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)

Posting #200 or Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Wow, I didn't know it was blog post #200, but how would I know since I've only looked at my blog admin page 4 or 5 times in the last year!  It's not that I haven't thought about it; I just didn't think I had anything to say.  So, coulda, woulda, shoulda!

But now spring is springing so that can only be good news.  And do you know about barn quilts?  Well, our resident quilter Leann heard about barn quilts and decided we needed one.  A barn quilt is a quilt square painted onto a square piece of lumber and attached to a barn.  Oh wait...we don't have a barn anymore.  So we put it--actually WE didn't put it - a friend helped us put it--on the side of our maple sugar shed.  Fun!

And after a relatively mild winter, some of our flowers are popping up, if the deer don't get to them first.  We planted a bunch of daffodils last fall with the understanding that deer don't like them like they do tulips.  Wrong!  The deer don't seem to have the same understanding.  So we have some crocuses and some still-undisturbed daffodils.  Hang in there little pretties!

And the rhubarb and garlic are coming up again.  Last year we could have sold all kinds of rhubarb at our Saturday Market so Leann is already planning on adding more plants to our rhubarb patch.  For you who aren't fans of rhubarb, it may be surprising that it was a big seller!

And our garlic is coming up!  This is already a 100% improvement from last year when we had a harvest of about 10%.  We moved them to a different garden bed so we'll see what this year brings.

So spring is here, and it's great, but I still have winter projects to finish!  And I have Garrison Keillor in my head saying that with the mild winter, we haven't suffered enough yet.  Must be the Lutheran in me

Valentine's Day at the Bear Paw Cafe

Last July we were all pleased to see that our little restaurant in town was opening up again.   Under new management it is now called the Bear Paw Cafe, and it's become such an important addition to our town.  

They began with a breakfast and lunch menu, but have since began offering some daily specials, including chicken dinner on Sundays!  Monday mornings at the Bear Paw are especially busy, complete with a cribbage game in the corner.

Today Valentine's Day provided a reason to add something special to the usual fare--a choice of shrimp or prime rib, along with a salad, smashed baby red potatoes, a sparkling drink (no alcohol at the Bear Paw), and a perfect ending with a brownie, ice cream and fancy cookie.  And...only eating half of it gave me leftovers for tomorrow.  It was delicious. We hear they may decide to do this once a month!  (Shrimp was good, too.)

I'm not always a fan of posting pictures of meals;  sometimes they really don't look that great.  But they did such a great job today and I wanted to share.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The seasons are a-changin'

September 29, 2015

Early this evening I went outside for something and realized that it was really pretty cold outside.  This afternoon we had gathered up all of the old blankets and sheets we use to cover plants, but I really didn't think we'd need them.  It's been so nice!  

Since we've had SO many tomatoes and cucumbers this fall, we decided whether we really needed to cover plants or to just let them go--a hard thing for me to do.  So first I took some last pictures:

These flowers were great all summer, and those spikes just went crazy!

Cucumbers and some crowded out carrots on the left, and some really tired tomatoes on the right.  I covered the cucumbers.  Just couldn't let them go just yet!

[13February2016 Update:  I see I never clicked "Publish" on this post last fall.  Better late than never.]

Doing the turkey trot

Our turkeys are back after being gone since the record snow and cold of February & March, 2014.  So it's fun to have them back!

Walking down the driveway

When they first appeared at our deer feeder a couple weeks ago, there were 15-20 of them swooping in.  Now we are down to two that must circle around our property, coming back to the feeder every couple of hours, and scratching in the snow looking for some corn left behind by the deer.  Cheap entertainment!

Winter has been quite mild, but deceptive.  December was warm, January, too, but lately we've had a few nights below zero.  Plus, we haven't had any big snowstorms, but you wouldn't know that by walking through our yard.  The snow is DEEP, but most of it just came in those little "lake effect" dustings...but for a few days it was little lake effect dustings all day long!  So, it all adds up to knee-deep snow!

