Grapes, Grapes and More Grapes!

I got grapes (concord)!

5 or so years ago, hubby bought me a grape plant for mother's day, or an anniversary, or a birthday, I don't remember. I planted it out in the yard and it entertained me for a few years. I cut off the grape vines, made stuff out of them, and occasionally would it provide me with a handful of yummy, tart grapes.

This year, I GOT GRAPES! Lots and lots of grapes. And they are soooo yummy. They have seeds, but no matter.

So this morning I went out and gathered them all up, not sure what I would do with them. Showed them to hubby and he said "jelly"! I said, "no"!

I don't make jelly, only because I can't stand to throw away all of that flavorful pulp just to make a clear jelly, so we compromised on jam.

Never made grape jam before, so I Googled a recipe and came up with the one below. Have a birthday party to go to this afternoon, so later on today I'll make my jam. I'm estimating I have about 2 gallons of grapes, so that should make for quite a bit of jam. Sooo excited.

Still have to gather up the remaining tomatoes, we will likely have frost this week, and the cabbages are almost ready too.

The steers have been butchered and the new roosters are starting to fertilize eggs (red spots when I crack them open).

Fall on the farm! Time for harvest, and this year, harvest I will. Didn't plant any pumpkins so I'll have to buy some, but that's ok. I'll put them out on the front deck for decorations, then can them up for pies and butters in the winter. After the first hard freeze I'll go after apples. Hoping to make tons of butters and applesauce. Yum! The smells of autumn in the kitchen.

Grandson #1 got his first deer this morning, very excited for him, now he can enjoy venison that he actually harvested.

Lit the woodstove for the first time this season last night. It only got down to about 39, but it's been cool for a few days, so the cabin is starting to cool down. Time to bring up more wood to the deck! I LOVE the hustle and bustle of autumn, and the colors of the trees? Let's not even go there. Spectacular!!

Taking a motorcycle trip over to the Western side of Michigan in a week or so to see the colors over there! Can't wait!!

This weekend was the Northern Michigan Lamb and Wood Festival and while I didn't do much shopping, I did take a couple of classes. One was in hand painting sock blanks, and the other was knitting 2 socks at once. It was fun and relaxing. Between classes I sat on a picnic table outside and enjoyed the smell of the cooking vendors and the cool breeze blowing through the gigantic oaks out on the fairgrounds.

Life is Good!!

Grape Jam

2 qts of grapes

6 cups of sugar.

Wash and mash the grapes in a stock pot, mash them to get the juices flowing

Heat until soft, then run through a mill to get rid of seeds (keep them in the fridge so they can be germinated next year!)

Stir in 6 cups of sugar

Bring to a boil and boil rapidly until the sugar is dissolved. Skim off any foam.

When it has boiled long enough that the cooled jam is of gel consistency (a frozen spoon will tell you immediately if it's cooked long enough) ladle it into clean, sterilized jars.

Process in a boiling water bath for 15 mins (either pints or quarts).

I'll let you know how it turns out!

4 Red Leaves!

This totally goes on the "What In The World" shelf. The other day (date is important here), I found, under my maple tree, are you ready for this? 4 RED LEAVES!

"So what?" you might say!

"???" I say! (complete with silent waving of arms and expression of disbelief on my face)

"What does finding a few red leaves on the ground have to do with anything?" you might say.

Well, for one, it means that fall is coming. You know. Fall. Autumn. The season before all of the white stuff falls from the sky and covers everything for months and months and months. And it gets really cold. Yeah, Fall, you got it now. It's coming. Soon. The Maple Tree says so.

"But it's only August", you might say.

"I know, right?" I say. (I love that new "saying"), it fits so well. Kind of like when my teenagers started the "whatever". "As if". thing.

But back to reality.....Yeah. Red leaves in August.

Everyone I've told this too just about shrinks in horror. With all of the dire warnings no doubt contrived from NASA, NOAA, the Farmer's Almanac and Uncle Joe. But to tell the truth. It happens every August. Right after the blackberry season. This is the first tree in all of Michigan to start the color show.

Before long, the whole landscape will look like this:

Yeah, I get it, it's gorgeous, and Michigan rakes in big bucks from tourists looking for color tours in mid October, but it's a harbinger of whiter, colder times. When all of the reds, yellows, golds and half of the greens turn into varying shades of grays, browns and whites.

When the whole world is covered in white. When Jeff Foxworthy, the famous comedian states, "You might be from Michigan if you sit on a frozen lake and wait for your dinner to swim by". Yeah, good times!

But before you get all "awwwwww, these pictures are gorgeous, I wish I lived there....", note that the REAL result of these red leaves falling and the soon to be white stuff on the ground is the end of motorcycle season. Go ahead and say it now..... "awwwwww......"

Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves!

2 of my brothers visited up here this past weekend. It was great!
We laughed, drank some (funny, we used to drink a lot more, before we got, well, older than we were then), sat around, helped the folks get the place winterized and RODE BIKES!

