Halloween Traditions?

Last Friday we went to see our local Vista Theatre production of The Rocky Horror Show... mainly because one of Kayo's coworkers was in it. It's such a different sub-culture genre that we tried to fit in by dressing up a bit and also previewing the movie version. It was definitely an interesting experience. But we had fun. The theatre puts out The Rocky every Halloween season, so it could be our strange but fun tradition....  

Another, more normal, tradition for Halloween is pumpkin carving. Last night we each carved a pumpkin. Tomorrow evening Joe will be home and light our pumpkins for trick-or-treaters.

Happy Halloween to everyone!  

Color Tour... In the Fog!?

On Sunday we took Joe's mom out for her belated birthday. We decided to drive up to the Copper Country, hoping to catch some fall colors, though it was a cool wet drizzly day. We got to see some colors through car windows on our way. Then we observed that we were driving into the fog. When we finally drove up to Brockway Mountain Drive, we found ourselves in the total white.
Here Joe and I stand in front of the valley, which is completely invisible!

Our final destination on this trip was Harbor Haus. As expected, we had a wonderful meal there, though our view out the window was a bit limited.

Our color tour was mostly in the fog... in that very mystifying way. But we were glad we went for the ride. It was fun. Though as you might have guessed, Monday was a beautiful sunny fall day, perfect for a color tour! Oh well.

Grapes, Grapes, Grapes!

Since our spring came so late, we were worried that our grapes didn't have a long enough growing season. In contrast, however, Joe picked the most grapes yet ever. Roughly 60 pounds of grapes! And they all turned color at the same time. So Joe picked the grapes, got rid of stems patiently, then boiled and made juice.... While Joe went out to pick some more grapes, I made grape jelly and canned, just to make more room for more juice. Dealing with all the grapes was our night job for the whole week.

All the grapes had been picked, either turned into jelly or juice. Joe ended up using 25 pounds of grapes to make wine. Eventually he filled that huge crock in the below photo most of the way with wine-to-be. After a several days now it's starting to ferment. It smells wonderful!

Taste of Autumn

It's October, and trout season is officially over. The fall color is also all around us. Since we weren't home to go out fishing on Apple Creek one last time this weekend, Joe hit the stream a couple of afternoons last week. He might have missed other much bigger (smarter) fish, but he managed to come home with a very nice salmon or two both days. Tonight we had fresh salmon roe and avocado over rice for dinner. A decadent treat.

Finally a female packed with salmon roe (below). That night we patiently cleaned the roe (lots of work!) and marinated in the sweet soy sauce mixture. Kayo was happy!

Now we get to deal with our grapes. Joe finished stemming all 15 pounds of grapes last night. Tonight he is squeezing the grape juice to be turned into jelly later. It's work, but rather gratifying. That's what you call "priceless," truly the Nature's gift.