A Cranberry Bog

Cranberries are the final fruit of the season.  We try to get out to pick some in November before the snow arrives.





Cranberries grow on sphagnum bogs, often called quaking or kettle bogs.  The bog is actually  a thick mat of sphagnum moss floating over water. It is like walking on a sponge, and you can feel it  bounce under you when someone else walks near.  You also need rubber boots.

Typical bog plants include leatherleaf  and cotton grass.



Bogs are often surrounded by pines and spruces,
trees that grow well in acidic soils.

This was the first time that I have picked cranberries wearing short sleeves.  It was an unseasonably warm November day, over 70 degrees.  Normally we have to wear warm clothes; some years we have picked cranberries from a thin layer of snow.

We picked almost five quarts.  These will become delicious cranberry sauce.

Obviously we could get our cranberries from the store for much less effort, but the experience of picking berries at this time of year in such a beautiful place is priceless.

Purple is one of the dominant colors of a bog.

Reindeer moss.

Life is beautiful.

Life is good.  Get outside and enjoy it.

A Trip Downstate

We hadn't been below the bridge to Trolland for a number of years, but we had to go and see this little "Peikko".



David had gotten kitchen cabinets and this microwave/oven unit used from a contractor who was putting in a new kitchen.  This was a heavy unit,  but it was easy to roll from the garage to the front of the house using PVC pipe as rollers.

When is it coming?



Hmmm...now it's got to go uphill.

How are they going to do it?

Where there's a will, there's a way.

I hope grandpa and daddy don't hurt themselves.

No worries.  The Eagle has landed!

The old magic carpet trick.

Voila!  No scratches on the floor.  No sore backs.

You should have seen it, Grandma Janet!

The minimalist IKEA kitchen.



Meanwhile. back in the living room....

...the exhausted father falls into his lounge chair....

...and promptly conks out.

Later on we play...

...and wrestle

and work out!

Whew. Let me catch my breath!

Howell is a beautiful small town with sidewalks and large trees, a great place to walk.  You could imagine yourself being in the 19th century, were it not for the hum of traffic which surrounds it.

On our way home we stopped as Mik and Jeni's and saw Miss Bunny and Miss Tiger.

Fall Chores

The firewood has to be moved from the pile to the back of the house...

I used to have five strapping sons at home to do this for me....

Now I have a tractor.



From the bucket onto the chute into the basement...you learn a few tricks as you get older.

Marja hauling leaves to compost in the garden.

Hey, this looks like fun!

Hitching a ride...







More organic matter for the garden.

Leave piles are fun!

 


I separated our six breeding ewes from the lambs and the rams.  The lambs have all gone to freezer camp, and the rams won't be back with the ewes until late November.  That way lambs will be born in late April. 





More leaves for the garden.

Sunrise