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!

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.