December Rides

 
This winter I have a goal of not letting cold snowy weather keep me from riding.  A very long time ago (1985? 1986?) when I boarded at a place without an indoor arena I rode all winter long (well, on the days that my Mom was willing to drive me then wait around in the cold for me to ride).  It didn't hurt me then, so why can't I gut it up and do it now (other than the fact that I'm in my 50s and cold is colder than it was in my teens!)

So this past week, I was determined that as long at the footing wasn't treacherous, I would try riding the Poetess even though the temps were only in the upper teens and low 20s. (LBM's owner decided to take her out of training for the winter, so she's just hanging out and getting jealous that the Poetess got all my attention and treats). 

I made sure to layer up, putting a base layer under my thicker breeches, wearing crew socks instead of my thin boot socks, pulling my insulated winter paddock boots out of storage,  choosing heavier weight riding gloves and adding a fleece helmet cover to my riding helmet.

Let me tell you, that winter helmet cover is a game changer!  My head--and throat--stays nice and toasty. Five stars for a not super expensive 'luxury' item I bought myself late last winter and then didn't use until now.

Happy me with a warm head.

Every day that I rode, I longed the Poetess for a few minutes first, as that is our normal routine and I didn't want to change up anything since working in snow was all ready a big change from our regular MO.  

That first day, she was such a great girl, taking everything in stride as if we always worked in the cold and the 4-inch-deep snow.  We had a nice low-key ride, doing mostly walk work, and she was so calm that I felt okay taking my phone out of my pocket to grab a between the ears photo.

The second day it was a bit colder so I added a fleece quarter sheet to the ensemble to help keep her back and hindquarters warm.  (And my legs.)  

longeing in the quarter sheet

While she didn't mind the quarter sheet while longeing, or while doing walk work, she got goosey when I did rising trot, so we didn't trot much more than a half lap in each direction.  I suspect she didn't like the way the quarter sheet pulled on her with my posting, or maybe she was getting all sorts of static electric shocks with my movement (there was a ton of static cling with the quarter sheet when I went to untack her).

The third ride was a breezier day, and I wanted to again use the quarter sheet but didn't want static, so I tried spraying the underside of it with Show Sheen (as an online search suggested).  I'm not sure if that actually keeps away the static electricity though because while trotting on the longe line the breeze  flipped the quarter sheet up over her back and then it was hanging down her right side.  Which she definitely didn't like. 

After fixing it back into the proper position and having it get flipped again in the wind twice, I decided to take it off before mounting her.  I hung it over the fence on the part of the arena closest to the barn.  Which didn't bother her until the other horses, in adjoining pastures, noticed it and decided to snort and freak out about it, spooking and running.  Of course that made the Poetess convinced there was something scary bad in the arena with her that she couldn't see, and our ride just kind of went downhill.  So much for relaxation.

I had hoped she would settle down after a few more rounds, but after a spook to cantering--which I didn't want to canter on the snow because I didn't want to risk her slipping and falling with me--I had to halt, dismount, grab that quarter sheet and toss it into the barn out of sight from the other idiot horses who had continued to stand at the fence line snorting and staring into the arena.  Getting back in the saddle, the rest of the ride focused on returning the Poestess to a relaxed and listening frame of mind, then a short wander around the field on a loose rein to cool down.

Yay, outdoor winter rides, LOL.  Two steps forward, one step back.  But, if we keep it up, we'll get there.  Hopefully wearing a quarter sheet so temperatures aren't so impeding of rides. My plan for her training this winter isn't so much progressing up a level but to build more trust in each other and mostly just go walking around (and maybe some trotting) and explore the property at this little place here with her, and also not lose too much muscle tone on either of us.  Super cold air isn't the time for strenuous riding, it's the time for bonding as it were.

Snowy polo wraps at the end of the ride.

I Hunted A Lot.

The last half of November in Michigan means firearm deer season.  And that's when I go hunting, since I've never been a bow hunter and honestly am not that interested at this point in my life in becoming one (DH keeps hoping he can convince me to try a crossbow).  I have so many other things I need to be doing in October and early November than sitting in a tree stand for hours.

Late November, however, is a different story.  I still have lots of things that need my time, but I try to squeeze in deer hunting with a shotgun.  Some years I hunt much of those two weeks, and other years (like the last couple) I may only get into the woods 3 or 4 times of the possible 32 hunts available (we're talking mornings and evenings times 16 days) 

This year I got to the woods quite a bit, seeing lots of sunrises and a few sunsets; DH stayed in a couple evenings and brought horses in for me, otherwise I came in from the woods before dark so I could get horses in while there was still enough light to see by.  My vision is terrible in the dark.

Sunrise on the 16th.

Fiery looking sunrise on 11/18

a pastel sunset 11/16

walking to the pastures as the sun went down on 11/19

Crockett wanting to know why I'm late on the 23rd.

(I was "held hostage" by several deer coming in 10 minutes before I'd wanted to get out of the tree stand.)

