Frost alert...

Seasonal changes are not for the faint of heart in Wisconsin. From high 70's one day to frost the next morning, isn't too much of a stretch.
When the first leaves turn color, we start wrapping up the garden harvest, because any night can bring a killing frost. The weather report is followed more closely than a Packer's roster change.
When the county just north of us had a freezing night, the warning bell rang. The punks sprang into action, coached by mom. Chef J brought (according to him) "millions of melons" to the back porch...

The heritage "Moon and Stars" watermelon and the Hale 50 canteloupe barely managed to make it to ripe...that's always the challenge (and fun) of growing melons here, see if we can outwit Mother Nature at her own game.
The melons were soon back out in the garden, as snacks for the busy hands.

With a cooler-than-normal summer, the broccoli has been the champion of the garden this year. Carrie is cutting the last batch, as the punks pick off the last tomatoes, pulling vines and sorting sunflower heads.

No, you don't!

He did.

There was a tomato fight. Enough weather and turkey damaged tomatoes to make it fun and juicy!

The back porch quickly filled with boxes and buckets of veggies. Carrie took home the bulk of the tomatoes to can marinara sauce, this is a small portion of the tomato harvest we enjoyed this year. They took their time, with the lack of heat, but they made it!

Pumpkin and squash are still on the vines, a few canteloupe and watermelon. One of the cabbages made it into the sauerkraut jar. I see salsa canning coming in the next few days...those Garden Salsa and Jalapeno peppers are needing a home.

It's a bittersweet phase of the garden - and a very busy one, too! We're happy to get the produce in before frost, but hate to see the garden wrapping up for the year.

Time to put it to bed.

Making like a squirrel...

Apple harvesting is in full swing in NE Wisconsin. The most popular variety are the McIntosh, a good multi-use apple. At the FM I found a new variety, at least new to me - Weltie. It's more a dessert apple, but dries well with really deep apple-y flavor.

Yes, I got a little wild with the cinnamon - I was in a hurry...

but they turned out just fine!

We have sacks of dried apples stashed now, with more to come as the apple season progresses.

Might even be an apple pie in there somewhere...I'll soon be rendering lard, which makes the most scrumptious flakey crust. And before you feel your arteries clogging, check out
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html

You might be surprised.

Universal appeal...

Looks kinda like E.T.'s cousin, huh? His name is Steve, and he dropped into Camp Purple just in time to score one of the tie-dyed T's.


Steve was fascinated with Banagrams, the Scrabble-like word game the punks (and moms) love to play. So Collin and Tammy and MJ coached him for his first round.

It soon became apparent that Steve was not a speller. Of course, we had to cut him some slack - he didn't speak much English, and no foreign words are allowed. "Nad"?? I don't think so.

Steve's other challenge - he LOVES Gingersnaps! MJ broke open a bag, and Steve was all over those cookies...Collin, he only gets ONE at a time...
"Bwxzzt pru diffle, ommi!" Yup, we love 'em, too, Steve.

"Wqxpt qw twixt? Muuf!"

"NO, NO, Steve, you can't eat that ...it's Maddy's wooden bread slice from her birthday present...."

uh oh. Too late...

Lee was right there with the CPR - he may only be a Webelo, but a Scout is ALWAYS PREPARED!!! WTG, Lee, WTG!

I don't know what sweet nothing's he was whispering in Tammy's ear..

...but he went home with her.

I have a feeling Steve may be taking up some homeschooling with the punks...he needs it.

Purple Soap

One of the projects at Camp Purple came direct from the Sheep and Wool Show. FELTED SOAP is sooooo easy, and the results such fun, it was a no-brainer to grab some simple supplies and make it one of the hands-on activities for the punks. And a few moms!
SUPPLIES: a bar of hard soap (not like Ivory, it will melt right away), kneehigh nylon, ziplock sandwich bag, and wool roving.

A cross-hatch of wool roving (purple, of course!) is laid down, the soap put in the middle of the nest, then gently wrapped with the wool. Strips and pieces of other colors of roving were added around the outside. Then the wrapped soap is inserted into the toe of a nylon knee-high, a knot tied to keep it there, and the package put into a ziplock sandwich bag. The bag is filled about half with COLD water, zipped securely closed, and then agitated, squeezed, kneaded and pummeled for about 20 minutes. This causes the wool to "felt", or compact.

The soap is removed from the bag and nylon, and put on a rack to dry.

Once dried, it can be used as any soap normally would - bathtub scrubby, or handwashing.

