'Tis the Season!

The tree was decorated with care and the house smells like cinnamon and spruce.  The Yule is here.  Grace and Merrick have been keeping up with their music lessons and have a pretty good duet of jingle bells.  Grace had her Christmas sing at she was up on stage dancing behind a costumed snow man.  We made plenty of Christmas snacks and a new type that has rolled and crushed oreos in the center.  The cut out cookies are glazed and decorated and the kids have gotten much more detailed in their ability.  Each of the cookies looks much less like an impressionist painting and we are entering into the realist movement.  Ella had her band concert too and has adjusted to the clarinet braces combo and is looking forward to playing in the jazz band again.  We spent the weekend back with the Eau Claire Christmas clan.  We hit all the greatgrandparents and the apparent theme was to look through all their closets and back bedrooms.  The kids got a kick out of finding all the stuff that hadnt seen light in a few decades.

Sophia's Opener

Sophia made it to deer camp!  She had been putting it off for a few years but with the warm fall and an enjoyable youth hunt she decided to grace us with her presence.  The Friday before was shirtsleeve or shirtless weather while putting up the tent.  We dressed light and still worked up a sweat putting up the blind in the late afternoon.  By 6 pm the temperature had dropped almost thirty degrees and brought freezing rain along with the cold front.  We woke early on Saturday to fresh ice cover and snow but we stayed mostly warm in our little blind.  We hunted until the mid morning and then made a quick run back to town for supplies and a newspaper for Grandprize.  Getting him the paper seemed only far seeing as how we had spooked him by walking up behind him in the fierce winds and made him roll out of his chair when we broke a branch six feet behind him.  We warmed up in the car and ate lunch back at the tent.  I wasn't able to coax Sophia back into the woods.  She did think maybe she would walk back out to the blind after hanging out in Evan in the tent.  Evan made it back to the woods with about 40 minutes of light left and Sophia just made cookies and hung out.  The evening played out as it often does, we sang the old songs and Sophia was able to share her first deer camp poem.  At some point Grandprize even convinced her that she should use her gutting knife to give him a haircut.  Given that she had already used a sharpie to make a jack o lantern on his orange shirt, the hair cut It looked alright and maybe completed the look.  We were back in the woods early Sunday, the wind died down but it was still pretty cold and we packed up the blind and the season in the late morning.

I vote for family time!

It isn't always fun and games in the woods, we do make the kids get their homework done too.  Most evenings the counters are filled with the normal barrage of slips to be signed and upcoming projects that need to be worked on.  Fortunately to our knowledge all of the projects thus far have had at least 48 hours of parental notice rather than the parental fear of eight thirty on a Sunday night..."I have a project due tomorrow" conversation.  Ella and Sophia found Pintrest and it has changed their lives.  The weather has again been so warm for early November that this melted crayon project could be done outside.  Hot glue guns and hair dryers, extension cords and blown breakers but in the end they had some new art work to hang in their rooms.  The election season caught the kids it is circus-like atmosphere watching the debates and discussion the daily happenings at the dinner table.  On election night we headed to a burger bar to watch the election night returns.  It was a late night for a school night and we didnt stay until it was officially called but it was still a great experience to have them so interested in the process as well as decent discussions on the varying policies held by each candidate.

Busy Tribe

Sophia had Soccer games in Neenah and Menasha over the weekend and split the series.  After the Neenah game we headed straight east rather than back north.  The cross country trip was beautiful with the color palate of mid-fall and bright sunshine.  We were off to visit with Ron and Jan and we quickly went to work helping dig some of the best looking potatoes I have ever seen from a garden.  Many of them larger than my fist.  We had to have nearly 40-50 pounds of reds and russets by the time we were done digging and added several nice peppers and carrots to the harvest as well.  After a nice little bell filler at Little Nicky's we hit Amy's old pumpkin patch and filled up the truck with jackolantern wannabes.  The kids choose their own of course and loaded them on the wagon as we bumped and jostled our way across the field.  Sunday Grace and Merrick wanted to do some shooting so we headed back up to the Oconto and after several rounds through the bolt action single shot then we upped our game and went to the semiauto.  Merrick had been wanting to watch fruit disappear and the left over lemon from applesauce making was the perfect target.  They were limited to three round blasts, but the hollow points certainly obliterated the citrus.

Cuz I'm a hunter

Grace got a new gun, pink camo bolt action single-shot, and we headed to Oconto for grouse and squirrels. It was a day-dream autumn day the smells, the colors the warmth in the breeze was just perfect.  We worked on trail carries and how to handle the gun safely.  I was reminded more than once of the Barney Fife rules as I carried the bullets for her little single shot.  Along the trail a frog hopped and she quickly asked if she could shoot it...we didn't but I was still smiling.  With no game or cans presenting themselves we stopped about half way through the hike to take some shots at my hat.  Her gun safety was great, walking quietly will take some more practice.  Amy told her that she didn't even have her own gun, Grace just replied "Cuz, you're not a hunter."  Back at the car we spent plenty of time shooting into a big safe berm, but it wasn't really needed, her aim was pretty good and she routinely smacked a pop can as well as a clay pigeon we found.

