Success Out West

 Elk hunting is something DH talked about wanting to do for many, many years. How many, many? At least 25. When he was a very young child, his father and uncle and some friends of theirs would occasionally go out West and go hunting.  Apparently that made a big impression on him; and, when his dad died when DH was only 24, DH inherited his dad's hunting rifle.  I didn't know it at the time, but back then DH set a goal for himself: to one day harvest an elk with his dad's rifle.

In 2021, for the first time, DH had the opportunity to go out to Colorado and go elk hunting.  So he did.  And he came back empty handed, with the desire to go again in the future.

In 2022, DH again went to Colorado and went elk hunting.  He didn't get an elk, in fact he didn't even hardly see any elk, but he was able to harvest a mule deer (the owner of the land he was hunting on had permits for mule deer, so DH bought one of his permits.) He was really happy about the mule deer, but he still wanted to harvest an elk.

This year, DH again went to Colorado (to that same land owner's property) and went elk hunting.  This year, he returned home with an elk!

As elk go, it wasn't a huge one, but it was decent sized. It's what they call a five-by-four: five antler points on one side, and four on the other.

Success!

Even being not a giant elk, it is a whole lot of meat!  DH quartered it, and brought it home packed in dry ice in two enormous coolers.  And then he and I spent probably somewhere in the vicinity of 10 hours over four days (around work and meeting schedules) getting it all deboned, cut, and packaged for the freezer.

We forgot to weigh the meat before putting it in the freezer, so not sure of the total yield, but one hind quarter alone gave us 16 packages of steaks, and we ground over 50 pounds of burger!  The day after DH got home from Colorado, we had three of four kids and all the grandkids over for an elk steak dinner (so that meat never got weighed either, as it didn't even make it into packages for the freezer). He also made a batch of elk jerky in the smoker out of at least two pounds.  As a rough estimate, DH thinks we ended up with a minimum of 150 pounds of meat.  Our freezers are full, for sure!

In addition to the jerky, steaks, stew meat, tenderloins, backstraps and elk burger we have, DH also made a 15-pound batch of elk summer sausage.  It's delicious! In the picture below, notice the slice of sausage; we of course had to sample it while getting the majority of it vacuum sealed for freezing.

DH is very excited about his dream of shooting an elk with his dad's rifle finally coming true. Twenty-nine years in the making. And I'm really glad about all the meat in the freezer!

Flowers For in the House

 I like flowers. But I've never really had them in my house on a regular basis. We're just not 'buy flowers' people.  I can count on one finger how many times DH has bought me (cut) flowers in our 30 years of marriage.  I can count on one hand how many times, in that 30 years, that I've bought myself (cut) flowers.

Last year I started thinking that I'd like to have a vase of flowers in my house on a fairly regular basis during the summer time.  Not year round, just the summer time, because that meant I could get my bouquets for next to nothing by growing them myself.

This year I consciously planted a few types of flowers that make good cut flowers.  I also tried to be more aware of what I all ready had growing around this little place here that could be cut and brought inside.

Like the peonies that have bloomed reliably for 20 years (funny thing; I brought the crowns with me from our previous house when we built this little place here.  Those peonies had rarely bloomed at the other house in the 7 years we owned it--they came with the house.  Didn't like the amount of sun--or lack of it--there I guess.)

There are also tulips and daffodils that, planted years ago, come up annually.  Well, the daffodils do.  The tulips have been decreasing in recent years; probably because the deer have gotten bolder and actually come up right by the house and eat the tulips down to the ground as soon as they send up buds.  Doesn't leave much greenery to feed the bulbs for the following year.

Then there's the miscellaneous perennials I've tried to get established out at the rock wall between the lawn and the garden.  This year I was able to make a couple bouquets out of bee balm, prairie coneflower, brown eyed Susan's (I know they're black-eyed, but my grandma was a Susan who had brown eyes, so my family has always called they brown eyed), daylily, plus some Queen Anne's lace, volunteer sunflowers and the earliest zinnias.

Last year I ordered some dahlia tubers from a fundraiser a friend of mine was participating in.  They're a little higher maintenance than my other flowers, having to be lifted in the Fall and replanted in the Spring, but not too terribly difficult to grow.  And I do like the big blooms they have!

I bought a packet of zinnia seeds and a packet of cosmos seeds and planted them in a couple of spots in the garden.  Not only do they attract lots of pollinators (good for the veggie yield), they also bloom for months until a hard frost kills them.

This summer I've been cutting bouquets of zinnia and cosmos weekly, as well as inviting family members to cut their own bouquet to take home when they are here visiting.  They've been a big hit.  DH has even mentioned planting a wide swath of them on the edge of the field, out near the road, in the future.  And he's not a flower kind of person!

