Thanksgiving Snow Fun!

Our first snowman of the year, complete with carrot for a nose. The kids had a ball, with just enough snow on the ground to pack into this snowguy. We didn't light the torches, but it would make quite a sight if we did!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's what it's like today in our part of Northern Indiana. Pretty, isn't it?

Living With the Seasons

One of the things we really try to do here is live in touch with the seasonal flow and celebrate each phase as it comes. We consciously try to celebrate each day, realizing how fleeting it all is.

Yesterday was a day of joy. The trees around us were so bright yellow they tossed in the wind like dancers, and I felt giddy with the joy of it all. We had to make a quick trip to town, so took along the camera to capture places of particular beauty.

There's a stark quality to some already harvested fields these days, sort of a clearing away of the clutter to leave the bare fields ready for spring.

In contrast to that, there's the jubilant variety of colors in the woods that form a backdrop to it all.
This morning, our Anna is with us, and it's cold and sleeting outside. We always want to get her outside when we can, so decided this was the time to try out the fireplace in the teepee. She loved it, and we all had fun, sitting on the ground inside the teepee, watching the small fire and hearing the sleet patter on the walls of the teepee surrounding us. It was amazingly warm and cozy inside with that little fire going. Next Jim's going to set up a spit and cook a cornish hen.

When he told us of his plan, Anna told him spitting is nasty! Hmmmm, I guess there's only one kind of spit in a three year old's mind.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of memories we're implanting in that child's mind. Good ones I hope, and some she'll remember and teach her children about someday.

The Bounty of Fall

Jim and I have been working lately to button up the house for winter. Jobs like put up storm windows, coil and hang away the hose, dump leaves into the garden and clean away all the plant debris to let it all rest until next spring, have to be done this time of year.

I gathered the herbs from the herb bed to hang in bunches and let them dry for winter. They'll add wonderful levels of flavor to the soups we plan to simmer on the wood stove in the cold days to come. This year the oregano sort of ran amok through the herb bed, so we have lots of that there, but also lots of lemon balm, tiny leaved thyme and parsley to dry and hang on the back porch to wait until we need them.I've formed the habit lately of taking a daily walk to gather sticks for the stove. It serves several purposes: gets me away from the computer for a breath of fresh air, exercise, cleans up the woods a little, and provides bunches of free firewood for those short time evening fires that really don't need big heavy chunks of wood to burn a long time.Being out there daily lets me notice all the changes too, as our place turns toward winter. This path struck me yesterday as being particularly gorgeous. It's the space behind the blueberry bushes, and always looks like an entrance to a secret space to me. Today, with the yellow leaves on the ground, it looked like a scene after the party, with the party favors and confetti left laying about. Do you suppose the deer and raccoons were dancing late into the night here last night?Today was one of those blessed days, when we were especially grateful to be retired. We needed a good brisk walk, so headed up to Warren Woods for a long walk under the giant beech trees there. We were amazed to see the giant trees that had fallen during the recent winds. Trees that measured up to 4' across the base had grown hollow in the center, as beeches do, until there wasn't enough strength to hold up their 70' height anymore. They came crashing down, taking other trees with them, and look like elephants laying there, but still dignified in their stillness. Beautiful trees, and they'll slowly melt back down into the soil to enrich another hundred years of trees to come.

After we left the woods, we wandered a little on the way home and found a roadside market with eating pumpkins and squash for sale. Karren chose this huge heavy beauty to bake for a while in a cast iron pot on top of the wood stove, then make into soups and pies. Jim chose a small acorn squash and brought it home, baked it right away with brown sugar and butter to eat for lunch.


We also found a vineyard loaded with overripe grapes, and the farmers who owned the vines. They were glad to let us pick lots of them at a very low price. We brought about a half bushel home and now have to decide whether to make them into jelly, or juice!Now this one's just silly, the result of two goofy people, with time to spare and a camera to play with!

