Getting Ready for Winter -- Not Quite There Yet

Our snow a few weeks ago put an end to grazing our animals as they did all summer, so we needed straw to place in the barns. Unfortunately, most of the farmers in the Turtle Mountains had just cut their straw and it was laying in the fields as the snow/rains came. Jim called around to find someone willing to sell us some bales, but at that time there was none to be found.

Thankfully Jim checked with the grain elevator in town, and they recommended a couple of farmers. One farmer was willing to sell some of his bales. Instead of hauling them a few miles to our farm like we did last year, they had to make round trips of a little over 30 miles, only being able to carry 2 bales at a time with the truck and our small trailer.



I would have been interested to see how they managed to get the bales into the truck down in the field where they had been cut and baled.

Getting them out was a lot less of a problem.

Even though the straw bales weighed a lot less than hay bales, it took 3 to maneuver them into the barn.

The guys have also been busy cutting and stacking wood for heating our house. Thankfully we have lots of trees on our land that can be harvested and dry enough so they can be used this winter. Lately we've only been using the stove to take the chill out of the house in the mornings, and then allowing the fire to burn itself out during the day. Having the unfinished house above us is very good insulation.

The unfinished rooms upstairs are also good for drying potatoes. They were pretty wet when dug out of the ground while it was snowing! I'm not sure what the plan is for winter storage of the potatoes.

My tomatoes have been maturing slowly but surely. Yesterday I canned 14 quarts, and will do more again tomorrow. The buckets were formerly used to hold young trees from a nursery.

Once again we have the pleasant aroma of onions drying in the dehydrator. We have it set up in the kitchen area, and at times the scent can be rather overpowering. I would rather have it down here than upstairs, since sometimes the timer doesn't shut off the dehydrator when it's supposed to. We've given it a workout over the years, so I understand why it can be a bit tired.

I must admit I will be very thankful when my canning is over for the season. Then it's on to butchering pigs and deer!

Road Trip

Life has been exceptionally busy lately. Jim and I started out Sept. 23rd for Colorado Springs, Colorado and the Home School Legal Defense Leadership Conference.

I was a bit anxious, since we took our 22-year-old station wagon and traveled with a top speed of 60 mph -- giving us two full days of travel time. I brought all kinds of reading material, but ended up just being a tourist by soaking in the scenery as we traveled.

Most of the photos I took were through our car windows, so that is the reason for the glare. This is the type of land we traveled by as we made our way through North Dakota and some of South Dakota.

We stopped at a tourist area in Wyoming, where there was the remains of salt mining. The scenery was great! Our first day got us as far as Newcastle, Wyoming.

We actually encountered snow as we neared Colorado Springs, and a 4 car accident on the Interstate almost made us late in getting to the hotel. We managed to check in at at 4:55 p.m., and were informed we needed to be ready to board the busses for the Flying W Ranch at 5:15. And we made it!

One of the featured speakers was Dr. David Noebel of Summit Ministries. Jim and I attended all of his workshops, and he also spoke at one of the luncheons. On Friday afternoon we left a workshop early to drive over to Manitoux Springs to take a tour of the Summit Ministries campus. It is an old remodeled hotel, and the ministry has also purchased surrounding homes for office space as well as living areas for staff. They have a very nice view from over there, but the streets leave something to be desired. It reminded me of the narrow streets of Boston.

My photos are out of sequence, and for some reason I can no longer move the pictures around. Farther down you will see a photo of Summit Ministries' main building.

This is me in front of Focus on the Family headquarters. What a beautiful location! Jim and I drove over there right after a workshop by Dr. Noebel. The tour was at 4:00 p.m. and the buildings closed at 5:00, so we didn't spend a lot of time there. It was a rather chilly day. We spent a bit of time browsing the bookstore until they closed up at 5:30.

Here is Jim in front of their main area. The mountains were so nice to look at from this vantage point. I heard at one time that Dr. James Dobson views Pikes Peak from his office windows.

This is another view of the mountains from the Focus on the Family campus.

I stepped out onto a balcony to take this photo.

At the luncheon on Friday we had Dr. Dobson himself as the featured speaker. Dobsons walked right behind Jim as we were visiting with a couple from Montana just outside the dining room at the hotel conference center, and that was the closest I ever got to him. We sat in the back of the room. They were mobbed afterward with people wanting photos with them.

This is the photo I took of Jim standing across the road from Summit Ministries.

Manitoux Springs is quite the town. There are some very strange looking people walking around the main area, and Dr. Noebel made quite a few wisecracks about its inhabitants. Jim and I walked around a bit, and found a small store that custom made soaps and lotions right on the premises to suit the purchaser.

Not too far away from that store was this Dulcimer Shop. It was getting close to 5:30, but we stopped in for a quick look around. I ended up talking with one of the guys that worked there. When he found out my father-in-law had built me a mountain dulcimer, he told me to choose one of the store's models and play it. I declined, telling him that I have yet to learn how to play it. He pointed to the older man behind the counter, and told me that if I came back the next day (Saturday) I could get a free lesson from the owner of the shop. I guess the owner wrote one of the Mel Bay instruction books for the mountain dulcimer. We knew we wouldn't have time to go back, but it was fun just to think about it.

