Insects, harvests and a Mystery Trip!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but there really hints that fall is in the air.  Besides the cold, damp weather we are having, a couple maples in our backyard are getting a faint gold tinge to the leaves, and the hummingbirds are sucking up sugar water at the rate of a cup every day...an amount that would have lasted almost a week earlier this summer.

And on the subject of hummingbirds, what was that other hovering "thing" hanging around our petunias?  It was a hummingbird moth, otherwise known as a hummingbird hawk-moth. Leann noticed them while sitting at her computer the other day and snapped these pictures.

The article linked above call these "day-flying moths" and that's when she took these pictures, but usually we see these in the evenings when it's almost dark.

And more about insects, that second chysalis we had been watching never produced a monarch.  We think it may have gotten too warm in the summer savory plant it chose to hang from and cooked.  Leann found another one today, though, hanging from the bottom board of our siding.

It's right near the other one that didn't make it, so we'll see.

August is a great harvest month.  Yesterday we made the first batch of "best ever luncheon pickles," a fresh relish of cucumbers, onions, green & red peppers that you keep in the fridge.  Today I canned three quarts of beet pickles.  And yesterday we harvested all the onions where the tops had fallen over and were shriveling up.  So now we have red, white and yellow onions drying in the garage...because there is no sun outside and it might not be back outside for a while.  Yes, the garage smells a little pungent!

And finally, the Mystery Trip.  Last week sometime Leann talked me and a couple of our friends into taking a Mystery Trip this week.  Tonight was the night and the only clues I got from her was that it was about 37 miles south of here.  Turns out the destination was the town of Lake Nebagamon--a little town on a nice inland lake.  Below is the deck of the Waterfront Bar & Grill where we ate dinner and enjoyed the lake.

 But I think the real reason for her wanting to trek to Lake Nebagamon was to make a stop at the Dairy Queen!  It's located in an ideal spot for doing summer business--right near the lake and all the young kids swimming there.  The joint was jumping!

And then we made our way back home in time to see the sunset over our favorite Lake Superior.

Who is going to plan the next Mystery Trip?

The good, the bad, and the no-it-can't-be-so!

A beautiful August day up here in the land by the Lake!  We spent it doing laundry from our guests from the last couple of days and then mowing everything so it would be cleaned up for the next guests tomorrow night.  We also went downtown to vote in the primary and check in with friends in the Gallery.  A great day!

Tonight Leann wanted to do some work on the trails up behind our house, and that led to other jobs up there and, of course, pictures.  So, first the good:

I know I shouldn't count our apples before they are ripe, but, boy, do they look nice this year!  And these are the ones up in the meadow in our "wild" orchard!  They are big and plentiful and relatively free of blemishes...compared to most years.  We'll see how things look in October!

Now for the bad...  Remember tent caterpillars or army worms? Those creepy green caterpillars that munch their way through all the leaves on the trees?  Well, last spring there was some threat that they would be coming through this summer.  Then later that threat was changed to maybe next year.  And then we started seeing some tents up in our apple trees. 

So tonight we drove our trails looking for these tents, cutting them out, and then later torching them in the fire pit.  We found 7 or 8, and we know it's a drop in the tent caterpillar bucket, but we feel better and the ugly is gone!

(Yuck!)

And now for the "no-it-can't-be-so" picture.  Below is a maple tree with leaves changing color.  Maybe the tree is ailing somehow for it to be changing so early.  Or maybe these early morning temps in the 40's are sending some message to the trees.  But, no, it can't be so!

And one more from the Lake tonight.  The clouds looked ominous to the north so we drove down to see how it looked over the Lake.  What we found were a series of rain showers drifting across to the north east.  Nothing much landed by our house though.  More watering tomorrow, I gues!