Monday Squawk

Hope you all had a nice weekend. The weather was great. A little cold in the mornings but warmed up really nice.

Steph and I spent the weekend canning. She made dilly beans and I made high bush cranberry jelly, then we both worked on some hot vegetable mix which included cauliflower, peppers both sweet and hot,cucumber, onions and carrots. It looks good hope that when we try it in 6 weeks it tastes good also.

Not much happening around as far as I know. Hope this weekend is busy being that it is Labor Day weekend. It has been pretty quiet around.

Glen at Hoot & Holler is having a big weekend with drink specials, prizes and food on Saturday.

On Labor Day Monday will be the rubber ducky race in Squaw Lake.

I'm thinking winter is coming so am working on getting the wood in the basement. The boys worked last weekend and got quite a bit sawed up for me. Hopefully in the next week or so will have the basement full and then a pile outside next to the house covered up.

Tomorrow I am going to make some jam called Carrot Cake Jam. It is a pear jam flavored so that it tastes like carrot cake. I made some Carmel Apple butter earlier this summer and that was really good.

I'm a little worried about our pickled beets this year. It was a funny growing year so they didn't do very well and they have been high priced at the farmers market. Might be a slim year for pickled beets.

Hopefully, we will get Indian Summer this year since we didn't have many days of summer. I wouldn't mind nice weather until the middle of November.

Have any of you read the book Life With Arnie by Kathy Peterson. It is an entertaining book. It is for sale at the Mini Max Flea Market, Max Mini Store, and also First Week Boutique.

Today I had a visit from my old friend Lynne Hubert and girls from Bozeman, Montana. It was really nice to see them again. It is too bad that we all get involved in our lives and sometimes forget to keep in touch with others.

Well, a week from tomorrow and school starts and then I can start giving you a game report. I've seen a few deer around but not too many. Haven't seen many ducks in the ponds but there have been quite a few on Round Lake.

This weekend starts early goose season. Randy is overjoyed by this prospect. He loves to hunt geese and ducks. The geese have been coming into the field pretty regularly so maybe he will be able to get some. I'm going to try and smoke one this year.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Steph said it is a weekend of fun no working. I'll go along with that but then next week I will have to get back into the swing of things.

The growing season has been so pitiful this year that I had to buy zucchini to make zucchini bread. I remember years ago when you had better lock your car if you didn't want it filled. Anyway I thought I would give you my recipe for zucchini bread.

Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 cups sugar
3 cups of grated zucchini ( not peeled)
1/2 cup. chopped nuts
1 cup craisins
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. vanilla
1 cup oil
3 eggs


Sift together flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and baking powder. Beat eggs. Add sugar, vanilla, and oil, mix well. Stir in grated zucchini, add dry ingredients and blend. Stir in nuts and craisins, Bake in two greased bread pans (9 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches). Bake at 350 degrees for 60 - 70 minutes.

Hope you enjoy this.

Well, that all for now folks. Have a great week in case I get too busy to write.

Julie

Dump cake recipe

Dump Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1 - 20oz crushed pineapple
1- can cherry pie filling
1 stick butter

Spray a 9x13 cake pan. Dump in pineapple and cherry pie filling mixing together. Sprinkle cake mix over the top. Melt butter and drizzle over top of cake in small streams. Bake in 350 degree oven about 1/2 hour or until it is browned nicely. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!!

Upcoming Events

September 2, 10 am. Women of the Woods (WOW) at the Sand Lake Community Center. Learn how to make a cloth covered photo album.

September 7, 5pm - Duck's Unlimited Rubber Ducky Race in Squaw Lake. Tickets on sale now. I've seen them at the Mini Store not sure where else they are for sale.

September 8, 5pm. Evergreen Friendship Club presents the Cowboy Church Group at Sand Lake Community Center. Free will donation. Everyone Welcome.

September 12 - Itasca Habitat for Humanity Chapter Motorcycle Ride. Register at 9:30am at the Restore Center on Highway 169 East across from the Midway Bowling Alley in Grand Rapids. Leave 11 am for 160 mile ride. $30.00per person includes lunch and T-shirt. Drawings for prizes at end of ride. Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity.

September 14 - WOW going away luncheon at Anabella's Antique Mall and Coffee Shoppe in Bovey. Plan is to eat at noon.

September 19 - Highway 38 Garage Sales and Good from the Woods at Ruttger's Sugar Lake Lodge.

September 28th - 10am - WOW meeting Sand Lake Community Center, Plant Exhange outside and Lefsa making inside.

November 2 - WOW Wreath making with Kim Giehler at her place. Contact Kim at 659-4654 for further info.

