Is September supposed to be stormy?

Big storms passed through Minnesota today, and moved on to northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan tonight.  And maybe it's thanks to the Lake, but it pretty much bypassed us.  There's a large farm and orchard west of Minneapolis in the town of Waverly that was pelted with large hail.  That farm supplies the Twin Cities farmer's markets and lots of produce stands with apples and vegetables, but not after today's storm.  All of their apples look like this:

http://kstp.com/article/127/

As we watch over our surprisingly decent apple crop this year, stories like this are so sad...and we aren't depending on our apples as income!  One radio interview we heard late this afternoon mentioned that they were going to start picking apples tomorrow.  Wow!

So our apples still look like this:

They are NOT ripe yet.  They are still at the point where you take a bite and it kind of sucks your cheeks in!  But we need that hail and those high winds to stay away.  And as of this moment, the moon is shining in the window, so maybe this batch of storms will leave us alone.

As promised, I made the basil pesto tonight.  That basil really has a strong odor!  Back in the day with I had bad headaches WAY too often, I was invited to a gathering of people from my school where they were going to make large batches of pesto.  I had all kinds of flashbacks tonight of that event and how I was trying to hang in there with that headache while trying not to let the smell of the basil get to me.  This was a smaller batch and I've "outgrown" the headaches, so all was well.  Now what should I try it with?

Tomorrow I'm scheduled for an appointment with some ear clinic in Duluth to check my hearing for the Veteran's Administration!  This is the "follow-up" to my meeting with the VA rep back on April 7th to find out about possible compensation for my near total lack of hearing in one ear and very limited in the other.   Whether my hearing problems began back with my years of listening through static and bad Russian back in those Army days is still to be determined.  I guess we'll just find out how bad it really is tomorrow.

Huh?

Harvesting onions & celebrating pottery

I celebrated this "first day of school" by signing up online to receive Social Security benefits following my birthday in November when the big 62 comes to pass!  First, cool that you can do it online.  I thought I'd have to make an appointment.  But, some day down the road I'm sure I'll regret not waiting until 65, or 66, or later, but, hey, YOLO!

And then we went out and pulled the BIG onions!  But we screwed up!  We cut off the tops.  Then when I drove downtown to pick up our CSA box, Mike had all his 7 boxes of onions lying there drying...with their tops still on and drying...  So I asked him, "Are we supposed to leave the tops on?"  And, of course, the answer was yes, leave them on until they dry completely.  Oh well, some day we'll get it!

 We ended up with about 60 white, yellow, and red onions about this size (minus the tops).  Our friend who gave us the little onion plants for these last May said today that they have harvested 400 onions like this!

Then it was time for today's kiln-opening at our friends, Gregory & Terese, who do the beautiful pottery (and sell books!).  At least we thought 1:30 was the starting time, but seeing no one, we headed down for a quick trip to check out Twin Falls.  (It started at 3pm, but first the falls.)

No pictures can show the real beauty of this spot because you just can't get high enough or wide enough for a good shot.  But above is the south side of the gorge that has been worn away through the years.   And below are the two falls--one at the top left and the other on the bottom middle.  

 The best way to view this is to walk up the creek from the parking lot and see it from the bottom...but not today!  That is a favorite painting spot for the Plein Air artists when they come to Port Wing.

And here are a couple of the fungi types we saw along the path.

And now, time for the Kiln-Opening!  The firing took place a couple days ago and the celebration and showing happened today.  The kiln is in a building to the right of the picture.  Here's my post from a similar event back in June.

 Here are some of their pieces from the kiln today.   They have added a couple new glazes and techniques so there is always a new tempting piece to add to our collection.

 Today we purchased a new mug and a smaller plate for serving breakfast items.  They always have yummy snacks to go with the celebration.

(I think it's time for some tea in my new cup!)

And below is today's produce from the CSA box.  Quite a selection this time!  We already had the beans and cucumber for dinner, but I feel the need for some vegetable soup so I can use that celery on the left.  And tomorrow...basil pesto for sure!

Labor Day already! Can you feel the gears shift?

If you come from Minnesota, Labor Day is the day before the first day of school.  There was always great anxiety in our house the evening of Labor Day with two little girls getting backpacks and new outfits ready for the next day.  And I probably added my own anxiety since I also was starting school/work that next day.  (Not a problem anymore!  Yay!)

I grew up in Wisconsin and Illinois where we started school late in August.  So any anxiety about starting school was past and it was a day to work around the house and yard.  I remember lots of car washing happening on Labor Day.  And, since my parents' anniversary was on September 7th, some years--when the dates coincided and they remembered--that became part of Labor Day remembrances.

Today we awoke to a rushing creek flowing in the ravine behind our house following the gully-washer of a storm last night.  Our guests wondered if we had arranged the evening's show last night, especially that one mighty CR-AAA-CK right near the house that we're sure took down a tree somewhere.  (More on our guests below) The rain gauge only showed 1 1/2 inches of rain but the creek showed more!

This has been a dried up bed of clay since June!  Like I said...gully-washer!

