Mid Week Turkey Tail.

A quick post about the latest Mushroom finds:  Turkey Tail!   We had a bit of rain over the last two days and the cooler weather has blown in.   Unfortunately,  the cold weather has also dampened the mushroom hunting along with the warm weather.   However,  I did manage to find some new growth Turkey Tail on one of the logs that popped up earlier this summer. 

Being fresh is the best time to harvest and grind it up... so I discovered.   The hard way!   My poor coffee grinder did not like dry, hardened Turkey Tail at ALL!   And would often overheat trying to chop up those bits of ferrous metal. 

Pretty colors!

But today, I managed to harvest a basket full and process it all.   It is now ready for future tea moments....  

By the way... It taste awful!   Maybe not "awful"  but pretty bad.   Like dirt mostly.... with a little mushroom flavor.   The best tip I can give is to brew it with other tea flavors.  Preferably ones that have a strong flavor.  And lots of sweetener, milk and/or honey!  

Why drink it?   The benefits to health!   Turkey tail boosts immunity and cancer resistance.  And who would not want that?  

And it is a mushroom... And I like mushrooms. 

Oh!   And in case it needs to be mentioned:  Dave and I both ate the Shaggy Parasol mushroom and survived without any ill effects. No tummy ache,  no bathroom emergencies,  and no dying!   Plus!  It was a pretty good tasting mushroom!   So I consider that a success.  The Shaggy Parasol is not a beginner mushroom...  So that means we have leveled up!   In out "Mushroom Aptitude and Competency."   And we can add another Mushroom to our bag for future harvests.

Mid week already!   The week flies by.   I had the opportunity to help Cheryl change out one of the headlights in the Bean Subaru tonight.   One of them had burned out and she had to replace it.  Not an easy task for one who has never worked on a car before.   But she pulled it off like a champ with a little coaching from me.  Over the phone.... texting.   Good thing I'm not a 2 writer.  ( inside scoring joke.) 

Better make this post short.  I have to get up for work tomorrow and it is already getting late.   Thanks for stopping in. 

Trunk Or Treat And The Shaggy Parasol.

Yesterday was a busy day.   There was a Crock Pot cook off, A Trick or Trunk... Or something like that.   And I won at Cribbage!  Did I mention we went out to Red Robins?  Ah...   Well,  I shall start from the beginning. 

After a morning run,  Dave's Son came over and we had a good chat while playing Cribbage.   Cribbage is kind of a thing here in the Pagel family,   and I have been invited to join in from time to time.   Dave is usually the master, but occasionally his kids get the better of him.   And once in a while a Dark hose like me is able to pull off a miracle.   I squeaked out a one point win after coming from behind!  I'm still in disbelief!  

With hardly any time to spare, we piled in to the car and raced off to the Crock Pot Cook off!   Dave was a judge, and I tagged along for some home cooked comfort food.   For $5!  I got to sample all of the dishes...  Total Bargain.   

I don't have any pics of the event, but the turn out was rather disappointing.   I'm sure the ladies put their heart and soul into their creations and Dave and I were among the handful of folks who showed up.   The good news of this was that Dave and I also entered the silent auction on many of the baskets that were provided.   We won almost Everything we bid on!  ( Dave lost the Bears Tickets for some Family Member who is a Bears fan.)  I won coffee and a Klean Kanteen!  Yeah!  

Then... Off to the next event.   Trunk or Treat!   The Church was throwing a community event and over 300 folks showed up!   The parking lot was completely full and Dave had to direct traffic  and guide people to park in ways that was not normal.  To say it was a success would probably be an understatement.  

Lots of kids showed up and showed off their costumes.   Christina got in the mood by scaring the crap out of small children in her spooky Witch outfit.   And there was lots of candy and activities for everyone.  Caramel apples, cookies, sugar sugar and more sugar to help the parents sleep at night.  It was a successful outreach for the church. 

And afterwards... Red Robin for burgers.  Several of the other "Trunk Buddies" joined us at the gathering. 

Today,  I was able to do a little forest Therapy after church and hunt for any new mushrooms.   The pickings were slim, even though the weather has been fantastic this weekend.   I did manage to bring the camera though, and capture a few Autumn moments. 

The color has been spectacular this year.  Then again, I'm n Wisconsin. It helps where there are lots of trees.   I didn't find many mushrooms, but I did find the Shaggy Parasol.   An Edible mushroom,  although there is strong caution behind it.   It still might make you sick, even if fully cooked!  But the taste is supposed to be pretty good and there are recipes.   It is not the Parasol mushroom.. which is also edible and has less of a warning attached to it.   We shall see how frisky I feel tomorrow.   And if I actually roll the dice and try a small bit of it to see if the taste is worth the risk.  Hey!  At least it wont kill me.  

One of the cool features is that it stains orange when you cut the stem.   First yellow.... then orange.   Pretty cool. 