November 23, 10am - WOW meeting at Sand Lake Community Center with glass painting by Diane Stay. Bring a wineglass, vase or whatever glass object. For more info contact Diane at 659-2606.

October 17-8pm- Squaw Lake Firemen's Dance, music by Union Rebels (hope I got the name right) Raffles and silent auction items. Hope to see you there.

February 2010, 19,20,21 - WOW Weekend Winter Retreat where year around WOW's will provide lodging for our snowbirds who want to fly up north for a winter experience. Contact Nancy Gwinn at 659-2755 or after August at 217-359-2294.

That's all I've got now.

Hi Again

Hi Folks,

Sorry the blog has been so quiet. I have seemed to run out of words the last couple of weeks and I haven't heard of much going on around the area. Of course if I left home more than to go to work I might of heard something.

I guess the wedding was the climax and after I seemed to run out of steam. I just couldn't get myself motivated to do much of anything. I hate it when it rains and is gloomy because I fight depression. I probably should just go and get a little white happy pill and take one a day but it goes against my grain that I can't be happy with all the things that are great in my life. So somedays I have these pity parties of one and I don't want to subject anyone to my fits of temper.

Anyway, the last few days have had lots of sunshine in them and I'm doing great. I made soap yesterday for the first time since March. I made 3 big batches and it was wonderful. Then I went out and started putting wood in the basement for winter. Today I worked and tomorrow I will put some more wood in before I go to a meeting and work in the afternoon.

This weekend Steph and I are making jelly, jam and pickled green beans. Last weekend we made Bread & Butter Pickles. It is wonderful working in my new kitchen in the garage. I will try and remember to take some pictures and post here so you can see how nice it is. If I repeat myself I'm sorry but I have that horrible disease of CRS and it seems to be getting worse. The kids just tell me Mom you've already told that one. Anyway, I have the big stove from the Squaw Lake School and a 3 section stainless steel sink, cupboards, a cold bar from subway that we have put a counter top on when we don't need it to keep things cold, a subway oven. We still need a few things like it would be nice to have a kitchen aid mixer out there and we still have to haul a few things out of our houses but hopefully by next year we will have the kitchen stuff out there so we don't have to steal from our houses to do everything we want in the garage kitchen.

The leaves are already starting to turn in places. The geese have started coming back into the field. We have about 50 or so each day. We've seen 2 does one with twins and the other has a single fawn. They still have some spots on them. Otherwise, not to much wildlife around here. Seen a few grouse but not alot of them.

I spent the day on Tuesday at an in-service for bus driving. It was one long day but I got over 2 dozen scrubbies crocheted while sitting there listening. At least this year they had a new movie for training. I've been going to these for over 20 years and have seen the same movie for training most years. Hard to believe that I've been driving bus for 37 years. I'm hauling children of kids I hauled back when I started.

I'll try and write more often but it just depends on if I know anything or not. Some days I'm like Sargent Schultz, "I know nothing".

Hope this finds all of you in good health and spirits.

Take care,
Julie

Some news more squawk

Wow, the week is almost over and I haven't wrote anything. I haven't done anything this week so I don't have much to talk about.

Sunday, September 13 at 2 pm at the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork The Pretenders and Friends will be playing. $5 Tickets will be sold at the door. This is a good time for all.

With this cooler weather I've been thinking about canning and baking. I should be thinking about the wood pile but I've been too lazy to think about that. Everything is so wet right now that I hate to put it in the basement. I will have to run the dehumidifer for that.

There seems to be quite a bit of activity in the woods right now with all the bear baiters. Maybe we will get some nice weather around the 1st. Seems like when it is time to hunt bear that the weather changes.

Ice Cream and Pie Social at Kinghurst Town Hall on Sunday, August 23rd. Proceed go toward a new furnace for the hall.

Anyone have any good recipes to try? I'm always looking for new ones. Last week I made my tater tot casserole. It makes a big bunch so I mix it up and then I put it in little casserole dishes and wrap in foil and freeze. I just take it frozen from the freezer and pop in the oven and in about an hour I have a nice hot meal. Comes in handy when I'm busy.

