Patti getting in some practice at the cabin.  The little Ruger 10-22 has been
fitted with sights that replicate those on an AR-15.

This is what a steer looks like packaged and frozen.

A barred owl I met along the road!

We buy these nice berries each spring and freeze them along with the ones we grow.
This is two 10-pound boxes.

This bobcat was captured on one of our trail cams near the cabin.

A summer view of the cabin.  C'mon summer!!

Our neighborhood, just north of our cabin.

Hiking at a nearby state forest.

I found this hummingbird feather!

Our neighbor raises turkeys commercially.  This meat is from some they 'sampled' for fat content.
The meat was packaged into smaller batches and frozen.
Good stuff!

From a hiking trip with my wife to Glacier National Park.
This is on the trail to Cracker Lake.

It's worth it!!!

Blueberry cobbler

This is a quick post to show you one of the products of our berry picking excursion a couple of days ago.  One of my favorites...blueberry cobbler!

Hot blueberry cobbler!  Life IS good!

Blueberries, etc.!

Whew, a busy day today!  I started out by going up to the produce auction up by Dinky's.  The auctions are being held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday right now.  There are dozens of Amish growers bringing in a wide variety of produce--greenbeans, tomatoes, new potatoes, zucchini, raspberries, and much more.  I was looking for some raspberries in a quantity that I could use for a batch of wine, but they were going for $1.50 a pint and more; more than I wanted to pay.  So, I Jeeped home and Patti and I headed off to Illinois to pick blueberries.  After the half hour or so drive, we arrived at the Benson Blueberries farm.  I was extremely impressed with the operation.  Friendly, laid back, and blueberries galore!  We were guided to a short row of bushes that were fairly dripping with berries.  In no time, we had picked about two and a half gallons.  The berries are sold by the pound ($2.00 per pound) there and we picked fifteen pounds of berries.  It was a good outing with picture post card weather, cool temperatures, and a great location.  And we got to eat berries while we picked!!  A win-win for us!

Acres and acres of berries like these! 

The lady who took us out to the patch in the golf cart shuttle told us that they grow Blue Ray, Blue Crop, and Jersey as three of their most important varieties.  Some of these berries were huge!  We got them home and spread them on cookie sheets and put them in the deep freeze.  Once they got good and hard, we bagged them in quart freezer bags and put them back in the freezer.  We will keep that up until they are all frozen and bagged...except for a few we kept out to eat with our yogurt.  Patti also had me print out a recipe for a blueberry cobbler.  Life is good!

This is a LARGE mixing bowl!

Later in the afternoon, we went over to the home place and did some bush-hogging.  Jordan and Erin are having some friends get together for a camp out on the ridge, so we went over to mow a camp site, stack some firewood, and generally prepare the place for them.  The field hasn't been mowed for a couple of years, so it was getting pretty wooly.  I was glad we had gotten the tractor repaired in time to do this.

 It was a busy day...but a very good day.  We are blessed.

Yesterday evening, I got fed up with the birds eating our fledgling crop of raspberries, so I worked on what I hope is a remedy.  I took a couple of old CDs, some fishing line, a couple of fishing swivels and a drill and made the device shown below.  Hung from a shepherd's crook, the slightest breeze causes the discs to move and turn and flash.  I will probably have to move it up and down the row every few days, but it seems to have worked well today.

Gardening, etc.

I picked up a roll of short poultry netting yesterday at the Orscheln store.  Got it put up around the pole beans to keep the rabbits from nibbling the plants.  Moved the tomato cages to their regular and prescribed duty of serving in a valuable support role (literally) for the tomato plants.

We have a pair of persistent Robins.  They insisted on building again this year right on top of my motion-activated floodlight located just over the walk-in door of the shop.  I put up with them until they got their first brood up and out of the nest.  Then I removed the nest.  In no time, they were back and trying to start another nest.  I thwarted their attempts for a couple of days, but came home one afternoon to find that in just that one day, the pair had pretty well constructed an entire nest of grass and mud.  OK, OK!  One more brood and that's it!  I'll just keep an eye out as I go into the shop.  Oh, I also have to keep the grass 'trimmed' from in front of the sensor eye.  Otherwise, the light is on half the night as the wind blows the grass around!

The second nest built by our persistent robins.

Our young blueberry bushes are beginning to bear.

Late this afternoon, I went over and helped a friend and his son-in-law in getting some hay baled.  Before I had to leave, we had moved several implements to get to the baler, greased it up, made some adjustments, took it out to the field, attached the power head, moved the team of six big Belgians, made a couple of rounds, checking bales, etc.  I had to leave as the neighbor was headed back out to the field with his pair of horses to rake some more.  Believe it or not, I'll miss not getting to help throw the bales onto the wagon and into the barn.  Oh well, there is more hay do get in, the season is young.