Sunday, October 15, 2006, 22:14
Grapes!
I've got half of a five-gallon bucket of grapes sitting out in the kitchen! Randy and I picked grapes last night after we finished feeding the horses. The wind from the past few days blew all of the grape leaves off the vine, so the grapes were easy to see.
Saturday night was one of those fall evenings when it is crisp and cold and not a breath of wind. The sun, after it set, left a brilliant orange-pink glow on the horizon.
We figured that since it was such a lovely evening and we had a little time, we ought to pick the wild grapes.
We didn't get anywhere close to all of them, but I figure the birds will enjoy eating the rest.
I went to a craft sale yesterday (sponsored by a women's club), and it was packed with people. All together, I sold 14 books! (Five "Christmas in Dairyland" and four "Give Me a Home" and five "Cream of the Crop").
When I got home in the afternoon, Randy and I took the dogs for a walk. Then we fed the horses. And that's when I decided we ought to pick the grapes. The sun had set, but there was still plenty of light to see the dark purple clusters of grapes hanging on the vines all by themselves.
Grape jelly -- here I come!
Cows -- Randy and I were just getting ready to leave for church this morning when we heard lots of "mooing" going on. Cows mooing around here usually means only one thing -- someone is out!
Randy walked down the road a little ways and around the corner, and sure enough, the neighbor's cows were out. And one had gotten in with the other neighbor's jersey heifers. So, I got on the phone and Randy got on his cell phone and we informed both neighbors of the situation. Then, of course, we had to leave for church. So we didn't get to chase cows. I don't mind chasing cows. It's kind of fun, actually. As long as they go where you want them to and don't start circling back to go where THEY want to go. . .
Not that it would have been much of a chase, anyway. The other neighbor called early this afternoon to say that by the time he got there (his cows are at his brother's place) they were all standing up in the yard waiting for him to open the gate for them.
One thing about it. At least they know enough to go home rather than standing around in the road.
Apparently, during the gale force winds we had for three straight days last week, two old trees blew down over the neighbor's fence. And flattened the fence. So of course, the cows saw that and decided to just step over and take a little trip around the neighborhood.
One day this past week, his bull calf was up in our yard. Randy walked out to his truck to go to work in the morning and here was a calf in our yard by the lilacs. The little guy decided to go home right away, though. I heard him mooing for his momma, and momma was calling back.
The calf in the yard must have scared my little Bobby Cat. Later on, when I took Pixie outside, I was startled to hear something rustling in the Morning Glories (this was before they got frozen black). The rustling grew louder, and I was wondering what on *earth* was in my Morning Glories when Bobby Cat popped out from underneath the overhanging leaves. I've never seen her do that before. I concluded that the calf had frightened her and she had retreated to the Morning Glories to take cover.
It's a lovely Sunday today. No wind. Warmer temperatures (60 degrees! ). And lots of bright sunshine. (Yipee! That awful wind has died away. . .)
LeAnn R. Ralph
Saturday, October 14, 2006, 01:55
Up. . .Up. . .And Away
It was still windy all day on Friday -- 30 mph right out of the west.
I had to leave at 8 a.m. Friday morning to cover a meeting about passenger rail in West Central Wisconsin. We don't have passenger rail in West Central Wisconsin. That's why they held a meeting on it.
Anyway, before I left, I insisted that Charlie come back into the house so I could put him in his kennel. He wasn't really crazy about coming inside, but I'm glad I insisted. The cold wind kept at it all day, and he would have been a frozen Popsicle -- or maybe I should say 'pupsicle' -- by the time I came home again in the afternoon.
It was so windy, that driving on north/south roads was rather difficult. My little truck kept getting blown around -- especially out in the flat on the prairie.
By mid-afternoon when I was on my way home again, it was still very windy. Gray and cloudy and spitting snow, too. I let Charlie out as soon as I got home. Since he had been cooped up all day, I figured I'd better take him for a walk around the hayfield.
The wind was so strong that I had to lean into it to make any headway. And when I reached the end of the hayfield where the wind was blocked by red pines growing across the property line on the neighbor's, it was such a relief.
I turned and walked south along the end of the hayfield and discovered that the wind had been so strong lately, it had snapped a dead elm tree in half in the 'old pasture.' When my mom and dad retired from farming and moved here, the section of land along the road on a steep sidehill had been the pasture for my pony, Dusty (who appears in all of my books) and my horse, Irene.
Anyway, the dead elm is snapped in half. I have high hopes for the dead elm tree. One of these years, if we are lucky, we may find morel mushrooms growing around the base of it. Morels are reputed to like to grow around dead elm trees. We only found one morel this year growing along the shoulder of the road by some pine trees.
Turning to the east and walking back toward the barn and the house was also a relief because the wind was now at my back.
Pixie had come outside with us, too, but she only went part of the way down the hayfield and then went back to the barn to snoop around the ground by Kajun's feed box, to see if maybe he hadn't dropped a couple of pieces of horse feed. I feed Kajun senior horse feed (he's 25 years old), and it has quite a lot of molasses mixed in. Both dogs think that Kajun's horse feed is delicious.
As Charlie and I came around the hayfield on the other side and I got back toward the barn, I could see that all of the leaves had blown off the wild grape vine. The grapes are hanging there yet. But the leaves are gone. At least half of them, I think, blew under the small opening between the barn wall and the ground. There's an awful lot of grape leaves on the barn floor.
It snowed off and on all day again, too. Maybe not as much as Wednesday and Thursday, but it has been making the attempt to snow. The ground is warm enough, though, that not much snow has accumulated. This morning there was about a quarter inch on the porch.
I'm hoping this is not a prediction of what is to come this winter -- weather systems with gale-force winds that last for days on end.
The weather forecast Friday morning said the wind would die down overnight. I hope so. The booming, frigid-cold wind is enough to wear a person right out.
There's one thing about it, though. Seeing as the leaves have blown off the wild grape vine, the grapes are very easy to see.
Now all I have to do is find the time to pick them!
LeAnn R. Ralph