BLESSED ABUNDANTLY

You have to see to believe. The harvest of apples this year has been amazing. Not only my trees, but all the apple trees in the greater neighborhood - they're all getting broken branches because of the weight of the apples. And the grapes have been good too (along with lots of blueberries).

One side of the tree.

I do not spray my apples - no chemicals. There's a little apple scab but really no worms to speak of.

These are waiting to be peeled, cored, sliced and then put into the dehydrator. Today we made cinnamon dried apples.

Although they have seeds, they are enjoyable to eat because they are so sweet.

Maybe next year, I'll be able to harvest for wine. Just enough for eating this year.

Even blueberries were easy to pick. I still have one bush that is bearing enough blueberries for everyday eating.

If I find a recipe, I may try making some rose hip jelly.

THE FOLLOWING PICTURES WERE TAKEN BY KAROL: she loves the produce and flowers.

Roma tomatoes

Yummy eggplant.

Soon we'll be eating brussels sprouts.

Purple cabbage make great "sweet and sour" cabbage.

Yellow coneflowers - beautiful in late summer.

JOHNNY APPLESEED FESTIVAL, Ft. Wayne, Indiana

If you're ever in Ft. Wayne at this time of the year, you'll want to visit the weekend-long Johnny Appleseed Festival held at the burial place of Johnny himself (someone said that they had 150,000 visitors). Karol and I were in Ft. Wayne this weekend to attend her 50th Concordia High School reunion held at the Holiday Inn. While she was off to a luncheon, I visited the festival grounds - quite a variety of interesting tents all the way from huge pots of soup to blacksmiths to antique shops and a farmers market.

Johnny Appleseed's grave.

They surely were enjoying cooking it in the "old fashioned" way.

The little band marched and played all through the festival grounds.

 CLICK HERE to watch a brief listen to the marching band.

And some just have to help by "watching."

Performances were held throughout the whole area - maybe seven to tent stage areas.

 

 CLICK HERE to watch what I'd call a clogging country music dance.

Of course, I'm always interested in the wooden bowls.

Displays of all kinds of "settler" activities were available.

These young bucks were manning a cider press.

We use these kind of pots for our canning, but I guess they work for cooking over an open fire too!

"Hey, mom, can I buy one of these for my sister?"

And, of course, we always like to look at the antique shops to compare and see how much the "old" things in our house are worth. Sometimes we are REALLY surprised!

BETTER THAN SNAKES

I received a cold shudder from several of you who aren't especially fond of snakes. So this post will turn to much more pleasant subjects.

Karol and I celebrate when God leads people into full-time church work. Last week, we drove to Oconto Falls to attend the evening ordination service for Sherry (Van Donsel) Van Lishout. Sherry was a faithful attendee at Peace (especially her serving as one of the international student ministry peer ministers) and graduated from UWSP about 2005.

Sherry was ordained in her home congregation and has been called to serve a pastorate in Iowa.

Sherry has not lost any of her joy and warmth. I'm sure that she will make a fine pastor.

 

Over the past several weeks, Karol and I added a sitting area on the southeast corner of the house. When the colder temps come, this area should stay just a bit warmer.

Karol and I visited Nathan and Holly (Luke and Megan) in Sturgeon Bay on Sunday and Monday. On Monday morning, Nathan took us to Potawatomi State Park in Door County near Sturgeon Bay. We discovered a wonderful underused park. Enjoy the following pictures. The tower had 100 steps. You'd have to know that I was a little fearful of the climb up.

 

A refuge for gulls and geese 100 yards out into the lake.

A GARTER SNAKE AND WILD GRAPES

The welcome site of a garter snake. This one was just seen several days ago. It's probably the same one I saw eat a toad about a month ago. It was amazing to watch the toad get swallowed little by little, even though it was much bigger and wider than the mouth of the snake. When you see the snake in the following video, you will notice the bulge in it's body about six or so inches back from the head. That's the toad.

 CLICK HERE to watch the garter snake return to it's place of hiding.

It's quite a mouthful for a snake to eat a toad, but it CAN be done.

The last remnants of the toad are about to enter the snake's mouth. His body became noticeably thicker as the toad was forced through his body. I was amazed to see such a sight.

Fall is the time of harvest - of even those many things over which I have no control. These wild grapes were growing in the field at Andrew and Suzanne's cabin on Lake Jacqueline. They were welcoming someone to come and harvest them. So I did (at least some of them).

And the harvest was great because the grapes were abundant.

I ended up making two batches of wild grape jelly. There is enough juice left over so that Andrew can make a batch of juice with the help of his children.

Our root cellar is ready for winter, and READY FOR VISITORS TO COME AND ENJOY THE BLESSINGS. The many kinds of jam/jelly are in the center.

Come by, we'd love to share.

And Karol's dill pickles continue to be a prize-winning hit.

GOD IS MARVELOUSLY GOOD TO US!!

And we still have lots to share with our local food pantry, OPERATION BOOTSTRAP.

SELLE "CUZZIN" REUNION

Lest you think that I was not present at the great reunion, I post this picture from David front and center to show that it was a wonderful experience for me also!

Saturday, August 31, was a banner day for the Selle cousins who were able to gather at a quiet friendship house near West Bend. We've been there before! But we missed some of the cousins who were unable to attend.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PART OF MARK'S MEAL PRAYER

I'm sharing some pictures of the beautiful afternoon so that ALL the cousins and especially our matriarch, Mildred Seefeld, can view those who attended.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE BEST EVENT OF THE DAY,

AUNT MILLY AND CINDY SING "RINGLEIN, RINGLEIN," A FAVORITE FROM THE REUNIONS OF THE 1940'S AND 1950'S.

I do hope that most of those present got in one of the following pictures. The event was mostly a time of reunion, sharing, and the enjoyment of good food.

Candid shots, ALL. You may notice that my camera tends to pull toward the love of my life, Karol. But she's naturally photogenic anyhow!!!

We're planning a like-event for next year, 2014:  same place, same times, same weekend, same format....all with more cousins types present. See you then!