Late to the Michigan Color Tour....

We have arrived in Michigan.   And although there is a little color left, most of the leaves are gone.   I could not find any "flaming examples" of the traditional colors that Michigan is famous for. 

 But I did manage to grab a few blurry shots.    Perhaps tomorrow will allow us to get some better pictures.   I guess the Fam has big plans for us tomorrow.   But for now, Cheryl and I are both Exhausted.   Looks like an early night for us.

In the mean time.   Enjoy this little bit of music that I have been listening to.   Enjoy!

A Day of The Rare and Unusual.

Stockings Galore!

What an awesome last two days!   So many things to blog about and so little space...   Unless I write a longer blog posting today... so let's begin!

Even MORE stockings

Yesterday we were swamped with more stockings and decided to skip the morning run and run in the evening instead.   We sewed up the stockings and headed to Iowa city around 3 P.M.   After several errands, Cheryl made a command decision to run the hills instead of the flats.   Mostly because of the time constraints.

An Afternoon Run in the Hills

At the TOP of a BIG hill

But as we neared the finish,  I suggested we attempt that huge hill right before the parking lot... And Cheryl went for it!

Pretty col view.

If I look winded, its because I AM!

  It was a little tough.  I had to change to my lowest gear and was totally out of breath by the time we crested the top.   But the Rewards were worth it!   Quite the view of the land that we have never seen before.

Time to Head back down

Watch out for cars and steep grades!

Cheryl liked it so much she suggested we might have to make that a "thing" whenever we run that part of the trail.   At least until the snow and ice make it impossible.   Coming down was the scary part for me.   And that road is rather narrow if another car wants to join you.

MORE STOCKINGS!

We came home to even MORE stockings and, feeling ever so ambitious, we tackled them as well;  clearing our schedule for today.   I guess the stockings are going to become and issue soon enough.

Running This Morning

 Luckily JoAnn fabrics had a new stash of buttons and we were able to fill some of the ranks that were thinning.  If sales continue,  we may have a chance to order directly from the Button Manufacturer.   That will save us time and money in the long run.

A Hidden Easter Egg Prize!

So much larger than this picture shows.

This morning, I stumbled upon a truly wonderful find!  A Giant Puffball the size of which I have never seen before!   It was HUGE!  About the size of a large pumpkin.   My hand does not show it off very well. ( as I knew would be the case.)   Cheryl continued to run away, so I decided to pick it and try to ride with it on my bike.  You can probably guess the outcome of that.

Imagine I looked like this... only with TWO!

The larger one is pumpkin sized!

I was doing so well too!   I had slowly rode about a quarter mile;  looking like a farmer with a bucket of milk on his lap as he tried to peddle. But gravity always wins.  And as I dropped it,  it split into several dozen pieces. 

The tragic pieces wrapped in my jacket.

There is no victory in quitting!   So I gathered up the largest pieces and tied them up in my jacket.  ( I should have done that in the BEGINNING!   ARRGGG!)   Well, Failure (if you survive) makes you wiser.  At least that is what the Byzantines say.  So I managed to get the broken scraps back to the car and show off my broken prize to my wife.    She was mostly impressed!   (At least she pretended to be enough for me to believe her.)

Make sure they are white inside.

These mushrooms bring back memories from my teenage days.  We used to go squirrel hunting and Eric ( my brother) found several large ( but not HUGE, like these two) ones.

Fry them up,  With or without batter.

  Mom cooked them up with the squirrels, rabbits, and grouse that we managed to get that weekend.   It was always a wild game Feast when  we had enough game to actually have a Saturday Afternoon meal.   Mom was not the best cook... except when it came to cooking up wild animals.   I don't know why, but probably because of her Caveman upbringing. (That is almost a joke,  If my brother is reading this, he knows the truth....and is still probably laughing)

Similar to fried creme cheese!  Yumm!

It has been possibly 30 years since I last ate a Puffball mushroom.  I wanted to sample it to refresh my memory.   I sliced it up and simply fried it in olive and sesame seed oil.    It is similar to cream cheese in texture and flavor.   Awesome! 

The largest one is beginning to turn.   Maybe I can plant it for next year.

I still have the small one,  but the larger one is beginning to turn already, as shown by the yellowish part in the middle.   I could cut around the bad part, but I really doubt I will be able to eat that much of it anyway!   Cheryl sampled a bit, but I know I will most likely be the only one eating it.   Add in that we are going to Michigan this weekend and chances are it will not be eaten at all!

Wouldn't this be cool in our yard!

But that is OK.   I read up on how to cultivate it and it is possible to get it to root here in our own yard.  The chances are probably slim,  but so is everything else I plant here.  I never know what will take root and what will never mature.   We shall see how it goes next fall.

Albino Ghost Deer Spotted Near Iowa City!

And one last side note.   An Albino Deer was spotted  last night near Iowa City!   Nicknamed " The Ghost Deer" by the locals,   people are not revealing its true location because another deer was poached in 2013 in the same area. At least the 2013 deer passed on the allele to the next generation before the tragedy;  so it looks like those Albino Genes are in the area at least.

The 2013 deer did not last long.

  I read that Iowa made it illegal to kill an albino deer during hunting season after that.   I think that is Awesome.   Just because you see a rare genome in your area,  you should not have to kill it!   ( I say this as a former hunter.)  Some things are simply too pretty or rare to just kill.  Better to cultivate it and maybe see more of it in later years.  But that does not stop people.   "Tragedy of the Commons" I guess.