The 'deer season' dish towel was hung on the upper oven door in late November.  Because, well, I do like to keep the towel that hangs there in theme with the seasons of the year. I'm not super into decorating, but I do have some girlish tendencies.  Full disclosure: this towel is about 10 years old, so probably no longer fashionable to any woman but me.  I guess I'm assuming any woman but me did ever think it was fashionable. Ha.

DH tagged out of bucks during bow season.  He did go buy an antlerless tag, but was in no hurry to use it during November.  So he was mostly a fair weather hunter, and mostly watching more than aiming at anything.  Which is why he was unusually interested in volunteering to bring in horses for dinner feed so that I could get a full evening hunt in. 

He was also gone for 10 days in late November to do some elk hunting in Colorado (which was a bust).  Which meant all of those evenings I had to choose to a) skip hunting or b) do an abbreviated evening hunt because *I* had to bring horses in for their dinner on time.  He's only so saintly, but he is getting better at it than he used to be, LOL.

I saw lots and lots of does and this year's fawns, but as the only one in this household still in possession of a tag that can be used on a buck, I was not going to shoot a doe in November either. There's a whole ton of antlerless hunting coming up in December and January. I did see several smallish bucks: small 6 point, a couple of 4 points, a spikehorn and a few button bucks.  Because there are so many bigger deer in our area (and because there's two 8-points in the freezer all ready), I try to never shoot any buck smaller than a six-point, so I did not do more than watch those little guys.  

While DH was a fair weather hunter when he was home, I sat in both super windy weather and sleety/ice pellet weather, not just the calm sunny days.  We did have a lot more calm sunny days than usual, and I think I went out for a total of 12 hunts.  Which is about three times as many as I did the year before.  If I hadn't been the only one home and having to deal with the internet situation and meeting technicians when they came to (not) fix things, I would have made it to the tree stand about five more times.  Oh well.

I did not get many deer photos, mostly of this button buck that wanted to be my buddy (or, rather, was clueless I existed in that great big tree) on a Sunday morning.  He hung around for well over an hour, first searching in the oak leaves for acorns to eat, then going and bedding down about 15 yards from me for a snooze.

naptime

Every year I pack a book to read during slow times in the woods.  This year I read Silas Marner.  Partly chosen because of it's slim, easy to carry size.  Partly because its a classic I had yet to read.  And partly because the colors of the cover blend in with the camouflage I wore, LOL. As a review of the book itself, I found it a little slow in the beginning, but all that made sense as necessary info about a quarter of the way in, and I was quite interested in seeing how the story turned out after that.  It's been a few years since I've read anything that is considered classic literature, and this was a nice docile break from modern fiction.  Zero swear words!  All conversations, even hostile ones, were worded so politely.  Why can't we speak that way these days??

Anyway, November wrapped up without filling my deer tag.  However, in my area of the state this year I can again go out with my shotgun during what would normally be muzzleloading season.  So I am planning on seeing if I can get a buck then.  If not, there will be late antlerless hunting until about the middle of January, so there's still the possibility of getting a doe before deer season comes to an end.
 

Oh, one last thought in relation to November's deer hunting.  This year I observed something that made me think squirrels must be made of rubber.  Or, like cats, they have nine lives.  One morning, I was watching a couple of does coming in toward my tree when out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a short chunky limb fall out of a tree near one of the deer. Only, when it hit the ground it broke apart and was actually two squirrels, not a piece of wood at all!  They hit the (well padded with fallen leaves) ground, let go of each other, and scampered away as if falling 10+ feet to earth was no big deal and didn't hurt a bit. Hmm. Rubber squirrels. . . 

Let There Be Light! And Heat!

Back in early November, DH wrapped up two projects that make my barn so much nicer to use.

First, he installed nice bright LED lights in the hayloft.  The picture below doesn't look like much, but trust me, it makes a huge difference when I'm up there retrieving hay to restock the feed room with. 

And, as an added bonus, I discovered--now that we have dark mornings at feeding time--because of the way my barn is built, I can turn on the hayloft lights, turn off the aisle lights, and the horses have nice ambient lighting to eat their breakfast with (and hang out until turnout time).  Previous to having lights in the hayloft I had to either plunge the horses back into the dark again when I turn off the aisle lights (because I go back to the house and eat my own breakfast after they are fed), or leave the aisle lights on (which is way brighter than they need.)  Now I can just flip the switch for the hayloft and there's 2 lights making a nice glow--and using less electricity than the 5 aisle lights do.

Hooray for lights in the hayloft!

 

Second, he installed the heat exchanger (purchased this summer at an auction) in the tack room.  The heat exchanger takes the hot water from the outdoor wood boiler and heats the air like an old fashioned radiator.  

Once he had that all hooked up, he built a nice little box around it to both protect it and to make it work more efficiently--incorporating a cold air return area near the bottom of one side.  The box is composed entirely of scrap lumber: 2x4s, and leftover pieces of pine paneling from doing the tack room walls, plus has a lid made from a piece of plywood left from covering the feed room wall.  Which means the whole box was free free free!

The 'guts' of the tack room heat system.

The fancy box enclosing the guts;

I do still need to stain a few of the boards and the lid.

Note cold air return cutout on bottom of short side.

