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!

A Pre Frost Harvest...

The weather forecasters keep changing the expected low temp for tonight, and now the projected low is 32 deg F. Not quite the 14" of snow Richard's expecting.

A little too cold for our tomatoes and tomatillos, so I just did a small pre-frost harvest.

This is about 1/4 of the tomatoes, the rest are still green...

This pile of tomatillos doesn't look that big, but it's more than any of the local grocery stores ever keep on hand. It's had to tell, but I think this is maybe maybe 1/4 of what's left in the garden, plus there's 5 pounds of them in the freezer already. This is my first time ever growing them and I can't believe what an aggressive spreader they are.

My jalapenos. I'm disappointed, not in the quantity, but ain their size. I'll have to do some tree removal this winter and try to get more day light and eliminate some of the shadows in the garden...

I'm happy with the monofilament fishing line deer fence! I've had a trail cam pointed on the garden for a while now and the deer never try to enter it, just walk around it.

Nancy's not home yet and the temp keeps dropping. I'll have everything ready and we'll get things covered up as soon as she's home!
I think we'll be busy canning and freezing for the next few days.

I Went Searching for Fall Color...

... and found some nice motorcycle roads. I left home at noon and headed east on CR-M, a few miles later I was riding through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Just a few hundred feet before the town of Clam Lake, I turned north on CR-GG. The county has chip sealed and painted it recently and it's in great shape as motorcycle roads go.

Along the way I found some nice colors and got the required motorcycle picture...

Two miles from the town of Mellen...

Town of Mellen Memorial Park...

From Mellen I went south on WI-13 to the town of Glidden. The town has the title of "The Black Bear Capital of the World" because of a record setting bear killed near there in 1963. A mount of the bear is on public display just off the main street in a rock and glass enclosure.

Established 1876.

I left Glidden and back tracked 3 miles to the junction of WI-13 and WI-77. WI-77 is also known as the National Forest Great Divide Scenic Byway. I took 77 west through Clam Lake. There's an experimental heard of elk in the area that are part of a University of Wisconsin program to re-introduce elk to the area...

I turned left onto CR-S. The 10 mile section of county road S has the potential to be an awesome motorcycle road, it just needs to be totally resurfaced. It's been patched and repaired but it will pound you to pieces if you travel it at the 45 MPH speed limit. In the few sections that aren't too bad, there are tar snakes everywhere, both the kind that run parallel to the road and perpendicular. They make cornering a challenge.

County Road S...

When CR-S ended at CR-B, I turned right onto B. I stayed on that until I went left on CR-CC. County road CC is a very nice road that takes you through the Chippewa Flowage. In several places the road is running right along side the water...

One side of the road...

The other...

CR-CC took me to CR-N and on to CR-E. E is A very nice road, running right past and up close to both Grindstone and Spring Lakes. All of the area is part of the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation.

Spring Lake...

From there, it was a short ride out to CR-K, then north up to US-63, to Cable and back home. 151 miles and 3.5 hours

There are several more roads I want to ride... as long as the weather holds out!

Fall's Slow Progress and a Car Show...

While some northern bloggers have ice and snow already, fall, or more precisely, fall color, has been slow to arrive in Cable, WI. I took some pictures today and when compared to last year, the brilliant reds, oranges and yellows of the maple trees just refuse to show themselves. I think we're at least 10 days behind last year...

Today..... 9-26-15.

And one year ago... 9-22-14.

Today, Nancy and I went to the 14th Annual Cable Area Fall Festival   in "downtown" Cable. It was a beautiful 74 degrees and sunny! There were a number of vendors selling their arts and craft items, vendors selling food, and a car show. I was very surprised by the quality of the cars in the show.

Here's just a few...

My first car was a '73 Riviera hat looked a lot like this one.

Catching Up and a Cable, WI Fall Color Update...

It's been three weeks since I last posted to my blog. I've been keeping busy around the house and in the garden, but I've had some fun too.

My buddy, John, and his wife, Wendie, came up for a visit for my birthday/long Labor Day weekend. He brought up his Harley and had the dealer in Rice Lake mount up a new set of tires on it on his way up. We went for a couple of rides and looked at a cabin that's for sale on a local lake.

The weather has been dry and unseasonably warm the last few weeks so Nancy and I took the kayaks out for a trip down part of the Namekagon River.

As we traveled down the river, we saw at least 2 dozen turtles out sunning themselves on rocks and logs. Check out this one... He's got his hind legs stretched out and it looks like he's warming his toes in the sun.

The foliage along the river had just started to lighten. No color yet, as of the 8th of September.

This little guy was sitting in the tree watching us at the Earl Park Landing when we were getting out of the river.

About a week ago I got an email from Doug over at Coop's Corner. He told me that he was going to be up this way and staying in Herbster at a little campground the shore of Lake Superior. On Sunday the 13th, I went north and tried to find him. I found his van, trailer and camp site, but no Doug.

Sometimes, I forget that many people are far more technologically advanced that I am. I never thought to send an email before I drove up there. I figured he was like me and limited to email at home.... not thinking that he probably has a "smart phone"...

On Monday I sent him an email and told him that I'd been there on Sunday, and that I'd try to get back up there later in the day. I left home around 3:30 and made it up to the campground by 5:00. I met up with Doug at the campground and spent an hour and a half shooting the breeze. I made it home just as it was getting dark. Of course I didn't bring my camera on Monday...


It's been very windy and in the low 80's the last couple of days. I think this has made the leaves start to turn color. When I was driving up to Herbster on Sunday and Monday, I noticed that there was very little color on the leaves. That has changed in just 2 or 3 days.
Today, there are signs of color starting everywhere.... All of these pictures are from less than a half mile from home.

The first one is from a maple tree in my yard. There is ONE red leaf today, 9-16. In 2 weeks the whole tree will be a stunning red...

Now it's a race to see what happens first... my tomatoes turn red(some are getting there) or we get a hard frost(we've come close once)!!