Making Maple Syrup

I just read a letter about New Englanders readying their equipment for maple syrup season. It reminded me of long ago when we helped Monte's dad make maple syrup in Wisconsin. We didn't do it a lot cuz it's impossible to plan "vacation time" when you never know when the sap will start running.

Tho Monte's cousins have established modern ways of maple syrup making and creating businesses, Monte's dad did it the old fashioned way. He hung buckets on the trees, rather than having hoses run to holding tanks in sheds. Riding the 4-wheeler thru-out the day and night to collect full buckets AND to keep the fire stoked under the large flat boiler pan, was work. It was all done out in the open and not a shed with stove burners. He wasn't doing it for a business, just enough for the family. Emery grew up on a homestead there and maple syrup was their main sweetener, so he'd gotten a bit sick of it. But moving back to the homestead and having Grandkids (and a curious wife of his son - ME) ask about the old day experiences kinda made him want to do it again.

Did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to cook down to 1 gallon of syrup? The taste of the cold sap with a hint of maple flavor is very good and refreshing. And if you've read Laura Ingals Wilder books you'll know there's something called "sugar snow". It's an extra surge of sap run after the season is basically over - just a bit of freeze and thaw. They'd celebrate by making syrup from it and eating it over snow like a snow-cone.

I'm going to post a string of old photos from our experience.

Travis straining sap into old milk cans in the 4-wheeler

Travis and sap in milk cans on 4-wheeler

Grandpa talking to Travis

Collecting maple tree sap

Grandpa Emery and Heather riding the 4-wheeler

Me with Travis collecting sap from tapped maple trees

Monte's dad - Grandpa Emery

Heather with tree sap collecting pail

Travis by the boiling area checking on the fire

Grandpa Emery, little Dawson, and Travis boiling down the maple sap for syrup

Memories? The brisk out-of-doors with no mosquitoes, tics, or black flies; identifying tracks of animals in the mud; beaver coming out of dens on the breaking up ice ponds; wood smoke; pancakes with fresh syrup . . .

We don't have hard maples in Colorado. We still have some jars left, tho it's been years, that we're saving . . . Not sure for what . . . But it reminds us . . .


Shared with: Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday

Blender Impossible Squash Pie

Blender Impossible Squash Pie

I have this recipe in my cookbook. One day we sat down with some of our grown kids, talking thru my cookbook I wrote 20 years ago. They'd make comments like, "I hated that" or "we do this this way now". Travis's comment about this recipe was, "I never liked pumpkin pie, but this recipe helped me like it. I love this pie, and it's even good leftover cold!"

I grow winter squash. It's a great feat at my mountain altitude to get winter squash, and have an abundance of it stored in the garage. So I have to remember to keep pulling it out to bake each week. This is a recipe I often do with the leftovers. And I don't really bother measuring the squash - like I probably have more than the called for 1 cup.

Back in the day, I was using powdered milk a lot. So my book's recipe has 1 cup water and then 1/3 cup milk powder. Now I'm using raw milk and will even add in some extra cream when I've got extra. And use whatever type of flour you want - I tried almond meal this time and it worked fine. The original versions for these impossible pies used Bisquick, and I came up with this version instead. Occasionally I'll use my extra sourdough I need to be using when building up for bread-making. Use any kind of squash (excepting stringy spaghetti squash).

Blender Impossible Squash Pie

1 cup milk
1+ cup of cooked squash
4 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup honey (I'll occasionally use maple syrup)
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine all in the blender and blend. Pour into greased and floured pie dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour, or till toothpick or knife comes out clean.

Sock Earrings and other Giftings

My hand-knit sock earrings

We like most of our giftings to be handmade. Most of my friends have my sock earrings. I've posted about them before. I started knitting these years ago and every year pull out the pattern, needles and yarns and make more. I am now deplete of my stock and need to make more. Monte just gave my last ones to friends of his. Needles? They are like toothpicks, probably actually thinner! I guess I should offer to make these for anyone wanting to buy some.

Varieties I've tried knitting over the years - sticking moreso with those on the right.

Handwoven dishtowels and Handknit dishcloth.

One of my weaving looms is set up with the same colorings in this picture for dishtowels that match the dishcloths I knit (how-to here). The weave structure is set up for the very absorbant towel on the right. I'll often give a set along with my homemade soap.

This year I've made so much Healthy Cold Cereal via Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist, I'm making up a bunch to jar up with pretty cloth tops and include the recipe.

Monte's made the Grandkids homemade blocks, varying the sizes, including some tree branch pieces. These sets are quite expensive if you were to buy them. They are asking for more, and have specified the sizes they want more of. Our kids often built structures to the ceiling over and over and the grandkids are carrying on the tradition. I've added wooden train tracks and trains to my Grandmother "wood" toy bin. I like building upon quality sets, including Lego, rather than a wide variety of toys. Now that there's girls, I'll be adding some wood furniture and people and animals to this bin. Can't wait to make "handmades" with them too!

