The good news is that Lara's doctor appointment went well. The bad news is that her blood sugar is high. Being her father's daughter, Lara obsessed with diet restrictions for the whole three hour drive back home. I had quite the headache! When we see Dr. Arguello at the end of this month, the doctor will probably recheck Lara's blood sugar. Until then, Lara is unhappily relegated to eating oatmeal with cinnamon for breakfast; she's not a happy camper.
The fun part of the day was when we looked for a store that I heard about and have been wanting to visit. The store is called Beaver Creek and it sells food in bulk. It took a bit longer to get to than I thought it would, but now that I've been there, I want to go again! The store is at 6428 Iron Bridge Road, Athens, WI 54411. It is a Mennonite store and the whole area must be Mennonites because as I drove down the roads I saw cows and horses in the lush fields of beautiful farms, women driving horse drawn carriages, and on-farm market stands all over managed by women in Mennonite dress. They are different from the Amish people I've seen; I think they are not as strict, and I saw men driving trucks and one woman at a farmstand using a cell phone. It was a most unusual area. I felt like I was visiting a treasure in some hidden valley. The store is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Be sure to take cash since they don't take credit cards or non-local checks. Having Lara with me was a bit cumbersome because I had a hard time maneuvering the wheelchair and a shopping cart so I really would like to go back without Lara and take a longer look at everything they offer. Since I am a "from scratch" cook, they had everything I could possibly want and use. This store is a real find!
The other good news is that Special Olympics bowling went well. Only Lara, Ed and Chris were there, but we had a good time. The bad news is that Feits' is going to close the bowling alley part of the establishment because it is costing them more to keep it than they receive in return. After 60 years of operating, Feit's is another victim of the crashing economy. How sad! If you go into Feit's you see pictures of the owner's father and various memorabilia on the walls. It just breaks my heart. I hope some part of the establishment can stay open. Maybe they can keep the bar and put a small dining area where the bowling alley is. The town could use a good place to eat, and Feit's is close enough to the paper mill to take advantage of employee shift changes there. Times are what they are. I most sincerely thank Feit's for letting our group of Special Olympians bowl there. I have to contact Tony, our Agency manager and let him know. I think we will need to have a dinner meeting with all the agency members to decide how we want to move forward.
When I went out to shut up the chickens I thought I heard wolf pups yipping on the south forty. Didn't quite sound like coyotes.
More storms are expected tomorrow. I hope I can get out in the field at some point to see if I have anything to harvest. Take care!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Sunday
Last night we had thunderstorms again and another 3" of rain. Park Falls had 6" of rain fall and there was another flash flood warning. I can't believe this weather; six straight years of hard drought and now this. Part of the front yard is beginning to look like a pond. It was another long night listening to the NOAA radio. I'm sure that water is standing in the field again. I don't know if the pumpkins will take all this water without sustaining damage or even rotting. I still am having a hard time believing that the first tornado in Iron County in 40 years had to land on us.
Yesterday we talked to a forester named Joe Allen about harvesting the damaged trees from the woods. We know we won't get as great a value as we'd like for the wood because it is damaged and the economy is in a Depression, but we care more for the health of the forest than we do the money. This is, after all, a Century Farm. Our family's history in America, its blood, sweat and tears are part of this land, and it is our gold -- refined as it is by the trials of Saturn. As the saying goes, "Saturn is a hard taskmaster, but he gives rings of purest gold to reward perseverence." Money cannot buy it from us. Joe is the procurement forester for Miljevich Corporation, a logging outfit out of Wakefield, MI. Joe was very down to earth -- our kind of guy. We knew that he knew that we knew we don't have a lot of "beaver chow" in our woods (even though we do have a beaver down on the creek). And we knew that he knew what he was doing. We liked the simple contract; the terms and manner of pricing were fair; and the timeline for the job completion is actually much sooner than I expected it to be. The snowmobile trail should be cleared of downed wood before the season opens on December 1st. Hopefully the DNR will repair the bridge over the creek so that it is safe to cross. Miljevich takes care of all permits and notifications, and we were especially happy that they will take the tree tops. We know that tree tops represent 1/3 of a tree's value and it makes us sick to see landowners who hire loggers that take the trees and leave the tops to rot on the forest floor. Loggers who don't take tree tops (1) are only looking for the quick money on the logs; (2) don't have a connection to a market for the tops; or (3) don't have access to the equipment to remove or process the tops. People need to do their research before hiring a logger. In our case since we are of old Eastern European stock and mindset, having a name like Miljevich certainly helped the transaction. Anyway, Joe says he will send his experienced Michigan crew to do the harvest (they are used to dealing with "Michigan Environmentalists" LOL), so we will see what kind of job Miljevich does. If we like their work, we'll do more business.