Now that it's below freezing outside at night, it's really awesome to have a heated tack room that keeps my pipes warm.  Not to mention making it a great place to thaw water buckets and the chicken waterer from the coop.  Confession: I did sort of nag him a little bit to get it done, saying I was not going to haul water buckets from the barn to the basement twice daily this winter like I did last winter (because I wasn't supposed to have to; a heated tack room had been the plan since 2007 when we installed our outdoor wood boiler. . . )

Plus, since the tack room now has heat, I don't have to worry about relocating any liquid or otherwise 'can't be frozen' horse products to the basement for the winter.  It's so nice to just have everything that belongs in the tack room stay in the tack room where I can easily grab it when needed.

And, let me tell you, the horses sure appreciate having warmish bits put into their mouths instead of cold hard steel the same temperature as the great outdoors.

Hooray for heat in the tack room!

I'm Back Online, and Better Than Ever!

 At least, my wireless internet is better than ever; can't make any promises about the blog contents, LOL.

After several weeks of worsening Wi-Fi service, which turned into zero Wi-Fi service, several service calls by the internet company to this little place here to replace Wi-Fi related parts, several calls to the internet company to have them reboot us on their end and three (yes, three!) employees of our then internet service provider pretty much telling us to switch home internet providers (what?!?  Yes, true story, they did) DH finally looked around for other options.  Up until the day before we switched, he had been adamant that we paid them for our internet service, we'd been reliable customers for 16 years, and they must fix whatever the problem was with our internet to make it work.

I don't know why it sometimes takes him so long to admit/realize that sometimes you can't just persist in insisting something works (or will be fixed) when obviously that's not happening.  But, long story short, he finally listened to these statements made by the three different employees of the internet service company:

1. While they were one of the first wireless companies in our area and were awesome for about 13 of the 16 years we've been a customer, wireless is becoming archaic (compared to fiberoptic and satellite).
2. Their company is phasing out wireless and investing in fiberoptic infrastructure.  Unfortunately fiberoptic is not available at our address yet.  Maybe next year.  Maybe.
3. They are maintaining existing wireless equipment but not replacing any worn out parts with newly manufactured parts, only used parts they have in stock from removing them from service in different areas that have switched from wireless to fiberoptic.
4. They really really recommend checking with one of the cell phone providers in our area and getting a home internet package from one of those companies because it will be better service and a whole lot faster service than what their company will be able to provide until fiberoptic comes through our rural neighborhood.

And he finally decided we should look into the home internet via cell phone company.  And when we did look into that we found that 

1. The cell phone company we have used for 25+ years does offer wireless home internet to this little place here.  Not the whole bells and whistles kind that you can get in the city, but a scaled down version that works out here in BFE (ha ha, Gen X joke, IYKYK) the boonies and is still tons faster than what the 'old' internet company offers.
2. If we have home internet and cell phones through our cell phone company we get a monthly discount on each phone line and on the internet service.
3. If we sign up for autopay (which I've always shied away from, I'm a trust no-one into my bank account kind of person) we also get another monthly discount on each phone line and on the internet service.

Which, when we totaled up what we for years have paid for two cell phones through the cell phone company, plus what we had paid for years to the internet company, and compared it to what the combined bill would be if we switched our internet to the phone company and signed up for autopay, we had been paying $30 more per month than necessary.  And that was the trigger which caused DH to stop badgering the internet company and instead pay a visit to the nearest storefront of the cell phone company and get us signed up for cell phone company home internet (and autopay)!

We are now happily back online, getting caught up on all the things we couldn't do during our week(s) of crappy to nonexistent Wi-Fi at home.  The 'new' wireless internet is so amazingly faster it's kind of sad how long we suffered through with the old service (it's been getting slower and less reliable for a few years now, but wasn't until Nov 9th that it became pretty much not even there most of the time).  I mean, it's such a night and day difference in speed.  Kind a like going from dial up to wireless back in 2009.  Things now load in less than the time it takes me to blink.

Oh, and another bonus to switching: DH took advantage of an early Black Friday offer from the cell phone company and upgraded our cell phone plan to unlimited data with a 3-year price lock guarantee AND a free new phone for each line.  All still in that $30 per month savings which was the catalyst for him to agree to change internet providers.  So I get to pick out a free new phone for myself in a few months when my existing phone is finally 'paid off'--back when I got it there was a promo that I would get charged monthly to 'purchase' that phone but each month that purchase price was credited back so as long as I don't replace it before the requisite number of months to 'pay it off' my current phone was free to purchase.

Bonus #2 (or is it 3?): when DH called the long time internet provider and cancelled our service, he requested a refund prorated from when the Wi-Fi first died on Nov. 9th.  Due to all the notes on our account between Nov. 9th and Nov. 22nd and the multiple service calls, the company gave us a full refund for the entire month of November not just the 9th forward.

Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #5

 This one I actually have been using since the spring, but I'm sharing it now because, with winter weather approaching and temps going below freezing at night, this time of year we're entering (winter)  is the real reason I bought it.  It's smaller and way easier to deal with attaching and detaching to/from the water faucet/hydrant and carrying in and out of the tack room where it will live at night to keep from freezing.