Handwoven hot pads

My kids always wove my potholders, but now I have to make my own. They have always been my favorite, preferring their size. Dawson wove so many once that he stitched together for a rug.

Every Fall I used to take the kids to a large craft store and look around for ideas they could work on for giftings. I used to read aloud to them a lot and I always liked them to be busy handcrafting or drawing. I even let them carve in the house!

One of my journals with a felted decor

We also made handmade books for giftings. I'll still occasionally do that for journaling. I used to have the kids tell me their dreams  and write them out myself when they were little. Eventually they wrote their own stories and we'd make books. I used to make my brother and sister handmade books all the time when they were little. Illustrating them too. The Grandparents still have the books they gave them.

Knitted toy for the Grandkids

I like knitting them hats and toys. I have a monkey pattern, boy and girl, along with clothes that I periodically keep adding to. Both the older grandboys have a monkey with pajamas and robe. I need to now make girl monkeys (next year) and more clothes.

Hand-dyed hat, socks, and t-shirt for kids

Men's dyed T-sh

I'm also very set up to dye stuff easily. When my kids were born I often dyed second-hand clothes in darker, brighter colors - all pastel back then, which I hated. Whenever I'm tired of something I'll redye it - like one of my bathrobes has been dyed three times. I'm always now dyeing T-shirts with matching bamboo socks for everyone. One Christmas everyone got dyed canvas aprons. Now my kids have taken off with a technique I taught them - painting or spraying over a stencil dark T-shirts with bleach (outside of coarse - and wash right away so doesn't eat the fiber). In fact, Dawson gets cheap shirts and bleaches a design and a resale shop buys them or gives him store credit. I order my dyes and dyeables from Dharma Trading Company. They have GREAT tutorials and lots of gifting ideas!

My boys with their wives showing us their bleach-dyed t-shirts

Best of all . . . A lot of these doings, meaning "think handmade" is caught moreso than taught! Dawson and Splarah kinda copied (I'll post another post with the picture of mine - it's probably back in the Dec Archives) my 'bean-bag" creche - wanting to make one for her Mom. I LOVE it!!!!!!

Nativity Scene made by my Dawson and Splarah for her mom

My next post will have some felt stuff.


Shared with: Spain In Iowa, Sustainable Eats, My Cultured Palate, Real Food Wednesday, Fat Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Traditional Tuesday, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Monday Mania, Homestead Barn Hop, Pin Meme, Or So She Says, Six Sister's Stuff

Monte's Art

Monte is writing a book - The Secret of Singing Springs. It's in the editing and formatting stage. He's just finishing up the art work. Monte's got his own unique style. Some of his techniques come from his many years of geologic mapping. I told him I'd like to post one of his pictures, so here it is ...

Elk Fighting

The book's beginnings came from treasure hunts Monte used to set up around our property for our kids and friends, utilizing orienteering skills. Now it's evolved into more of the areas surrounding us where they've played, built forts, and hiked. Some local history, including my family's history, has been included in the book now too.

He'd want me to add that our first date was us sitting on a mountainside sketching. Monte sketches more photographically real. Like on that date he only got 1/10th of a tree we now have hanging in a hand-carved frame he made. I sketched probably ten things that date.

Emery A Swan - Monte's Dad Died

This is the obituary for Monte's dad. Monte's Mom started telling the mortuary man a list of a lot of these things until we said we'd write it. So Monte did the initial writing with many of us editing, including some grandkids and his mom. A wonderful man: son, brother, uncle, friend, husband, dad, grandpa, and great-grandpa! A rich heritage is carrying on ...

Emery Swan

Emery A. Swan, 89, of Ogema, went to be with his Lord on January 15, 2010 at his home in Town of Hill. He was born Easter Sunday, April 4, 1920, on the family farm, to Oscar and Selma Swan, the sixth of 12 children. He attended Ring School in Town of Hill, and later, night school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Em loved hunting, fishing, and playing baseball with his brothers. Eventually he played as a semi-professional for the Wisconsin Valley League. In the late 1930’s, he worked in Chicago for a commercial construction company that sent him to Utah and New York on various assignments.

In March 1947, Em eloped with the love of his life, Betty Hallstrand. They bought a home on Pearson Lake where they lived for two years while Em logged with his brother. Em and Betty then moved to Shawano where they owned and operated a deli. After selling it, they relocated to Franklin, Wisconsin where Em worked as a carpenter. Eventually he became foreman and layout man for Kilps & Sons and in the 1960’s he was instrumental in helping them become Wisconsin’s largest conventional builder. Em and Betty were members of Beloit Road Baptist Church where Em was a trustee, helped with the Boy’s Brigade Club, built a kitchen, and crafted a special cedar ceiling for the new church.