By the way, here's a good place to start your research if you are thinking about having a timber sale.: http://www.fwe.wisc.edu/extension/.
I spent last Friday weeding in the garden and, lo and behold, I was able to harvest a whole bushel of nice (but big) yellow warted crookneck squash. If we hadn't had to meet with the forester on Saturday, I think I'd have had enough produce to take to the farmers market.
They practically showed up overnight! I even was able to harvest two black zucchini and a couple of Early Fortune pickling cucumbers from my remaining deer chewed cucumber plants. The darned deer must have developed an immunity to Liquid Fence because the beans are all chewed down even worse than before. For some reason though, the Windsor Fava bean plants have been left alone. (Now that I said that, they will be gone when I next get out to the field!) Soooo, I spent Saturday and Sunday canning up green beans from Tom's garden and lots of yellow crookneck squash. The latest canning books prefer that you freeze summer squash, but I have found that if you wash the squash, remove the seeds, and cut the squash in small pieces before raw packing it tightly into your warmed canning jars and then filling them with hot water, the finished product looks great. (I process quarts for 40 minutes at 10psi in the pressure canner.)
I prefer canning over freezing anyway because the power goes out so much up here.
Special Olympics was fun this past Thursday. Now, this week I have to take Lara for a doctor appointment on Wednesday down to Marshfield and Tom will have to handle the Schwan's man. I've been invited to a cousin's baby shower down in Tomah, and I have to get another cousin a wedding gift. It's a busy month!
Yesterday we talked to a forester named Joe Allen about harvesting the damaged trees from the woods. We know we won't get as great a value as we'd like for the wood because it is damaged and the economy is in a Depression, but we care more for the health of the forest than we do the money. This is, after all, a Century Farm. Our family's history in America, its blood, sweat and tears are part of this land, and it is our gold -- refined as it is by the trials of Saturn. As the saying goes, "Saturn is a hard taskmaster, but he gives rings of purest gold to reward perseverence." Money cannot buy it from us. Joe is the procurement forester for Miljevich Corporation, a logging outfit out of Wakefield, MI. Joe was very down to earth -- our kind of guy. We knew that he knew that we knew we don't have a lot of "beaver chow" in our woods (even though we do have a beaver down on the creek). And we knew that he knew what he was doing. We liked the simple contract; the terms and manner of pricing were fair; and the timeline for the job completion is actually much sooner than I expected it to be. The snowmobile trail should be cleared of downed wood before the season opens on December 1st. Hopefully the DNR will repair the bridge over the creek so that it is safe to cross. Miljevich takes care of all permits and notifications, and we were especially happy that they will take the tree tops. We know that tree tops represent 1/3 of a tree's value and it makes us sick to see landowners who hire loggers that take the trees and leave the tops to rot on the forest floor. Loggers who don't take tree tops (1) are only looking for the quick money on the logs; (2) don't have a connection to a market for the tops; or (3) don't have access to the equipment to remove or process the tops. People need to do their research before hiring a logger. In our case since we are of old Eastern European stock and mindset, having a name like Miljevich certainly helped the transaction. Anyway, Joe says he will send his experienced Michigan crew to do the harvest (they are used to dealing with "Michigan Environmentalists" LOL), so we will see what kind of job Miljevich does. If we like their work, we'll do more business.
By the way, here's a good place to start your research if you are thinking about having a timber sale.: http://www.fwe.wisc.edu/extension/.
I spent last Friday weeding in the garden and, lo and behold, I was able to harvest a whole bushel of nice (but big) yellow warted crookneck squash. If we hadn't had to meet with the forester on Saturday, I think I'd have had enough produce to take to the farmers market.
They practically showed up overnight! I even was able to harvest two black zucchini and a couple of Early Fortune pickling cucumbers from my remaining deer chewed cucumber plants. The darned deer must have developed an immunity to Liquid Fence because the beans are all chewed down even worse than before. For some reason though, the Windsor Fava bean plants have been left alone. (Now that I said that, they will be gone when I next get out to the field!) Soooo, I spent Saturday and Sunday canning up green beans from Tom's garden and lots of yellow crookneck squash. The latest canning books prefer that you freeze summer squash, but I have found that if you wash the squash, remove the seeds, and cut the squash in small pieces before raw packing it tightly into your warmed canning jars and then filling them with hot water, the finished product looks great. (I process quarts for 40 minutes at 10psi in the pressure canner.)
I prefer canning over freezing anyway because the power goes out so much up here.
