Today guys went out in the woods to put up their deer blinds. They are back at their normal hunting spots after the entry path got logged last year. The old hunting spots are untouched. They had pretty good deer signs, too: all the bait was gone from a few days ago.
Me wearing a camo sweatshirt and a hunter's orange hat! I'm just going along with Joe to enjoy being in the woods.
Joe has a to-do list before deer season, in about two weeks. Yesterday he and his little brother Mark went out to sight in their deer rifles. I got to go along with them just for fun.
Right on the target!
After this we had a little fun shooting. Believe me, none of the shotgun shells in the below picture were ours. This gravel pit site is a popular place for shooting. 
No doubt there's a big empty hole that Joe's dad has left. But very fortunately so many things stay the same. Many wonderful memories, and many more new ones.
After having made enough jelly from 20 pounds of our grapes, we decided that the rest of grapes can be turned into something else, other than jelly! Joe was itching to try grape wine making again, this time with a packet of yeast. So he picked a little over 10 pounds of grapes last night (note: there are MORE grapes yet on the vines) and followed one of the simplest recipes for wine making. It's simply grapes, water, sugar, and yeast. Nothing else.
Onto a different subject. Yesterday I made gyoza, pot stickers, again from scratch. I wanted to perfect my wrappers, not too soft. Here's a stack of 20 gyoza wrappers I made. 
Filled....
Yum.... I'd go through the trouble of making homemade wrappers again when I have enough time. It was worth it.
On this lazy relaxing Sunday, we actually didn't go anywhere for a change. The only time Joe went outside was when he picked another ten pounds of grapes (oh, and when he chased a flock of birds out of his grape vines). For dinner I made okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancakes) as a main dish, along with soba noodle in light soup and corn on the cobs with a hint of butter/soy sauce. Everything you would find at a street fair in Japan. A fun accident! 
For dessert was matcha (strong green tea served at a tea ceremony) ice cream. Thanks to Tak for having brought me a container of matcha powder from Japan, I just mixed Breyers vanilla ice cream with some matcha powder. Almost, only almost, as good as the real matcha ice cream in Japan.
P.S. Joe is getting grape juice squeezed in the kitchen as I type. I'll probably can some more grape jelly on Tuesday.
Just the other day I attempted to make dragon sushi rolls again. I wanted to make a different presentation from the previous time. Better... but not scary enough.
Yesterday I ended up making three batches of grape jelly, using up all 10 pounds of grapes we picked the day before. I figured I got everything set up for jelly making and canning, why not? Besides we have many more grapes ripening on the vines.
