We’re getting snow

Not much, but it’s our first snow of the year and it’s not sticking to anything. Yet. This is much later than our usual first snow here in Northern Minnesota. We usually begin getting accumulation that sticks around till spring in late October. We’re really grateful that it didn’t snow earlier as it let us get a lot of odd jobs finished, like taking my “fish in the garden” ceramic Koi fish in the greenhouse for the winter, getting more firewood up, and other chores.

Will has been cleaning up the 20-acre parcel a mile from the house, which he bought a couple of years ago. Why? I don’t know. Maybe another isolation garden? We call it the Alligator Garden, as the back drops off toward a small creek. Parts of it were overgrown with brush and willow bushes and he wanted to get it cleared off. He took our big, new-to-him Kubota tractor over there and started tearing out the brush by the roots with the tined manure bucket on the front loader. That went great. Until a few days ago, when he headed home. He stopped to pick up a single bottom plow he’d used to create a ditch along our driveway with the bucket. But, when he was almost home, he hit a bump, the plow jolted out of the bucket, right under the tractor. Yep, it punched a hole in the big (expensive) rear tire, filled with rim-guard fluid (for weight). He made it on home, spewing out sugar beet juice all the way (at $8 a gallon!).

The tire is now at the heavy equipment tire shop, and he ordered another tire ($1,100). Whew! I’ll be glad when our bad luck stops! He took the bulldozer over to finish up the job.

Meanwhile, I’ve been cleaning house, getting ready to host our family Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. While I was doing that, I ran across some Cowboy Candy syrup I’d accidently boiled for a long time. It got very thick and kind of caramel flavored. With the vinegar and spices in it, I think it’ll make an excellent sore-throat cure. I also winnowed out a bin of beautiful beans, Mrs. Marotti’s Black Romano, which is a dual-purpose snap/dry bean. I think they’ll make an excellent baking bean. Yum! — Jackie