We had a good, hard frost here on Sunday night, so now the flowers are done until next year (except the hardy mums, but I don't use those for cut flowers).  Looking forward to more 'free' bouquets to beautify my house next summer.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

 It's been ages since I posted a recipe on here. Clicking on that category, apparently it's been more than 5 years(!!) since I posted a recipe.  Waaaay too long.  I still cook, every day, from scratch, but somewhere a few years ago I lost my cooking mojo and it has been a chore rather than a fun thing.  So much so that when I list how many hours in a day I do 'work' at home, I include cooking time in the same way as washing dishes or doing laundry or mopping the floors or cleaning the bathroom.  You know, the chores.  Not the fun and relaxing stuff like reading, sewing, knitting, picking flowers to bring inside to make things pretty. . .

Every now and then I do feel a little adventurous in the kitchen, and I have added some new things to my cooking repertoire, but not like it used to be.  This recipe that I'm about to share isn't actually new.  It's really one I've had for years, but haven't actually made in several years for some reason.

Recently, however, I got the hankering for a strawberry cream cheese coffee cake.  Totally not the right time of year, in Michigan, for strawberries.  But, thanks to preplanning while they were in season, I have a stash of them down in the chest freezer (along with cherries, blueberries, rhubarb. . .)  So I didn't have to tell myself "that sounds good, but it'll have to wait for June 2024 to get here before I can make it."  Nope, I grabbed a pre-measured baggie of sliced, frozen strawberries out of the freezer and made myself a yummy coffee cake!

The recipe is an adaptation of one for Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake from the 2005 edition of Taste of Home's Quick Cooking Annual Recipes.  I just swapped out strawberries for the blueberries.  It's also delicious with blueberries, and, if I remember next summer, I want to try it with mulberries too.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

2/3 cups sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp flour, divided

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2  cup milk

1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries (don't thaw first if you're using frozen)

3 ounces cream cheese, cut in small cubes

Topping:

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp cold butter

In a medium to large size bowl, cream the sugar and butter.  Beat in the egg.

In a separate, small bowl, mix the 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt.

To the larger bowl with the creamed mixture, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk, stirring well after each addition.

In the now empty small bowl, toss the strawberries in the 2 Tbsp flour.  Add the strawberries/flour and the cream cheese to the batter in the large bowl, and fold together. Pour into a greased 8" x 8" baking dish.

Mix the topping ingredients in the again empty small bowl (like how I'm not giving you 2 extra bowls to wash by reusing the small one?) until crumbly, then sprinkle over the batter in the baking dish.

Bake in a preheated 375-degree (F) oven for 40-45 minutes until cake tests done.  Let cool slightly, then eat!

I was actually in such anticipation of that first, warm, fruity bite, that I forgot to take a picture of the finished coffee cake.  I remembered much later, after it had cooled off and doesn't look quite as mouth watering.  That's one thing you can count on at this little place here: what you see is what things actually look like; there's no staged photos or perfectly cleaned/decorated settings.  It's life in it's hectic, messy glory. If I have a coffee cake sitting on my (stained by grape juice) kitchen island that I just remembered to take a picture of, you get a probably not perfectly lit picture of a coffee cake in it's pan (missing a quarter of the cake) on my stained island.  C'est la vie.

Horse Update, October

It's been an interesting month with Poetess.  For the first time in the almost four months that I've owned her, she displayed signs of being in heat.  Not terrible, not screaming, not peeing on everything, but very wiggly in the cross ties, a bit kicky when having her belly curried (that behavior got squashed immediately), distractible in her work sessions, and then a bit flirty with the gelding in the next pasture when he came to the common fenceline. I'm glad it's Fall and hopefully there won't be too many more heat cycles to deal with until Spring.  It's been rather a while since I owned a mare and had to deal with heat cycles and riding.

She was very good and still for the farrier when she got her feet trimmed this month, which tells me that our practicing having her feet held paid off.  I've still got her barefoot, but she is a little tender still on gravel so I'm wondering if  we need to change her foot care as we head into winter with it's potential for frozen lumpy uneven ouch-inducing ground.  Not sure I want to put shoes back on, especially going into the snowy/icy season, but maybe letting her feet grow a little more between trims.  Or painting the soles of her feet with turpentine? (Which is typically pretty effective despite being messy.) Or seeing about trying a different farrier?  The one I've used with her so far is one that comes to that barn every 4-5 weeks to do another horse there, so that is the schedule we've used.  Finding a farrier in my area that is willing to travel for just a horse or two has proven much more difficult than I thought it would be. 