Most of Em’s spare time was spent with his boys: teaching and mentoring them in the fine points of hunting and fishing, and supporting and coaching them as they pursued baseball, golf, track, cross country and basketball (attending over 500 of his sons’ basketball games). As a Little League coach he made sure all team members played and they went undefeated in a league of 14 teams.

In 1985, Em retired and he and Betty moved home to Town of Hill. They built a home on Highway C where he raised ginseng and balsam Christmas trees—winning 1^st place at the Ogema Christmas Tree Festival. This tender, kind-hearted, good-natured man had a great sense of humor. He endeared all with the expressions “ding-dong-it”, “blame-it-anyway,” and “Oh, fright”. Em was a wonderful grandfather, playing, listening, and laughing with his grandchildren. He supplied his sons with maple syrup he made the old fashioned open-air way. With his close friend Dennis Vesely, he logged and worked in the woods until September 2009.

Em and Betty loved to travel, visiting Canada, Mexico, and all lower 48 states. In the early days they traveled with their sons, and during their retirement with Em’s older brother Clifford Swan and wife Melba. On a later trip to Wyoming with Ray and Julie Ploof, Em enjoyed the surprise of Betty’s birthday party.

Em’s philosophy on life was, “I’m in God’s hands so why worry.” This wonderful outlook persisted as he coped with cancer. Never complaining, he was blessed by having no pain, which mystified his doctors.

The name Emery means “family strength… industrious, hard worker”, and this certainly described Em. He had a gift for inspiring men to create with pride, looking beyond the labor, anticipating the completed product. But Em excelled at family strength and his greatest joy was spending time with his family. They now total 50, including 20 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren (all boys), the youngest born to Travis and Sarah Swan on January 9^th named Emery Revere Swan.

For many years Em’s boys watched their father sit at the dining room table a few minutes before they left for church, and write the family’s weekly check for the Lord’s work. This action showed them in no uncertain terms where his treasures were. Em’s tangible love for Betty and the irresistible force of his sacrificial love for and belief in the boys and in God, won the sons’ hearts. Through their lives they’ve sought to honor this amazing man.

Em is survived by Betty, his wife of 62 years, his sons and daughters-in-law: Monte (Karey) Swan, Evergreen Colorado; Mike (Linda) Swan, Green Bay Wisconsin; Mark (Cindy) Swan, Gillette Wyoming; and Scott (Chris) Swan, Fennimore Wisconsin. He was preceded in death by four brothers and three sisters.

A memorial service was held January 18 at Ogema Baptist Church. Pallbears were: Danny Swan, Dennis Vesely, Gary Swan, Jim Swan, Scott Wildberg, and Steve Swan. The funeral was conducted by Pastor Rodney Price of the Ogema Baptist church. The Heindl Funeral Home assisted the Family with arrangements.

Typical Grandpa

Family & Thanksgiving Day

As I said before, we went to Travis and Sarah's place for Thanksgiving. Ft Collins, Colorado is 1 1/2 hour drive from us. Sarah's parents, John and Kerry, drove up from Texas. Her sister Annie and husband Aaron flew in from Oregon. Heather, Will, Monte and me drove up mid-day. Dawson drove up later with Splarah and her brother Phil, having had an earlier Thanksgiving meal with Splarah's family at her Grandmother's.


I've not seen Dawson's pictures yet except our family picture he posted on Facebook, so I grabbed the picture from there to post here. All the other pictures I took.


Travis first grilled/smoked the turkey and then finished baking it in the oven. Sarah's feeling quite pregnant, due in a little over a month - she's hugging the cook. Her mom and sister did most of the cooking. Because her family was here, they had a baby shower for her last weekend too, so we drove up again.


I'm posting a picture of some of us playing "Bananagrams" because of wanting to tell of the table we're on. Kerry brought the game and it was so fun that Dawson bought it and we played it here with company Saturday. It's a kind of Scrabble/Boggle game and few to lots of people can play. Aaron made Travis and Sarah their main table. We gave them this cabinet we'd gotten from my grandmother, thinking they'd really use it more than us. The front of the cabinet pulls out and leaves stored inside unfold to lay out on top creating a table as long as maybe 15 feet if needed. And the wonder of it all is it's the same width and height as the table Aaron built for them. So when there's lots of us, the couches are slid over to the dining area and the tables butted together.

Wonder Time

Woke early this morning thinking of the film clip I posted yesterday. Thinking of things it reminded me of ...