Afterward, Jim and I found a restaurant that called itself a bistro, and we stopped in there for a quick supper. We discovered after talking with one of the waitresses that it was a Polish restaurant. I've never tasted a hamburger that had the regular toppings along with fried egg and fried pineapple! Jim and I split the burger, and it was very good.

This was the hotel where we stayed, and also where the HSLDA conference was held. If you look at the upper left side of the building you will see some windows. They are located on the 4th floor, and that was where we had morning devotions as well as the keynote session for the day. Those windows were behind the speaker, and the view looked out on the mountains. It was beautiful.

This is another photo taken of the landscaping in front of the hotel.

Well, we headed back home, back through the Black Hills. We didn't go near the Presidents, but the scenery on our road was spectacular. I loved seeing all the Ponderosa Pines. That is one thing I miss about our neck of the woods; back in the Turtle Mountains in the past there had been a fire that wiped out all the evergreens, and Aspens grew up in their place. There's not much to see in the winter, at least in the way of greenery.

Lots of grain fields in North Dakota!

In fact, the grain harvest was so good this year the farmers began stockpiling grain in their fields. That was the first time I had seen this happen. Of course, if they didn't get it up before the rain and snow -- I wonder what would have happened to it.

We drove by a field of wind towers just south of Minot.

We also had 2 trucks with wind turbines pass us on the highway. They certainly are huge things.

Here is a close up of a completed wind tower.

It's good to be home!

Bracing for More Winter Weather

Once again from the Weather Service:

WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION CAN BE EXPECTED TODAY AND TONIGHT ACROSS WEST & CENTRAL NO. DAKOTA.

LOW PRESSURE MOVING INTO SO. DAKOTA WILL SPREAD A WINTRY MIX OF FREEZING RAIN, SLEET & SNOW ACROSS WESTERN & CENTRAL ND TODAY & TONIGHT. ACCUMULATING SNOWFALL IS FORECAST ACROSS NW & CENTRAL NO. DAKOTA THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING, WITH THE LARGEST POTENTIAL FOR ACCUMULATING SNOWFALL OVER THE SO. CENTRAL & JAMES RIVER BASIN, WHERE 2 TO 4 INCHES IS POSSIBLE. THERE IS STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY AS TO HOW FAR NORTH HIGHER SNOWFALL AMOUNTS WILL EXTEND.

IN ADDITION, A MIX OF PATCHY FREEZING DRIZZLE & LIGHT SNOW CONTINUES ACROSS SOUTHWEST ND, WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR THIS AREA TO SPREAD NORTH AND EAST THIS MORNING. FREEZING RAIN WILL REMAIN A THREAT ACROSS THE WEST INTO THE AFTERNOON & EVENING HRS TONIGHT.

THOSE PLANNING TRAVEL TODAY & TONIGHT ACROSS WEST & CENTRAL ND CAN EXPECT VERY HAZARDOUS ROADWAY CONDITIONS. ONLY LIGHT FREEZING RAIN AMOUNTS ARE NEEDED TO CREATE ICY ROADWAYS. IN ADDITION, LESS THAN AN INCH OF SNOW FALLING ONTO WARM ROAD SURFACES WILL PRODUCE SNOW & ICE COVERED ROADWAYS AS THE SNOW MELTS & QUICKLY REFREEZES, ESPECIALLY OVER BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES.

And winter hasn't even started yet ...

You Never Know What Will Come Walking Up Your Driveway

The guys were out digging potatoes again, when someone noticed something coming up the driveway. Andrew came running in to the house where I was working, asking for the camera. It was a pelican!

It looks like the poor thing can't fly, but instead took to walking.

Now, what to do with this bird? Most birds took off when the weather turned cold.

We'll see if we can figure out what to do with him.

Feeling Better

Thankfully David is feeling better today. Cold symptoms remain, but he is definitely more perky.

David's friend is Lena; she is one of our barn cats. We think it was about a month ago when Lena birthed two kittens. This is her first time being a mama, and she definitely didn't know what she was doing. She used to haul her kittens all over the place, and I can't remember how many times the boys had to take them out of the pick-up truck (there are so many holes in the body of the truck that almost anything could crawl in there!).

We knew for certain that one of her kittens had died, and since we hadn't seen the other one around we thought it had died as well. The boys were very surprised the day the snow came, as when they tried to move the truck they discovered a kitten underneath. We knew Funny Face had her kittens, but this one was too large to be one of hers. So, it had to be Lena's. (If you look hard you will see the little black kitten by Lena.)

Jonathan brought the kitten inside since Lena was nowhere to be found. Poor thing, he was wet and shivering. We warmed him up and waited for Lena to show up.

Lena seemed thankful to find her baby, and nursed him right away. We allowed her to stay in a box with the kitten for the night. But now we had a problem.

This barn cat liked a nice warm house, with plenty of available food that wasn't up for grabs with the other cats. I caught her on the kitchen table, and promptly threw her out. We tried teaching the kitten how to drink goat milk from a saucer, but he is too young, so we had to bring Lena back in. It's a mistake to try to teach manners to a barn cat!