Sunday in Vermont

We're home now, but I'm still trying to catch up from the trip. We took so many beautiful pictures and just really wanted to share them, so I'm posting more now. The first picture is actually from Saturday night when we went out to the terrific McGrath's Irish Pub at the Inn at Long Trail in Killington, Vermont. Just up the hill from the famous Long Trail Brewery, and just down the hill a few feet from the Appalachian Trail and Long Trail. Back when Jim walked the trail, he got overheated and dehydrated near here and had to spend a day drinking Guinness to rehydrate. Tough job, but he had to do it. On Saturday night, we ended up our travels in the Pub and spent a few fun hours listening to Donal O'Shaughnessy, amazing Irish singer and joke teller. What a great night in an amazing place. This whole building is tucked so close into the mountain that parts of it come into the dining room and bar, with one whole wall of each room made up of the living rock of the mountain. Another rock forms a seat in the bar for casual comfy seating. It was a terrific time with great friends.

In the morning, we were off again to see more amazing sights. Our goal this day was to find a trail that Jim could take off and hike by himself to work out his kinks from sitting so much. On the way there, we saw more small streams and camping places, and swampy spots where there should have been at least one moose, but never was. While Jim was hiking, John, Lora and I found a gorgeous long overview with several mountain ranges marching away into the blue distance, and talked with a nice couple visiting there from Ohio. Then we came across a mysterious, beautiful place with several paths that explored different faiths. While walking there, we found a labyrinth! I'd always been intrigued by these very special walking paths, so plunged right in to walk the curving trails to the center of it. Once we got there, we found this nice little basket, where others had left little tokens of their walk. We needed to leave something, and finally found that perfect yellow leaf to drop in. Notice the little golden Buddha, and all the other little trinkets there. What a neat place.
We ended that amazing day back at the riverside property with a big fire and a picnic of hotdogs and goodies. The picture I'm placing for that shows John, proud landowner of this beautiful place, Lora, relaxing, with her eye on her beloved river, and Jim, poking at the fire. What a great, quiet night to just sit and listen to the river chuckle in its bed as it rushed by us. As you listened to it, you could hear so many levels of sound: the base note of the big rocks slowly moving against each other, mid tones of large waves flowing over the rocks, and the high, almost giggling sounds of the smaller splashes. Constant variety and always fascinating.

Saturday in Vermont

This is a fun chair just down the road from Jack and Lora's current home. It was fun to climb up into the chair and pretend to be Edith Anne for a while--and that's the truth!

They've got this cute little mini dachshund who went along on a short hike with us. I tried to get a picture of it, and this one was the best picture I was able to capture. The dog moves so very fast that only the center of the dog was in focus, and the tail and nose were moving so very fast that they bacame just a blur. Life is fascinating, and needs to be investigated thoroughly when you have a dog nose.

Friday, Roadtrip with Water over Rocks

Today was a great breakfast at the Inn at Long Trail, then a wonderful long drive through mountains with streams filled with coffee colored water flowing very fast over rocks. Gorgeous, gorgeous. We stopped frequently to take pictures of streams, small waterfalls and small ponds. We stopped in a couple of small towns for goodies, lunch, exploring little shops and finally stopped at Robert Frost's home. We actually stood in the room where he wrote his best lines.

We're off to see more today! Vacation is the best!

Thursday in Vermont

Thursday The Property

After a great night’s sleep in the camper, when it was cool enough, finally, to snuggle in, we got to finally visit that property in Vermont that John and Lora have been telling us about for over a year. It’s just plain gorgeous, and the river running next to it are a piece of heaven. We sat on the rocks and visited, and just breathed the fresh air and felt strengthened, just by being there.

One picture I’m posting is of Lora sitting visiting, with the downstream historic mill over her shoulder. Another picture is a close up of an almost perfect ball shaped rock that got driven in between two larger rocks and stuck there. By the smoothness and the shape, you can tell it had been driven many miles along the river bottom, wearing off anything sticking out along the way. So very beautiful there, and even the air felt healing, like there was extra oxygen in the air.

Lucky John and Lora, to know they can spend the rest of their lives beside this flowing water. And lucky us, knowing we are always welcome to come visit. It’s an amazing home they’ve found, and nice to know they made these perfect choices along the way to start their new lives in this setting.

