And I leave You With Fall in Wyoming 2011

Here are pictures from last weekend up on the mountain - Once again conditions were right for the red to come out in some of the Aspens.  Hot days, cool nights, no hard frost.  I noticed the reddest trees were the ones in full sunlight and the highest on the hill.

Where There is Smoke; There's Supper!

Our lot is in a little valley so the sunlight doesn't hit the Aspens all day.  Not much Fall Action Here.

A hint of things to come on the 2nd tree here.

But farther Up the Hill - WoW Look at that Gold in them Hills!

At the Top where the trees get the most sun---Red Leaves, a unusual color for Aspens.

I'm not sure the really red one is an Aspen but isn't this just beautiful? Or was it just a shadow from the pine deepening the color?  Hummmm, mystery.

These are all Aspens and all have a red tinge except maybe the 2nd tree from the right.

 

The View to the South

Shadows are getting long on the ol' campsite and all too soon it was time to pack up and go home.

We leave for Maine on Friday.  We are planning on visiting the Fryeburg Fair with the horse and oxen pulls and lumberjack contests.  And of course, a trip to somewhere near the Ocean is in order also.  And I will post pictures to the blog till you are alllllll bored to tears!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Fall in Wyoming

Fall in Wyoming is brief -- sometimes it seems a few days and poof! Winter has arrived.  We are very close to fall now.  I've noticed a few leaves on some of the cottonwood trees are starting to turn a vivid yellow.

But the true glory of fall in Wyoming is our mountain Aspens!

September 29, 2007 on Casper Mountain

We've not spent ANY time on the mountain this year.  The Hubby has a crazy work schedule and building our barn sucked up all his spare time.  I've missed our time on the mountain.  We are going up for a last picnic this coming weekend.

Golds against the red dirt is very spectacular.  This was August 18, 2007.  Aspens are just showing a slight hint of the gold.

September 28, 2008

For some reason this year, the Aspens had a bright orange color to some of them. That is unusual.  If I recall right we had an earlier frost this year.  Maybe that affected the color?  This is on the hill coming out of our 'horse patch' on Casper Mountain.

The 3rd of October, 2009 and the leaves have already dropped!!! 

September 9th of 2009 - no color in the Aspens YET less than a month later the display is OVER.  Short, way too short.  Sometimes I LONG for a longer fall.  It's one of my favorite times in Wyoming, warm days and crisp mornings.

The 20th of September 2009 they were in their full glory -- and only 13 days later done, kaput!

And look at This ONE!  October 26, 2010 FIRST SNOW.

Told yah - already snow on the mountain and now snow at 60 miles North of Nowhere!!

Now for the BIG, REALLY BIG NEWS.  In 2011 we will SEE FALL -- in the Northeast.  No not Wyoming; not Northeast Wyoming BUT MAINE!!  Yes, we are going to Maine in October!  Where fall is a REAL SEASON!!  We hope to take in the Fryeburg Fair too - where they have oxen and horse pulls!

Yes, of course I will bore you all to tears with photos! What's Blogdom for except the new modern version of the Home Movie Marathon we boomers all suffered through as children.  Remember watching your neighbors tour Yellowstone for four hours of silent movies?? I sure do.  

Happy Fall to Y'All.  May your red longjohns stay buttoned.

IT was so Fleeting

I feel like I haven't had summer yet!! And it's almost gone.  But we were busy.  #2 Son and family moved much, much closer to us!!  Cha-Ching!!! That's an A Plus Plus Plus Plus.

The quonset we've had stored on the ground for TEN years is almost finished.  Only the end wall remains.
Cha-Ching!!! That's an A Plus

Boy will this be NICE to have this winter for our Hay!!!

And I guess there is always next year for more riding and camping.  Sigh....

I leave you with my favorite photo of the summer ... my grands!

      Don't you just love the look on #1 Grandson's face!!  He is having so much fun with the chalk his Uncle gave him.

I do hope we make it to mountain for at least a picnic to see the Aspens!

What does one do with a Tomatillo....and a Mango?????

I've had several projects going.  One is a set of placemats and table runner to give a special someone as a thank-you.  I'm using the Ocean Shimmer block and some Seminole piecing for a purple/southwest theme.

I found this block in one of my quilting magazines, unfortunately, I neglected to note which one!  It's paper pieced, which is fun to do but I think it wastes a lot of fabric, which bothers the scrooge in me.

It was called 'Ocean Shimmer'

I am making up the placemats as I go but I intend to put a 3" flying geese strip and a plain dark purple strip above this 6" block.  Then alongside a 12 x 12 seminole pieced block for a 12 x 18" placemat.  

The insane craziness of trying to 'put up' continues.  This week from Bountiful Baskets I got 2 boxes of these:

White Sweet Corn from Olathe, Colorado!!

Part of it I froze on the cob and then I cut it off the cob and froze it in pint freezer bags.  Now I was pretty excited about the cutting part because I had this corn cob cutter that I was DYING to use.  It was brand new and it was a HUGE BUST...it wouldn't shave off one single darn kernel and I resorted to the knife...

A pile of sweet corn in my old enamel pan.  What did they do before enamel pans??

The corn cutter with the knife I finally resorted to.  BUSTED technology. In fact I think this is old technology, both of them.

I also got a 21 lb box of grapes, they were Thompson Seedless.  That is the kind they use to make raisins.  But fresh,  WOW!!!  We've eaten a great deal of them and the rest I canned for fruit salads this winter.

Canned Grapes

They also had a Mexican pack which contained several kinds of peppers, limes, cilantro, onions, garlic, jalepenos, and tomatillos.    SO I found a recipe for tomatillo salsa which included all of this stuff.

We'll have to see if we like this salsa.  My husband does not like hot food at all so I only put in one jalapeno in the whole batch.  It's a pretty green salsa and you can really smell the lime in it!

Here's the recipe I used from my Ball Canning Book:

Tomatillo Salsa

5 1/2 cups chopped cored husked Tomatillos (I grilled mine first on the gas grill)

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green chili peppers (I had 3 varieties including the jalepeno)

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons minced cilantro

2 teaspoons cumin*

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red pepper*

1 cup vinegar

1/4 cup lime juice

Combine all ingredients in large saucepot.  Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Ladle into jars, leaving 1/4 (I had more) headspace.  Process 15 minutes in boiling-water canner.  Yield 2 pints

*Mine wound up cumin-less as a)I have no cumin b)I have no clue what cumin tastes like, and c) when you live 60 miles north of nowhere you don't run to the store to get cumin.  For the red pepper I put in chipolte chili powder.

The regular baskets from Bountiful Baskets this week contained Mangoes.  Now what the heck do you do with Mangoes????  I found a recipe for Mango Salsa so I guess I'll try putting that up maybe mid-week.  I don't think my Mangoes are ripe yet.

The insanity continues.....................................