We've had guests for a couple days - an investor friend of Monte's and his son. As Don and Monte are talking, Micah's been wandering around wondering what to do. We've talked, but I don't entertain kids. I didn't entertain my kids. Sure we read together, made things together, and played games together, but I also often left them on their own to think up their own things to do, and TV and video games was never an option since we didn't have those. We didn't even have neighbor kids as an option to go play with. Micah's been having some fun, but I think it's been very different for him.

Dawson came home, first meeting us at a Thai restaurant for a supper together and then was here yesterday. Some of his friends came yesterday late afternoon to help him go get composted horse manure and shovel it into our back area for me to scatter over all my garden areas putting them to bed for winter (and I've got some bulbs to plant in my new areas for early Spring flowers). As everyone awaited the great supper I was making, Dawson and friends started playing with all the music instruments we've gathered over the years. Phil was trying to play the mandolin - very creatively successful. Dawson pulled out a flute we were given, for Splarah to try. Aaron started providing rhythm by overturning a trash bin. Monte even was trying to play the saw. I hated to tell them supper was ready! Micah saw cool guys totally uninhibited enjoying making music and hanging around the dining table with gay conversation.

The film clip reminds me of the movie "August Rush". I love that movie. An orphan boy with an austere childhood lives with hope that his parents didn't abandon him and will find him. When he escapes the orphanage I sat with pins-and-needles awaiting evil. Only Robin Williams is the character who abuses this boy's innocence and giftedness. I love his first experience of the hustling, bustling big city. He hears and feels rhythmic music in the traffic and horn honking and all. When exposed to a guitar and left alone with it, he explores it in ways no one usually does. I don't want to tell you anything more about the movie.

I don't know if my youngest brother Robby remembers - he's about ten years younger than me - we used to sit out in our front yard together. We'd sit looking at the gravel in our drive and I'd see pretty ones and I actually collected them, putting them in my jewelry box. I'd tell Robby to listen. "Tell me what you hear ...?" We'd sit that way for a long time.

Have you ever taken the time to sit and watch ants? They'll string out in a long line, some of them carrying stuff. Stuff often larger and probably heavier than themselves. How do they do that? On a crowded street there's such variety of people to watch, but do you notice plants growing in cement, rock, and asphalt cracks and stop to wonder? do you notice the variety of birds 'voices'? I've stopped to observe pigeons, wanting to know what their mannerisms and voices are like, since I'm unfamiliar with them.

The key here is taking time to notice. Maybe it would mean closing our eyes to shut out the normal and listen for the new, feel and sense stuff more, like in the film clip. Like 'be still and know that I am God' kind of time. When the disciples wanted to shove off the insignificant children, Jesus took them on his lap and told us to come to him as a child.

There's such an innocent trust in children, an abandonment in their work and play, so there in the moment, and such a sense of wonder - all pieces of worship.

Dust Quote

Monte sent me another quote that I'll post here to capture (and delete the email) and then comment.

Stop dusting, and you can use your coffee table as a message board!

I'll have to ask him where it came from, but I think I know why he sent it. It's not that my coffee table or any table is so dusty. For some miraculous reason our house doesn't create much dust (but don't look too close). I think he sent it cuz I have a quote (Sarah wrote my quote on our graffiti chalkboard wall in the bathroom) -

"Dust is Country"
- Karey Swan

Our home is a country home with a country look and feel, and dust is a part of that. Is it that we hardly have any dust? Or does the decor just not glaringly show forth dust? Or do I decorate country so I don't have to dust? What tis the question?

Family

I have pictures of my kids I want to post, but don't know what to say. Don't know what to say? That's not like me when it comes to writing ... But all I have to do is start writing and it'll flow. It is close to bedtime, but in cleaning up my computer's desktop for traveling (I take my Macbook most places with me), I've had these pictures ready to post for awhile.

Traveling? Monte and me are leaving in the morning. For years I've wanted to go to the Taos Wool Festival. We're going along with dear old friends (double meaning there: they are old friends and we are getting older!). Jim was one of Monte's roommates before we all got married, maybe his last one, before me. The last couple roommates readied that barbaric house for me, which has it's strange stories. (Some time I need to reminisce more with stories.) Marty was one of our witnesses when Monte and me eloped - good someone's around to prove we were married! Jim and Marty married soon after us. (I'd post pics of them too, but I packed away my Lacey hard-drive where all my photos are since they take up so much room on my computer). The Johnson's live an hour away. I'll report on the wool festival.

The first picture is of Heather and her Bill at a Military Ball soon after they were married. It's a nice picture of them I love, and the beginning of a new life for them. Just seeing her dressed up like this is so different from her typical country western wear. So this picture was probably taken almost 1 1/2 years ago. Her long blond hair is pulled back, and look at those glowing smiles!