The leaves were beautiful. Every color of red, salmon, pink, purple, yellows and golds, different shades of greens, if the color has been invented, we saw it in the leaves. As we traversed along back country roads, the temperatures approached 80. Typical Indian Summer. Stopped at various landmarks to drink in the crisp autumn air, hot sun and the scents, sounds and sights of middle October.

And then the wind came.

And now most of those pretty leaves live in the next county. But they'll be back. Every fall we experience what we call "Peak Season" where the colors of the leaves are at their "peak colors". This happens right around the middle of October. Normally I'd say the peak was still a week away, but with the wind last night, we pretty much saw what there was to see, and now there's nothing to do but finish getting ready for winter.

My current knitting project is a cardigan/wrap/shawl thing, reminiscent of the colors of the leaves this time of year. A lot of greens and browns, oranges, rusts and yellows, and even some blue and red thrown in. The back and one front is done, so it's safe to say I'm at the halfway point. The feature I really like about this project is that since I am changing yarns every other row, I can do my own color scheme, with pretty much my stash only to work from.

Yarn of the Month came, in typical fashion, toward the end of the first week of the month. Hmmmm. Autumn colors! I know where I'll use these!

There's nothing like a relaxing weekend to give me the attitude adjustment I need once in awhile. Next "reunion".... Colorado in January, where we'll meet to ski and snowshoe for a long weekend. Better buy some stock in Tylenol while the market's down! I think I'll probably need it!

The Tree Out Front

My neighbor has this beautiful Sugar Maple Tree. Huge. Gorgeous. Beautiful Tree. Really pretty. And I'm going to cut it down. Once again it has betrayed me.

This really really pretty gorgeous huge tree, every year, this time of year shows it's betrayal by *gasp* turning red. It's really pretty when it turns red, it seems to go branch by branch, from the outside in. But my own personal belief, at least this year, is that it doesn't really need to advertise the fact that summer is in fact, *whisper* "over" *end of whisper*.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, I get it. I know. Summer's over. My dead and dying garden is a testament to that. My closed windows yell it to me. The ferns in the woods shreik at me every time I ride by. The cool crispness of the air on my bike ride to work, and the colors... Well, the colors are really quite cool, everything from pale yellow to deep, dark burgandy. Salmons, oranges, reds, even purples. The air dries up, the leaves show their colors and then fall and walking anywhere produces a crinkle under foot.

Fall does have it's good points. There are the leaves, as previously pointed out, breathtaking. Peak season is in about 2-3 weeks.

The cool crisp air is perfect for getting those last minute projects done, perfect for cutting and stacking firewood. The season seems to inspire the "nesting instincts" of even highly evolved (or less highly evolved) humans. There's the "hurry" to get stuff done.

And there are the bike rides.

O.M.G. You haven't lived until you've ridden on the back roads of N. Mich during peak season. Just gorgeous. Take a break here and there to sit and enjoy the sights, smells and sounds.

Because....

it's coming......

Is Autumn Really Coming?

I read an email yesterday about how a gal in Wisconsin is getting her garden ready for fall. Excuse me, it's only the beginning of summer, well, maybe more toward the middle. What? August already???

What's up with that??

In Wisconsin?? An awful lot of Wisconsin is S. of us. She signed her email as "Zone 5". I'm in Zone 3. What does this mean?

There's only one explanation. Well maybe 2. One, I'm in denial about the whole "summer coming to an end" thing, and the other, that Wisconsin is in a parallel universe somewhere else and is really just an illusion. (Insert Jimmy Buffet song of choice here...)

So hubby and I took a LOOOONNNNGGGGGGG bike ride last night. Perfect night. Warm summer breeze (or was there a hint of cool?), beautiful green trees (I refuse to see the first tinges of orange, that tree must have been dying or something), and is the wildlife really starting to get a bit furrier that it should be at the beginning of summer?

Aaauuugggghhhhhh! Summer CAN'T be coming to an end, it can't be! No, no, no, no, no.

I still don't have my firepit dug for those late night bonfires. The greenhouse isn't done (or even started except in my mind - a scary place to be). The barn isn't full and overflowing. I don't have my watering system set up for the critters yet, and worst of all, I haven't opened up my pool for summer yet. (sometimes I get a bit behind!), and, - and this is a big AND), I don't have my firewood brought up to the deck yet. Actually this is what my firewood looks like.

And this is what it doesn't look like. This isn't my cabin, because my firewood isn't stacked up here where it needs to be.

Ok, breathe, it's not like there's snow in the forcast (although snow in August certainly isn't a surprise), the frost date is like WEEKS away, (mid. sept.) and it's all good. And besides, the leaves haven't started to fall off of the trees yet. When all that happens, then we shall truly have a reason to panic!

So, tonight I'll have to re-evaluate my "to do" list. I should probably stop planting things and start working on harvesting, getting critters ready for winter, and the most important, GET SOME HAY IN THE BARN and GET THE FIREWOOD CUT AND STACKED!!

I really do love this life, but right now I'm thinking I need to go back to bed!