Port Wing Pier Iced-In

Jessica down at Johnson's Store said she had a ice-caver customer in today--people heading over to Meyers Beach to walk to the ice caves.  She wished them luck but they might need it.  The caves aren't officially open--and most likely won't be open--because the ice is not thick enough and there isn't enough time left to get it where it needs to be.  So, yes, people can attempt to walk over there to see the caves, but make sure your insurance is paid up!  Maybe next year.

I started this blog almost exactly two years ago in February because the winter was so bad and I wanted something to do.  Evidently 2015 wasn't a good blogging year if you look at my archives...not much there.  However, it says I've had 17,515 pageviews of my blog since I started and have collected flags from 42 countries.  Fun!

I have several projects going on right now so stay tuned...

My first Instagram! #canningtomatoes

A few weeks ago Younger Daughter casually mentioned to me that I might enjoy using Instagram.  I had already started up an Instagram account quite a while ago but, as with so many online tools/toys, I never posted anything.  I did start doing some "following" of others and even had a couple "followers" of my own--those people following my non-existent posts.

Then in early August we made a flying (by car) trip to Kansas City for my cousin's funeral. It was there I learned that one of my youngest Swanson relatives--if I do the math correctly I think she's a third cousin and she's just starting middle school--had just started up an Instagram account.  Her posts were so fun and positive and uplifting, that I just had to get myself into this Instagram stuff!

So here's my first post.  I cut out the "likes" to protect their privacy.

After I posted it, I realized I could have posted it to Instagram, Facebook and probably any number of other online tools/toys, all in the same click!  I even added a #hashtag.  What I didn't know was that when you begin entering a hashtag, it starts auto-completing (or guessing) what you want your hashtag to be, and tells how many other posts use that same hashtag.  Turns out, there were over 700 other posts on the subject of #canningtomatoes.  Who knew?

So, yes, today was another canning day, maybe the last one this year.  We've done batches of spaghetti sauce, picante sauce, three batches of tomato chutney, plus just plain canned tomatoes.   This time Leann said I could can some quarts to give to her Mom since we really didn't need any more.  I just couldn't let all those Roma tomatoes go to waste.  And most people around here have had their fill of tomatoes AND cucumbers for this year.  Remember the zucchini joke and keeping your car locked?  Tomorrow is another Saturday Market, so maybe we can sell/give away some more!

Anyone need any tomatoes?

A small town dilemma

This morning at breakfast we were having a discussion with our guests about Port Wing, small towns and what holds a small town like Port Wing together as a community.  It was informally decided that it might be all the community events that bring people together, whether it's the town baseball team at their weekend games, the museum's Harvest Festival dinner in October, the Fish Boil and the Lions Club Fall Festival coming up on Labor Day weekend, or any other event that asks people in town to donate a pan of bars, a salad or a few hours of their time.

In my last post I talked about being "too busy."  Besides running a B&B, we have a few other activities that keep us occupied.  The most recent event we helped with was the Port Wing Plein Air Painting Festival.  About twenty-eight artists came to Port Wing to paint area scenes outside--en plein air--and it culminates with a judging and then a public exhibit of all their entries in the Town Hall on Saturday afternoon.  Our contribution to this event was supplying the opening morning registration day with two pans of pecan caramel rolls, and setting up and managing the food table at the exhibit on Saturday.

Here are some photos of this year's Festival.  First, a few of the artists out painting...

And a few from the exhibit...some with ribbons!

So here's the dilemma.  Each of the major town events requires people--people to do the baking or cooking of all kinds and people to work MANY hours for events to come off successfully.  And in a small town, there aren't THAT many people.  And many of those people who have been volunteering and holding things together for many years aren't as young as they used to be!

Then you start thinking of alternatives.  Wouldn't it be just as easy to make a $20 donation to whatever group rather than making two pies, or a salad, or bars, or working all day at an event?  I know I've thought that many times for fundraisers my daughters did for school or Girl Scouts or...you name it!  Keep the Christmas wrap, magazines, candy bars, and let me just donate!  But in the case of events in small towns, just paying my way like that does nothing for community.  All of these events bring lots of other people into town and carry on some long-standing Port Wing traditions.