I know this is a lot of hoopla for a barn kitty, but we all have soft spots for cats. We have resorted to letting Lena in, give her something to eat, and then she will settle down and allow the kitten to nurse. When the kitten is satisfied we put Lena outside. We may just try to feed the kitten with an eye dropper, but so far the arrangement is working well. We may be in for trouble when the kitten decides he loves it too much in the house to even consider going outside. We'll try to find a home for him when he is old enough.

Harvesting in the Snow

Yesterday wasn't a very nice day outside, due to a lot of blowing snow and occasional blizzard conditions. Then all of a sudden the winds would calm down and the sun would come out. Then it would turn again to blizzard conditions.

We were caught off guard with our carrots and potatoes still in the ground, so blizzard or not, they had to come out. It was a cold, wet, muddy job, but the guys did a good job. Hopefully the carrots will stay nice the entire winter. They were very firm and sweet this year.

The guys had an active audience as well!

Andrew looked like he was having a nice time, in spite of the turn in weather.

Then today it was time to dig potatoes.

David and I had a very active night, as he experienced a lot of nausea and vomiting. I don't think either one of us had much sleep. We stayed in the house and kept busy with games and other diversions while the rest dug potatoes.

David's cat Funny Face tried her best to keep him comforted during our game of Mexican Train. Funny Face had kittens a couple of weeks ago but has them hidden under our semi trailer. She still comes in to eat and then goes back outside to check on her bunch.

Here is one of the potato men. One boy commented that if Jim had on a different pair of glasses he would look just like Grandpa Bartlett in this photo!

Jonathan and Peter are digging in and getting those potatoes! They are very firm and nice this year. We had mashed potatoes for supper -- our favorite way to serve them.

Kind of a gloomy photo of the house. Hopefully the sun will shine again soon.

Here is what's left of my flowers. I didn't even get seeds from them this year.

We Kind of Figured This Out Already

And now a word from the National Weather Service:

THE GROWING SEASON HAS ENDED. TEMPS FELL WELL BELOW FREEZING THIS MORNING ACROSS THE AREA. THIS HAS THEREFORE BROUGHT AN END TO THE SUMMER GROWING SEASON. ALTHOUGH FREEZING TEMPS ARE ANTICIPATED OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, THIS WILL BE THE FINAL FREEZE WARNING ISSUED UNTIL SPRING.

It's Snowing

Below is what my flowers looked like yesterday, with snow flurries ...

And below is what we woke up to this morning. Looks like we could be in for the long haul.

Jonathan and Peter were supposed to help our friend Steve with a landscaping project today, but that had to be scrapped due to a leak in the hydraulic line of Steve's Bobcat. Peter was also supposed to mow someone's yard, but I think that will have to be scrapped as well. Such is life in the Turtle Mountains.

Let's see. Maybe I could get the boys to help me process apples, tomatoes and onions, find our winter outer clothing, clean up the house, ... But homeschooling comes first. Sounds like a good day.

Keeping Busy

We are badly in need of organization in this house. I mentioned to Jim that we could take out a small folding table we had in the bathroom/laundry area, and place shelving from floor to ceiling in there instead.

Jim turned the project over to Andrew. He measured, calculated how much lumber would be needed, and gave all the details to Jim before he took a trip to Menard's.

I think it only took Andrew two days to build my shelving. It's one of those practical homeschooling projects.


Peter and Jim carrying the shelving unit into the basement.

Jonathan and Peter installing the unit between the washer and dryer -- it fit perfectly! Thank you, Andrew! Now to find time to do some organizing!

Here is David, busy doing his math. Of course, Funny Face had to help him out a bit.

Jonathan finished his high school requirements, but is now doing college at home via the Biblical Concourse of Home Universities.

Peter, getting a bit of help from Dad with his chemistry studies.

Andrew, taking time out from working in the wood shop to do his math.

A kitty to cuddle with makes doing math a whole lot more fun.

Here was one of those "story problems": How to get onto the roof of our house. The guys figured they could make the ladder reach to the roof if they loaded the picnic table onto the bed of the truck, and then bring out the ladder. It worked. Peter is steadying the ladder for Jim.

I'm sure glad it was Jim and not me that climbed the ladder! the tricky part was then climbing onto the roof.

A bolt or something had fallen off the pipe for our wood stove, so Jim went up there to repair it. I was thankful it didn't take very long, and he was soon off the roof.

That's a long way up! I was so thankful last year when the pipe was extended, as we no longer have back drafts of exhaust smoke into the house when the wood stove is going.

We awoke to threatening skies this morning. It definitely looked like snow.

Andrew and David used Andrew's jeep and trailer to haul tomatoes from the shop to the basement. We thought we could store them in the shop until they ripened, but last night the temperature in there plummeted to 32 degrees so we had to get them out of there. It was sunny at the moment, but not for long.

As soon as Andrew turned his jeep around the clouds covered the sun -- and it started snowing.

My flowers didn't even have time to turn brown before the snow came. Hopefully it will warm up again before the snow stays for the winter.

Samson didn't think too much of the snow, either.