Frosty Halloween

It was 24 degrees last night, and everything was covered with a thick frost when I got up.  I guess this is the end of the summer flowers, maybe the mums will hang in there for a few more days, but most everything else is in the final stage.  I took a walk around the yard and took a few photographs.  It won't be too long before all of these little guys will be covered with snow.

Balsam Fir (in the 2 year old forest)

Lawn weed

High bush cranberry

Petunia

Straw flower

Pansy blossom

High bush cranberry leaves

Balsam

Pansies in step garden

Balsam

Rose berry

Straw flower bud

Iowa Chair

 There is a nice shop called Patchwork Village, in Clarion Iowa, that sells many Amish made items.  I saw this chair there many years ago, and thought it would be so perfect for the 'laptop in front of the tv' lifestyle that I enjoy.  When I was there this week, the shop owner made me a deal I could not refuse.  So, before I came home yesterday, I picked up the chair and hauled it home in back of the red sled.

The table can either be taken off, or stored to the side.

Nice for the laptop, or the newspaper or the puzzle.

Barley gave it her stamp of approval right away.

Hops had to wait her turn, but pretty soon tried it out for a little rest.

I guess since the cats like it (and it came from Iowa), we will keep it.

Iowa

On the way to Iowa, just South of Durand, there is a hillside that I have taken pictures of in the past, and on Tuesday, the leaves were hanging on and very pretty, even in the rain.

Highway 25, South of Durand, WI

~~

Wednesday, the wind was crazy in Iowa.  The blue spruce in the courtyard of Dad & Ev's apartment really got a work out.  Here's a short video:

Blue Spruce in Iowa Wind

I have no idea how the leaves were staying on the tree in the background.

~~

Dad & Ev and I took a drive to Clarion on Thursday.  It was chilly but I got them to sit for a quick picture.

Dad & Ev

They will be headed to Texas soon, the temps in Rockport have been in the '80s, they won't need their heavy jackets.

A room with a view

The view from Dad & Ev's living room is a courtyard with several very large Blue Spruce. This one is the prize winner though. Big and beautiful, his branches bounce in the wind and house many many birds. This has got to be one of the prettiest spruce trees on earth, what a treat to have it right outside their window.
Life is Good.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Cranberry Run

Dad & Ev love the fresh cranberries that are sold in bulk at Marketplace in the fall.  Tuesday I am headed to Iowa to see them for a few days and deliver their cranberries.  

I've been trying to see the action at the cranberry bogs since I moved here, but it would just be dumb luck if I would drive by during harvest.  I stopped there last Friday and the berries look ripe and the foliage has turned color, water pipes looked staged, but who knows when the real flooding and harvest will begin.  It's definitely something I want to witness now that I live here.  I'm going to have to find someone with insider information.

Regardless, the Red Sled will be delivering cranberries to the Iowans on Tuesday.

Yum!  These are the fresh cranberries in the bin at Marketplace.

Tulips are in, c'mon Spring!

I'm not sure why I think I have to only plant in large numbers, but today I finished the 200th tulip bulb and I am a happy girl.  It started to rain during the last 20 bulbs or so, but I was determined to finish and it is a good item to have off my to do list.

I could not have done it without my handy core driller.

Looks like a connect the dots game.

Rainy photo

The tulips are just in front of the little fence that you can barely see at the back of the rocked area.  I should have taken a decent photo, but you get the idea.

Come on Spring!!  Then I'll flood the blog with tulips photographs.

Football Anxiety

It was a crazy weekend for football in Wisconsin.  The Badgers beat Iowa in a close game on Saturday and then on Sunday night, the Packers squeaked by the Vikings in a thriller.   The cats never care much about any of that. I washed the comforter on the couch and when it came out of the dryer I just laid it down on Barley.  She seemed to like being snuggled in like that and took a nap. 

  Football is boring to cats, I guess.

Rare Sighting

Just a quick update on the Tufted Titmouse:

According to my birding friend, Kathy, seeing the Tufted Titmouse this far North is very rare. 

 She encouraged me to log into a birder website,ebird.com, and report my observation.  

I did and even the website said that Tufted Titmouse is an excellent observation!  

It is pretty amazing that I have been seeing them here since the 10th of October.  

Yesterday there were 6 or 8 of them here.  

Fun to know I'm adding to the statistics of the tufted titmouse, ha!  

So, sitting on my butt and watching the birds turns out to be important work!

The only kind of mouse that I like

Recently, our feeder has been visited by a tufted titmouse a few times, this morning we have been enjoying 6 or 8 of these little cuties eating at our buffet.

He is quite shy.

But I caught him checking me out.

He does not dilly dally when he gets into the feeder.

Grabs a seed and heads off to crack it on a branch.

The girls were studying him, maybe they realize he's new to our buffet too.

~~

Yesterday, on the way home from the Sandcastle, I saw this guy lurking in the median on Hwy 53 near Sarona.  At first I couldn't tell if it was a wolf, dog, or what.  But I guess it was a very healthy, and quite nice looking, coyote.  I pulled over in time to catch a few far off photos of him.

Driving, I spot him...whoa! Whipped the red sled over and started snapping.

It is probably pretty good hunting out in the median for little animals, or road kill, or whatever.

Dog? Wolf? Coyote?

