for a successful fund raiser. We couldn't believe the turnout! I'm guessing there were over a thousand people there. Many were firemen from other communities, even from Minnesota. The biggest thrill of the night was when Enbridge (an pipeline company) announced they were donating $25,000!
This is what the fire house looks like now. For the time being, they have several fire trucks and other fire fighting equipment on loan from other volunteer departments. The whole event was very heart warming.
We've been out enjoying the fantastic fall weather and beautiful color around here and it's been gorgeous!
On Sunday we saw these two porcupines. Glad they weren't around here!
Today we went down by the Cut Away Dam and thought it looked like November around there. Almost all the leaves were gone except for the under brush. Even so, it was a pretty stop on the last day of September.
I think most of us have a love/hate relationship with Walmart. I know I do, but now I'm feeling like I've got an edge on them. Recently my brother was telling me about ordering various things through their online store. Things like toothpaste, eye drops and a camouflage hat. Last week we were at Walmart in Superior and when I got home I remembered several things I wanted to get, but because I didn't have them on my list, I forgot to buy them. Soooooo, I decided to check out their website and let me tell you, there are an amazing number of things you can order from them.
One thing I forgot was laundry soap. Sure enough, you can buy it online. Another thing was olive oil. Yup, that was in the online store too. So now I was on a roll. I've been wanting to get a new toaster and the one I wanted wasn't available in the stores, but is online! I added that to my shopping cart as well as a few other items. I'm sure you're all thinking about how much this order will cost to ship. We all know how easy it is to spend $45 at Walmart and all my items we're in the "free shipping when you spend $45" or ship to home category. I placed my order on Monday and on Wednesday FedEx drove up the driveway and delivered the first part. On Thursday I got the rest of my order. We were gone and it was kind of rainy when it was delivered, so they put the boxes in plastic bags and left them by the door.
I was totally impressed with the whole deal. I didn't have to go to the store to get what I forgot and now I have the new toaster I wanted! It's a win win in my opinion.
Happy last day of summer! It was a gorgeous day in the northland and we decided to take the scenic route down to Rice Lake to do some shopping and have lunch. Stopped at Farm and Fleet, the grocery store, had Mexican for lunch and then went to Bargain Bills for some scrapbook supplies. On our way back to the cabin we took a different scenic route and did a quick turn around when we saw this sign along the road.
And then there was this sign at the end of the road.
So we parked and went to check out the Great Pumpkin Patch.
There were a lot more pumpkins out there than appear in this picture. Some were still green but the lady told us they would contine to turn orange after being picked.
We each picked one and loaded them in a wagon. You can see that they're good size pumpkins. Now to find put how much they'll cost. The guy said none were more than $10.
The prices are determined by the height of the pumpkins. The big one was $4 and the flatter one that I liked was $2. Unbelievable! We bought a couple squash too...for $2 each.
I passed up the chance to take home a free kitten. Molly would probably run away from home if we did that!
As we were leaving we were really glad we turned around and stopped for the opening day at The Great Pumpkin Patch.
Mushrooms! I do believe most of these popped up overnight. We've had some rain, last night was very warm and today they were everywhere! The orange ones (chicken in the woods) in the center are (were) delicious! The rest and poisonous or inedible.
We had a good shower around noon today and later in the afternoon we took a drive around looking for more Chicken in the Woods mushrooms. We didn't find any, but we sure saw a lot of deer and turkeys. I took some pictures of the turkeys, but they were bad, really bad.
One piece of really bad news today was hearing that our teeny tiny town's fire house had a fire and lost all their fire trucks and fire fighting equipment. Early reports are saying it was some type of explosions of some equipment in one of the trucks. Oxygen tank perhaps? I don't know, but for the next week or so our fire protection will be very compromised. (These are a couple pictures I snagged from Facebook.)
Well, it's almost the first day of fall and were starting to see many signs of it. Waterfowl...lots of ducks and geese are around. The leaves are starting to change colors, we're pretty sure we've seen the last hummingbird, bear hunters are getting frustrated because some bears are already in their dens and the deer have lost their pretty summer coats and are growing hair for the winter. Here's an assortment of early fall pictures from around the 'hood.
Quack, quack quack quack quack quack ...
Twenty two turkeys in our neighbors hay field. I like the one on top of the round bale.
Two sandhill cranes in a different hay field.
The neighbors steer and other cattle hanging around the ol' watering hole.
Deer fattening up on acorns.
And a major sign of fall...the first frost.
I saw goldfinches trying to get a drink out of this frozen mess. Didn't happen until a couple hours later.
(Don't know whose picture this is...but I wish it were mine!)
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