I present to you, the Green Anaconda!  Also known as a flexible garden hose.  Mine just happens to be a bright lime green and so I dubbed it the Green Anaconda after the snake. It does move around as it expands and contracts, which really gives off snake vibes.

(picture from September, before faucet area got it's waterproof green coating)

A farm I had worked at most recently before 'retiring' to open my own horse boarding business had a flexible hose like this (theirs was black) that was used to attach to the hundreds of feet of hose on the reel in order to stretch and reach some of the pasture tanks they had.  It was lightweight, and, when not in use, crinkled up wadded up got small enough to easily toss into a milk crate with the scrub brush used for cleaning the water troughs.  After dealing with cold hoses on portable hose reels last winter, and remembering what a pain hoses and hose reels are during a Michigan winter, I thought maybe a flexible hose was just the ticket for my farm at this little place here for future winters.

The one I bought expands to 50', which, being as my barn is 48' long, is perfect for reaching from the water faucets to the water buckets in all six stalls. When the water is off, the Green Anaconda quickly shrinks back down to less than 10' (I've never tried measuring it 'empty', so that's a guesstimate) and I can coil it up into an 8 qt pail for carrying into the tack room on cold nights.

Finished Socks!

(Hey, guess what, my internet is currently working!  Hopefully I can get this post published before it craps out goes off again.)

 I finished my 2025 socks!  That's what I'm calling them since they are the only pair of socks I have knit this year.  A fact that, to be honest, bothers me, as I love knitting socks and used to knit 3-4 pair in a year easily.  Why just one pair this year?  That is something I need to research (aka think back to what used up my knitting time) and find out so that I can fix it for 2026.  Used to be socks on my knitting needles all the time, one pair after another, even if I was also knitting a different project on larger needles from time to time.

Finished socks

Socks, in my mind, photograph better on feet than laid out on their own, so here's a photo with much more 'lifelike' representation.

And one with my pantlegs pulled up, so you can see the socks in their entirety.  Why one of my legs looks orangey, I can only blame on the camera and lighting.  They are both the same color, the color of the left leg.

It's On, Now It's Not, Now It Is??

 Last Wednesday I posted here and mentioned that our internet had been out Sunday through Wednesday morning.  Wednesday it was back on.  Until it wasn't.  We discovered around 8 p.m. that it was again not working.

Thursday, not working.  DH went and worked on-site in-office that day.  I tried not to fuss about lack of internet at home, really there were many non-tech things I needed to get done and it was easier to be productive without the internet.  Although it meant not doing some of the computer-related things on my to-do list for that day, like print out our proof of insurance certificates for all our vehicles.  Our policy renews every six months, and mid-November is one of the renewal times.

Friday, DH called the internet company, they 'rebooted our antenna from their end' (we'd all ready tried rebooting it from our end Thursday and again Friday morning with no success) and about five minutes later we had internet.  That lasted I think about seven hours.

Saturday, the internet was intermittent, mostly non-working.  Sunday same story.  Another phone call, another reboot from the company.  Internet back working again briefly (like a couple of hours).

Today (Monday), it just wasn't working at all.  I tried rebooting on my end this morning, but put off calling the company since I really needed to get outdoor chores done as well as run a couple of errands.  At lunchtime, I tried again.  Nada.  Back outside to do more stuff in the decent weather, and when I came in around 3:00 to get ready to go hunting, viola!  We have internet!  Not sure what the story is, but I didn't need to call, it just magically started working again all by itself.

I hurriedly made a couple online payments that were due, and printed off those Proof of Insurances (the old ones expire tonight at 11:59 p.m.!!)

After I get caught up on time sensitive internet related things, hopefully the internet will still be working at this little place here and I can get more blog posts put together with more interesting topics than whether or not my internet is connecting.

First Snow

 On Sunday, we woke up to the first snow of the year,  As first snows go around this little place here, this was a 'heavy' one: it coated the ground.  A lot of first snows are flurries that you can see in the air but they melt on contact.

These pictures I took on my way out to the barn to turnout horses before going to church that morning.  It turned out to be a cold and cloudy day that didn't get much brighter but also didn't really give us any additional snow.

It also didn't give us any internet.  Before church, we discovered our wifi wasn't working.  After church, it still wasn't working and DH went through all the steps to investigate why: reboot the router, and when that didn't work, reboot the antenna.  He used to also plug the laptop directly into an ethernet cable as a test, but apparently neither our current laptop (2? years old) and his work laptop have ports for that anymore??

Neither reboot made the internet accessible.  On Monday morning, he did the same thing as we were still without internet.  Still no internet after this round of rebooting. 

The weather was a little warmer and the clouds thinner and the snow melting.  Which made us pretty sure our antenna wasn't iced up.  

(It's located way up on the roof on the backside--the basically three story high side of our 2-story with walkout basement house--and he wasn't about to haul out the extension ladder and climb up in the cold/slightly snowy weather to check, but he was 99.9% sure it was clear of ice/snow since it faces south.)

