Music of the Morning

The last 3 mornings I have been up at 4 AM and in the woods before 5 AM in search of the elusive gobble of the wild turkey.  That sound is the coolest thing to hear just before sunrise as the turkey wakes from its perch high in a tree.  Wednesday morning we were greeted with 1 1/2 to 2 inches of snow and we parked right under the tree that the stinking bird was in.  That bird sat and gobbled in the tree for more than 2 hours and did not want to come down.  Thursday morning was beautiful and perfect for them to gobble, but yet again we parked right under the tree they were in (different tree from the day before) and it was right next to a blacktopped road.  Crazy birds.  Today we had a calm damp morning following a night of rain and there were no gobbles to be heard. 

I did get my shot at a nice tom mid morning on Thursday as he and his 3 hens sauntered down a snowmobile trail right into out set-up.  I aimed, took my shot, rolled him over and he jumped up and ran away.  I sat there and thought, what just happened.  I know I didn't miss.  These things rank up there with geese in the "hard to kill" game bird list.  They are not like your average grouse.  Oh well, at least I got to take a shot, which is more than I have been able to do in the past years that I have been hunting, and I was able to go hunting with Scott and his best friend Steve which hasn't happened since pre-children that all 3 of us have been out together.  We also got to see two wood ducks fly up and land in a tree.  That is something you don't see everyday.  Scott's turkey season was last week and he was able to get a jake.  Better eating than an old tom.

Despite the fact that I was un-successful at bagging my first turkey, I did have the pleasure of listening to the world wake up and the beautiful music of the morning.  As I sat on the edge of a small field under a scruffy bunch of brush with the sun starting to peak over the tree tops and the frost shimmering and sparkling, the world began to awaken.  The constant beat of the woodpeckers that surrounded me and the rhythm of the grouse drumming on their logs looking for their ladies set the back drop to the tune.  The deep rumble of the owls calling, the coo of the morning doves, the honk of the geese flying overhead added their parts.  We also had the solos from the swans and the loons on a far off lake, the song birds as they flit around looking for seed and a random rooster saying good morning from somewhere across the river.  The new green blades of grass peeking up through last years brown and dry blades greeting the sun and showing that spring is truly on the way.  It was truly a beautiful symphony that I know only us few crazy people get to experience as we sit in the woods before dawn.  It is a moment that calms my heart and spirit especially on this Easter weekend as I remember what this time means in my life and I am truly thankful.

Winter Wonderland

There is something so beautiful in the snow laden branches of winter. The delicateness that each snowflake has been placed atop of the previous one. At a distance it looks like just a pile, but up close there is intricacy. In either perspective it is beauty. This is the world that my family is living in. In the opens I would say we have a good 12 inches of snow with some areas of less and some of more depending on how the wind has blown the snow. At night the temp has dropped to -17 degrees F at the coldest so far. I know this is nothing in comparison to my friends living in Alaska and to what the weather will get to as we get into January and February.

Our wood stove has been working hard and what we thought was a lot of wood, really isn't, so back to cutting wood we will be going. Our wood demand will slow down a bit now that we have all 9 of our deer skinned and quartered and are not heating our barn. We have a lot of butchering and grinding ahead of us, but at least we are able to do that in our kitchen. I forget every year how sore my left shoulder gets after all of the grinding to make burger. Yesterday alone I made 31 packages of burger, with each package being a bit more than a pound. My hope is that we will have enough venison to last us until next deer season so we will not have to buy any beef. (big money savings) We also have a couple of geese, a few grouse and a hand full of ducks in the freezer, along with a couple of wild turkey legs left over from Scott's turkey season this past spring.

Now that winter has tucked my garden in with a nice thick quilt of snow until spring's warming sun returns, I am going to try some new adventures. I have this wonderful book "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" by Carla Emery that has inspired me, intrigued me to get crafty and creative and be more daring. This is a fabulous book that can teach you things from gardening to canning, to milking a cow (this I already know) to making candles and everything in between. I am going to try and make my own pasta. Although I do not have a nice little pasta machine, so no macaroni or fun shapes, but I should be able to make good old fashioned noodles if I can get the dough rolled out thin enough. I am 100% Norwegian with Lefsa making in my blood, so I should be able to handle that. There is nothing better than a nice thin piece of Lefsa, my Great Grandpa Odin was the best. But back to pasta (Lefsa can be another day's post)! All you need are a couple of eggs, a pinch of salt and lots of flour. Simple! I may even try some fun colorful noodles such as green (from spinach) and red (from beets) and I wonder if I can even turn some orange from carrots. We shall see. What a great way to get my kids to eat even more veggies, not that they don't already, but veggies are good so what can it hurt.