With the cooler weather, I finally took some turnout blankets to try on Poetess and figure out if I have anything that fits her.  The 72s that Camaro wore definitely don't even though she is (supposedly) only two inches taller than he was (although I think she's grown: I'd love to get ahold of a measuring stick and see if she's more than 16 hands now).  The 78 I have was definitely too big.  The 75 medium weight Weatherbeeta fit just about perfect.  So I call her a size 75/76 (depending on brand).  And of course the mid-weight is the only thing I own in a 75.  Luckily I found a decent sale on uninsulated turnout sheets, so ordered her a purple one in a 75.  Now she's got a 'rain coat' for the wet Fall weather.  I'm hoping to find a lightweight liner that I can put under it when the weather turns colder but not cold enough to put on the mid-weight.  I don't want to invest too much in blankets that fit this year because I suspect with regular work under saddle next year, and hitting the 5-year-old filling out body-wise point she just might be a size 78 next Fall.

She longes in the bridle pretty well now, although I put the halter on over it for the long walk to and from the arena and so that I can clip on a lead rope when I go to change sides that the longe line is hooked to the bit at.  Want to avoid a loose horse repeat at all costs.  That was terrifying and embarrassing (for me, not her).

Because she's longeing pretty well, but I want her more relaxed and stretching through her back before adding a surcingle and side reins, I've started using a pole for her to step over during part of our walk and trot times.  When she's paying attention, she doesn't touch it at all.  When she's not, she occasionally knocks a hind hoof. She's getting the hang of that, although the very first time I asked her to go over it at a trot she trotted up, jumped over it and landed in a nice canter.  I had to laugh, it was so textbook perfect if I was teaching her to jump.  Which I don't plan to (I promised DH back in 1992, after we got engaged, that I would give up jumping because he was afraid I'd crash and be killed or paralyzed).  But apparently she has potential for it.

Taking the pole like it's no big deal.

After a couple sessions with one pole, I added a second, on the opposite side of the circle, and she seems to like that.  At least, once she's done about two circles in trot, I see her start to stretch a little more as she nears a pole and goes over it.  Her head comes up on the other side, but down again as she spots the next pole.  It's a start. I'm in no hurry to saddle her up and jump on.  I'd rather have her loosen her back and go in a relaxed carriage before we add my weight to her.  There's more poles we can add to keep things interesting.

Weekend Girl Time

 This week, I found out that the local quilt guild was having a show at the country fairgrounds.  It was going to be held indoors, and, since the weather forecast was for rain, rain, and more rain, I knew DH and I wouldn't be working on any outdoor projects. Which left my weekend looking like a bunch of catching up on housework. So, I invited DD1 and DD2 to go to the quilt show with me.  I'd never been to one, but had seen pictures other people posted of quilt shows they'd visited and thought it sounded like an interesting way to spend a few hours. Definitely more fun than housework.

DD2 was busy all weekend, so she was unable to tag along. However, DD1 and Faline were both interested and available.  

I have to say, a quilt show and a nearly three year old aren't the most compatible things.  With some creative thinking, we were able to (mostly) keep Faline both engaged and contained.  Sometimes we did have to duck off to the side and let her do some running/hopping/skipping to expend excess energy. But, other times we told her to look at the quilts and tell us which ones she liked and we would take her picture standing by the quilt.  And, when she got hangry and wasn't too interested in getting her picture taken I told her that I had some lemon crackers in my purse, but she had to ride in the stroller if she wanted to eat them.  Once she was seated in the stroller I doled out the crackers one at a time, one per aisle of quilts, until we'd been able to see them all.  We did skip the shopping area, as I didn't need to buy more stuff (*ahem* I just got an order of fabric last week and might have ordered a few templates earlier this weekend).

Some of Faline's favorites: 

The first one she liked for a picture.

Feeling cheesy

Getting hangry and committing the mortal sin of touching the quilt.

She went into the stroller right after this and was given the first cracker.

I loved looking at the different patterns and construction techniques. Some I appreciated the time and skill that went into the quilt, but either the color combos or the busy-ness didn't appeal to me.  Others I liked a lot and voted for on the ballot that all guests were given at the entrance.

Some, I took pictures of so I could remember that I might want to make a similar quilt myself sometime in the future:

Done in batiks, makes me think of stained glass.

Very calming, yet stars.

I think I like star quilts.

A neat use of drunkards path blocks, 

I like how this one is done.

Ohio Stars

Again, stars.❤

Sampler set on point. 

I love the black sashing and setting triangles with the white in the blocks.

Also love the batik border diamonds.