The picture of Travis and Sarah I pulled from Trav's facebook album of recent pictures at Sarah's family reunion in Kansas. It's so cute of them, I love it. See her growing pregnant belly? what she's calling her little rutabaga. It's a big, active boy, due in January. They are naming him Emery Revere Swan (Emery after Monte's dad, and Revere is from Sarah's side).

I guess the picture of Dawson and Splarah is from Dawson's facebook photos. I love this picture too. It is 'Splarah' - her license plate says so. They've been good friends since they were little. In college now, they're still good friends and very close. If she joins our family some day, she's got to remain Splarah cuz it's too difficult when we're all together and there's already a Sarah (her friends of old gave her the nic-name).

Our grown kids are our best friends. Now Grandkids are coming. We're enjoying this season of life.
__________

Family faces are magic mirrors looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.
-- Gail Lumet Buckley

... families are like potatoes. The best parts are underground.
-- Francis Bacon

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
-- Desmond Tutu

Lone Ranger

I just read a quote by Dan Rather and thought of this picture of young Dawson. I often played classical music for home background 'noise' to mellow harsh noises of telephone or whatever that might disturb a nap, and it is nourishing to my being.

I remember Dawson bouncing up a storm on this horse - even to this music ... did he think he was a Lone Ranger cowboy? Don't even know how much he'd seen of cowboy movies then. But it was one way to release his much excess energy!

"An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger."

Bear Sagas

I'm reminiscing about bears since my last post. Last night, going down to the kitchen for something, I did look out the window wondering whether I'd see a bear again. But I did remind myself, and Monte, that bears seem to cycle through every two or three days ... That is if it feels there's something to return for.

I'm a city born and raised girl. My favorite books were those about country living. Am I living in the country now? Am I truly living in the mountains? Living at 8000 feet may seem like mountains to many. I do remember drawing a picture for the kids when we were traveling around Washington with Monte as he'd do geology things.

The first third of our marriage we traveled with Monte (that's about twelve years). We'd be gone about a week and home for a couple then gone again. Homeschooling flowed into that lifestyle since we wanted to continue being with Monte. When Monte was looking for old prospects in brambly Washington and visiting geologic companies we were there for six weeks. My journal says I only saw the sun for 15 minutes here and there and luckily the sky was clear when we were in Seattle and could get a view of the mountains.

Most of the coast's mountains are 8000 feet tall - that's where I live! occasionally you'd see a 14er, like Mt Hood or Baker and St Helen's before it blew. What I drew for the kids was those mountains in comparison to sea level. Denver is a mile high, so we're hardly 2500 feet over that with 14ers behind us. So I live in the foothills. I can be to the edge of Denver in half-an-hour and most people who live around us commute to Denver for work and play daily. So am I in the country? Since we've had chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and bees, I think that's 'country'. Since we have deer, elk, coyotes, fox, mountain lions, and bear ... that's country. (Dawson took the photo of the elk in our neighbor's trailer with straw.)

When walking in the country around Vancouver and Washington I'd heard to make noise so you don't startle a bear. When one summer we were having many bear sitings, especially a mother with cubs, I remembered about making noise. My lower garden and chicken coop are on the edge of the woods. So what noise did I make one day? Don't ask me why, cuz there was no pre-meditated thought behind it ... but I just started singing - "Bears eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy/ A kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you" (or is it 'mares'?).

Bears put a damper on the kids sleeping out in a tent all summer that year. I was hanging clothes out to dry that summer (tho it's the 'green' thing to do, did you know neighborhoods are fighting the issue do to covenants against clotheslines?). As i was carrying the laundry basket a bear was startled and stood up. Now THAT'S Big, and scary, and I was startled! So for the rest of this summer I'm going to probably be doing more looking over my shoulder and looking for bears everywhere.

In an August 2007 post, I told of finishing off the garage and the garage doors were open. All the bear got into that time was the dog food. We now always look each evening to make sure the garage doors are closed. I have marked on my calendar in August about a bear in the garage in 2001 (I like to remember things). Monte and me were awakened in the night by a plasticy sound against the driveway gravel. It was a bear licking clean an ice cream tub. That bear had eaten a VERY well-rounded meal! It had eaten a ham, peaches, bread, spinach, and then ice cream for dessert.

Bears are DIRTY! That bear had opened the chest freezer and left dirty, greasy smudges all along the edge of the freezer. We had an old carpet in the garage at the time with exercise equipment on it. Over time dirt started building up in areas, showing forth bear footprints. Bear footprints ... that reminds me - we do have some plaster casts still of bear footprints the kids and me made from prints left on the dirt road.