And this is the road up to our trails.  I don't think we'll be making any 4-wheeler trips up to the meadow anytime soon without tearing up the road.

Tomorrow we're going to try to remember to go down to Twin Falls where all this water leads.

So, we went with the "labor" theme today and took care of some veggies.   We made another batch of "Best Ever Sliced Luncheon Pickles," taken from my mother's 1966 edition of the St. Croix County, Wisconsin, Extension Homemakers Cookbook.  Can you tell the age by the name of the recipe?  You just don't hear the word "luncheon" much anymore!  They are really good though!  Cucumbers, onions, red and green peppers, vinegar, sugar and salt.  Not processed, just kept in the fridge.

Also, we made a first attempt at dilly beans.  Until this past year I don't think I've ever heard of dilly beans, but everyone talks about them around here, so we gave them a try.  Then we froze the rest of the beans, although there are many more out on the vines.  Tomorrow we'll try freezing carrots.  We have many more in the ground and no good place to store them over winter.  And...we're going to try basil pesto with pine nuts--you grind it all up, freeze it in cubes in ice cube trays, and throw in a cube or two into spaghetti or something similar.  Love this time of year!

If you check my blogroll on the right, you will see a new blog listed there called My Minnesota, and the author/blogger is John Harrington who stayed with us as B&B guests last night.  He and his "Better Half" were on a getaway and explored our part of the Lake and Wisconsin while they were here.  Check out his blog today to see what he discovered!

Finally, we "discovered" this mom and kids out on our ride tonight.  It was past dusk and almost dark, so they look like I've applied an effect to the picture.  No effect, but didn't they pose nicely?

Happy first day of school to all our school friends!

Brats, bands and blue ribbons!

Well, this is it!  The BIG Labor Day weekend in Port Wing, Wisconsin.  On Saturday we had the 56th Annual Fish Boil put on all these years by the Port Wing Baseball Club.  And on Sunday--today--we had the 63rd Annual South Shore Lions Club Fall Festival put on, of course, by the Lions Club.

Here's a scene from the Fish Boil--5 or 6 big iron pots in which they cook the trout or white fish, potatoes, whole onions and spices.   They drizzle melted butter over all of that on your plate, and add coleslaw and rye bread.  It's pretty yummy, I think, but sometimes waiting in the line to get the tickets to get in makes it easy to bypass it for another year...and that's what we did yesterday.  See the line below.  I know, no stamina!

But today was the Fall Festival and not-so-daunting lines.  The Lions sell brats, hotdogs, and corn, and the fire department sells hamburgers and pop.  And then there's beer on the side, of course.  And First Lutheran Church sells pieces of pie with ice cream!  We brought blueberry and pecan pies.

Somehow we are able to get the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD) marching band to come to our celebration to add to the fun.  They did a short performance right outside the Town Hall and then marched in the parade later.  One of our high school 2014 graduates was supposed to be playing with them today but for some reason the freshman weren't with the group today.

The parade begins at 2pm and we always have good seats right in front of Hoth-Lee Gallery.  It takes a while to get everyone lined up so below is the American Legion color guard waiting for the high sign to begin.

Here is a car full of four of our long-time residents of Port Wing.  Notice the nicknames.  It seems like just about every male over the age of 40 has a nickname, probably given to them from something they did in their younger days.  Sometimes if you need to know someone's real first name, other people really have to think about it because the nicknames are so a part of them.

Then come the Port Wing fire engines and emergency vehicles--today there were about five of them.  Every entry throws candy, even to old parade-watchers like us!

This vehicle was purchased using funds gathered from the raffle tickets sold at the Fish Boil and other fundraisers.  (We won $10 in the raffle, by the way, and a cooler!)  This vehicle is used to fight fires and respond to emergencies up in the woods and out in the boonies where trucks sometimes can't go.  Always happy to support the fire fighters and EMTs!  And may they NOT ever have to come to see us!

UMD Marching Bulldogs again.  Don't you love bands?

Along with the Port Wing FD, we also get to see emergency vehicles from the other area towns--Iron River, Herbster and Cornucopia--two or three from each town!  You just hope nothing bad happens in the time it takes for the parade to pass by!

 And did I mention Blue Ribbons?  Another event on Fall Festival day is the Garden Club Flower Show.  Leann tried some entries this year and we even got some winners.   This flower arrangement below earned a 3rd place or white ribbon.

 Those are tiny Tansy flowers in a tiny coffee pot and the pink ones are some other little weed in the tiny cups.  This, of course, is the Miniature category and she got another 3rd place.

And as an afterthought, we entered our little cactus in the Succulent category and it earned a Blue Ribbon!  The original stem fell off of our 3-foot-tall cactus, so I stuck it in some water and it rooted.  And now it's become a prize winner!

And finally, this was the entry from the Museum and Historical Society, and this will be the next big event that I'll be writing about.  Smorgasbord--Swedish meatballs, ham, turkey, potatoes, gravy, all kinds of salads and desserts.  Saturday, October 11 - Y'all come!

And tomorrow is September?  Not possible!