Awash in Color

We filled our bellies on fast-food grease and raced towards the big woods.  It was after sun-down when we got there and put the tents up with the use of borrowed headlight until we could unpack and find ours.  The kids ran around like yearling puppies so happy to see more of their litter as the two clans prepared for the mornings hunt.  It was the youth gun hunt so the kids and the woods were decked out in their blaze colors. It was cold and too windy for a fire on the first night so we hunkered into our sleeping bags and headed out earlyish after warming our bellies with hot cocoa, coffee and muffins.  Sophia was carrying a 20 gauge and the four us were able to walk pretty quietly as a group.  We wandered through the newly grown over cut over and Merrick lost his hat and we racked up a couple of wet boots.  There had been record rains over there.  Spent some time at repairing the old river stand and then pussy-footed towards the south spur of the grouse trail before heading back for a post noon lunch.  The weather warmed up and after lunch we hunted again down along the gully so the walk was shorter and with a fully belly of ramen noodles and Joe's brownies it would have been easy to dose off.  With no deer around it was decided that we would walk back to camp, although Sophia wanted to sit longer.  Somehow I think it is a good thing to leave a little before she is ready and have her wanting to go longer rather than not.  By the end of the weekend she was pretty convinced that she would come back out in November for the big hunt.  Once back at camp we managed to throw almost 200 clay pigeons and plink away with .22 and a couple of handguns as well.  It had already been decided that there wasn't any deer to spook so might as well watch the kids giggle at the mule kick to the shoulder when the touch off the 20 gauge. Gracie took a couple of good rocks, but the echo hadn't even started as she began to smile.  I think some day she too will be back for the big hunt in November.  Merrick grabbed a BB gun and headed off by himself for awhile on Sunday to hunt squirrels, it was a great weekend.  The big selling point to get them there was twinkies roasted over the fire.  It was Amy's idea to entice them and it certainly worked to get them out there, so Saturday night was twinkie roasting time and hopefully all the memories whirl together into the idea that they like being out there.  Based on their conversations on the the way home, I think they are hooked.

Birthdays and Brush

Oh there were cakes to be made and gifts to wrap but when it was all done the Maiden of Honor was still very young, likely from a weekend of fresh air.  We hit the Sensiba in search of squirrels and ended up shooting an apple.  the weather was really pretty warm and we worked up a little sweat wandering through the freshly cut over marsh land.  Amy did spot a tree-rat at a distance and we busted through the brush and brambles to get to it, but alas it was gone by the time we got there.  Grace and Amy did take a couple of shots with the .22 but neither fur nor feather was harmed.

Fallin' into Autumn!

The Fall has been phenomenal, a great time of year and the weather has been warmer than normal.  Halloween came and went without any rain or snow which was a nice change of pace.  Ella and Sophia handed out candy and Ella made a couple of quick swings through the neighborhood but between the nuts and the nugget there isn't a lot of treats she can eat this year. Grace and Merrick hooked up with friends to trick or treat the neighborhood and Amy and I walked along, because some of the houses hand out adult treats!  The roads are so clogged with pedestrian traffic and the occasional golf cart that driving a car is ill advised.  Ella had no interested in any part of the krauting project but Grace loved all aspects from being the smasher to helping us hand pack what ultimately became almost 4 gallons of excellent kraut.  We made good use of the warm weather and hiked Baird creek and the timing was perfect with the maple leaves making a carpet of gold on the forest floor.  The Baird is just a great gem in and even after so many times we still found new trails to hike.  the pumpkins were picked a county away and carved.  Graces pumpkin required no gutting as the insides had rotted out and all we had to do was cut the top and dump it out.  Between that and the warm temps there were plenty of flies outside adding to the spooky jack-o-lanterns!  

Apple Time

It was the normal week of Volleyball, guitar, football and soccer, but we still sneaked in a bit of outdoors time.  It was off to the apple orchard to fill our bags with as many Cortland, and whatever the tree was next to a Cortland, that we could carry.  The kids all have their own bags and they are, of course a year older, so they can pick a lot of apples.  I have forgotten the total poundage but I know the bill was over sixty-dollars.  We put off pumpkins for another weekend and skipped the petting zoo all together...as a different kid had just been bit by a pig so the petting was a little suspect!  The apples found their ways into apple sauce and immediately into two pies.  After a great Sunday dinner around the table we laughed, and lingered as both of the those two pies...disappeared.

Ruminations and Fermentations on the Fall

Fall is here and it is getting harder to deny.  The root crops are fermenting and hunting seasons are opening, but the sun still has the heat of summer even if the air blows with the autumn briskness.  Friday night was a big sleepover party for Ella with the standard pizzas and big breakfasts but Saturday...Saturday had an entirely different air.  We got up early and started our first batch of saurkraut.  With a freshly made mashing stick and some thrift sale treasure crocs it was time to rot.  We shredded up about 45 pounds of cabbage and it quickly started doing its thing.  The basement smells like...well like kraut.  We are actually hoping for cooler temperatures so we can move three crocs worth of fermenting vegetables into the garage.  We found time to head back to High Cliff state park for a walk along the Lime Kiln Trail to hike past the old lime kiln and rocky outcropings of dolomite along the Winnebago shore line.  The old growth forest lacks much for underbrush and with the towering trees and frequent and moss covered sedimentary rock outcrops it makes for an visually appealing stroll.  Grace did want to know why we had to walk up hills if we were just going to walk back down hills...her mother agreed to the notion of this question.  It was partially for the views and partially to work off the waffle cones that had before the hike! We were sweating a little by the hikes end but the Turkey Vulture perched near the trail head was being a little overly hopeful....it wasn't that bad!  The weekend ended with a little foursome volleyball practice in the backyard until the setting sun was way too low in the sky to see the forceful overhand serves.