As the felted soap is used, the soap gradually becomes smaller, and the wool continues to felt and shrink. Eventually, you just have a piece of good-smelling felt! Depending on the soap you use...

A fun project - I see Christmas gifts!

A bonus of this project is, the punks LOVE to wash their hands, FREQUENTLY - which is not a bad thing for the impending cold/flu season...

Tied Purple

Hey! Max! Where'd ya get that cool shirt??

The tie-dye project was accomplished under the lights of the motion sensor when got it too dark to do by the campfire light. We were all anxious to see the results the next morning...

Carrie had a brain storm - instead of the bucket rinse, she used the hose to rinse the shirts and bandanas. No purple water this time!

Then everything was hung on the line to dry. As I walked down from the garden, it looked like the strings of Tibetan prayer flags at a Mt. Everest base camp...

Back to the tree to document some more great Camp Purple memories...

"How the heck does this thing work???"

"I think the red light is supposed to start flashing..."

Bigs helping littles...that's what Camp Purple is all about.

What a bunch of purple jay-birds!

The intrepid moms (and gramma) who keep the food and fun coming at Camp Purple.

What's more fun for a punk than a sturdy tree - and a tie-dyed shirt!

Hey, the punks made it look so easy...she just had to get on that limb!

Mom and punks - happy days, happy memories!

And a big Purple THANK YOU to our Tammy for bringing back the 60's for the next generation!

The Queen of Purple!

"HEY, did you hear....

...it's Camp Purple week! They're back, spreading the fun!"

Carol made this terrific banner, in high anticipation of another great time with the punks at the cabin - thanks, Carol, it set the tone for the shenanigans!

Another new addition - the Wright's showed up with a new tent - the punks call it "the condo" because it has three rooms...it looks kinda like a spaceship, doncha think?!

The front lawn again became a multi-colored mushroom field of tents. You can tell where the punks are hanging out...look for the tent with the boots in front...

Yep, there they are, cooking up some more games, and scary stories for the campfire...

The housekeeping got more sophisticated this camp session. We pulled out some of the equipment from our summer of camping on the farm the first year we lived here (three summers ago...my oh my). The Coleman Kitchen unit used to be Great-gramma and -grampa's camping set up. Lots of memories as we use it, good family times!

Handwashing is mandatory - handling toads and petting turkeys and feeding apples to slobbery horses, climbing trees and digging carrots and playing ball, building castles in the sandbox and impromptu sword fights...well, you get the picture. "Grubby" barely covers the results...

The "sunshower" bag, a convenient tree limb stub, the old clothesline and a couple of washrags - that oughta do it. Handwashing was never so much fun!

Camp activities range widely. The agenda only says, "Be kind, have fun." At any given time, there was a punk or a mom hanging around the campfire, enjoying some quiet time or just watching the activities bouncing around the campsite. Than always has a book close by...

A walk down the neighbor's lane to the barns revealed the latest addition at their farm...a couple of burros! Maddy was thrilled - more "cows" to add to her collection of animal friends!

Nathan and Carol helped in the kitchen for lunch prep - they learned to make breadsticks, from mixing the dough to rolling the "snakes".

Mmmmm - fresh chili cheese breadsticks right out of the oven, with marinara simmered from garden veggies.

There is just nothing like a bowl of icecream....

Trust a Scout to come up with a make-shift music stand. Than and Collin spent more than an hour overhauling the keyboard so it would work - they love to play their piano music, this was as close as they were going to get for a couple of days...

One of the best things about a camp, no matter where or who, is the spontaneous creativity. Some of it happened after dinner, after dark - like the tie-dying project (we'll get to see the results in the daylight). Some of it comes from the heart...like music.

We discovered we had not just a few muscians and singers at camp - throughout the evening, music flowed through conversation, and gradually sucked everyone around the keyboard, for songs and fun. Brent made it home from work in time to lend his great voice to MaryJean's rendition of "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables. (Collin spent his own money to get the song book from Les Mes - the punks ALL love that music!). More voices joined in, for "I Dreamed a Dream"...another great song from Les Mes.

After a stellar fireworks display in the back field under brilliant stars, most of the moms headed for bed with the smallest punks, but the middles and olders hung out in the cabin for more music. It's difficult to turn off the good vibes after a great day, you just want it to go on and on.

With many rounds of practice and Than's polished accompaniment, we decided this group could hit the stage with their "In Dreams" from Lord of the Rings.

In fact, it very likely will become the camp theme song, because we have heard it so much that it is now stuck in our heads and everyone goes about humming bits of it!

I can think of worse things to have stuck in my head...