More apples are now sauce and more are sliced and drying. I made a whole crock pot full of soup-lots of veggies and some deer meat. Some of the soup will be frozen, as well as the apple sauce. I used some apple sauce in an apple coffee cake recipe- left out 1/2 the sugar and used whole wheat flour so it's more of a "bread".

I'm trying to use all the odd size wood, sort of rotten or bug eaten bits and dimensional lumber scraps first for heating during this mildly cold weather. Today I had a fire till maybe noon and then never fed it anymore-the house stayed comfortable the rest of the day (the cooking helped I guess).

It was a fine, cool fall day with hot coals or a small fire burning in the wood stove all day. I worked on apples some more-another batch getting dried and a pot of apple sauce made.

I mowed some of the rear with the rider and collected the mixed grass and leaf clippings for the garden. The last of the fall radish crop was pulled from the ground.

It's been nights getting down to just above freezing lately...in St. Lou. I went to the big city to the east for a few days. Friday I helped pick crab apples from trees in Soulard. The little apples were then processed in a juicer and the juice canned. Several jars of juice came home with me as well as more regular apples(from 2 different sources, 3 different varieties) to put up. I started a batch drying tonight- maybe some sauce tomorrow ?

It must have dropped 20 degrees in 20 minutes this afternoon. It's wood stove weather out there now, but still comfortable in the house- no fire needed this evening. The cool temps have Petra all wild and wanting to play tonight. Here's a photo of her tonight playing w/her favorite scrap metal. She's learned to get it on her nose so she can flip it into the air.

Are you saving seeds? I'm partial to these small yellow tomatoes-an heirloom variety from Eric back east in The Lou. I don't  bother washing the seeds-just 1/4 the fruit and scoop the innards and spread on something to dry. I used a piece of foil wrapped on a piece of cereal box.

It seems like a good 50 fortnights ago or maybe 1/2 as many moons -but just 8 months back I was using a honey bucket pending building and installing the riser for the 50 year old septic tank that took me forever to find. It was hiding about 50-60' from the house 20" down in the clay-showing no signs of having ever been found and opened/inspected before.

There's a metal box along the road with my house number on it and I found this book in it-it's a magical box.  I started reading it as I stepped onto the porch and there I went down-not sure where the next hour went. Great photos of the cabin being constructed and tools he used. One Mans Wilderness is the book based on Richard Proenneke's journals. He lived 30 years in his cabin up in Alaska-till 1998 when he was 80 or so.

These flowers are blooming along the edge of the field now-what are they?

Not far from the patch of flowers is the old home garbage dump where the amazing Petra dog found this new dog toy:

I've been making "cages" for the fruit trees from old rusty farm fence scrounged from the property lines.

This Feverfew plant(thanks Eric and Becca) is also currently in bloom. Also known as chrysanthemum. The dried flowers have been used to bring about abortion and a tea made from the dry, ground leaves is used to treat bad colds. Hmm...why not just any cold?

This spring I used salvaged 1" rough sawn oak (found in alley in The Lou-had been used as fencing) to make a bunch of blue bird nesting boxes and tool totes. I used various salvaged spindles from balusters and chairs for the handles on the tool boxes and copper salvaged from old guttering on the nesting boxes as well as for the pencil holders on the side of the tool boxes. The basic tool box design was based on an old one I picked up years ago at a farm auction. The original didn't have the holes in the ends-was I thinking too much about bird houses? I came up with the pencil pocket just as a way to add some copper to the old oak-same reason I added fake repairs/patches to the nesting boxes.

Oh ye olde musty books:

324.     At home and abroad there is not a cloud on the political future of the united States. The economic conditions are not so flattering; and there are indications that a new era of struggle is opening before the country, and that it must meet even greater difficulties in the immediate future. The seeds of these may perhaps be found in the way in which the institutions of the country have met the new economic conditions which came in with the railway in 1830.
325.     Corporations had existed in the United states before 1830, but the conditions, without the railway or telegraph, were not such as to give them pronounced advantages over the individual. All this was changed under the new regime; the corporation soon began to show its superiority. In the United States at present there are many kinds of business in which, if the individual is not very highly endowed, it is better for him to take services with a corporation. Individual success is growing more rare; and even the successful individual is usually succeeded by a corporation of some sort. In the United States, as in England, the new era came into a country which had always been decided in it's leanings to individual freedom; and the country could see no new departure in recognizing fully an individual freedom of incorporation. Instead of the old system under which each incorporation was a distinct legislative act, general provisions were rapidly adopted by the several States, providing forms by which any group of persons could incorporate themselves for any purpose. The first Act of the kind was passed in Connecticut in 1837,(...and on it goes ).

This is copied from a book I found, a book I have...a history book I can't remember where I found. The United States-History and Constitution(by Alexander Johnson-1888)

Oh, and I want to ID the plant/flower in pic up at top---any thoughts?