So, we'll gear ourselves up for these last big summer events.  The pickled beets are ready for the museum Harvest Dinner, we'll plan what pies we'll make for the church stand at the Fall Festival, and at the same time remember to hold on to and savor these last weeks of summer, 2015!

Trying not to be "too busy"

Back when I was teaching, working as a school media specialist, one of my goals every year was to work on my tendency to appear to be "too busy"--"too busy" to get to know students better, "too busy" to stop and chat with other school staff more, "too busy" to stop and smell the proverbial roses.

Well, not much has changed except that I'm no longer facing a year with 800 middle school students.  I still feel like I always have things I "should" do instead of all the things I planned to do when I retired up here three years ago, which mostly had to do with...reading.  But fortunately, most of the things I feel I "should" do here are as enjoyable as reading.

I have several times of the year here that I consider my favorites--maple sugar time in March/April, apple blossom time in May, fall color weeks in September/October, and the first big snowfall whenever it hits.  But maybe my favorite "favorite" time is right now when the gardens are producing and the flowers are beautiful.  We've started some canning already--six quarts of pickled beets, 4 pints of dilly beans, can't remember how many jars of strawberry jam.  We've picked our first cucumbers and had the first "gurkensalat"--cucumbers & onions in a vinaigrette, almost like Germany.  And the first tomato is just about ready to pick!

Here are some picts from our gardens:

Butterflies on the echinacea

Day lilies going strong

Monarchs on the milkweed in the Monarch Station

More butterflies 

Petunias happy on the south side 

Peppers, garlic & shallots in front - Tomatoes behind

 Herbs & peppers

Tall ones are the tomatoes - I had to go through and hack out all of the extra foliage so the tomatoes could see the sun!  Also with the cucumbers.

Impatiens are happy on the north side

Too much fun!

And Astro Bob from Duluth says peak night for the Perseid meteor showers will be Wednesday night.  Our guests saw a few already tonight and I think I saw one, too, but the sightings should be great by Wednesday!

Spindly to abundant in one month!

It's already the 9th of July and the gardens are growing like crazy!  Just one month ago, or even less, we didn't have much hope for our garden efforts.  Two nights of frost at the beginning of June nipped several of our plants, causing us to replant peppers, some tomatoes, and some petunias.  And, yes, we covered them, and, yes, we knew we had probably planted too early.  But the month of May was so nice!

This is part of our milkweed collection for the monarchs.  A month ago we didn't see much sign of any milkweeds this year, but here they are, ready to flower!

And here is our first monarch-to-be caterpillar.  Now in a couple weeks begins the chrysalis watch.

We even have some milkweed plants that have migrated to the other side of the silo ring and are growing in the Egyptian walking onions.  And there's another caterpillar!

These petunias looked just pitiful a month ago.  All the vines and filler vines had been nipped out and it all looked pretty sad.  A couple nights ago the weather guys predicted storms--hail, wind, etc.--so I went out quick and took pictures in case the predictions came true.  They didn't!

I love those colors!

Don't you love summer?

Here is the strawberry bed Leann made out of a pallet back in May.  The plants are also supposed to be coming out the holes on the side but some of them have succumbed.  I know that in the rest of the world you have strawberries in June.  They're ready a few weeks later here.  I hear blueberries are starting to show here, too.

Our onions this year have been a lesson in waiting...waiting to see if they would recover from their waterlogged beginning.  Our neighbor orders onions for about 30 people around here from a place in Texas.  When it was time for the place in Texas to harvest the little onion plants, they were flooded out.  The plants eventually came but they weren't in quite the usual hardy condition when they arrived.  So we planted them and waited.  And watched.  And waited. And watched.  And they just stayed spindly and puny.  Every week or so I'd pull one to see if it was growing at all underneath or if it was rotting in the soil.  But there were roots and what would become the bulb was still firm.  So more waiting and watching.   And now we have these lovely onions!  And beans for dried beans on the right.  One row is Swedish brown beans!  We found the seeds on the Internet!

And here are some of the not-so-puny-anymore onions!

So much fun!  Pretty soon...beets!