done ~

Dear Hubby announced this morning after we hauled in 2 more loads of winter's firewood ~ "we're done" ~  YAY!!!

The wood shed is full.  

We put up over 30 cords!  

A cord is measured 8 feet long by 4 feet high by 4 feet deep

 Maybe now we can take a break and enjoy this beautiful fall weather that we've been blessed with.  The colors right now of the trees are gorgeous.

 So were these plums ... such a vibrant color ...

 I turned them into 10 half pint jars of Sweet Sour Asian Dipping Sauce for egg rolls or for on top of pork chops, etc...

 This morning I also whipped up an Apple Kuchen ~

The sweet dough I'm using for the kuchen crust has a package of vanilla pudding mixed in.  Yum.

 DH just informed me that we're having company for supper.  Gotta go and find some fish.  It's going to be a Friday night fish fry@mel's diner!  Alas, the dessert is already made.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

buffet on the compost pile ~

This bluejay is squawking ... "Come and get it!"  "There's a buffet on the compost pile."

A buffet it is!  There's two five gallon pails  of granola with almonds and raisins and walnuts dumped on it.  Bait that was left over from bear hunting and baiting that sonny boy left sitting outside in the rain.  Bait that needed to be dumped out before it began fermenting in the pail.

I think the tweetie birds will be happy and I won't be surprised to see the deer, turkeys, pine squirrels, gray squirrels, black squirrels, chipmunks, partridge, Sasquatch, bear and coon out there munching away either :)  I just hope it doesn't attract any skunks.

It's right off the edge of the yard where I can see it from the house ... and hopefully can get some nice pics if something does come in.   Time will tell.

What else is new around here???  We lead such quiet and boring lives.

My DIY hornet / fly trap is up and working like a charm.

It's just 1/4 cup of sugar in water in a soda bottle.

One day later ...

... it's filling up with drowned hornets and flies, even those nasty little fruit flies.  

Amazingly, even though there are a lot of bumblebees right now working the bamboo blossoms... only 10 feet away from it ... I never catch bees in this trap.  Never.  

I have to empty it about once a week.  

It doesn't take much to amuse me :)

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

call me crazy ~

Here I am last night ... already in my jammies ... ready to call it a day ... it's dark out ... and I look at the thermometer ... it's 50 degrees ... but the sky is clear ... I know the temp will drop before morning ... I need to cut my last bouquet of flowers ... out I go ... in the dark ... and rescue my blooms from the frost!

The last of my gladiolas.

My last bouquet of summer flowers.

Slim called me crazy... it's not going to freeze.

He was right. 

The temp this morning was 35 degrees.

I was 3 degrees off ... nothing unusual there :)

I'm normal.

Slim was wrong.

I'm not crazy.

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

i'm back, did you miss me? ~

Fall.  My favorite time of the year!  Blue jeans, hoodie and hiking boot season.

I've been super busy with filling the shelves and freezer with goodies from the gardens and beyond.

I'm ready for the Zombie Apocalypse!

Look at all the mushrooms ... and this is only a fraction of the ones I put up for later use.  

 ~ Wild Hedgehogs aka. Sweet Tooth ~

 ~ Wine Caps ~

The shiitake and oyster mushrooms should be fruiting soon :)  I've been watching for some.  Yum... nothing better than homemade mushroom soup or a big heaping helping of mushrooms piled on a grilled steak in the middle of winter ~ or anytime of the year for that matter.

Half of them I froze uncooked and the other half I sauteed with butter and garlic then froze.

5:00 a.m. today I already had half a bushel basket full of peppers cleaned and waiting to be transformed ...

I made 7 pints of pickled peppers ~ used some with the tomatoes and froze the rest.

Yesterday I did up 22 quarts of stewed tomatoes with peppers and onions ~

... today I finished up the tomatoes by doing 14 quarts of just plain tomatoes

... and as I'm making this post I have a kettle of salsa cooking down.

I did take time for lunch and scrubbed the dirt off of a German Butterball Potato and popped it in the microwave and topped it off with some butter, salt and pepper :)

Yes ~ we've been busy.  

The wood shed is almost full too ~ happy dance, happy dance.  We still have a few more storm damaged trees to clean up in the yard; but it always feels so good to get that shed full and ready for the onset of of long winter months... just like my canning shelves and the freezers. 

We got cut short on progress one day  ... those little annoying things  ~ like getting a tractor stuck sure can slow you down sometimes.

 Thank goodness for the brawn and strength of our guys and the invention of a come-along winch!

Well... long story shortened ~ it's good to take a breather and get back on the blog.  I have lots of little tidbits to share and hopefully can get back into the groove of things again and start posting again on a more regular basis.

I missed you!!!  Thanks for visiting.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel