Lady the Wonder Dog!

I always wanted to think that Lady was on chicken duty while I'm away at work.  On the day I went to help Melanie with the tomatoes I found out the truth! 
My neighbor, Trilby, called while I was on my way down Hwy. 61 with the news that there had been a "chicken incident!"  Seconds later the call was dropped. (naturally)  My mind wandered to a couple years back when I lost nearly my entire flock to a rogue neighborhood dog.  Finally I see "bars" on my phone and return the call.  It seems my 15 Silver Laced Wyandottes showed up in her yard and her large eleven month old Shelti pup went crazy. He was chasing the chickens around and around their cabin with lots of squawking heard from the terrified chickens who are accustomed to chicken-friendly dogs.  Tribly was happily surprised when the "Wonder Dog Lady" came to the rescue, charging into the chaotic scene, drawing her dog off into the woods so the chickens could escape.  She said Lady was not at all aggressive with her dog, just persistent.  WOW!  But that's not all!  The following Wednesday when Trilby was heading back to the cities there was another "incident."  She was all packed up and bringing her pup to the car, but he had other ideas.  He took off through the woods for our place with Triby in hot pursuit.  I bet he's thinking these chickens are lots of fun to chase and might even taste good!  Trilby arrives to see Wonder Dog Lady charging and driving her dog off the property.  She came to the Library to tell me this and was quite impressed with Lady and in a bit of a dilemma as to how to handle her dog.  I wonder how many times Lady's chicken rescue episodes have gone unrecognized?

This is my favorite time of fall when the reds, golds and greens are everywhere!  This photo was taken at our maple stand where we tap trees in the spring.  This past spring we bottled about 3 gallons of syrup.  Each gallon represents about 32 gallons of sap.  I'll have pictures of the 2012 harvest.

With fall here, if I don't have the "barn" filled with the winter's supply of hay, I get nervous.  The barn has been unfinished for, well, I forget how many years, but it's been a while.  Dave is covering openings that I determined last winter, really were a problem.

Last year's hay, pallets and plastic to move.  A week to let things air and dry out before loading up the space with new hay.  In fact, at this moment I have two teenage boys out there filling this space with 230 bales of fabulous hay from Lahti Farms. Shawn Lahti delivered the hay this morning, driving from Toivola, Minnesota, which is northwest of Duluth.  The family has been farming and delivering hay and straw since 1931. 








I've had an unfinished cinch hanging on my closet door for one and a half years and I finally finished it!  I joined a class to learn how to make it but we ran out of time before the final mohair was in place.  My friend Vicki helped with reviewing the process to finish the piece.  She makes and sells beautiful mohair cinches and girths. Check it out on fb Traditional Mohair Cinches.

40 Pounds of Tomatoes

A day off of work and a list of things to do.  Chatting with Melanie on fb and "oh my gosh, 40 lbs, (her CSA share), of tomatoes sitting inside her door."  I could just drive to Duluth, hang out with Melanie and Wally, and can tomatoes.  And while I'm there I could make the granola that was on my list of things to do.  Why not!

 The two seasons in Minnesota are winter and construction.  Highway 61, the only highway in and out of Cook County, will be under construction, in one place or another, for the rest of my life. 

  Good thing I have the day off.

 They're finally coming so our turn can't be long off.

I think all kids love to help especially when it involves real stuff like making food.  Oscar, who would celebrate his 6th birthday shortly, couldn't wait to get involved with getting this granola mixed up.  You can see he takes this job with the serious consideration required.

Seven year old Rowan is not about to be left out of the mixing process.  I'm just guessing that granola is one of the favorite snacks around here.

 So Melanie is blanching, chilling the tomatoes.  I'm peeling and she's quartering before they get dropped in the pot.  Then it's into the jars, capped and into the pressure cooker.

Watch that guage, adjust that temp, watch that guage, adjust that temp, watch that guage...

OK, have a beer and watch that guage, watch that guage, adjust that temp and yes it's after 4:00.

The granola is coming along as are the kidney beans which made it into the pressure cooker, followed by the meat and spices for the chile dinner.

We had all four burners going as well as the oven.  What a fun day in the kitchen with my daughter and grandkids!

After dinner we headed over to the soccer field for Rowan's game.  She did an awesome job in the goal for the first half of the game.  As she got onto the offensive line it was time for me to head up the shore.   Oscar's birthday is just 4 days away, so I'll be back.  Rowan said, "Just four days, Grandma, just four days!"

Wally never tires of throwing, catching, running and kicking a ball.  And I mean any kind of ball!  

Oscar and his buddies had their own unique game of freeze tag going.  Happy boys!  

Four hours on the road for a memory making fall afternoon with family.  So much to be grateful for!

Did you notice there was not one picture of tomatoes in this post?

SALSA

On Monday, the 12th of September, the day following our day on the lake wild ricing, we harvested all our salsa ingredients.  What's missing from the picture are the tomatillos and I'm so sorry because they are so unique looking.  They remind me of Chinese paper lanterns.  I thought we we just harvesting but we looked at our schedules for the rest of the week and, well, tonight is the night to make salsa!

After a bit of blanching, chopping, food processing and more chopping we had red and green salsa!  Now what do we do with all this salsa?  What we froze was based on the number of available containers to freeze it in and the rest I tucked away in the fridge and canned Wednesday morning before going to work.  That is one really nice thing about working late on Wednesday, I've got the morning to start some project which means even with all that time to get ready for work, I'm always running late because I'm in the middle of something!

Here is the "cold frame."  Dave planted tomatoes, peppers, onions and lettuce.

Other than quite a bit of early lettuce and onion greens, this is what we got. One, rather large and red tomato.

We're not quite sure what to do next year.  With all the effort involved, that is one very "dear" tomato!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011.  Our first real frost.

I thought the pattern on the chicken coop was pretty.  Just minutes later, as the sun came over the treetops, this was gone. 

Below you can see the sun in the treetops and what we dressed in the garden to protect it from the dropping temps.  The next night, the 15th, it all froze.  We harvested all that was left, Dave dug the potatoes, I pulled up the bean vines. There were a few red and orange tomatoes and lots of green tomatoes that survived under their shelter which will ripen in the house.  There is a long winter ahead and still much to do before the snow comes but that can on the post is a reminder of planting seedlings in the spring.  It's only 8 months away!

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.