The End of November

Meanwhile in Wisconsin...

We had snow! I even tried to photograph a single snowflake like my friend ---> You know,  like that Aurora gal at equine expressions. 

All I got was cold because I wasn't acclimated to the weather yet and I didn't have the proper clothes on.

I did however get a comparison photo of a few days before the snow and the day we had snow.

This isn't far from the mailbox and it is the grape vine that I used for making grape jelly.

These grapes are still hanging on. I wonder if they are still so sweet?

The photo below was taken two days before gun season. I was enchanted by the color of the leaves and the gossamer webs that quivered in the morning sun.

I'm still struggling with grasses and photos of intriguing grasses. I didn't go very far after the snowfall on Sunday morning. It was windy and bitter. I hope to get out to the cropland soon and pick some 'weeds' for my fall bouquet.

This was an effort. I guess without practice and failures one doesn't get proficient at certain things. Winter grasses will be on my list. I've never stopped to study them before, but I did find them pretty intriguing as an abstract form.

For some odd reason, I find this photo comforting and pleasing. 

November is nearly done! One more day! So I need to finish up my photo project of finding beautiful things to photograph in November.

Gooseberry bush. 
I took this before hunting season.

Ninebark seed head. It is a pretty bush that has beautiful flowers in the spring. Taken the day before deer season.

Fun with Fungi.

Again taken before I was ousted from the woods for nine days.

My neighbor who has cattle and horses on the ridge bought this guy at a sale and he is the only donkey left in our area. He talks all day and all night. He is a mini. This is the very first time he has been along the pasture that is near our gravel road.

I took the following shots on Sunday after the snowfall. When I walked to the ridge to get the mail, I discovered no vehicle tracks in the fresh snow.

It seems the hunters on the land east of us had decided not to hunt the last day of the season.

Ninebark seed heads with snow caps.

The Queen Anne's Lace can have such a beautiful shape even in the winter. I can see the seeds waiting to be bumped off by a passing animal.

The Queen holds court
waiting
for a passing
touch

For now, I'm going to wave goodbye to November's colors as the snow and cold has turned the landscape into winter.
Indeed, November was full of color that I never noticed before. Fall lingered on and on producing unexpected beauty in places I haven't looked in before.

Odd things

It was a busy week filled with activities and goings on. We mowed finally and the yard looks decent for the first time this year.

I picked more grapes but didn't get quite enough of the wild ones to make a full batch so I'm going to mix the juice up with blackberries I picked and froze this summer. Grape-blackberry jelly! Yum.

I started to pull out my Fall/Halloween Stuff and mess around with it. After all, it is that time of the year to play with those things, errrr, well... you know, decorate a little. We don't dress up or really do anything for Halloween as we are so isolated and far from town. But I like to have my fun.

The wind up toys came in the mail one day a few years ago from a Flickr friend who thought I'd like them. Of course I do as I'd never would have thought to purchase them myself.

Who can resist a frog skeleton?

It is also the time of the year

for my Lego Skeletons 

to shine!

Poor Harriet, 

always in trouble!

Apparently the skeletons and the zombie

decided to have a 

dance party...

It seems someone likes to

make a grand entrance!

More fun with the froggy

and friends.

I have more small decorations that I have put up but haven't really done any photographing of it yet. Nothing will go up outside. I just have little things that are easy to move around and rearrange to my liking. I'm constantly moving stuff around.

The black and white shots were taken on black painted cardboard with a black painted cardboard back. I used my cell phone flashlight to highlight the scene. It is fun to experiment like this. Decorations are such a great challenge.

I went hiking with a 'new' friend this week. More about that later.

Our daughter [step] and her hubby came for a visit on Thursday which was a huge surprise.

That night Charlie was really sick with tossing up clear stuff. He was so miserable and awful that he wouldn't eat, drink, or even go outside. By mid morning I was ready to cart him off to the vet.

When Rich's daughter showed up Friday morning he went nuts.  He went out for her and did his business, then came in and ate his breakfast and acted as if nothing had bothered him at all!

Can dogs get depressed because they may be missing his pal Twila and then company? I don't know! 