So he called the service provider.  Who said they didn't see any problems with our service from their end and could send a technician on Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday morning was warmer and everything left from Sunday was melting.  There was constant dripping of water off the barn and shop eaves even before dawn.  Still no internet, but the technician did call right at 9 a.m. to say he could come immediately as 'their other client in our area was unavailable this morning and we were next on their list'.  Hooray!

He checked everything: our router, our antenna and whatever else there is that a technician can check that a homeowner can't (I'm guessing an ethernet cable and a device to plug into it, ha ha).  He came to the conclusion that we really weren't getting a signal from the tower that serves us (6+ miles away in the village).  Then he says that there are 'several other customers in our area having the same issue' and that a different technician has been sent to the tower to do diagnostics on that.  He leaves, to go assist the other technician, saying that he will be back later that day to further do diagnostics here once the tower is looked at.

Flash forward six hours. . . the technician doesn't return, but does call DH to say the tower has iced over and 'they' are working on thawing it, that is believed to be the issue, and we'll hear more from him once that is resolved.  Spoiler alert: we don't hear back.  And our internet doesn't come back on, no matter how many times we check all the way until we head to bed that night.

This morning, first thing I do is check the internet; it's habit to check the weather/radar every morning before I go out to feed the horses.  If the weather is going to be icky at turnout time, I want to know before I feed them as it affects whether or not they will be going out on time or  late and therefore will need more water that normal in their buckets with breakfast.

Can you guess what I found?  Yep, no internet.  GRRR.  So, like the last three days, I used mobile data to check the weather (we have a very low mobile data plan as that just lots of mobile data consumption isn't how we use our phones typically.  If I go over on mobile data this billing period I'm not going to be happy. . .)

BUT, half hour after I got back in the house from feeding, when DH checked to see if we had internet, it was back on!  YAY!  

Did we ever hear back from the technician or the company that provides us with internet service?  That's a big N-O.  It is nice to be back online (and catching up on the things I needed to do earlier this week online), but we will definitely be watching our next bill to see if we are credited 3 days (doesn't sound like much, but that's 10% of the billing period) of not having service.

And wondering what our next real snow will bring.

(For those wondering why we don't look into other internet service providers, we have.  For years.  And more and more often in the last five years.  But out where we live, there's a small number of options for internet.  Cable/fiber optic does not exist.  And cell phone service isn't consistently great so we're absolutely not going with internet via a cell phone company.  Which pretty much gives us the company we have, or trying our luck with a satellite internet service provider --lots more $$$, different equipment that has to be put on/in our home and from what we've heard from some in our area who have gone that route, not consistently spectacularly better service for the cost).

Wheelbarrow Repair

Back in 2014, DH and I had a wheelbarrow that was about 20 years old, had been in rough shape when we'd gotten it, and it was definitely on it's last legs. I wanted to replace the wheelbarrow with a two-wheeled kind; I had just recently been introduced to 2-wheeled wheelbarrows at the horse farm I began working at late in the year that Fall and loved how easy they were to balance and steer.  

As fate would have it, Mother-in-Law gave us a 'regular' (one-wheeled) wheelbarrow for that Christmas.  In all fairness, it was and still is a decent large heavy duty wheelbarrow.  But it wasn't a two-wheeled one like I'd wanted to replace our old one with, and I knew it would be years and years before I could justify buying a different one.

(Why didn't we just return the one she'd bought us and exchange it--plus some cash--for the one I'd wanted?  Because, like a lot of gifts she gives, she had written Merry Christmas DH and Kris!! on it in magic marker.  Definitely not returnable merchandise.)

So, now-- in October 2025--when my wheelbarrow failed to do it's duty of hauling manure from the horse barn to the manure pile, I briefly hoped that this was going to be the year I could justify buying a two-wheeled wheelbarrow!  (Ironically the magic marker words had worn off/faded away years ago.)

dead wheelbarrow

But finances--and DH (well, and my own logic)--overruled this month.

Because, when my wheelbarrow suddenly became inoperable, it was only a worn out and split tire that was wrong with it.  A new tire was infinitely cheaper than a whole new wheelbarrow.  It's really hard to justify spending close to $300 for the wheelbarrow of my dreams--even if I can operate it one-handed and even the little grandkids could push it around without it getting unbalanced and dumping sideways--instead of just $20 for a tire. So I (grudgingly) agreed that we would replace the tire rather than go shopping for my dream wheelbarrow.  

resurrected wheelbarrow

*sigh*  Someday. . .

October Wrap-up

 With processing DH's latest buck, plus all the normal day to day things on my docket, I'm getting this post written up almost a week later than I'd hoped.  C'est la vie. This is a busy season.

The garden is done, as in everything harvested, for the year.  I still need to pull tomato cages, stakes, and my bean pole and get them stored in the shed for the winter.  Also need to disconnect hoses and sprinklers and likewise store those.  Hoping the weather holds long enough that DH can get the garden turned under before the Fall rains make the ground too wet for tilling.

Not the best potato year, but I'll take what I can get.  Definitely a better yield than 2024.

