Wid Ricing and Fire

 The sign explaining the basics about wild rice at the put-in on Cramer Lake.

It's Sunday morning, September 11, 2011. A look of peace on the lake.  You can just barely see the wild rice in the distance. It's a beautiful, very warm, sunny day with a slight breeze out of the west-northwest.

 Just getting started and the rice seems thin.  We keep paddling seeking a better, thicker stand and even think about heading to another lake but we really don't want to spend any more of the day driving around as we are already an hours' drive from home.

We found it!  With the knockers I pull the the rice stems over the canoe and brush or tap off the ripe rice into the canoe. There are stems empty of rice and rice left on stems even after tapping.  Ideally you tap or brush just enough for the ripe grains to fall.

While I'm knocking in rice Dave is standing behind me pushing us along.  It's quite the workout for your abdominal and back muscles but Dave loves it :)

 Swans!  It's as close as they wanted us.

 We stopped for lunch and I couldn't resist, is it a porcupine?

After landing the canoe we carried our lunch up past this fire ring to find a shady spot.  On one trip back to the water Dave stepped next to the ring and was surprised to have the ground give way as the organic material outside the ring was cooking.  The ashes looked completely cool but it was hot to the touch!

We found that the fire had traveled toward the forest at least 4 feet.  After digging down into the hot, smoking ground we hauled water with our cooler to drench the smoldering ground.

 I was shocked at how many trips to the lake it took to finally cool it off.  I kept digging while Dave hauled up the water.  If you pour it on without digging it just runs off and doesn't cool down the hot ground beneath..

As we headed back to the rice stand after lunch we noticed the Pagami Creek fire blow up.  The fire located over near Ely went from 3,000  to 10,000 acres that day.  As of today, September 14 it's grown to 100,000 acres and with the strong winds this morning it will keep growing.

We need a break!

Yes we are still resting but do you see the smoke moving in from the northwest?

The sky east of the fire blow up is really getting smoky and gray. The furthest forest ridglines have disappeared in the smoke. We odor of smoke is getting stronger, "Gee, I think we have enough rice, don't you think Dave?"

The paddle back.  What a beautiful day on the water.

It doesn't really look like that much rice, I hope it's enough.  We're hoping to have enough for the family, that's all.  How many pounds, any guesses?

I was very surprised at how much we got! 
Notice the smoke filled sky!

At home we weighed it and the correct answer is: 22 pounds!

Can you tell I was taken with the site of smoke filling the sky?

The evening sunset at home shows the smoke filled sky and smoky clouds moving in from the west as Grand Marais is East of the fire.  The smell of smoke is everywhere.  The Pagami Creek Fire was started by lightening.  I'm glad we found and put out the potential fire starter at the lunch site, which wasn't started by lightening.

Before Fall but After Summer

 Karl moving in to Sanford Hall.  A bike, a backpack, classes, new friends, old friends, an elevator and dorm life. What an adventure!

 For someone who grew up in the north woods of Minnesota, this is a very unusual site when you wake up.

 I'm not sure why it was so reassuring to know they were expecting Karl on this day, in this room.  This is college after all.

 I just finished harvesting beans less than a week ago but there is still plenty of Swiss Chard out there.  And the onions I didn't accidentally pull out are also waiting for the final harvest.

RED tomatoes and an eggplant. OK, so the tomatoes are red because they are cherry, but we've never grown eggplant before.  So, what do you do with eggplant anyway?

 We have never had a real harvest of corn before.  Every year I try to talk Dave out of planting corn.  "What a waste of space!" I say.  The summers are warmer, it's obvious.
 

So for the first time we harvested corn and had enough to freeze some.  We even left some to have for corn on the cob for a few more meals.  Should we plant corn next summer?

 There is no way this butternut squash will mature in time!  We've already had a frost warning.

 I know, I know, I've shown this very same pumpkin before!  We actually have a big orange pumpkin!

 If we can protect the eggplant from the September frosts we may get more than one.  What does one DO with eggplant?

 So this photo was taken about a month ago but I just really like it!

 The meat birds are eating more every week.  If they are out of the "tractor" and I'm outside they will follow me around.  They don't seem to mind the dogs and the dogs don't mind them.  I wish I could leave them to range all day but my awareness of predators means they stay in the tractor unless we're here.

 When I went out to ride tonight I slipped on some boots that I bought about 40 years ago and have worn only once or twice.  Why I still have them and why I'm putting them to use now, I'm not sure but I think I'll wear them tomorrow as well.

This is Watch A Zan Girl.  She is the grand-daughter of Zan Parr Bar for those of you who know Quarter Horse trivia.  She is a fabulous horse.  Her potential is really way beyond my skills but she is happy here.