Friday I hit all the Apple Orchards with Steph and Steve and purchased apple fritters, apple donuts, and some cherry cider. 

I found one of the gnarliest bumpy pumpkin ever! 

I expect with this dip in temperatures, I'll be busy with my fall jobs that prep for winter along with making some jelly and having some fun with Halloween 'Decorates' as my kids called it.

....And I need to get out and enjoy those last lovely displays of fall leaves!

Take a walk on the Wild side

Do dee do dee do do do...
Say hey babe, take a walk on the wild side!

Between the huge flush of Chicken of the Woods and the Wild Apples, it has been a booming wild week. 
I took some C.O.W. to Olive along with some wild apple jelly and got an apple pie from a wild apple tree in return.

There are two places that have wild grapes that are easy to get to. One is on the side of the gravel road and one is a huge grape vine that has been growing up the metal section of an old hay rack that leans up against our busted up garage. [See? the junk pile serves a purpose!]

The shots below are from the grape vine alongside the road. It is intertwined with a sugar maple and so the colors right now are very bright. See those little grapes?

I thought I'd taste some this year and they are sweet! So.
Since I'd made apple jelly from wild apples, I thought I'd see how hard it was to make grape jelly from tiny grapes!

Apparently Concord Grapes are very expensive these days [I used to have access to concords when a relative grew some on their farm]. They are the best grapes to use for jelly.

These are free! It takes a bit more time to pick enough, but I thought I'd give it a go.

 

I washed the grape bunches and then started picking them over and inspecting them. The process is tedious but with the help from music and ...

a bit of help from my friends...

[you know I can't help but bring my Lego Minifigures into the kitchen for help!]

This is what the process looks like.

From my first picking, I got nearly 2 1/2 cups of juice without putting the skins and seeds through a food mill. I had to go out and get some more but with 5 cups of juice, I can make a batch of Wild Grape Jelly.

While I was cooking up the grapes, I was also working on some not wild food. I'd purchased about 4 lbs of carrots at the Farmers Market. They were super sweet and delicious. I needed to get some frozen and vacuum sealed for winter veggies.

Farmer Bob came to the rescue and helped haul some of the larger carrots. It seems that they were too large for his little trailer! Fortunately, Bob seems to never get upset over difficult situations.

I need to be more like Bob.

I got a huge pot of them cut up and blanched.

I ended up with 7 servings of carrots frozen and ready to eat this winter and two half pints of dehydrated carrots mixed with onions, green beans, and tomatoes. Those half pints are what I dump into a broth I'll make out of the mushrooms or a beef broth for making soup this fall and winter.

I figure if I spend the day prepping food for future use, it will give me more time to explore and love the outdoors.

I can take more time to Walk on the Wild Side.

I did a thing in the kitchen

Well, it started out in the forest of course. I visited one of my favorite wild apple trees and picked half a 5 gallon bucket full of apples.

Most of the apples were really good and a few were nasty
with bugs or wormies.
These are the ones that didn't make it to
my chopping board.

Because the color wasn't pretty, I ran out 
to the wild grape vine by the busted garage
and picked several handfuls of grapes.

I strain apples the old fashioned way with a cloth and a strainer.
I understand that using a steam juicer is

faster, but this was how I learned to do it.

So I stick with this method.

Viola! Pretty pink apple juice.

Yes!
I can use the stove! 

One thing I love to do is make jelly. I love beautiful colorful and clear jelly. I probably will only make this one batch as I am the only one who really eats it on my toast and PB&J. 

The jar with the handle was the leftover. 
That will go in the fridge right away.

Hubby made a request for Apple Butter which I will do also. I usually make one or two batches of applesauce a year as we eat that as a desert or as a side with pork chops.

Next week, I'll be preserving our veggies for the winter. I'll get a few bunches of carrots to freeze along with some other fresh veggies. 

I've been gathering seeds for next year's flower garden and an exchange with other neighbors. 

I'm eyeing the wild grape vines. They really produced this year....

I wonder....

Oh and tomorrow? I am looking forward to another 'Thing'.