Tater Tot Casserole

1 pound ground beef
1 onion large or small your choice I use large
1 cup diced celery
2 cans cream of mushroom soup or whatever cream soup you like
salt, pepper, garlic to your taste
1cup or so of frozen mixed vegetables or whatever vegetable you like
sliced American cheese
shredded cheese
tater tots

Brown the ground beef with the celery and onion until beef is done and celery and onion are soft.(If freezing let this mixture cool to room tempature before adding the rest of the ingredients.)
Add your seasonings and soups. Mix in the frozen vegetables. Put this in a bottom of casserole dish that has been sprayed with Pam. Add a layer of slice American Cheese. Arrange tater tots over the top. (If freezing cover with foil and put in freezer). If baking right away put in 350 degree oven and bake until tater tots are brown and crispy just before taking out of oven sprinkle shredded cheese over top of tater tots and bake til cheese is melted. I bake the frozen casseroles in a 350 degree oven also.

As you can see I don't do alot of measuring when I'm cooking. If it looks and tastes good that is all I worry about.

Hope all of you are in good health and great spirits.

Julie

Sunday, Aug. 16

Well, I sure put in a lazy day today. Took a nap and watched some tv. I don't do that too often.

Boy we really had some rain showers off and on today. Good then I didn't feel I had to go outside and do something.

I watched the musical Mama Mia last night. I don't usually watch too many movies but was glad I saw that one. I want to go see the movie Julie & Julia about Julia Childs think that will be an interesting one.

September 23rd the St. Catherine and Centennial Lutheran Ladies will again put on the Community Supper with proceeds going to Fresh Water For Life. They will be serving Taco's this time. Serving starts at 5 and goes to 7. Hope to see you all there.

Otherwise, haven't heard too much of what is going on. School starts on the 8th.

Today I was looking up some new jam recipes to try. The other day I tried Carmalized Onion Garlic Jam. I had it on a cracker with some roast beef and it was really good so now I'm going to try and make some. I like to try different things.

Hope this finds all of you in good health. If you have anything you'd like put on the blog drop me a line.

Take care,
Julie

squawk

Thanks to the Centennial Lutheran Church and Kinghurst townhall for the use of their plates. We were able to serve with real plates and silverware. Steph got some linen napkins somewhere so we were set. It made for a nice looking table with the candles and the silverware wrapped in the napkins.

The people who helped us with the serving were outstanding. Thanks seems like such a small word for all the work they did. This couldn't of been pulled off without all the help we received from friends and family.

It was a wonderful time but truthfully I'm glad it's over. I'm exhausted. It was a lot of work to crammed into one summer. Hopefully I can keep up on the buildings so that they don't get so run down.

It was a very fun evening when the dancing started. It was so cute to see all the little kids out there having a great time with their dancing. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I know I didn't go to bed until after 2am. I did however sneek in for a snappy nap around 10pm. Amazing what a 15 minute snooze does for me.

I was dreading the cleanup on Sunday morning but even that went well. We went to the Crow Bar for a breakfast buffet that they put on and when we came home everyone pitched in and alot of stuff was done by 2. Of course there is minor stuff to do yet like bring back to the house everything I took out to the kitchen in the garage. I'm going to have to hit a few yard sales and pick up the stuff that I am taking from my house to it.

The kitchen in the garage turned out beyond my dreams. I still need to get an on demand hot water heater because the one I have is too small to keep up. But with the stove I bought from the Squaw Lake School and the other things I have accumulated it is set up pretty nice. It will be nice to can the beets that we pickle out there this year.

The son-in-law built two screen to fit into the overhead door openings so we can have the doors open but don't get the bugs and flies. We even have a 3 section stainless steel sink out there.

Now it is time to begin thinking about the winter wood pile. I did buy some that was cut and split but I bought alot that is in 100 inch sticks so that will have to be cut up and split and put in a pile. Hopefully, Randy and some of his friends will cut it up for me. Then I can work on the splitting and putting into the basement. It really isn't so bad if I do a little each day, it is when I think I'm Super Woman and over do that I wonder why I burn wood. Steph asked me last year if I thought I saved money by burning wood and the answer is NO but the heat from the wood is so much better than the propane.

Well, it is raining again this afternoon. Was hot here this week in between the rains. I think we might of had a couple days of summer. I suppose with bear season just around the corner it will get hot. Seems like they have a bunch of hot days when the season starts.

I think I am going to do not too much of anything this week coming up and get rested up so that the next week I will feel like working. Hard to believe that in about 3 weeks school starts.

I hope this finds all of you well and you will have a great week. I will try and get back on schedule of writing and letting you know what is going on around Squaw Lake.

Take care,
Julie

Squawk

Christmas in August is over. We had a good turnout of vendors in crafts, flea market and one in farmers market. The attendance seemed to be down to me but I could be wrong. I had a good day people seem to like my smelly jellies so that made for a good day.

Tomorrow I'm not going to do too much. I am going to be a lazy load that just sits around. It has been a while since I did that.