Also not that great for squash and pumpkins, but that was more to do with deer, raccoons, wood chucks and skunks gnawing on them as they ripened rather than low production from the plants themselves.  I'm going to have to get more aggressive with critter control in 2026.

My adherence to the walking challenge I wanted to participate in wasn't a whole lot better the second half of October than it was the first half.   Some of my walks ended up being in the dark, in the woods, walking slowly bent over with a flashlight in hand searching for blood trail.  Heart pounding, yes, but not in the calorie burning way of a steady tempo upright walk. 

Here are a few pictures from daytime walks:

We've had some hard frosts, which have taken out all my flowers with the exception of the very hardy chrysanthemums.  I managed to save the last of the dahlia blossoms and bring it into the house to enjoy for a few days before it, too, faded away.  Now I need to get the tubers dug up and in storage.

I used my biggest pumpkin from this year's garden as my jack o lantern pumpkin for Halloween.  It was still quite green when I harvested it a few weeks prior, and was not quite orange when I carved it on the 30th.  

Didn't really matter once the sun went down on Halloween and I had a candle lit inside of it.  Looked 'regular' then.  LOL.

When I carved it, I saved the pieces cut from the eyes, nose and mouth.  Those I peeled, diced, steamed until tender, then pureed.  It came to exactly one cup of pumpkin puree, and I used that to make a batch of a dozen pumpkin muffins for breakfast (DH cooked venison tenderloin in sauteed onions to go with our muffins that day).  Six were 'plain' for DH, and six I added mini chocolate chips to for myself.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of them until after breakfast, which is why there's only seven muffins shown.

Here is my recipe, adapted long ago from a Betty Crocker zucchini muffin recipe and then reduced to yield only a dozen muffins rather than 24 since DH and I definitely do not need to eat two dozen muffins between us!  (I used to make 24 muffins when the kids were little and all still living at home.)

Pumpkin Muffins
1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup veggie oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 12 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

(You can also add 1/2 cup chopped nuts and/or 1/2 cup chocolate chips/mini chocolate chips if you have them on hand and your family likes them.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 12 muffin cups. 

Mix pumpkin, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl.  Stir in the remaining ingredients until just moistened, you don't want to over stir or your muffins won't have those nice domed tops. 

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until tops are light brown and spring back when touched lightly.

Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack, then remove muffins from pan and serve.

More Bow Hunting Success

 Warning!  Hunting related photos ahead.  Stop reading now if you are squeamish or don't want to see a dead deer.

For the first time ever, DH has harvested two bucks during bow season! And they were taken exactly two weeks apart.  Both on Wednesday evenings. (Confession: I'm a long time Survivor watcher and while I willingly tracked and helped get these deer in from the woods, field dressed, and hung in the shop, I wasn't super thrilled to miss two episodes of Survivor!)

This second buck is also an 8-point.  Unlike the first buck, he did not leave an easily followed blood trail.  For a tense fifteen minutes, both DH and I wondered if this one was actually fatally wounded and if so, would we be able to find him?  But then, suddenly, the blood spots started appearing in the leaves on the ground (more than 20 yards from the spot he'd been standing when DH shot him with the crossbow), and the trail went from a drop here and there to several spatters to a very thick unable to miss trail.  

Phew!  Stress levels instantly lowered!

This buck was quite a bit deeper into the woods than the one two weeks prior, so rather than DH and I using our own muscle power to drag him to the woods road where we could load him into the tractor bucket for transport, we made use of the 4-wheeler.  

DH carefully maneuvered between trees to get to the deer, and we tied a rope around its antlers and then to the ball in the hitch behind the 4-wheeler. After that it was careful driving, dragging the buck behind, between standing trees and over smallish logs on the ground (me walking behind and lifting the deer's head when necessary to not get him snagged up on a downed tree). 

This second buck seemed larger than the first one, but you know, sometimes your memory is off, so we weren't sure if it was actually all the much bigger until we got it dressed and to the shop where we hung it from the game scale.

He most definitely was bigger!  In fact, he's the biggest whitetail DH has ever gotten!  This one weighed in at over 159 pounds (the first one was 140 lbs) and has a rack that is 3.5" wider than the other 8-point's rack.  

We definitely won't be hurting for lean red meat in our diet this winter!

Woo Hoo, I Got a Pullet Egg!

 It's so exciting to see this first itty bitty egg in the nest box each Fall.  It means that this year's chicks are now old enough to begin laying eggs.  And if they start laying eggs in the Fall, that typically guarantees somebody (i.e. the youngest hens) will lay me fresh eggs during the winter when the older gals are likely to take a break in productivity.

When a young hen (pullet) first starts laying, her eggs are undersized.  Within a few weeks, as things get fully geared up internally, they reach the normal size for her breed/type. 

But for now, I'm loving seeing the bitty eggs in the nest box daily.

A Near Miss. . . Or New Idea?

 My brain's been kinda foggy the last day or so, but, as per usual, I'm pushing on.  Most everything on my daily to do list has been of the routine done it a hundred (or million) times variety, so running on auto pilot has worked out pretty well.