My mother in law is a quilter, and she frequently does quilts that are partially embroidered with cross stitches.  She has made one for each of her grandchildren. Unfortunately, while the quilts are made with love and her grandkids see that, they often don't use the quilts because of the colors she chooses or the odd fabric choices she went with.  There were several quilts at the show that had cross stitches on them, and DD1 commented that she would love it if her grandma made one like that.  I quote: "This is Grandma's potential, but she never quite reaches it."

An embroidered quilt that DD1 wishes her grandma would make.

(As she said, she would actually use a quilt that looked like that.  She has one that is a different design as well as colored in what she calls "ketchup and mustard" and has squares of fabrics in those colors, including a fabric of mushrooms.)

Close up of the cross stitches

All in all, we only spent about an hour and a half at the quilt show, although I'm sure Faline felt like it was at least twice that long.  I was happy we went, DD1 enjoyed looking at the quilts (and was amazed at the prices on some of the ones that were for sale--she has a new appreciation for the ones I've made her/her kids).  I'm pretty sure Faline's favorite part was walking back to where we'd parked; she splashed in every puddle on the way, absolutely soaking her shoes.

Another Grape Post

 We've had some chilly nights lately. Dodged frost so far, but the forecast was iffy late last week so I picked the rest of the ripe grapes ahead of time and made more juice over the weekend. Nine more quarts, which brings our total grape juice yield to 4.25 gallons!!

Doing some quickie math, if you go with conventional 100% juice grape juice at the grocery store, that comes out to about $30 in value. However, if you go with organic 100% grape juice (which mine basically is without the government label saying so) that grocery store equivalent value comes out to about $119! I'll take it!

We also transferred DH's wine into the secondary fermenter--a 5-gallon glass carboy--first filtering out all skins and seeds after the initial 10-day ferment.  Once the wine was in the carboy, DH topped it off with 9 pounds of sugar dissolved in boiled water.  We did not add any yeast, going with the old family recipe that says the yeast present on the grapes in the beginning of the process is enough to do the task.

Within a few hours, the airlock on the carboy was burbling away again, proving that yes, there was yeast in the wine actively feasting on the added sugar.

The next day, DH carried the carboy down to the basement, where it will sit in a darker environment for at least a month before we sample it.  I have to confess that during the daily stirring in the first ferment, we sampled a little bit two different times.  Each time, it tasted less like juice and more like wine, while still retaining the concord grape flavor.

Sewing and Stitching, October Update

The sewing and stitching report for October has lots of things to talk about.

I made some more bear clothes:

• a skirt and shirt for K3's bear, 
• sweatpants for Toad's, and 
• pants for Rascal's bear. 

None of which I have pictures to share.  

Also in the no-picture category was some special request sewing for Faline; she had been playing in her intended Halloween costume and accidentally torn it.  I was really surprised to get a phone call from very worried sounding two-year-old asking me if I could "please fix my Mirabel dress, Ahma."  It was a really simple fix, as the fabric had just pulled apart at the bodice/skirt seam.  While I was at it, I reinforced the entire seam, not just the torn part, as well as the side seams.  When I returned it to her, I got a big hug and many thanks.  Apparently I have saved Halloween, LOL.

I spent some time sewing a few quilt blocks for an internet forum quilt I am participating in. Those, I did take pictures of.

9-patch

churn dash

9 patch variation

tick tack toe

(quilterscache.com pattern)

There has also been a bit of counted cross stitching going on.  (It's nice that it's dark by 8 p.m. this time of year; I have more time for relaxing and crafting rather than working outside until nearly bed time).

The Candy Cane Santa that I finished stitching earlier this year, I pulled out and have been working off and on at getting the beading sewn on.  While waiting for my grape juice to process in the canner this past weekend I was able to get the last of the beading done.  Now it just needs to be trimmed, and have a felt backing and a hanging string glued on. Maybe in November, maybe not until December.  That can wait until I have my other Santa stitched and ready for the same final steps.

My Cardinal Santa, the other cross stitch one I've been working on occasionally, is suddenly very much closer to completion.  I spent a 9+ hour day babysitting Buck last week, and over the course of two long naps that he took, I stitched up a storm!  Once the cross stitching and back-stitching are done, I'll go right to the beading on this one.  Depending on when that is, I'll decided if I have enough time to do any more cross-stitch Santas to give as Christmas presents this year or not.  

October Knitting Update

After not knitting much, last month I set myself a knitting goal for my Traveling Woman shawl: one row per night.  That has really made a huge difference!  Three repeats of Chart A done and I'm about half way through the fourth and final repeat of Chart A.  I also decided, since I'm making the largest size and am not sure exactly how much yarn I have, to add in a second color for every other repeat of Chart A.  So I'm using not just one of the yarns DD2 bought me during her study abroad in Peru, but two of them!  And they are looking lovely together. 