It thankfully does not involve a kitchen!

Kicking my butt and road walking

I had my first Shingles vaccine shot and it kicked my butt for about 12 hours. I mean it kicked like a mule. 

By mid afternoon I felt somewhat human and my headache was going away. I grabbed Charlie and decided it was a nice day for a walk on the back roads. It gave me a chance to look at what I suspected was the Witch Hazel tree/bush and see if any trees on our ridge were turning colors.

When we switched from our township to Kickapoo township, there was more gravel on the road and Charlie seemed like his feet bothered him. We stopped for a few breaks along the way so he could get a drink of water. I carried him through the worst of the sharp gravel. 

It was nice though to walk on the ridge and then down into the valley. We are densely forested here so I don't often get to see wide open spaces unless I am driving somewhere.

These two shots are about a mile from our place. There is a tree line on the horizon in the above shot. That is where our dead end road stops. I walk there often in the summer to watch the sun come up.

I was happy they planted soybeans this year, I don't have to stand on a ladder to see the horizon!

The nasty dog came charging out on Charlie and I. I had picked Charlie up and sprayed the gravel road between us and the dog with pepper spray. Nasty Dog turned and ran back home. I hope the dog relates anyone walking by to that nasty horrid smell. Time will tell. Note, I did not spray the dog, I sprayed the gravel between us...

Other than that, our walk was relaxed and pretty nice. I brought my tree book and took some time looking at different trees.

I'm pretty darned sure that this is Witch Hazel! I found two of them!

This one is...I don't know.

More Bittersweet. I found three more places this was growing.

Wild Grapes. Wow have those nasty Beetles done a job on them.

The black walnut trees were literally bending over with walnuts as were the Bitternut Hickory trees. The apple trees were nearly barren and the Box Elders were yellowing and looking old and worn out.

I actually didn't take photos of trees I guess. It looks like I took photos of bushes that were interesting.

When we got down near the Black Bottom creek bridge we turned around. Down in one of the steep areas off Riley road, we heard a coyote barking. Pretty haunting. 

I fell in love with the rocks and ferns as we trudged back uphill to the ridge.

Our walk was long, it took us nearly two hours. The up and down hill portion of the walk is an elevation change of 200 feet each way. I knew it was steep but had no idea as I'd always driven it. If you fall off the road on one side there is a 50 foot drop to the bottom of a gully.

So I do avoid this road on snowy and icy days. But it is a beautiful walk.

Charlie was worn out when we got home and as I packed my backpack this morning he is giving me the stare with wide eyes. 

Wow HOt!

Black Bart is doing a fine job.  He is calm and serene, and seems to put up with the 'gals' shenanigans rather well.
He is tending to his girls.  We should be expecting calves next April, if I do my math correctly.

Just a note.  The Dexter beef we've been eating is delicious.  The cattle are wonderful to have on our small farm and really do clean up pastures.
I can't wait until I have them working in the woods!

It was supposed to be cooler yesterday, but wasn't.  In the morning, I did my black berry picking up the driveway and came back with a big bunch.  Enough to freeze another pint and a half.

I ate lunch and then decided to go down to the creek and check out any bushes there.  I was disappointed so I hiked to PeeWee's knob and found myself surrounded by black berries.  I picked and picked.
I decided to check out the golden or yellow raspberry patch.
Boy was I suprised.
They were coming on like gang busters.

Morris went and laid down under an apple tree while I picked.  I'd call him every so often to make sure he hadn't wandered off.  
He was hot and not going anywhere.

After about 30 minutes of picking I quit.  The sun was beating down on us and there was no air movement in this patch.  It is hidden by thorny apple trees and huge bushes of multiflora rose.

I could feel the sweat running down my back, into my eyes, and down my pant legs.  I wanted to stay and keep picking, but felt I'd already gotten too hot.

So I grabbed the loyal Jack Russell and headed across the knob towards home.
My final take of the day put us up to about 1/2 gallon of berries frozen for this winter.

The wild grapes are in huge abundance and I am wondering if I'll be able to make grape juice and grape jelly this fall also!