Although in making my most recent batch of granola, the brain fog/auto pilot combo created what could have been a very interesting--or yucky--taste combo had I not realized at the very last minute that the spice jar in my hand that I was about to measure into the pan for granola 'seasoning' was not cinnamon, but cumin!

Whew!  Glad I caught that before I put nearly a whole teaspoonful into the pan that already held veggie oil, honey, water and brown sugar.  Removing the cumin would have been impossible--without dumping out all the other ingredients and starting new--if my brain hadn't actually kicked in and said "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? THAT'S NOT CINNAMON!!!!"

(Yes, literally, in bold face and all caps, that's what my brain said.)

I quickly set down the jar of cumin and grabbed the jar of cinnamon from the lazy Susan where they reside very close together since I keep my spices in container-size and alphabetical order (post on that here).  I measured the cinnamon and added it to the pan of granola 'wet' ingredients.  Making granola proceeded without tragic incident.

Although that did get me to thinking that with a little tweaking (like, definitely leave out the shredded coconut and probably the brown sugar and vanilla too), a batch of granola with a bit of cumin in it could be an interesting flavor profile.  Not your typical breakfast granola, but maybe not icky either.  I might have to think on this concept for a bit and maybe do some tinkering with my recipe and try out a (very) downsized batch of granola containing cumin.  In the name of scientific research.

I mean, some people love breakfast burritos (not me, my taste buds do not like eggs and tortilla together), so why couldn't a savory cumin flavored granola be a thing?

regular granola, thank goodness!

Quilt Show 2025.

On the 11th, I went to a quilt show hosted by a nearby quilt guild that was being put on at the local fairgrounds.  This is the same guild that put on the quilt show DD1, Faline and I went to in 2023 that I blogged about here.  Apparently they have a show every two years, so I have all ready penciled the next show into my calendar for 2027.  I really love looking at all the quilts, getting inspiration, and sometimes just standing in awe of the talent of other quilters.

 I wish the camera on my phone had done more justice to these quilts.  In person, they were all amazing.  In the photos, even in some of the close ups, the colors aren't true and the quilting itself is difficult to see.  This is only a small sampling of what was on display; I quickly figured out I should just take pictures of the ones that meant something to me, in one way or another.  Maybe it was just the wow factor of that particular quilt.  Maybe it sparked an idea in me of a pattern I might make myself. 

Or, like this penguin quilt, it was because I all ready own the pattern and had been intending (for two years now) to make it as a gift to DD1 and I wanted to judge her reaction to the pattern by sending her a picture.  If her reaction was 'meh', I definitely didn't need to worry about making a similar one with her as the intended recipient.

Her reaction (like mine) was "Cute!  But I'd do different colors.  Those are too washed out."

So, I know I'm on the right track with that particular quilt idea and, like I suspected, if I sew one for her it needs to be more eye catching and not so mellow in the tones used.

It was neat to see this Jacob's Ladder, as I made a throw sized quilt several years ago using Jacob's Ladder blocks from a swap I'd been involved in back in 2013ish.  I know how to put this block together, and it would be a fairly quick and easy one to make again in the future.  Why I took a picture of this particular one is because the quilter who made it made a small modification in one upper and one lower corner of each block which gives it a slightly different look when all the blocks are assembled into a top.  I wanted to remember--and probably copy--this easy modification for my potential future Jacob's Ladder quilt.

Two diagonal corners have a small triangle in the corner rather than being a small four-patch in all four corners.  I like this modification.  I think, on a two color quilt especially, it makes a new design appear in the quilt as a whole.

I don't think the pattern name of this quilt was listed, but it's definitely using Lori Holt fabrics.  I'm guessing it also uses blocks designed by Lori Holt.

This Strawberry Quilt caught my eye.  I doubt I would ever duplicate it, but I did think it was an interesting way to use up red and pink scraps if you're into making seasonally themed quilts (so far, I'm not that person.  At least not on the order of something large enough to put on a bed, LOL).

This sea turtle quilt falls into the WOW Just WOW category!  It was all foundation paper pieced and had absolutely the most invisible and beautifully done seams.  I must have spent at least ten minutes just examining it and basking in it's perfect presence.  This is art.  I am a utilitarian quilter and probably always will be.  But I surely do appreciate art when I see it.

These next two quilts also probably fall into the art quilt category.  Although they both had me scratching my head and going "why????"  I mean, as a challenge to see if you can, ok I can understand that.  But as something you're going to decorate with???  (And spend a bunch of time and money creating?) I guess these two quilters and I have vastly different tastes.  (Although I understood the LOTR reference on sight.)

This small rooster quilt (wall hanging?) also had me doing a WOW and up close examination.  Such tiny pieces of fabric.  Honestly, I'm not convinced they are sewn together (foundation piecing) versus 'glued on' as I call it with some sort of fusible bond.  Either way, they definitely took a lot of time to cut out and construct into this art style quilt.

This next quilt, a shoo fly, I took a picture of to remind me of another quick, easy, and familiar block I could make into a future quilt.  Not sure I'd do the wide border like this quilter did, but I do like the scrappy sashing and the gold/yellow cornerstones that add a pop of bright color. 