After Chart A is repeated for the fourth time, there is Chart B, which has a total of just 19 rows, then the bind off. I am really getting excited about finishing this shawl.  It seems doable now.  Amazing what just one row a day can accomplish.

Reading, I finished two books in the past month:

Forging On by Catherine Robinson.  Loved it so much I ordered the next one immediately after I finished it.  Non-horse people might not find it so interesting, although the relationships between the main characters are pretty universal so could appeal to more than just the horse crazy.

The Heirloom by Beverly Lewis.  Latest novel, pretty good.  Interesting weaving of known characters from other books into this one; ties them to each other plus gives a little more insight into some.  Makes Ella Mae Zook a main character this time rather than being a cameo or side character in many other Beverly Lewis books.

I'm currently alternating between two other books:

The Creative Art: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin.  Short bits of thought, sometimes reading it takes much less time than mulling over what was written. There are things that are pretty thought-provoking.  At risk of sounding like the 1970's child I am, some of it is "pretty deep, man."

Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence through Simple Living by Elizabeth Willard Thames.  I've only just started this, so far it reads like a story rather than a non-fiction tome.  Which is good as I'm in the mood for something easy reading.

So Many Grapes

Currently, I'm drowning in grapes.  They smell soooo good, and my hands are soooo purple!

But to back up a bit, here's (mostly) weekly pictures to update since my post a couple months ago about the grapes.

week 11

 week 12

week 13

 

week 14

starting to turn purple!

week 15

week 16

are they ready yet?

(They were purplish, and tasted good if a little tart)

week 18

very purple

At week 18, there was no doubt they were ripe and ready to harvest. They could be smelled from ten feet away--smelled just like Welch's grape juice. And no matter where I looked in the grape arbor, there were tons of clusters of deep purple grapes.

Time to get picking!

Half of the grape arbor is all I picked last week; that yielded over two bushel (baskets in photo below are 1/2 bushel size).

From that approximate 2 1/2 bushel, I took about 1 3/4 bushel and used that to make a batch of jelly, and a batch of grape juice.  Which meant washing, stemming, and cooking the grapes, then straining them down into juice.  Lots and lots of juice.  I used the juicer attachment for my Kitchenaid for that.

2 of 3 bowls of juice

The juice had to sit overnight in the fridge before being strained a second time through cloth (my piece of cheese cloth wasn't big enough, so I grabbed a piece of unbleached muslin from my fabric stash).  It's now naturally dyed, LOL.

It took several hours to strain all that juice, and that's where/how I got my hands stained purple.

Really, it was an all day endeavor doing the second straining, then making and canning the jelly and the grape juice.  Tiring, but rewarding, and the kitchen smelled oh so good during the process.

7 half-pints and one 4-ounce jar of grape jelly

8 quarts of grape juice

If you've done the math throughout this post, you may be wondering what happened to that other 3/4 bushel of grapes.  Those went to DH's project: downsizing and recreating a heirloom family recipe for wine.  This something he's wanted to do for many years, but hasn't gotten around to.  But since we have a plethora of grapes out in the garden, there's no time like the present!

His Dad, Uncle, and Grandfather (all deceased) used to make homemade wine.  They used mainly concord grapes, as that was what grew on the homestead/farm.  The original recipe calls for over 7 bushel of grapes and makes 50 gallon batch.

We don't have a big enough fermenter to make 50 gallons, nor do we have 7 bushel of grapes (we do have probably 5+ as I still need to harvest the other half of the arbor).  So DH did the math to cut the recipe down to a manageable 5-gallon batch and will use our homebrew equipment for it.

Currently the grape mash is in it's first fermentation (10 days according to the old family recipe) on the kitchen counter.  All that's in the bucket is crushed grapes (unwashed, to use the natural yeast on the skins) and they are happily burbling away while the yeast eats the natural sugars in the grapes and creates alcohol.  After the first fermentation, the mash will be strained to remove the skins and seeds, then the juice will be put into a carboy for its second fermentation (with some water and a bunch of sugar added) then placed down in the basement where it's cooler and darker and the wine can age for a few months.

We'll know next year how it turns out.

Meanwhile, yesterday, DS2 and Surprise came and picked their own 3/4 bushel of grapes to take home and make wine with.  It should be interesting, as they are the same grapes DH used (same variety grown in the same place), to see if the wines come out identical or how much difference the water (tap water, different wells) and sugar (most likely a different brand) make in the final flavor.