Wild Oats - I mean Carrots...

We came acroos this big shoot of Queen Anne's Lace in the field behind our house and I was explaining to the Man-Cub that you can eat the roots of these wild carrots...

...so of course he wanted to...

...we chopped it off and cleaned it up and ate a bite of the carrot flavored WOOD! - haha - we'll have to find another one in the spring when they are young and tender - I bet they're more difficult to find then as they won't have their big white flowers on top...

Tournesol

One of the Sunflowers we grew in the garden this year - I love the French name for them Tournesol - for the fact that they turn to the sun - you can watch ours move from East to straight up to West every day - amazing...

They're for the birds...

Souvenirs

We try to encourage the Man-Cub to buy meaningful (and small if possible) souvenirs. Sometimes this is difficult - especially when his friends are running around with giant blow up Sponge-Bob's. Most of the kids on the trip wasted all of their money on junk - mostly candy.
The Man-Cub bought a lovely little oil lamp - it's only about 4 inches tall.
It works and it's so pretty - It will remind us of our trip for years to come.

Sunday School

When I was growing up we had Sunday School year 'round - but up here Sunday School follows the school year - so we've just gotten started back to Sunday School...

I made a batch of 'flesh toned' playdough for my 3rd and 4th grade class to 'create' with...
Our first lesson was the Creation Story of course...

It was really easy:

Traditional Play Dough

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup salt
food coloring - I used one drop of red and three of yellow

Mix all ingredients, adding food coloring last. Stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove from pan and knead until blended smooth. Place in plastic bag or airtight container when cooled. Will last for a long time.

Threshin'

The fifth graders went on a field trip to New Rockford's Threshing Bee - I chaperoned and was given a group of 5 - including the Man-Cub - we had a great time.
They visited an old one room school house.
They played in the old Post Office.
The climbed on wagons full of wheat.
They played with toy trains.
They watched a steam powered sawmill.
And the highlight of the day was potato pickin'.
An old 8N tractor like the one we used to have in Balsam Grove.
Pulled a gadget that scooped the potatoes out of the ground.
Cleaned them off and dumped them out on top of the ground.
Very ingenious.
There was a mad dash to pick up the potatoes left by the machine.

The Man-Cub picks up a few stragglers.
Then lugs his haul back to the bus - they get to keep all of the potatoes they find - the Man-Cub filled two grocery bags.
The Threshing Machines.
A coal burning tractor.
Throwing the wheat into the thresher.
Steam tractors - it looks like they're about to take off in a race - but really they're getting ready for a parade.
Click on the picture to read the sign - this generator supplied electricity to an entire town until 1948.
Some farm toys - the little tractor is pretty impressive.
Washing clothes the old fashioned way.
Watch your fingers in the wringer.
A tub washer - the agitator was on top - not sure how effective that was.
The potato loot - there must be over 20 lbs of potatoes here.
It was a great day.

Handbag Contest

I get extra points if I post about the contest on my blog:

Jennifer at FullOfStitches.com http://fullofstitches.com/blog/tipped me off that HandBagPlanet.com http://www.handbagplanet.com/ was giving away 24 bags in 24 hours - so go register now.

The end of the garden

OK - this really is the end of the garden - this is the last harvest for this year...

It was a good year - I'm always amazed at how much we get out of the garden from the little bit we put into it - Our tomatoes did really well this year - no blight or blossom end rot - our beets were awesome - big and sweet - and sadly I had to buy organic lettuce for the first time in over 3 months...

The Appalachian Afghan

I'm knitting another (few) school afghans and I realized that I never posted about this one - you can read about Robert's NC State Afghan here http://affectioknit.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post.html

All I did was substitute gold for the red and cream for the white on the original afghan. I'm a little over half way done with this one - the last cream square on the left will be embroidered with the App logo and I'll go ahead and do that before I knit any more - that way I'll have an open side to work from instead of all the bulk of the rest of the afghan between me and that square.

Rhubarb Crisp

We made the yummy Rhubarb Crisp last night - it was so good that we then had it for breakfast this morning.

Ellie's right - you will need to add some sugar to the fruit - we made the full recipe and added about 1/3 cup.

Here's the recipe from my old Betty Crocker book...

I was surprised that Rhubarb is not listed with the other options at the bottom of the recipe...

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 19:1


We get some pretty spectacular Rainbows up here where you can see both pots of gold...

Happy Birthday Mom

I hope you got your little pressies...

Hibiscus-for-Hope's Day Out

I wore my Hibiscus-for-Hope socks to the library/shopping/errand-running/biking on Saturday. I wore shorts even though it was a little bit chilly for shorts - just to show them off better - mine were a perfect match for khaki shorts and a white cotton top. Someone actually said 'I love your socks' - does it get any better? So of course I said 'Thank You - I knitted them myself' - and they were appropriately amazed...

So I told her about the pattern -http://campanulaforthecure.blogspot.com/ - I don't think she knits but she could just make a donation too. I have already blogged about the pattern at my site and the Vegan Sock KAL site so now I have also emailed the link to my friend knitting friends...

Autumn Movement

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper
sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,
new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,
and the old things go, not one lasts.

Carl Sandburg

We spent a lovely early fall day at Sully's Hill.
The Man-Cub wanted to use the camera so most of these photos are his...
I showed him how to use the macro setting...
...and he tried it out on this ant...

...some asters...
... some pretty rose hips - tea anyone???
...we took our binoculars and the Man-Cub's bird log - we logged a few birds...
...more macro shots of berries - there were some yellow ones too - don't know where the picture is...
...can you see him???
... can you see him now???
...he crawled up into the sunshine with his friend...
...such an effort it was too...
...success...
...an algae filled pond - I just loved the bright green color of it...
...the Man-Cub was explaining to me the way you tell the difference between a birch and an aspen - the birch is paper white all the way down - but the aspen turns to grey at the bottom of the trunk...
... wild grapes - they smelled wonderful and reminded me of the fox grapes back home...
... viewing the...
...prairie dogs, of course...

We had requested that they build some sort of step for the young ones at the viewing sites and you can see here that they have done - the Man-Cub can now reach the viewer without being hoisted by his Mama - who can barely lift him anymore...
...a slightly crooked cloud...
...the trek up to the top of Sully's Hill...
...a little bit of rain in the distance...
...the trail back down - photos never give a good idea of the scale...

...the Man-Cub's last photo of the day...