Then there was this wolf quilt.  Sized for a queen (or maybe even king) sized bed, it was amazing.  Not just in the fabrics used and how they made the wolf's head come to life, but also in the heavy quilting that added so much depth and texture.  Definitely another stand-in-awe quilt in my book.

close up to show the quilting

Another quilt that I admired the 'life' the quilting added was this one with maple leaves in the centers of the blocks.  From a distance, it was just kinda ho-hum to me.  Definitely bright, but nothing exceptional. I felt that the batik fabrics of the leaves on the black backgrounds were kind of muddied rather than eye catching.  But then I looked closer and noticed the veining on the leaves.  This boosted the quilt in my opinion.

There were several appliqued quilts.  This one was a favorite of mine.  I've done a little applique, but I doubt I will ever do something on the scale of this pretty quilt. Everything you see was applique. Everything.

Close up of a portion of the large circle in the quilt.  

Can you imagine having the patience and talent to do this?

This Cathedral Window quilt caught my eye for a couple of reasons. 

1. it's Cathedral Window, a pattern which I first became aware of about 15 years ago and said "I love it, but it's way too hard for me to ever dream of doing".

2. it's made with recycled denim jeans.  As a person who has made several jean quilts, I loved the idea of doing something other than repeating denim squares or rectangles to make a quilt with old jeans.  (Side note, I have two more jean quilts to make with squares before I give up making that kind; one for DS1 and Surprise, and one for DD2 should she ever get married and have need of a king sized quilt).

Upon examining this quilt close up, I could see how it was made and that it really wasn't as hard a pattern as I'd always thought.  Or maybe my skills have improved in 15 years.  I could totally make a Cathedral Window quilt!  And not only could I use old jeans, but I could use a ton of scrap fabrics, like this one does and make it an I Spy quilt at the same time!

Another scrappy inspiration is this Postage Stamp quilt.  It is also another pattern I've been aware of, but never seen in person.  Oh my goodness, the time it must have taken to cut and sew all those little (1.5") squares together!  But, again, I could totally do that!

This pattern I can't remember the name of, but I know I saw it back in 2020 during our surreal lives of the Covid shutdown/stay home orders.  It would be a great scrap buster, and not difficult to piece. Given the repeating nature of the houses and that they are done in rows, I think it could be easily adjusted to be pretty much any size from wheelchair lap sized to wall hanging to any size of bed you'd want to make it for.

Here is a spin off of the bookshelf quilt idea (there were a few bookshelf quilts on display, all neat in their personalization).  I like the take on this, it's a great throw quilt idea for a reader, librarian, bookseller, writer, etc.

As someone who has lived in Michigan all her life, I can see myself making this quilt someday.  I love the blues, but can also see using blues for the background (lakes?) only and doing shades of green or greenish brown/tan for the land mass.  

In general, I'm kind of tired of all the rainbow toned quilts in recent years (nothing political or condemning any identities, I just have burned out on all the many, many, many quilt patterns for sale that use rainbow color schemes) but I could see myself doing something like this one. It's kind of a string quilt, kind of a log cabin quilt, and I think the white sashing plus the on point setting makes it more soothing and calming and therefore appealing to me.  It's pretty, not in-your-face.

There were at least a half-dozen quilts that featured embroidery.  Here are two that I really liked. The first one has identical large blocks all done in embroidery with narrow solid sashing in between and very basic crosshatch (or diamond) quilting.  It's beautiful in it's simplicity. 

The second one had both piecework and embroidery, and each block also had a quote in the center. Plus the quilting was very ornate and made the 'blank' white spaces pop just as much as the bright fabric pieces and the deeply toned embroidery threads.  It was not only eye catching, but thought provoking as I read the handstitched quotations.

This last quilt that I took a photo of is a color scheme that either of my daughters would love.  I like it too.  It's nearly impossible to see (hopefully you can zoom in on the picture on your screen), but there is a ton of quilting in the white spaces.  The colored pieces are also quilted, but in person, to me, it's the quilting in the white space that make this one shine.

I really enjoyed the time spent at the quilt show.  It didn't cost a ton for admission, only $10, and if you printed out and colored in the quilt guild's logo you got a dollar off your admission fee.  Of course I did that, LOL.  And then, once you paid your entrance fee of $9 or $10, you were given a ticket that you then turned in for a chance to draw a slip of paper that either said WINNER or SORRY.  Winners received a tote bag with some goodies in it (I'm not sure what, as I wasn't a winner, LOL), and SORRY got you a free fat quarter of your choosing.  Since fat quarters are at least $3 these days, I'm deducting that $3 from my admission fee and saying it only cost me $6 to go to the quilt show.  

There were lots of items you could bid on in a silent auction (I bid on a neat hand painted thread box, but apparently was not the high bidder), about 10 quilts of varying designs and sizes you could buy raffle tickets for (drawing in December, so I don't know yet if I'm a lucky winner there), and a shopping area with fabrics, patterns, notions, and handmade crafts of various kinds.

I will definitely be back in 2027 when the quilt show comes again.