Monte wants Dawson to add fencing wire over the screen windows in the bunk house. We built a 'bunk house' in the mid 90's for kids to sleep in. Since I'm in the story-telling mood, I'll tell "the rest of the story" ... The bunk house was originally built right behind our house, close to it. We didn't want to keep it there. Well, what often happens around here is we sit around talking for long spells, and action often follows. It was winter. "How's about pulling the bunk house around the house over the snow like a sled?" ... "I'll wager it'll fall apart." ... "Naw it won't." As you can see, it's sitting quite nicely, intact, and it's even shingled. The number 4 you see on the door in the lower picture? is for Dawson's frisbee golf course.

One summer Monte and me slept in the bunkhouse until it got so rainy and felt musty damp all the time. Two sides are window screen (we don't even cover the open windows in the winter - snow doesn't get in). Company overflow sleep there. It has built in plywood sleeping areas, a couch with lamp table and a desk. Monte plastered copied photos all over one wall (reminds me of a place we rented that had Norman Rockwell pics all over the outhouse walls. I wish I'd saved them before the old place collapsed under snow!). Dawson is sleeping in the bunkhouse this summer, along with his friends when they are staying over (partly in consideration of Heather and baby Will). If they leave any food scraps of any kind a bear could easily get in!

BEAR

I had to open up August 2007 to see what I posted. I began this blog almost two years ago and I remembered a lot of initial posts about a bear. That's when we FINALLY after years of frustration got an electric fence! Now we can sleep in peace and Monte doesn't have to sleep out in a tent with his gun. :-D

Yes, there is a story of Monte sleeping out there. An old friend used to make up songs about some of our sagas and a naked Monte sneaking about our neck of the woods was put to music. One of the naked Monte stories involved a skunk ... are you curious? I might tell you.

Monte heard a bear last night. I heard his footsteps upstairs running, not meandering. I was knitting. I finally took the time to undo part of a monkey I'm knitting and figuring it out so I can continue.

It was a good day yesterday. I had bought more perennial plants last week. I read in the 2007 August postings that I strive to fill in spots in my perennial beds for blooming throughout the seasons ... which reminds me of an old book by Gene Stratton-Porter called The Harvester in which the main character prepared his home setting for a woman in need of healing. He took care in planning the gardens thinking through the season's visual interests. And I'm still filling in spots, both with new purchases, starting my own plants, dividing my old plants and moving things around.

Ahhh ... Gene Stratton-Porter ... if you've not read her books ... We visited her historic place in Indiana on a road trip. At that time they were excited because something like a time-capsule was found in Alaska containing old movies. They were hoping some of Gene's old movies would be in there since some of them are long gone. For years we've collected and read all her books, written in the early 1900's.

Most people are familiar with Freckles and Girl of the Limberlost. Gene was a lady ahead of her times and yet so much a part of her times in a way that helped me see my grandmother Nellie Herder's world. Characters in her books were herbalists collecting plants and insects and such from the woods for that day's medicines. My grandmother was a homeopathic nurse and she understood these medicines and would grumble about the new medicines the medical world was moving into. Gene's characters were photographers, moth collectors (there are moth's more beautiful than butterflies - I know, cuz Dawson has some in his collection - and that's got its own stories I could tell) and bird watchers and keepers of the woods so lumber companies couldn't cut down heirloom trees. Gene herself made her bathroom into a darkroom for developing her own photos (I did that in high school - fun).

Anyway, I'm still gardening. I woke this morning with thoughts of moving some plants, like a grapevine, to Dawson's newest bed he just finished. This is the last bed to be made. I didn't want to make him do anymore rock work, which meant collecting truckloads of rock from excavating a neighbor did as well as truckloads of topsoil. BUT, when I said I'd be content to leave the area the already flat level it was, he said, "But I want to make a spiral bed!" Wasn't he joking? No! "Okay, go ahead and do what you want." Monte finished posts that extend our pergola out into the new deck to the hot tub. (Remember the old posts about the oozing hot tub plant bed that collapsed? It's just finished now too. And it's still oozing/draining from the gravel and pipe the boys put in.)(See the blue wheel-barrow in the above picture? All this labor over the years ruined it. Dawson forged and welded the metal anew and Monte sanded and refurbished the wood handles. I painted it. It's like new!)

Once all the rocks are moved, finishing off some areas left in limbo, we'll get the last bit of area ready to put down some sod. Beyond his spiral bed is an area Monte will finish. He's already dumped large lichen covered rocks and will arrange it along with the knight he brought up from the lower garden and he wants to move some natural plants from the surrounding meadows, like Colorado wild irises and kinnikinnik bushes (notice it spells backwards the same?)(and there's a kinnikinnik story I could tell of Travis). Monte still has to get some picket fencing - he wants French Gothic - to do some finishing garden visual touches and make gates for the split-rail fence.

