Fox & Geese anyone?

This winter must be getting a little long...I'm attempting to blog again!

After our recent little 5-6" snowstorm, we got another dose of "pretty" and everything was white again.  Then right away the next morning I looked out our window and I saw this:

That is evidence of our two flocks of turkeys--one with about 30 turkeys and another flock fewer in number but BIGGER turkeys...like this:

These turkeys pretty much live in and around our yard all day, mostly because we feed them--and the deer--shelled corn twice a day.

Looking out at all of the turkey (and deer) tracks in our yard brings to mind a couple things related to expanses of untouched snow.  One memory relates to the title of this blog--the game of Fox and Geese. [http://grandmaideas.com/fox-and-geese]  To play this game in the snow you first need to mark out the playing area in the shape of a wagon wheel, like this:

The center is "home" or free space for the "geese" and the fox "it" chases the geese only on the spokes of the wheel.  This was something we often played when my cousin Charlotte and her family were around.

My other memory comes from when I was about 11 or 12 and living in Illinois.  The mother of one of my classmates was VERY particular about how her front yard looked and got quite upset when any of the neighbor kids (perhaps her daughter and friends?) played in the snow in their front yard and messed it up.  She wasn't even my mother and that's what still comes to mind when I look out on a "messed up" yard.  I wonder how my friend, Jeanne, has come through life!!

But we really like our turkeys and deer.  And come spring and summer we are going to have a crop of grass like no other, because those turkeys leave behind more more than just turkey tracks!

And here are a couple of today's deer visitors.  Turkeys all day, deer all night!

Grabbing some summer before it's too late

The summer is flying by too fast.  On what can we put the blame for that?

It's more that the usual thought that time goes faster as we get older.  This year we could easily blame it on all the preparation for our family reunion, especially the last month as I furiously tried to get that  family history book ready for printing.  Or maybe I can blame it on this train wreck of a presidential campaign.  There went July!

Lots of town events, lots of B&B guests, and now more coming up with the big Labor Day weekend in Port Wing.  The Baseball Club Fish Boil on Saturday brings 2000 people to town, and the Lions Fall Festival on Sunday features a 5&10K race, a classic car show, flower show, vendors and craft tents, kiddie and Grand parades, entertainment by the Lords of Baltimore, all surrounded by the aromas of brats, hamburgers, sweet corn, beer, and pie from the Lutheran church ladies.  And that brings on the end of summer with a BANG!

But today we could slow down time a little by doing some of the usual late summer garden chores.  Our tomato vines look awful this year, but they're good enough to give us some decent tomatoes already.  Some say it's because of the overabundance of rain earlier in the summer, but the vines are just falling apart!  The cucumbers are so overgrown that we can hardly see the cucumbers.  Never satisfied!

So we canned one batch of tomatoes in pints.  One more batch tomorrow and then maybe some marinara sauce.  We also made tomato chutney today, which is kind of a thick marmalade texture but the savory combination of tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and red vinegar.  Good with crackers and a little cream cheese.  

And Leann finished off the day with a batch of black raspberry jelly from berries we got from a friend.  Some will be sold at the Saturday Market church table, and some will be served to B&B guests.  I love that smell of berries being prepared for jelly or jam.  So maybe it's the good smells - tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, berries - that help us slow down enough to enjoy where--and when--we are.

April to August - and now another book

My last post was on April 26th; today is August 23rd.  What has been happening in those months?  Well, summer for one thing, and even though we are a REALLY small town, summer is REALLY busy!  Lots of town events and lots of B&B guests keeping us busy.  This year, though, I added something extra to the summer.

My last post was about the completion of our church cookbook, First Lutheran Favorites. The cookbook was a hit, and we've sold lots of copies at all the summer events.  And, doing that cookbook using the website lulu.com gave me the practice I needed to complete my next book JUST in time for our Larson family reunion last weekend.  And I mean JUST in time.  My 75 copies arrived via FedEx at about 3pm last Friday afternoon!

The person listed as the co-author, Nils Tervell, is my third cousin from Sweden.  I may have mentioned him before, but he located me from an email he sent to our town website last summer - the website for which I am the webmaster.  It was all by chance that I was in a position to get that email, but he's been sending me family history information ever since.  So he provided the content from Sweden and I compiled the story from when they all arrived in America.  It was a big project and I'll probably talk more about it as time goes on.

And it all had to be completed, uploaded, printed and back to me in time for our reunion last Saturday.  Below is a photo of all attendees in front of the bell tower from the old school.  The rain stopped just long enough so we could get some pictures outdoors.

All the yellow reunion shirts have a small pocket design on the front and this picture (below) on the back.  They are the three Larson brothers who were some of the first settlers in Port Wing.  We realized it was 125 years since Fred Larson--my grandfather--was the first to bring a family to this little wilderness that would later become Port Wing.  We had a great time but I'm still recovering!  I'm sure I'll write more about the day.

And finally, here is a photo showing one of our recent beautiful sunsets...since I haven't posted any lately!

Don't you just love those hometown cookbooks?

I mentioned that I still have winter projects to finish. Happily, one of my winter projects that actually is completed is our currently-being-published church cookbook called First Lutheran Favorites.  

Like most little churches, we are always looking for fundraising ideas and opportunities.  So last fall those in charge began collecting recipes from church and community people.  Our goal was to have them ready by the Lutefisk Dinner back in December.  When that didn't happen, we made our next goal this coming May for the start of our weekly Saturday Markets...and I think we're going to make it!

Here are a couple of proof copies--front and back covers.  I put the recipe for Egg Coffee on the back cover.  That was a tradition in years past to make the coffee in the big enamel coffee pots using coffee grounds mixed with an egg...sometimes using the eggshells, too!

We wanted to be sure to include recipes from our Swedish heritage, so there is a whole chapter with favorites such as lefse, potato sausage, limpa rye bread, sylte, fruitsoup, and more.  I went to our town museum and found some old pictures of the church through the years.  And to add to the historical interest, we were lucky to receive a document from the family of one of the older women from the church, born in Port Wing in 1913, with a collection of her memories of the early days in Port Wing.  So some of her memories are interspersed through out the cookbook.

We decided to go the self-publishing route with this cookbook rather than a regular printing company.  Several people had told me about the website called lulu.com, and it seems to be working out very well.  I think I have finally done the last round of proofreading and editing, and now I have just put in our first order of 30 books.  I started with just 30 because that was the first price break, and I don't trust that all of the little picky errors are fixed.  It brings out the OCD in me!

I was involved in one other cookbook project back in my past in another church.  We had all kinds of problems printing that one--the printer left out pages, transposed pages - it was a nightmare.  I said never again to doing another cookbook.  Hopefully this one will have better results! (knock, knock)