Now back to the wedding. If I repeat myself I'm sorry but I have a hard time viewing what I have posted and getting back to the draft I'm typing. Hopefully one of these days I will learn this program. Anyway we

Christmas in August

Christmas in August is growing. We are now up to 12 crafters, 8 flea Market and 1 Farmer's Market. I got a call tonight that there will be fresh sweet corn for sale there this weekend. Hope to see you there.

More wedding squawk

I thought the tents looked awesome. Steph had white tulle on the outside, red tulle on the inside with a string of Christmas lights in the middle. This was scalloped around the inside of each tent. The same combination was hooked up to the tent poles and flowed down to the corners of the tent. Each tent had a chandelier hanging in it. The tables were covered with white tableclothes then a piece of red organza over that and a runner of black and white paper down the center. On each end of the table was a mirror with votive candles and in the center was a mirror and candlelabra with 2 votive candles. Between the ends of the tables were potted impatients. Each table was set with glass champagne glasses and linen napkins holding the silverware. We had borrowed real plates to finish off with.

Outside down by the Scotch Pines we put white picket fence with and arbor and had plants hanging on the fence. They had set up chairs and had flowers at the ends of each row of chairs.

The only problem I saw is that as usual I didn't get to visit with everyone. I'd see someone and when I was free to go and visit they had already left. So I'm sorry if you were here and I didn't get a chance to talk to you.

My farm looks wonderful with the barn painted and fixed up. The siding on the old garage and the house painted. I find myself standing out in the yard just looking around at all the improvements.

Well it's been another long day. I hope this finds all of you in good health.

Julie

Christmas in August in Squaw Lake

August 15th in Squaw Lake is going to be a busy day.

Max Mini Store will be having sales starting at 8 am and going to 4pm. They will have sidewalk sales and instore specials.

Centennial Lutheran Ladies will be osting their annual Sandwich and Salad luncheon with Bake Sale and crafts. Everything starts at 11 and goes to 1.

Squaw Lake Community Center will have their annual Christmas In August Craft and Flea Market. This will start at 9am and go to 3pm. We have 10 crafters and displayers. Hope to see you there.

I know it's been a while since I posted. You'll have to forgive me but I was too busy to write. By the time I was done for the day all I wanted to see was the bed.

The week of the 27th of July was a grueling week. I was trying to finish the garage and Mother Nature was working against me. It seemed like it rained every day. I was finally down to painting the floor. Art helped me on the evening of the 27th etch the floor with acid. Then it had to dry so Mary and I started painting on the 28th. We painted 3/4 of the floor. We had too many big things in there to move out so we decided to paint 3/4 of it and then do the rest the next night. We put 1 gallon of paint on the floor and then another and then part of a third. Looked pretty good. The next afternoon I went out there to start moving everything we had on wheel so I could paint the rest and when I looked at the floor it was two different shades of grey. You could see where we stopped with one gallon and started the next. So I took the rest of the paint and mixed it together and repainted the floor so it would be all one color. On day 3 we got the heavy things moved over and painted the rest of the floor. Looked good. On day 4 I went to the garage and looked at the floor. 3/4 of the floor had this nice shine to it because it had been painted twice and the rest looked like the dickens. So repaint that part of the floor. So a two day job took 4 days.

Saturday the 1st, the load of flowers comes up from the cities in an enclosed trailor. Open the door and look in and the platform that was built in there to hold a layer of flowers had collapsed. It made a person sick to their stomach but we started unloading to see how much damage had been done. Someone was really looking out for us because when it collapsed it landed on a big planter and that had held up the platform. A little pruning and the flowers looked great.

So a long weekend of hooking everything up in the garage and installing cabinets, siding the rest of the old garage.

Steph stayed up on Sunday and we started finishing the plans. We ran to town on Monday and bought the last (we hope) of things we needed.

Wednesday the tents were delivered and the decorations were started. I helped some with the decorations on Wednesday but started on the food. The ladies helping me were thoroughly sick of celery and onions by the end of the day.

When we get the pictures back I will try and load some on here so that you can see how the tents were decorated.

The menu for the wedding was Roast Pork, Roast Turkey, Mashed Potatos, Gravy, Corn, Wild rice, Baked Beans, Rotini Italian Salad, Tuna Salad, Oriental Cabbage Salad, Coleslaw, Veggies and dip, fresh fruit, buns, Salsa and chips. I had done some of the prep ahaead on a few things. Thank goodness for friends as they turn out from Wednesday on to help with the preparations.

Well, I'm beat so will write more tomorrow.

Hope you are all in good health.
Julie