September 30, 2013

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. 

September 23, 2013

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.

September 21, 2013

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.

September 19, 2013

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.)

September 18, 2013

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!)

September 11, 2013

First I want to show one of the first patriotic things I saw this morning.  We went to Minong to do laundry and outside was a flag at half staff.  Today is one of those days that we'll never forget where we were and how we felt twelve years ago.

Today was also the first day we've seen these mushrooms.  Several years ago we saw them growing on this tree but we were too chicken to try them. Since then we've learned a lot about picking wild mushrooms and know this is considered one of the fool proof four.  

For the past two years every time we drive past this tree we look for the bright yellow/orange chicken of the woods mushroom.  Today as we drove by I thought I saw one, we backed up and sure enough they are just starting to grow on this oak tree.  I'll pan fry it tonight and if we really like it, we'll go back tomorrow for more.

I also saw this bolete growing near our driveway.  Not sure if it's an edible and I'm not going to risk it.

One more thing to love about fall...wild mushrooms!

September 8, 2013

Well, it's been awhile since I updated here and that's because nothing much has been going on around here.  The weather has been hot, rainy, cool and just right.  

Today we took a walk in a new logging area.  Nice to see it wasn't a clear cut, but a very nice selective cut.  If you look closely you'll see some faces in the hollow logs. 

Jim's been working on enlarging our garden for next summer and decided to go pick up one more tractor tire to have in our crop circle garden. 

Our current garden is doing okay, thanks to his TLC.  We've had tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers and zucchini.  The eggplant is taking its good natured time and so are the banana peppers.  I don't care for the peppers, but Jim says they're not very good and is waiting for them to turn red.  The eggplant was just a test and we probably won't grow them again next year.  Cabbage plants love the northern weather and are doing really good.

The days are getting shorter and our first frost is just around the corner.  Hope we can harvest more veggies before this short garden season ends.