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...