He wasn't crazy about me parking there (and the other drivers were kind of annoyed as well)

He was keeping an eye on the traffic and probably some unsuspecting little critter too.

I think he could hear the camera lens clicking away.

Profile view

Yep, coyote

 Note to drivers in my range of travel, I am cautious about pulling over, but I do brake for photo ops.

Moon Me

Driving home from the Sandcastle this afternoon on Hwy 53, suddenly there was a beautiful sunset to the West and a fabulous moon to the East.

The sun was setting so fast I didn't even have a chance to catch the sunset at its peak.

The moon was just rising, the trees are bare, this almost looks like winter.

I love a full moon, with or without vampires.

 When I got to Rice Lake, I took a drive down by the lake to see the moon.  I was not disappointed.

 Sweet.

I couldn't get a good one of the moon and the reflection on the water, so...just the moon.

For the Hunters - 2010 at the Sand Castle

I went up to the SC on Friday to drop off and pick up.  I noticed that the glazing around the front window was falling out like that back window, so I did some silcone calking around that glass.  Hopefully it holds.

Gus will take the extra fireplace rock to sell at the Pawn Gallery.  I'll try to get up there to grab it one of these nice days and tote it over to Luck.  I took the compressor that was up there and will deliver that to Gus as well.  Maybe when you are all up there, you can chat with Gus about which of the rest of the power tools are his, if he would take those home, we'll have a better idea of what the Sand Castle owns.

For those who knew about the tile, I am taking it back to Menards.  No rush on that, and I think a larger tile is the way to go anyway.

Maybe this is weird, but I put a plastic grocery bag over the toilet seat & lid in the outhouse to keep the moisture from the pit from growing mold and yukky stuff on the seat/lid.  It seems to work.

Gus has a couple of big gates from his gravel pit.  He wondered if we wanted to put them up at the Sand Castle.  Since we just paid to be plowed all winter, I did not think that would work too well.  If you disagree, you can talk about it at hunting.  I'm sure it would not get done until Spring anyway.

I also did an inventory, I thought it might help you know what to bring for the hunting season.

Sand Castle Inventory on 10/22/2010:

Water:  2.5 of the 10 gallon silos.
Propane for grill:  No clue
Gasoline: about 2 gallons

Paper Cupboard

Foil- 2 partial rolls
TP - 24 plus rolls
Paper Towels -  6 + rolls
Kleenex - 3 part boxes
Red cups - 30+
Styro bowls - 50+
Smaller plastic cups - 440, I am not kidding!
Plastic Silverware- quite a bit in a zip loc bag
Blender - 1
Chinet plates - 72 lunch; 12 dinners
Zip locs bags - 35 QT; 15 GAL
Kitchen Bags - 72 + (for the recycle bins)
55 Gallon Trash Bags - 30+
Kitchen Sponges - 3 new

Food Cabinet

Flour - 5 lbs +
Sugar - plenty
Krusteaz Blueberry Pancake mix add water only - 1/4 box or less
Coffee - 2 lbs +

Coffee Filters - many

Coffee foo foo cream - just a coupleAunt Jemima Lite - 24 oz full
Veg oil - 32 oz full & partial

Salt shaker, Pepper shaker and a few spices.

Pasta Noodles - 2 partial boxes, who knows how old

Ibuprofen:  some

Tums:  probably not enough

Shore Lunch:  In case you decide to fish instead of hunt

Dishes cupboard

Disp Tupperware - 3 QT squares

Plates:  8 large, 8 med, 8 small (Corelle) - sorry whoever supplied the black set, it went to Goodwill

Silverware:  There is a bag of plastic, but also this real stuff.  (I put it all into this tray with cover now, protect it from the flies.  And rearranged so you can easily pull this tray out of the cupboard to get to the silver.)

Nice and dry under the tarp.

Firewood:  quanitity = nice pile, plus a small pile on the ground next to the door off the deck.

You can butcher your deer on the table as long as you clean it up again.

Coffee Maker - 1

Playing cards, poker chips, cribbage board.

Table, folding chairs, 4 metal bar stools down and about 8 wooden ones in the upstairs.  Bring your own poker money.

Thanks to the old Barrens cabin who sent these hand-me-downs our way.  Valdemar made the woodbox, and he was chuckling about having never thought it landing up in Gordon!

Wood box and screen.  I put the kindling into the woodbox that was in a big plastic tub.  Maybe we can come up with something for paper / fire starting stuff other than a big tub too.  I think the screen looks nice and will serve as a reminder for toddlers and stumblers not to touch the stove.  It also works as a makeshift gate between the bedrooms and living room/kitchen, in case you have any reason to restrict access.

Hot shot no pest strip kills flying insects for 4 months?

Flies:  Too numerous to count.  I have never seen so many other than in a barn.  The fly strips in the window wells are full.  I hung this pest trip up using a magnet on the frying pan.  If it works, great.  I just hope it doesn't smell bad.  It should be hung elsewhere when the cabin is in use, a cup hook in the ceiling would be good.

If you were a deer, wouldn't this stretch of new poplars be a nice spot to hang out?

Deer:  Guess that's up to you hunters to do your own inventory.  One thing we don't have is a buck pole, so keep that in mind before you start shooting everything you see.

The Castle in October

Don't forget to bring your own towels and bedding and...oh yeah...beer.