Maybe the 2017 deer will be better protected from poachers.

I hope that the deer lives a long and fruitful life.   And perhaps it will pass those genes on to the next generation,  allowing folks like me to see a rare sight here in the middle of no where.

Along with the Cold... Comes the Stockings!

Cheryl Finish!

Cheryl Start!

Slightly warmer today, but still cold.  We hit the trail early and planned on a relaxing day of scoring and kicking out the two stockings we sold last night.   We were slightly surprised that the number jumped to 12!   Yeah!    And   uh oh!

13 stockings!

The sudden jump in stockings are a bit of a shock, since we are low on various felt colors, buttons, and thread.   You might think that we could simply buy more... but we have a trip planned to Michigan AND ( more importantly) the money we receive from sales goes into an account that only allows us to access it on weekends.
 Cheryl is forced to do a transfer...wait, then another transfer,  then buy needed items. 
Only to have to wait for them for another week or two ( felt mostly,  buttons usually only takes a couple days.)  Still,  with sales increasing and inventory decreasing,  Scoring a GRE and preparing for a trip to see relatives... The stress begins to bubble up.

An Eagle on the Run today!  

But at least Cheryl can run!  Burning off that extra crazy helps me out as well.   ( Her crazy...not mine!)

Time to move the Grain.

It was almost pleasant out today, once we turned our backs to the wind.   The sun struggled to make an appearance for the majority of the day.  It came out for a few hours in the afternoon, but was then swallowed back up around 4 P.M.

A Satisfying video.

The Harvest continues, though most of the fields have been shaved by now.   Now that the October job is done, the November job of moving the grain to the food plants  and refineries begins.   I still get a kick out of the golden river of corn and soybeans from  the silos.  So cool.

Hope everyone is having a fine week so far.  I must be feeling a little frisky as I write this at 8:00 P.M. after sewing up those stockings.   Perhaps it was the three cups of coffee I consumed today.   That might make sleeping a little difficult later...but ah well...  what are you gonna do?

Finally! A First Frost... That Freely Froze the Fields

Frosty Yard

Frosty Subaru

 Temps dipped below freezing last night... as demonstrated by the windows on Subie.   I had to find the scrappers from the shed and my Bar Mitts for my bike.    The sudden cold snap caught other things by surprise as well.   Namely, the trees!

Glad I put on the Bar Mitts

Green Leaves Down!

The trees have been changing colors over the last few weeks, and losing a few leaves now and then.   But after last night,  it appears that many of the hold outs lost ALL of their leaves at once!  It actually made for some interesting pictures.    The Elm trees on the Corallville Trail and the Ginko Tree in our neighbors yard are such examples.

Another Tree frozen.

The Ginko leaves  fell before turning yellow this year

Other than that,  We were blindsided by a last minute surge of stockings.   12 in all.( up from only 2 this morning!)   We just finished up and Cheryl is currently working on a few customer requests in her spare time.   I guess tomorrow will be another scoring day, so she will have to get ahead as much as she can before then.

Well,  most of them are still green.

We have plans to go to Michigan on Friday.   Hopefully the weather will remain clear and we will have safe driving conditions through Chicago.  Wish us Luck! 

Blindsided weekend Stockings!

Thanks for stopping in,  and make sure you are staying warm...  Unless you live in Florida or something.  Then...  I'm just jealous.

The Cold Has Come.... Er, Came... Um. Arrived?

So much for my clever alliteration. 

It was chilly this morning as we ran/biked.  Last night, around 7 P.M.  Cheryl and I went for a walk in the dark.   The temps with the wind nearly froze our ears off.   As we neared the end, you could clearly see small flakes of snow in the air with the flashlight.

That being said,  we still went out this morning.  Not being used to the cold, I bundled up in my "typical" mid-temp, cold gear.   ( as opposed to my sub-zero, arctic tundra set up)  Even in the cold weather gear, I still managed to freeze! 

Cheryl purchased some new bike leggings for me last Wednesday.   Since bike leggings are designed for skinny, in-shape people...  A person of my age, size, and flabbiness tends to push the stitching to its limits!   So Cheryl buys me a new set every year.  You night say that she should order a larger size.   But I think that is impossible since I this IS the largest size they make.

There are other jokes to be made, But I will stop there.  You get the picture.  I do like the color, though.  And Cheryl informs me that there are several other colors available.  I'll have to check them out.

Last Thursday was the last day Cheryl ran in shorts.  And may just be the last time for the year.   I'm not sure if the weather will warm up any this late in the season.  Once we get acclimated to the temps,  I'm sure it will all be fine.  Until then,  we simply have to make our way with the gear we have.

Note how the Tractor tries to beat Cheryl through the intersection.  

The harvesters took today off;  But last Thursday, it was pretty crazy.   There were lots of tractors and combines on the roads and in the fields.  Sometimes Cheryl tests her courage by trying to run one down.   Although she can look intimidating from time to time,  I think she should give the large farm equipment a little more respect.

So that is all from Wellman, Iowa for the time being.  We continue to sell and sew up a few stockings.  It keeps us busy between scoring gigs and running.  As November hits, I'm sure things will pick up .
 Hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the cold with a nice Hot Chocolate...  Or Coffee.   Everyone loves Coffee.   Right?     Thanks for stopping in.