As technological as this world is getting these days (i.e. all of these blogs and fb and tiny smart phones) there is something comforting in the smell of fresh baked homemade bread. Today I have acorn bread baking. "Acorn?" you may say. Yes, acorn! I received a small vac bag of acorn flour and wild rice flour from a dear friend a couple of years ago and I have substituted acorn flour for wheat flour in one of my bread recipes. In 2 1/2 hours we'll be able to find out how it tastes. I can't even imagine how much work it was to roast and grind enough acorns to hand make this flour. Crazy, and after a year like this of hardly no acorns, the deer and other critters may just be knocking on my door to get a taste of this bread. Hopefully it won't be too hard of a winter on our woodland friends this year. I do kind of cheat when it comes to making bread. When I first started, I did it all by hand, the kneading and mixing and rising. It was great therapy for my hands, but now with 3 kids I have resorted to the bread machine that we received as a wedding present. Much easier and Scott even makes bread from time to time also. Just put in all the ingredients in order, push start and in 3-4 hours you have bread. With all this "getting back to our roots" I know that using a bread machine is "technology" but this way it just leaves me more time to try making pasta and such. At least it is still homemade.

I'll leave today with posting a picture of the beautiful winter sky the other afternoon as I was waiting for Adin to get off the bus from school.

Enjoyment

This morning I had the chance to enjoy my first cucumber from our garden. There is definitely a difference between fresh just picked, home grown cucumbers and those things you get in the store that have that slimy wax on them. Yuck! My cucumber open faced sandwich (a favorite that I pick up on in Norway many years back visiting family and friends) was wonderful. My Cucumbers aren't big as they are a pickling variety, but are very tasty. I hope to try canning a few jars of pickles this weekend if I have enough pickle sized cucumbers. Gotta try Grandma's Mustard Pickle recipe. I also blanched and froze about a gallon of green beans and a quart of sugar snap peas. We had fresh ones in turkey stir fry the other night and they were fabulous, the kids kept picking them out and eating just them. I was surprised when Scott said that the meat was part of his turkey from this spring, it was tender and not gamy tasting.

I was thinning out some of the carrots as they got planted too close together in some spots and they are actually looking like carrots. Way fun. Instead of composting these tiny little things I'm feeding them to Amy the Lionhead bunny. Boy does she like those, they are gone in an instant. We are all excitedly waiting to be able to harvest big carrots.

A Turkey, A Turkey, Daddy Got A Turkey!

Very excited squeals this morning when we got the call from Daddy saying that he got his turkey. The kids couldn't get dressed fast enough to go and see Daddy's turkey. Then we waited, and waited, and waited for Daddy to come home. The kids were so excited to see it and to feel the soft feathers. Elle is ready to go turkey hunting with Daddy some day. Being only 2, she has a few years to wait. Now Daddy is going to be helping Uncle Steve this next week to find and call in a bird for him, like Uncle Steve did for Daddy.

First Day of No Socks & Turkey Reports

Today I broke out my flip flops to wear to work. (I'm surprised that it has taken me this long to break them out this year.) I must be whimping out as I get older. Who knows?

Spring is definitely here as our household enters the tradition of the "Turkey Report." This goes on between Scott and I and our friend Steve as the guys start preparing for their upcoming Spring Turkey seasons. I usually hunt also, but this year I have way to much stuff at work to worry about to be able take time off for Turkey hunting. I'm a bit bummed. Oh well, I can still get up just before light and sit out on our deck to see if there is anyone out there "Talking." Can't wait to hear that gobble in the morning again. I had my first report to Scott this morning as I came across 2 jakes and 2 hens on my way to work. Pretty cool. Scott's season is in 2 weeks so we'll hit it hard core next week listening in the morning and at night to see if we can put any birds to bed.

Yesterday I was off from work and the kids and I spent most of the day outside. We did some more hauling of wood and raked up leaves. We uncovered my Hosta beds which are in the terraced garden along our driveway leading up to the house. We got most of the backyard raked up from the leaves and sticks that came down when we took that back tree down. The kids took turns raking with the little rake; Adin and Elle have the concept of raking into the pile, but Lizzy had her own ideas yesterday. :)

I also started on the process to empty and dig up the buried cistern that we found in the back yard that used to collect rain water. Great idea, but not a great spot when you have 3 small children. We don't need anyone falling in. This system has not been in use for about a year at least (or when ever the previous owner put in the new gutters on the house) seeing as the piping isn't connected to any downspout anymore. So... when I opened it yesterday to see if it was still frozen or not I found a handful of dead, gross mice in various stages of thawing. Most of the water was good to go, I was able to haul out 18 - 5 gallon buckets out of there until the ice chunk was too big to go any further down in the barrel which is cone shaped. So then I just started digging around the outside in preparation for hauling the slimy thing out. I'm all for collecting rain water for watering gardens and plants, but when it has been sitting so long and has become a mass grave site for rodents, that is when I say OK time to get ride of the thing. I am however going to try and do a regular rain barrel for watering in the future, just not a buried one that my kids could fall into.