The Appalachian Trail and the Long Trail come together here, and the third picture is me and Jim standing on a suspension bridge that crosses a small gorge over the same river that passes their house. It swayed and danced under our feet, and the cool moist breeze teased our hair as we stood above the rushing waters. Nice to think of all the booted feet crossing this bridge on their route between Georgia and Maine.

Tuesday, Smuggler’s Notch. We met family members in their condo in Smuggler’s Notch, and it was wonderful to see them. We manage to see each other only every 5 years or so. They’re such great people that we would love ot make it much more often, but it’s just tough, because we live so very far apart. We all happened to be here at this time though, so settled in for a great visit, and played Hearts into the night.

Wednesday, we made our way over the mountain to Shelburne Museum for a full day of marvelous experiences. It’s over 40 acres of grounds where they’ve brought together all kinds of structures that explore parts of America. There’s the steam driven paddlewheeler Ticonderoga, brought to that site from 5 miles away on Lake Champlain. Afte4r it retired in 1956. What a unique opportunity to wander all over that ship, peeking int staterooms, crew quarters, engine room, dining room and even into the wheelhouse at the top. The two Jims had fun pretending to push the giant paddlewheel around.

There were three unique barns on the grounds and they were open so we could see the unusual features of each. The round barn provided the welcome center, with a center silo and hung with beautiful quilts everywhere, and also an assortment of chandeliers of unusual materials. One was a 36” ball of gorgeous crystal, another was assembled a ring of those desk lamps on rods and tension springs and looked like a giant spider ready to walk off. Another was made u of pingpong balls and looked really elegant, and still another was of plastic cutlery. What an assortment of fascinating things.

There was a horseshoe shaped barn, built that way so horses and wagons could drive in one end and on through out the other. Each made good use of gravity to move supplies, feed and waste products to ease the work for the farmer.

A working printshop let us see old m,achinery in action, and a weaving studio turned out gorgeously creative pieces, and was complete to a dyer’s garden.

In one small log cabin, a frontier woman in a long dress and bonnet stood next to a fireplace, warm and cozy on this cool day.

One of the most fascinating buildings was dedicated to Shaker history. A film talked about how they lived communally and pooled their work and thought to make a very successful community. One of the greatest comments was in a film. They had harnessed the power of a stream to operate 5 different manufacturing processes, letting it flow freely in between each process. A neighbor complained that once those Shakers were through with the water, it was, “All worn out!”

A great day, then a nice dinner in the evening, and finished the night with a long game of hearts until late. Great times.

Wednesday. We bid farewell to our family and headed off over the mountain to friends near Killington. Beautiful scenery wherever we looked, touring the mountains with them during the day, and a sauna at night, has us almost ready for bed already. More tomorrow.

Heading East! Monday, Columbus Day

Monday, Columbus Day

We spent the night in Bath, N.Y., and it was great to stretch out in a big bed, catch up on emails and phone calls, and take a shower. As Jim says, “We went to Bath to take a shower! Sometime we’ll have to go to a town named Shower and take a bath!” Yuk, yuk, yeah, the hours on the road do get to you a times.

So after a quick breakfast, we’re on the road again, and I’m reminded again, what a beautiful country this is. It’s still early and the fog hasn’t burned off of the hills. Jim and I both love that look as the layers of cloud slowly ease out of the trees and drift away into the fresh cool air. It was one of the best things about hiking in the mountains, and always a delight to see. It’s only 59 degrees out this morning, and fresh and clean.

Sitting up a little higher off the road than usual in this motorhome, we can see the scenery unfold before us very clearly and I’m acutely aware of the big birds that share this space with us. From the busy sanitary engineers of the crows, everywhere cleaning up all bits of food and animal carcasses anywhere along the sides of the road. They look so businesslike, patrolling the edges of the road, and gathering to in a group to discuss the latest roadkill find.

The streams and rivers are different in this part of the country-much shallower and meandering than at home. I’m sure they run faster and deeper in other parts of the year, but for right now, most wouldn’t be deep enough for a canoe at all. We passed the Mad River and it was so small and slow and shallow, it didn’t even look angry, let alone mad.

