Riding on Borrowed Time...

This year's riding season is soon to come to an end. The weather guessers are calling for a few wet days and then some more sun and 50°... We'll see. By this time last year we had several inches of snow on he ground already.

11-11-14

We've had a some very nice fall days lately and I've managed to get a few things done. Last week, I took the Zx-14 out for a long ride and a fresh tank of no E premium with Sta-bil added at the gas stop. I did the same thing with the FJR yesterday. I stopped at Delta lake for photo ops with both bikes...

That's sun reflection, not road rash.

After riding up the Delta-Drummond Road, I cut over on CR-E towards Mason. This was the view just before Mason.

I noticed something in the field...

Zoom in a little...

Zoom in a some more...

We see a lot of Bald Eagles up here in the north woods, but usually they're flying by or circling overhead. When they're feasting on road kill, it's usually on the roadside and they take off when you get close. This was a great opportunity! Far enough away to not scare him off, but close enough for a picture.

I spent most of today working in the garage. I was rearranging things trying to make the most of the space. Freeing up the tractor's snow blower, putting away the mower deck, sweeping the floor... I hope to have the wood rack filled and the garage finished tomorrow.

I did make time for a ride on the Wr250x, just long enough to warm it up so I could change the oil.

Fall Clean up and a Road Trip...

Last Tuesday, the 13th, was our anniversary... 14 years and yet it seems like only yesterday. To celebrate, we took the truck on a road trip to the eastern edge of northern Wisconsin, almost to the Michigan border. We spent the day exploring the towns of Manitowish Waters, Mercer and Presque Isle. Just to keep this motorcycle related, I was also looking for possible motorcycle routes to ride next spring.

A caboose and a big loon in Mercer...

Manitowish Waters is a cool small town with interesting shops, and it's the starting area of 47 miles of paved bicycle trails. At Rest Lake, the big lake right in the middle of town, there were bicycle racks with free loaner bikes and a nice city park.

Bike/walking trail...

When dinner time approached, we headed to the Little Bohemia Lodge to eat.

I had a very nice chicken parmesan and Nancy had a thick boneless pork chop. The lodge has a great history including a shoot out between the John Dillinger gang and the FBI led by Melvin Purvis. The lodge has newspapers from the 1930's hanging on the walls telling the story of the shoot out. Check out the Little Bohemia Lodge's web site history page. It's a great read.

Bullet holes in the dinning room wall...

I made another batch of jalapeno jelly and we made 2 batches of salsa using my old recipe from the 1990's when I had my last garden...

Today has been the coolest so far this fall. The high was only 41 and it's expected to get down to 25 tonight.

I spent most of the day outside. I made a compost bin out some large pallets and started to load it with garden debris.

The Last of the Great Color for 2015...

From here on out the color in our area will be past it's prime. The wind today is knocking a heck of a lot of leaves off the trees!

The weather forecasters are predicting upper 70's for tomorrow, but by the middle of the week the highs will be in the mid 40's with over night lows well into the freezing range.

So, to give us something to remember when the howling winds of winter are piling the snow drifts taller than my truck, Nancy and I went for a ride in the woods. We found lots of fall color, and had a great time doing it...

Out in the Chequamegon National Forest we came across a bridge over a small stream...

We were having such a good time, I snapped a dorky selfie... We both got a good laugh over this.

One last fall picture...

I'll ride when I can but tomorrow we're going to try and go kayaking one last time.

Still Searching for Fall Color...

I was out riding a little the last week, looking for color. But no matter where I rode to try and find it, I couldn't beat the colors in my own yard!

Last week, Drummond Lake, north of me about 15 minutes...

I also followed a couple of the "fall color tour routes" that are shown on the local Cable area web site, but the color just wasn't there yet...

We've had frosty temps just about every night for a week now and that has really brought out the color!

This morning in my yard...

By the garden... The tomatoes covered to protect from last night's 29 degree temps.

At the end of the driveway, looking left and right...

The Travel Wisconsin web site has their Fall Color Report page up and running. They say that next week will probably be peak color for the local area. I'll be sure to do some riding and some bike and color pictures. Stand by.

Jalapeno Jelly!

I used up some of the smaller jalapenos today. Nancy and I made a batch of jalapeno jelly. It turned out very nice, with a good amount of heat! Except now the whole house smells like jalapenos.

So far this fall we've made

6 quarts of tomato juice.
6 half pint jars of chokecherry jelly
6 half pint jars of blackberry jelly
6 half pint jars of jalapeno jelly
5 pounds of frozen tomatillos
5 two cup, bags of frozen, shredded zucchini. Enough for 10 loaves of bread!
several bags of dried herbs, parsley, dill, and chives.

There's a lot more to go. I think I have over 40 pounds of tomatoes to can, many, many pounds of tomatillos to freeze, lots of onions yet to harvest, green beans to pick, sunflowers to feed to the birds.....

I won't be canning tomorrow, I go in for cataract surgery on my left eye. I should be home before noon... I'll just supervise Nancy!