Gates ... lack of ... that's where the bear came through last night. Originally it was in our trash trailer - that's when Monte heard it. We went up to his office for a better view. I couldn't get a picture of it. The motion-sensor light on the tree went on backlighting the bear standing in the trailer rummaging for anything edible. The only smelly thing in there would be diapers (Heather's switched to cloth diapers now when not on the road). But not diapers ... he found some of Dawson's vehicle trash and licked clean some Starbucks cups. With composting and recycling there's nothing worth raiding the trailer for anymore.

We thought he'd go get into the compost bins, which Monte thought "okay - he'd stir it up" :) - but he didn't. He/she/it just rambled toward the house. We had to run down from the office to head him off. That's when Monte saw him come under the electric fence at a spot Dawson's finishing rock stairs up from the driveway parking area to our backyard. He could have then ruined the birdfeeders, like the bear did over and over again two years ago. Monte yelled him away and proceeded, in his socks and underwear, to put a board in front of the future gate opening and put the rails back into the split-rail where the truck has been driving through. He said, "It's an adolescent bear"... "How can you tell?!" ... "It's not big". I thought it big enough ... big enough to do damage ... control of my domain has be shattered.

It was a nice day ... I finished planting, putting my watering wand on mist to keep me cool while planting and weeding, cleaned everything up before it rained, knit listening to "Prairie Home Companion" and went to church. Went to church last night cuz Monte left early to go fishing. Dawson and friends are up Mt Evans backpacking. They left Friday morning and will come home Monday night. Monte's meeting them on top at Lincoln Lake and will come home later today with fish. Yes he will ... he always comes home from that lake with fish. It's a snowmelt sink hole near the top of the 14,000 foot mountain top. He has to hike down about 1000 feet. Dawson hiked up.

Me? I didn't go. "Enjoy your day!" Monte said as he kissed me goodbye as I lay in bed. I've now taken time to write! Hi. Bye. Tata for now.

Awesome Dawson!

Today is Dawson's birthday. He's left the world of the teens, yet according to current culture he's not yet an adult. So he's a Betweeny!

I posted more pictures to my photoblog commemorating, celebrating Dawson! And I added some photos on Travis' birthdate, April 11, celebrating him. Since photoblog won't let us post more than 5 pictures a day now, I've stretched them out.

Dawson is finishing up his excellerated classes tomorrow, then done with this very hard semester May 11. He can't wait. We're proud of him. He's working so hard to be an honors student which pays his tuition. He's becoming good friends with his teachers and they love going for coffee with him and spending time with him and talking with him. He likes the teachers better than his fellow students, excepting the honors students. They're finishing up a pretty cool project due this Friday - lots of historic places - pasts and present - and eating in cool places.

But he's really up in the air as to his future. One teacher opened up to him many possibilities beyond a business major, taking his personality and giftings into consideration. So all of a sudden he's feeling in limbo ... and talking with tons of people about it.

Like I've said many times - it's going to be very interesting to see where Dawson ends up, for his life's work, or what's going to support his many interests, besides a family!

Macaroni & Cheese (with Chiles)

Birthdays and Mac & Cheese

Today is Monte's birthday, but he's not here, he's somewhere in Nevada with some geologists planning April's field trip. So Dawson and me had the traditional Birthday meal. Since Dawson's usually gone for school and socialization, I do cook something we can share together when he's around.

I did a variation of Macaroni and Cheese and it was good. Growing up, home cooked macaroni and cheese was always my birthday meal choice. Whenever you ask Monte what he wants for supper, he'll always say, "Vegetables". That's always first in his thoughts. That's why he's so healthy!

I don't know where the recipe came from, cuz I usually write a source, but the 3x5 card is vague and titled Macaroni & Cheese with Chiles.

2 c dry macaroni (I used penne)

1/4 c butter

3 Tb Masa Harina or flour

1 tsp salt (I'm going to use less next time)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp pepper

3 c milk

1/3 c grated onion (just fine chop)

4 oz diced green chilies

3 c jack cheese (I used colby-jack)

Cook the pasta till almost tender. I melted the butter in a 4c pyrex measuring bowl in the microwave and then added in the masa and seasoning, then added some powdered milk, and poured in 3 cups of the water the pasta cooked in. Microwave it to thicken - this is a 'white sauce'.

In a 2 1/2 qt casserole dish layer the pasta, onion, chilies, and cheese. Then pour over the white sauce, kinda mixing it a bit to make sure it pours thru to the bottom. 

Top with 1/2 c crushed tortilla chips and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

It's a keeper and I know Monte will like it.

1sts of Spring

I mentioned last year about our Firsts of Spring charts I used to always recreate every year. It's so ingrained that we all have eyes to see, without a chart. Sitting here, I just heard a flicker bird drumming his beak on our stove pipe. That's always a 'first' I look for - it's a mating thing.