The leaves are really coming down. Suddenly the bareness is starting to show and I'm more easily seeing how close it is to winter. Did I mention it was breezy and 82 degrees today? I'm working on drying another batch of apples. I figured out that the cost is about 17 cents of electricity: 125 watts for 1 hour = 125; divide 125 by 1000(kilowatts) and you get 0.125-that's kilowatt hours of electricity used each hour. Multiply the .125 by cost per kilowatt[I used 9 cents(.09), but I'm not sure what we pay here in midwest-maybe less even] and you get .01125- that's .01125 dollars or 1.125 cents. So 1.125 cents for each hour X 15 hours =16.875 cents for a 15 hour run.

Sometimes one just wants to load the shotgun and let a paint can have it...maybe a couple of times:

A beautiful fall day today. Yesterday I processed more apples into sauce and then canned- making use of an 1100 watt hotplate w/no thermostat shut off to boil the large pot of water for the water bath. This small appliance worked much better than the one I cook on everyday. Today I got to some more walnut hulling and cut up some apples for the dehydrator.

Saturday I stopped at 4 thrift stores in my errand loop specifically looking for a toaster oven- a decent one w/thermostat as I returned the one I had been using recently and missed my pita bread pizzas I had been making. $7 got me a clean and almost new one that is a convection oven style(fan inside) that had all the accessories(broiler pan, cookie sheets, racks, etc).

The trees...the leaves...(a little left of center in above pic you can see the young maple at rear of property w/ orange leaves)

I made another batch of apple sauce today-from green apples-given to me, from some homeowners neglected tree. Walking Petra to the rear of the property I get to inspect up close my maple tree. The leaves are just fantastic colors.

What did I do today? I donated a bunch of old "junk" to a theater group doing  a Rocky Horror Show production...circa 1890. They get square nails, knob/tube porcelain electrical  pieces, a large old light bulb, two meat hooks(yum!), bits of chain, pvc pipe, an old valve, various springs, two old motor pulleys, etc, etc. I also loaned 3 sculptures that will get repainted and really add to their "mad scientist" steam punk contraption needs. Here's a link:









CEC Theater-The Rocky Horror Show

I also dug sweet potatoes and onions.

Left town for a bit and came back with homegrown naturally grapes and apples to put up. I washed soaked/washed grapes and pulled them off the stems. Not having a juicer, I put the grapes in a blender to "juice";seemed to work fine-better if only 1/2 full. next I used an old hand mill to separate the juice from grape mash/seeds. Everyone should have such a handy contraption ready and waiting.     

I got a bunch of apples at the farmers market and cooked them down to applesauce w/the intent of canning-but I never could get the big water bath pot to boil. My hot plate cooking surface is factory set to cut off at a certain temp-even on "high" and would just never get the large pot to a boil(I measured 170F at most). I'll have to get a real stove hooked up before another attempt. What I made today will go in the freezer. It was a good learning experience as I now  know I have most of what I need and better how to go about it. The crock pot works good for keeping jars warmed up. The red tool (black handles)in the  picture worked good for simply coring and wedging the unpeeled apples in one step. Then I just used a spatula and big strainer to separate pulp out once they were cooked down.

A nice "rainy day" (actually-just looked and felt like rain-precipitation was over by daybreak) and first cold spell. I had a fire in wood stove going and allowed myself to not expect a thing to get done-just stayed in most of the day. High of 50's for next few days. I did get a lock set on basement stairway door and a bolt lock on rear basement door(donations from CE house). What else...got the bathroom window trim (made from some cedar scrap ripped to 1/2")a coat of finish paint so now I can shower w/o a plastic bag over window. The burnt yellow-orange color (all I could find) doesn't work too well w/wall color but will shed water fine.

Deep green movie
very interesting-you will realize what propaganda we've been fed... what we haven't been told about "Bad China"---they are so far ahead of us, all the other developed countries are. I saw a free screening at MU last night.

I gathered the logs from the dead trees I cut down/up the other day as well as more walnuts. I think the nuts are about done falling now. I think I discovered a maple tree at the back of the property. It's a tree maybe only 10 years old but maybe one day I can tap it for sugar. I have to look closer at it, if it is maple it's a loner. I got around to installing tile (just used what I had around)on sill of the new bath window the other day and today I grouted- trim will be next.

I started on the walnuts. I'm removing the husks as I read if left on they can effect the flavor in some undesirable way. The husks come off easily once I cut a ring around them using a garden tool I found at the yard waste dump. It would go nicer with a 2nd person so you didn't have to set tool down so often. The oils will stain and stay on you for a long while so I ended up using rubber gloves inside cloth. I started with leather gloves but they soon were soaked. I'm putting the nuts in hulls in a milk crate to dry/cure. I'll do a little each day.

Monday, let's see...no pics taken today. I got the other tire on the camper wheel-easier than the 1st one. I gathered walnuts. I posted an ad for free iris bulbs on CL(Craigs List) and had 2 folks come by so far-another is to come dig some for herself tomorrow. I used the tractor to pull an old, old bicycle out of the dirt near the rear "branch" draining to the lake. Several areas back there were used as household/auto repair business dumps. I may use the rusty hulk as a sculpture. Also I cut up some small dead trees(like 6" diameter or so) back there to add to the firewood pile. I'll post a pic of the place last winter and find one of the rat rod tractor too.