Each bend of the river seems to have at least one lone great blue heron, standing silently in the water, watching for small fish to swim by so they can snap it up. The bottom and sides of the streams are very rocky, and the water meanders from side to side, exposing shoals of stoney bottom that would be covered during a wetter season.

The best sight today was a bald eagle, standing in the Susquehana River. It was no more than 100 feet from the road as we passed by, and a patch of sunlight opened up just at that time. There was no mistaking that strong body standing in the shallow water, with the dark grey feachers covering the broad shoulders, and that startling, pure white head bent down glaring into the water. There must be a huge number of small fish swimming by, keeping these big birds happy and well fed.

Traveling East

Walmart Camping

We’re on our way East to visit friends and family in Vermont. We got as far east last night as Richmond, Indiana, and pulled into a 24 hour WalMart to rest for the night. With our terrific comfortable motor home, this is comfort camping, and we thought it would be fun to show how easy it is. We were the fourth camper setup in the lot last night, and the others were all much larger that we were.

Setting up was simple for us, we just have to raise the vent in the roof, and crank open the windows. We usually take a walk around the parking lot to work out the knots from sitting for too long, and a trip inside the WalMart for any needed supplies, then settle in to rest.

Last night Jim found a football game on the tv, and sprawled out on the bed, comfortably resting, remote in hand, while I stretched out across the two front seats to read my book to the light of the streetlight streaming in over my shoulder. It was a couple of hours to relax before bedtime, and a good antidote to the heavy people intensive day long meetings we’d attended.

We spent the day at the Indiana Green Party Annual Congress, where we elect new officers each year and plan our actions and strategies. It’s always a good time seeing old friends and we’re impressed, each year, with all the hard work that’s being done by these friends to help improve democracy in each community. To my surprise, I got elected to be the Indiana Green Party Co Coordinator for the next year. There’s another person to share the job, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else ready to step up, so I figured it was my turn. Hope I can handle the job well.

Sunday Afternoon:

Back on the road. This is the big mileage day, and there’s not much for me to do but play on the computer. Thank goodness for the laptop and two good betteries. We stopped just across the State line into New York at a beautiful Rest area on Chatauqua Lake. What a beautiful place-and full of history. A sign said that Chatauqua Lake is 500 feet above the level of Lake Erie, although it's only 6 miles away. The water from Chatauqua Lake drains into the Gulf of Mexico, while the water from Lake Erie drains into the Atlantic. Amazing, and there's a continental divide, right there.

We're traveling along highway 86, skirting the southern edge of Lake Erie and the hills rise around us, opening like generous arms. The color is increasing in the trees as we travel north and east, getting brighter all the time. Funny how it seems to start high on the hills and move down the valleys, unevenly, decorating the slops in beautiful color. Lots of tourists out now, this is sure the season.

So, I’m in the back of the motorhome, tapping this into the laptop as Jim keeps clicking off the miles on our way to Vermont. It’s a long day, looks like we’ll have in over 500 miles before we get to where we plan to spend the night at a motel in Bath, N.Y. --we've been camping for two nights now, and we need a bath to be presentable when we meet family tomorrow.

We’re doing better now, but just came through almost 40 miles of road construction, where cars were reduced to one lane each way and 45 mph maximum. Slow going that way, but it sure does let you see the countryside.

More tomorrow.

Time to Be an Ant!

Today we will begin with some wisdom of the ages as given in one of Aesop's fables, "The Ant and the Grasshopper."

"In a field one summer's day a grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. "Why not come and chat with me," said the grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"
"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the ant, "and recommend you to do the same."
"Why bother about winter?" said the grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present." But the ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came, the grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity."

Each year we put potatoes, onions, and apples away for the winter, and then feel safe and secure that as the snow comes down, we'll always have some food safe out there in the woods, ready for us when we want them. The amazing thing is that when the grocery stores only have soft, wrinkly nasty sprouted potatoes each year to offer, we can wade through the snow, lift the lid, and pull our crisp, crunchy, delicious potatoes. Somehow these cans, buried in our sandy soil, just provide the perfect storage spot for them.