I just walked around outside with my cup of breakfast tea looking for garden firsts. I'm seeing an inch of bulb greenery starting to poke through. No Glory of Snow, chionodoxa, in the grass yet. Yes, in the grass. I posted last fall about aerating my grass - I did it with a hand drill!! dropping the little bulbs in the holes (I had posted it on Facebook and my son Travis responded, "I hope you're not going to start cutting your grass with scissors!")

I had read about putting those flower bulbs in the grass, then there'd be a carpet of purple-blue first thing in the spring, and die back by the time to mow. I can't wait!

I need to walk around in the meadow and see if any wild crocus, pasque flowers, are up yet. That's another first. What else do we look for? The first robin and bluebird. In May the hummingbirds come and I love hearing them all summer, looking for the fiesty Rufous to show up early July. Hummingbirds leave Laborday weekend. We look for Aspen tree catkins, coming before the leaves. The kids would often run to me saying, "I smelled the first stink bug!"

Have you cleaned out your birdhouses? I told you to last month. Little bugs in old nests can kill this year's babies. We look for cow birds each spring, and the boys had permission to shoot them. I know that's not politically correct, but they are parasites (Audubon says, "promiscuous" - no pairing). They lay eggs in other bird nests and because their babies are bigger, growing faster, they starve out the other babies. Luckily we only have a couple that come around, my hope is, if the birdhouse hole size is specific to the bird, they usually can't get in. I do like their gurgling notes. Travis and me, and then Dawson and me, made lots of our birdhouses over the years.

Spring? I know it's not spring yet. I heard that Denver usually gets around 45" of snow each year, but only 18" this year. We are so dry, but we're probably not done yet. Unfortunately we often get dumped on in March - April (like 3 feet! Spring dumps melt fast, but not that one Christmas dump!). As the garden wise-guys I listen to on the radio have been saying, "don't let this beautiful spring-like weather we've been having fool you!" But with the warm weather predicted this week, I will go out and water again.

Monte and me already got a load of manure, the rancher filling both our trailer and the back of the pickup. That's the earliest we've ever gotten it. But with the nice weather ... and when I start needing it, we usually have snow and the ground around the manure pile is so mucky. So now we're prepared!

Dawson took the picture of my statue with snow on the back table in January when I was in Texas.

Smiling Will

Heather sent me another picture of Will. I need to call her. I haven't cuz I've been so sick with the flu since it hit hard last Wednesday night. My fever stopped Sunday night and today is the first day my body's not aching and not minding the feel of clothes. But my voice is weak, sometimes giving out, and I try not to cough, as much as I'm able. Still wondering if I should keep my dental appointment Thursday ...

The last time I was this sick was when the Denver Broncos went to the Supper Bowl. I can't tell you when cuz sports isn't my thing and I don't hold those things in my brain. We had gone to a friend's house cuz we don't have a TV (no reception, cable or satellite)(only watch movies). I sat in the background knitting and coughing. Because I didn't slow down enough then, it went into a secondary infection, and I don't want that to happen this time.

Now if we had TV, all this sick time I could have watched the Food Network, History or Discovery Channel ... But instead, I've gone thru all the library books I had on Cottage/Kitchen Gardens, dreaming, and ordered my fruiting plants and veggie seeds. I also have been researching tapestry online and reading the books I have.

What I didn't tell you, is that when I was in Texas with Heather, Monte drove down past the heart of Denver on Supper Bowl Sunday and picked up my large tapestry loom I bought from craigslist the day after Thanksgiving, having sold my large Swedish Glimakra loom (I'm going to miss that loom for it's beauty, but I still have a smaller 8-harness one).

I'm the one who found out what my secondary infection was that last time. I have a history with illnesses (and our doctor's often call Monte "Doctor Monte", he's so analytical). They had done the typical-to-today swab of the throat with the quick strep test. I told them to also swab a petri dish and watch it. It wasn't until a week later that it showed up as positive!

I had strep a lot as a kid. If it wasn't for my Homeopathic Grandma making me continuously eat yogurt, my body would really be messed up today. Since antibiotics kill the good with the bad bacteria, yogurt helps us with the needed good bacteria the strengthens our system. My homemade yogurt is my favorite! I love eating it just plain.

In high school, because of strep, mono, and valley fever (a desert disease), antibiotics helped me graduate. But I couldn't have PE classes for two of my years - oh bummer - sure, remember me, the non-sport, hate exercise person?! But I had to take up the gap with something: so more hands-on classes! Since I already was taking my favorite art class, which I took every year, I took photography - roaming the campus with cameras and learning to work in the dark room; I took woodshop, and printing - learning movable type, block printing, etc.

Oh ... once Monte kissed me, I never had strep again except that one Supper Bowl year. Now what does that mean?!