Special Olympics was fun this past Thursday. Now, this week I have to take Lara for a doctor appointment on Wednesday down to Marshfield and Tom will have to handle the Schwan's man. I've been invited to a cousin's baby shower down in Tomah, and I have to get another cousin a wedding gift. It's a busy month!
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Moving Along
Cleaning up after the tornado has been difficult, but we have been able to hire a tree company to remove the trees from the house and cut down anything imminently dangerous to the house area. The electricity is back up and we've put a tarp over the hole in the roof. And we got an estimate on repairing the roof. We cut up some of the downed trees and started piling them near the wood pile to be split for firewood when we get to it. I am going to clear the area next to that for placing logs that I want cut into boards. We have been trying since the storm to get an insurance adjustor out here and finally today Allstate sent somebody. It looks like most everything, including replacing the high tunnel and the missing plywood roof on the chicken skid will be covered. They should even cover rebuilding the chicken wire fence around the coop run and removing the trees that crushed the fence.
That is a huge relief. Once we get the nod from our agent we can call the builders to come and fix the roof and gutters. We will need to hire a logger to remove the damaged trees from the woods. I am not looking forward to that, but it has to be done before the value of the wood drops to nothing.
Tom took a walk down the snowmobile trail to the bridge and it is practically impassable. He says the bridge over the creek is badly damaged. The DNR built the bridge and I wonder if they know it is unsafe. (There's been enough planes flying over surveying the damage.) It may take a while for them to repair it and snowmobile season isn't far off.
I wonder when the electric company will get around to clearing the trees out of the easements -- they told us not to do it.
I was glad we were able to clean up the yard enough for Tom to cut the grass. I don't want mice coming up to the house in tall grass. At least the yard looks better. It's going to take me a while to get used to the view with so many trees gone, and knowing that more trees will have to follow.
Yesterday was rainy so I made a big chicken pot pie and cherry cobbler to take over to Dad's because my Uncle Larry, who is a builder, was coming to give Dad an estimate on repairing the farmhouse. Must have been good because I got back both empty pans this morning! I thought that would last him a couple of days. At least I know he's eating. I'm glad Uncle Larry can repair the damage for Dad. One of the builders who came by today to give us an estimate told us that he has so much work now that he probably wouldn't do the job if we asked him to.
And since it was raining, I went through Tom's garden and brought a big bag of beets and mustard greens back to the house to can. Tom thinks that canning isn't worth the effort, but I disagree. As far as I'm concerned, the quality of the food is worth the effort of canning it. There is just nothing like opening up a jar of canned food in the winter time and smelling summer!
Well, now that the insurance inspector has come I'll start working on clearing up the chicken area tomorrow. I hope it's not as hot as it was today. Maybe there will be a decent breeze, too. I also want to get out to the garden in the field and see if I have anything to harvest. I do want to get to the farmers market.
That is a huge relief. Once we get the nod from our agent we can call the builders to come and fix the roof and gutters. We will need to hire a logger to remove the damaged trees from the woods. I am not looking forward to that, but it has to be done before the value of the wood drops to nothing.
Tom took a walk down the snowmobile trail to the bridge and it is practically impassable. He says the bridge over the creek is badly damaged. The DNR built the bridge and I wonder if they know it is unsafe. (There's been enough planes flying over surveying the damage.) It may take a while for them to repair it and snowmobile season isn't far off.
I wonder when the electric company will get around to clearing the trees out of the easements -- they told us not to do it.
I was glad we were able to clean up the yard enough for Tom to cut the grass. I don't want mice coming up to the house in tall grass. At least the yard looks better. It's going to take me a while to get used to the view with so many trees gone, and knowing that more trees will have to follow.
Yesterday was rainy so I made a big chicken pot pie and cherry cobbler to take over to Dad's because my Uncle Larry, who is a builder, was coming to give Dad an estimate on repairing the farmhouse. Must have been good because I got back both empty pans this morning! I thought that would last him a couple of days. At least I know he's eating. I'm glad Uncle Larry can repair the damage for Dad. One of the builders who came by today to give us an estimate told us that he has so much work now that he probably wouldn't do the job if we asked him to.
And since it was raining, I went through Tom's garden and brought a big bag of beets and mustard greens back to the house to can. Tom thinks that canning isn't worth the effort, but I disagree. As far as I'm concerned, the quality of the food is worth the effort of canning it. There is just nothing like opening up a jar of canned food in the winter time and smelling summer!
Well, now that the insurance inspector has come I'll start working on clearing up the chicken area tomorrow. I hope it's not as hot as it was today. Maybe there will be a decent breeze, too. I also want to get out to the garden in the field and see if I have anything to harvest. I do want to get to the farmers market.
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