We now have three cans buried, the one Jim's working on has mesh bags of potatoes layered in straw to keep them separated, the can behind him has red and golden delicious apples, and the smaller one to the back has bags of onions. What more could we need?

The garden is winding down. We get a few things every day, but not much now. Today we picked a few tomatoes, one small cucumber, and there's a big bunch of green beans waiting for the time hunger for them strikes us.

We also have some things we planted recently coming on. The greens, peas, beets, radishes and lettuces will hopefully provide some goodies yet. This is our first year to try those, but they're looking good so far.

I thought this spot at the back end of the garden showed such neat color and complexity. In the very foreground is our new fence enclosing the garden. Then right inside that is the row of arched pipe supports I put up to hold the climbing green beans. Then the new patch of greens coming up for fall, and next to that, horseradish plants reaching for the sky.

The empty space is where the melon plants have been pulled, and now it's covered by grass clippings, enriching the soil for next spring's crop. The brilliant orange of the marigolds provides a backdrop of color right against the back edge of the fence, then the corner of the wild portion of our woods, to the right the tall yellow blossoms of the jerusalem artichoke, behind that the overgrown herb garden, blueberries, and the yellowing trees of the back woods. A whole lot going on in one picture!

The trees are dropping their leaves and bursts of brilliant color surprise us everywhere. The mosquitoes have finally left, the days are shirt sleeve warm, the nights are just cool enough to want to snuggle in deeper. What a beautiful time of year!

Fencing In the Garden

We've added a fence around the garden. Here's a picture of Jim watching as Anna digs with her blue plastic shovel in the soil of the garden. Notice how empty it looks now?
It's amazing how the garden goes through phases as it grows. Where they are working was a tangle of melon vines just a few weeks ago, now the melons are all gone, and they were delicious, and the vines cleaned up so we can toss the new-mown grass on the space to prepare it for spring.
The fence is a new thing. Seems like we needed to add some formality to the space, and give the plants a permanent trellis to climb on. Sort of like declaring this as an orderly productive place, dedicated to producing food for years to come.
Anna's outfit this day was funny. The mosquitoes are so bad this year, and we want to let her outside and are reluctant to put repellant on her, so we loaded her down with overalls and a sweater, and a big old soft hat, hoping to guard her from bites. She didn't care, and joyfully ran around digging holes, and peering out at the world from under her floppy hat brim. Didn't get any bites, either!

Where Did The Summer Go?

I can't believe the whole summer has flown! We've had a marvelously full summer with travel and lots of wonderful things happening around the old place. Two family reunions, a couple of nice trips, and lots of stuff sold on ebay, as well as a summer full of good stuff from the garden. Tonight it got cold enough here that we lit a fire and relaxed over our glass of wine and talked about what we'd plant next summer, and here I went to post a picture of our first fire of the fall, only to find that my last posting was the first tomato of summer! Where did it all go?

The garden was amazing this summer, with all we could eat of greens, tomatoes, cantalope, watermelon, beautiful bountiful red sweet peppers, and just wonderful stuff. We even got ambitious enough to plant a fall crop when we'd pulled out some of the dead plants of summer. So even though I went out yesterday and harvested all the ripe tomatoes, that are right now simmering down into sauce with garlic and basil added, out in the garden we have radishes, three kinds of lettuces, garlic, peas, spinach and beets coming up new and fresh, for eating during these long, cool days of fall, and also a big patch of mixed greens.

What a bounty we have, and we're so glad to be here and able to work on it together. Our spectacular thing this fall is the castor bean plants. One plant is over 12 feet tall and still green and growing. I'll insert a picture of Jim as he stands by one of them, looking like he's being attacked and dragged off. It's amazing to see, and when his family was here, some of them wanted seeds.

We have great plans for next year's garden, and Jim's working now on a fence around it, to enclose it and give us a lot of space for climing trellises for cucumbers, peas, gourds, beans, or whatever else wants to climb.

