Wis September, 2008

First Day of Autumn

Here it is the first day of Autumn, September 21, 2008. Equal daylight and darkness hours. Beautiful warm weather we have had the past few weeks.

Garden is winding down, Russ has the potatoes dug and stored in a cool place in the barn. Still a few lingering tomatoes and squash.    A few green and yellow zucchini, which I make into bread and freeze. Sometimes I add a ripe banana or grated carrots or pineapple and walnuts.   And then I put a powdered sugar lemon glaze on top.   We will be eating zucchini bread until it comes out of our ears, all winter, have so much in the freezer.   My friend Dianne made us 4 loaves and they were so good, and I found the recipes on the Internet and sounded easy, I made some too. It is amazing what information one can find on the computer and internet.

The flowers are still beautiful, waiting for the first frost to finish them off. Marigolds, big red dahlias and morning glories which climbed up the barn wall, about 10 feet high.

The birds have all left, had so many barn swallows, they seemed to have stayed a few weeks later this year, I think it was because of the Hurricanes in the southern USA.   Now the mosquitoes will bother us, as the swallows, on the fly, ate them all.   The sand hill cranes still squawk in the fields, soon they will leave too for greener pastures.

Polka dancing Friday night, such a big lunch at 11 p.m., we ate too much. Had about 150 people for that. Then our Tuesday night Jam Session at Winneconne, at the Legion Club House, it is a small dance floor but still squeeze 60 people in there and usually a pot luck lunch is served. Musicians from all over come and play their instruments, sometimes they are not in the same key or tune. But we dance anyhow.

When Robin, Madeline and Connor were here in August we all went fishing by Nephew Kelly who has a small pond. The children fished, and as quickly as they could throw a hook and worm into the water they had fish. Kelly cleaned them for us, and I froze them, Russ likes them, think we had 6 meals from them.

The weekend of August 12, 13, 14 Marianne, Cassidy, I and Elena went by Robin's in LaCrosse. Then on Saturday we all went 100 miles north, along the Mississippi River into Minnesota and then crossed back to Pepin, Wisconsin. The bridge across the river at Wabasha, Minnesota where the movie 'Grumpy Old Men', was filmed. Passenger trains still follow the tracks along the river think they were heading for Milwaukee and Chicago. Barges were hauling grain down the river to New Orleans and overseas.

Pepin was the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder in 1867. She was the original author of the 'Little House on the Prairie' books, which Marianne has been reading to her girls. Nine books. All my children read those books, and Russ and I reread them last winter. Pepin, once a year celebrates her life which included tours of the log cabin, built just lately but the same size as when Laura lived there for about six years.   The cabin is very small, probably 14 feet wide, by 20 feet long, with a loft where Laura and Mary slept.   Craftsmen showed us how they did blacksmithing, spinning, woodworking and quilting as well as a spelling bee, a Laura look-a-like contest, fiddle contest, essay contest, parade, square dancing. Many people dressed up in period contests. Saw many Bald eagles near Wabasha.

It drizzled and rained most of the day, but we all had umbrellas, so didn't get wet.   Marianne and Robin had packed a picnic lunch, we ate near the cabin, under a shelter. Robin always has so much good food.

After leaving Pepin, the Ingalls family moved to Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and finally DeSmet, South Dakota. Russ and I visited DeSmet last summer. After Laura and Alonzo Wilder married, they moved to Mansfield Missouri. We also have visited that home.

Then all went to a movie in LaCrosse, but I rested I was too tuckered out from too much Laura Ingalls Wilder stuff. But it was interesting.

It was a 500 mile trip, Marianne is a very good driver. She had to go to Tennessee for work for Kimberly Clark, she had to give a presentation. This weekend she is in Chicago with her friend Jean. Scott took care of the children. Sean was two years old, and beginning to talk.

Russ baled another small field of hay, mostly grass, 53 bales only, but tucked it away in the barn, people will buy this winter. He is still cutting grass on the lawn every few days, but cleaned up all his hay making equipment and put it in the machine shed. He is so fussy.

I redid a history book on the Club Ten Deer Shack that my Father and 9 other men organized in 1945 in Forest County in northern Wisconsin. It was interesting to read all the old record books.

Both of us have been reading books, I just found a new one on Franklin Roosevelt and his lady friend Lucy Mercer Rutherford.

Professional Football Season, Russ watches all day Sunday and the Monday night games too. I listen with half an ear and eye.

Was to a surprise 45th birthday party for Jim Burns who lives in our subdivision. His wife planned it all, and he never thought she could do it. Had a nice lunch, and we talked with all the neighbors.

Russ redid the flower beds, replanted the iris and tulips. Bought a bunch of new bulbs, as our old ones seemed to have rotted. He took the old blue truck to the neighbors, who still have cows and got a whole load of dried manure. He spread some on the garden and the flowers. He pulled all the weeds from the raspberries and spread fertilizer on them.

One day we actually had nothing to do, so pulled the refrigerator out from it's hole in the wall, and vacuumed all the dust bunnies and cobwebs from there. I scrubbed the inside good too. We should do it twice a year, but this last time it was 18 months.

Much of television is covering the new presidential candidates. We are not too much in favor of Sarah Palin who John McCain picked for his running mate. She is from Alaska and has no real experience. But maybe she is what our nation needs, new blood in Washington , D. C.

Had an email from Teemu, our Lion's Club student who stayed with us 6 years ago. He was from Finland and attending the university. But he will go to Japan now to study for a year.

Leaves are just beginning to loose their green color and change to red and orange and yellow. We know winter is coming too.

All the news fit to print for this, the first day of Autumn, 2008.



           Copyright, 2008   Russell and Delores Miller

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