Back to work tomorrow.  I thought I would have been able to blog during the week last week, but nothing really happened that would have been blog worth.  AND the entire week ran by so quickly, I hardly had time to do much of anything.   I should mention I got my eyes checked ( Apparently, I'm blind and need new glasses.)  and Subie is in the shop to get his rear end checked out.   ( A rear bearing, methinks.)  The verdict is still up in the air as for how much my glasses will cost or the car repair will set me back.   But I have my fingers crossed that I will be able to afford it all.   Hopefully.  

Puffball Fun!

Thanks for stopping in.

The Rain, The Race, The Dragon, The Hawk.... And the Home Of Tomorrow.

That is a lot of stuff to cover in One blog post!   I better get busy!

This past weekend was so eventful,  I have already forgotten most of what happened!   Good things I have pictures... I think...  Of the things I saw and did over the brief 48 hour period.  It all seems like a blur because it was over so quickly.  Then again,  Time always seems to fly when you are having fun...  

At least I think it was fun.   Let''s get started!

So...Cheryl Signed up for a Half Marathon in Naperville, IL.  And she was kind enough to invite me to join her.   Thankfully, it was only an hour and a half away from where I am currently residing, so I did not have to begin traveling until Saturday morning.  This allowed me to experience a Football game at the local Lutheran Highschool.  Shoreland Lutheran got beat by Lake County Lutheran by nearly 30 points! ( 48-19 final)  It was cold, windy and rainy!  And I wore shorts to the game... because....  Arctic Infantry?   Call it:  "Practice being Miserable."  Because that was what it was.   I got wet,  and cold.  But at least I didn't have to stay for the entire game to realize the home team was going to lose this one.  Shoreland is a Very small high school and apparently, they have very few players.  Many are freshmen and sophomores and they end up playing both ways for offense and defense.   So... Not a lot of horses to draw from when injuries thin the herd.   But this was their last game for the season... and I got to watch it!   Half of it at least..

Off to Chicago!  Or Naperville, if you want to be specific.  Cheryl linked up with me at the expo and we picked up the packet for the race.   The race was in the early morning and the temps had not warmed up at all since the previous night.  Good thing I had all of that misery training from the football game!  

The race started at 7 AM... So there was very little else to do except run for a cheer spot and cheer her on.   I was able to get her at several spots because the race was a giant loop twice around the area/town.

While cheering,  I was able to get a selfie with one of the local Mascots.  Let no mascot escape from my blog trophy case!

Cheryl started too far in the back, and lost precious seconds trying to get ahead of many slower people.   Around the second loop, she finally started to catch her stride and move up from 19th female to 12th at the finish.  It was a close race for her with the #13 lady.   Who had the strangest stride of all of the females out there.   She ran as if she had a birth defect!  Yet she was FAST!   under 7.5 minute a mile fast!   for 13 miles!  She was ahead of Cheryl most of the first half and was right on Cheryl's heels at the finish line.  Handy cap?   I think not!

Cheryl won first in her age group and was pretty excited about the run.  She is now looking forward to a possible Marathon in the future.   We shall see before I make any projections on the blog.  But... there it is. 

After the race,   we went to IKEA for some meatballs and window shopping.   Cheryl found all of the windows IKEA had and checked them out.

She also wanted to show off her new corner office from her job.  

I never knew Kalona had high rise buildings!   Living in the city must be brutal.  So Cheryl wanted to check out the bedrooms for a quick nap.  

Visiting IKEA seems to have become a bit of a tradition as of late.  I think this is the most we have visited IKEA and not bought anything except the food.  Ok... A few minor purchases.  But no major furniture or housewares!  It's kind of fun going there even when you are not in the market for any specific thing to add to your small apartment.  It's also nice not having to worry about how you will be getting it home...

See the runners approaching?

One final note from the race:   While waiting near the finish line,  a Hawk dropped down on the bridge wall and sat there... watching the runners run by mere inches away.  I wondered, at first, if it was a duck from the river... looking for a handout or something.   But upon closer inspection, it was... in fact...  a Hawk! 

Domesticated?   I don't know.   Friendly?   I'm thinking yes!    He flew down by this kid who was sitting only a few feet away on the same wall.  Kind of a cool experience.

  I even went back after Cheryl had finished her race to show her.   By then, the hawk had flown up onto the lightpost near by,  but was still in the area!  A small crowd had gathered to check out the bird and not just the runners.  I suppose that might have been a little too uncomfortable for the bird.   But not enough to fly away completely.   Perhaps he was just curious.   Or maybe he was scared a runner might get hungry or something...

What kind of bird is that???

A long post.  And it is getting late.   Better wrap this up and try to get it posted before it gets too late.   I hope everyone had a great weekend.   Weekends seem to fly by now that both Cheryl and I have both have jobs.   And now that we have been living in separate states.  But for now....  Enjoy the moment.   Or at least the memory of the moment.   After all... Isn't that part of what blogging is all about?   Thanks for stopping in.