So this evening it got cool enough to start a fire. We finished our dinner, rice pasta and polenta with fresh tomato sauce over it, and a great salad with feta cheese and other veggies. We also had a quick cracker bread made with manoic flour and parmesan cheese. Good stuff. We moved to our big soft chairs and lit a small fire built with small sticks from trimming the blueberry bushes in the spring. How relaxing, to finish our wine, watch out the window for the deer and talk about what we'll plant in next year's garden. A little chocolate goes well with it too. You've got to love the fire, it's just so very relaxing. And it all just makes me wonder, where'd the summer go?

The First Tomato of the Summer

Is there anything better than the first tomato of the summer?

We who garden, look forward to that bright red goodie from the time we tuck the first seeds in spring into that still cool ground. The spicy, rich smell of the vines cling to the peel and we cradle it in our cupped hands and inhale that perfume.

Just nothing better, and it's even worth paying extra for that cheater plant from the greenhouse with the blooms still on it.

Preparing dinner these days involves a slow walk through the garden, looking to see what is ripe today. We're not yet at those marvelous days when we're eating zucchini in 20 different ways, and foisting it off on friends and strangers, just trying to keep up with the bounty. Right now, we're just scoping it out each day to see what's ready to eat now. Yesterday it was just enough new tiny potatoes and some peas to cook together with a butter sauce for the two of us. Today, it was that precious first tomato, one small cucumber, and a handful of edible pod peas. Delicious! Life is very good!

It's the "Berry" Best time of Year!

Each afternoon, these balmy summer days, I take my favorite picking container and spend a half hour or so, walking around picking raspberries for our dinnertime treat. Such bounty, and we always feel so fortunate, as we finish our dinner with a small dish of ice crem, topped by those dark jewels. Is there anything richer than fresh berries and cream?

We didn't plant these berries, they just came up voluntarily, and grow a few canes at a time, all around the edges of our property.

As I stroll down the path, headed for the next patch of berries, I chuckle to myself as I see next year's berries starting. The raccoons, those bandits of the night, have been grazing on these berries too. What a cooperative venture it is between us, and I don't mind sharing with them at all. I can see by the flattened bushes and grasses, that the raccoons push into the middle of the berry snarls, where I won't go, to pick their share. Then they head back to their dens with full bellies, dropping their seed loaded scat as they go, planting next year's crop of berries along with a little fertilizer. The raccoons are sometimes annoying, and break into our birdseed and other supplies, but they do have their place in the life cycle of this place we call home.

We feel so lucky to be a part of the the life here in our wooded home place, and spend our days celebrating what we see. The birds, busy at the feeders, entertain us with their squabbles over their favorite perch. We've noticed too, that the mosquitoes and garden bugs aren't nearly as bad as they used to be. We believe that the healthy bird population here has helped keep them in check. I spotted the orange flash of a baltimore oriole as I went out to pick yesterday. They look like a living, flying flame streaking across the orchard area, and the hummingbirds and finches provide drama as they work to get at the perches for the food supply.

There are more goodies to come. The blackberries are still totally green, and it will probably be at least 3 weeks before they're ready.

The blueberries are coming along well this year. They now have a few in each bunch just beginning to ripen, and the birds already are enjoying those and scolding us when we walk too close. The interesting thing is that those that ripen early usually have a small worm inside the center of them. That means that the bad berries ripen early and feed the birds, and are out of the way before we are ready to pick the main part of the berries. Isn't that a wonderful plan? We are left with the bug free, healthy berries, and the birds get their share early and control the bug population. Life is just great, how it works out.

The main part of the blueberries have that white, frosted look that means they're about a month or less away from ready.
It's a wonderful time to be in the country. The garden is coming along well, and we're only about two days away from our much anticipated first tomato. We've been eating salads for a couple of months now, the radishes are done, gone to seed and pulled, and each night we have something from the garden's bounty. The zucchini, green onions, summer squash, edible pea pods and cucumbers are all coming along well and providing something fresh for dinner each night. The three rows of collard, turnip and mustard greens are done now, but we ate them almost daily for weeks, feeling really healthy while we did.

And best of all, there are tiny cantalopes and watermelons coming on. Oh, Boy!