The Apple Press and Pressing Apples!

We talked about an apple press last year so when Dave mentioned pressing apples this fall I couldn't help but think it was a little late since we didn't have an apple press.  Oh, me of little faith!  After researching plans and picking one, not a simple task in itself, he began spending every available minute in the shop.  Luckily a trip to Menards was easily worked into our return drive after dropping Karl off at the U.

Anyone who works with wood will appreciate why I really like this photo of the pressing racks.  There are three of them. Aren't they pretty?

So what does one do if you don't have any apples to press?
Dave, "Let's go to town, drive around looking for trees and ask if we can pick now, or later if they are not yet ready."
Patsy, "Really?"
I learned that #1. People are very generous and #2. Apple seeds turn brown when the apples are ripe.  Most apples ripen later in the fall but we found 4.5 bushels of apples we could press.  The renter thought it was great that we wanted to harvest from this tree, luckily her landlady agreed these State Fair Reds could come home with us.  Thanks Jean Marie!
How 'bout that homemade apple picker!  It really works, for the most part anyway.  The dish drainer tines are a little on the weak side.  The worst part is that it's a killer on your neck!

Almost ready to start our pressing adventure on Labor Day 2011.

Now I understand where the game bobbing for apples started.  I guess cider is best when you use at least two varieties.  And we actually ended up with two early varieties.

So the apples are plucked out of the wash tub/apple bobbing pot, rinsed, with leaves pulled off and I pop them into the musher.  It is amazingly fast.  That little table I'm working at is screwed onto the picnic table bench and it's a nice level to work at.

Once you get a bucket full of mushed apples you are ready to load up the frame at the apple press.

The removable frame holds the cotton sheet in place while you smooth out the "batter" of apple mush.  We carefully folded the sheet over the top of the mush while the juice started draining into the food grade 5 gallon bucket.

This was our trial run using just one frame of apples.  The bottle jack is in place and Dave is pumping it as needed.

There was one little leak but look at that juice!

Now this is serious!  Three apple mush frames with slatted press boards and the juice is really flowing!

It was so wonderful watching this juice filling up the bucket!

I think we were on the next batch of mushed apples by this time. 

The final result was two five gallon buckets of juice to be fermented into cider and one and a half gallons of incredibly tasty fresh apple juice.  The plan is to bottle the cider in beer bottles and enjoy it over the fall and winter months ahead.




I was amazed at the little bit of apple that was left after the process!

the remains 4 and 1/2 bushels of apples

Fall is Coming

Black Gold!  I live in a place where there is no dirt.  If you live in southern Minnesota or anywhere in Iowa you can't imagine a place where there is no dirt.  Well,  northeastern Minnesota is a place with no black dirt.  If we want dirt here we have to haul it in, pay dearly for someone else to haul it in, or make our own.  This is the manure from last winter plus water plus tilling and plus a little time to compost into fertile black earth.  With this we grow veggie, herb and flower gardens, apple trees and berries. 

 We are about to make salsa with our ripe cherry tomatoes.  This one is in a pot just outside the front door. Up here, seeing red, ripe tomatoes is like seeing stars!

In just a few years we'll be able to harvest a few more of our own apples.  This spring we put in a Haralred, a Honeycrisp and a Prairie Magic.  The Haralson we planted in 1991 needed some company.

This was the off year for the Haralson and total harvest won't be much more than these.

The pumpkin is orange!

Those meat birds are growing but their number has been reduced by one.  After a night of rain the "tractor" wood was heavy and the tarp roof had enough standing water to make lifting the thing a bit more than I could manage.  And yes I was in a bit of a hurry as I was on my way to work.  After setting, well, dropping the tractor down and pushing the water off, I saw the poor bird under the frame.  Her back was broken but she wasn't dead.  I can't really describe how distraught I felt.  These are chickens raised to be our winter food, but I weep at some point every time we butcher.  I called Dave in tears, I just couldn't figure out what to do.  Yes, the right thing to do was ring her neck and put her out of her misery.  Oh, aw, a tough way to begin the day.

 

The layer flock is getting to that teenage stage.  The roosters are crowing early in the morning and throughout the day.  The pecking order is interesting to observe but since they look so similar I can't really tell who's at the top or the bottom.  One hen has an odd comb and may have to be culled and I'm not sure I'll keep all three roosters. I have dreams of managing my own breeding flock and I have tried off and on for years with very little success, but maybe this time.

We did not waste the lovely chicken I killed that morning.  Dave made excellent stir fry and we saved the legs for winter soup