Fall Is In The Air

I really like this time of year.  I like the cooler temperatures especially the cool nights and warm days.  I like the colors of the changing leaves.  I like the smell of cinnamon and apples and pumpkin deserts.  I decorate almost as much for fall as I do for Christmas. 

In addition to fall decorating on the porch and in the house, we like to decorate sugar cookies.  Ewan still loves to make cookies with Nana, and every year we try to have a little weekend afternoon cookie session.  This year it was just our daughter Heather and five year old grandson Ewan.  It's sad that the other grandkids are getting too busy and soon even Ewan will move on to other things.  For now we are loving this time.  I cut out the cookies and baked them.  Then Ewan and Heather began decorating them.  They had fun being creative and sampling some.  Papa also had to taste test them to make sure they were of a high quality.

Another fun memory, that's for sure.

It is also time to cut and dry the hydrangeas.  They are beautiful this year, and they make wonderful fall decorations.  Anyone who lives near me is welcome to come and cut some.  I have a few left, but they need to be cut before the frost.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/09/time-to-dry-your-hydrangea-blossoms.html 

 
Last year we didn't have any acorns, but this year they are plentiful.  Everyday we hear them falling on the roof.  We even have little corn stalks popping up all over.  I'm not sure how these little plants got seeded.  The field corn we feed the animals would make a regular size corn stalk.  These are cute, and I will be drying these as well.

There are so many happy signs of fall that I can't mention them all.  Today the 2015 Whooping Cranes started their migration with the assistance of the ultralight aircraft they have been training with.  We hope they have an easy migration because last year was a struggle due to bad weather and wind conditions.  Four cranes from previous years were spotted in the training area.  I will be anxious to hear if they are heading south as well.  Here is the link to keep track of their progress.  It is fun and educational.  http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/

Blood Moon Eclipse

This blog post is purely to document last night's total eclipse of the super moon.  A lunar eclipse (also known as a blood moon) happens when the Moon passes directly behind the Earth's shadow.  It occurs when the sun, earth and moon are lined up.   Since all my blog pieces end up in a book we make for the family, I wanted the September 27, 2015 eclipse to be included.  I will be 85 before the next one occurs in 2033, and so I thought I should take some photos just in case I can't be available for the next one, if you know what I mean. 

I am not a professional photographer and taking pictures of the moon is difficult for me.  I'm never sure how to adjust the settings up for such a dark background.  This is the best I could do.  There are tons of awesome photos of this event on TV and on the web, but these were captured from our deck in Princeton.

Beginning the wait for the lunar eclipse.  It's 7:04pm

The geese are looking for a place to spend the night at 7:05pm.

7:06pm

7:14pm and a few clouds are rolling in.

The eclipse is starting, it's 8:06pm.

8:16pm... . See the shadow on the left.

8:51pm

Supermoon eclipse 9:07pm.

9:08pm closeup

Lost in the trees at 10:36pm.  A bit hard to see and high in the sky.

Back to a normal full moon sometime during the night.

Making a Glockenspiel

Who knows what a glockenspiel is?  I thought it was something very different from what it is.  When my grandson wanted my husband to help him make one for a science project, I had to look it up.  His assignment was to make a musical instrument, and how he came up with this one is something I must ask him.  I guess I always thought they were called Xylophones, but there is a difference. They are both melodic percussion instruments, but a glockenspiel is made with metal and a xylophone is made out of wood.  They make different sounds because of the difference in materials.

The first thing Sam and his mom did was look up how to make a glockenspiel.  They found a couple possibilities and sent my husband an email with instructions.  Sam likes to work with Papa, and he knows we have a lot of tools.  They think Papa can make anything, even though that isn't really true.  In this case it was true.  Wednesday was a half day of school for Sam, so in the morning we took a trip to the lumber yard and craft store.  We picked up the supplies necessary that we didn't already have on hand.  Then on the way home, we picked up Sam and brought him home with us.

The boys went to the garage to start the project.  Even though I didn't get photos, they told me they used the bolt cutter, drill, table saw, air brad nailer and a hammer.  When they came inside, they had made the basic bones of the instrument.  The next step was to cut copper pipe in various lengths.  Each length would make a different sound when tapped with the mallet.  We found an app for that.  Someone had designed a formula for figuring out the relationship between frequency and length of pipe.  This is an example of the chart which included two or three octaves, so we had all the measurements we needed.

Note	Frequency (Hz)	Length (CM)
C1	32.7	17.49

Papa measured and Sam cut the pieces.

Sam cutting the copper pipe.

The next thing was to attach the lengths of pipe to the base.  At first he used thick pony tail bands.  It worked for the first two longer pipes but there wasn't enough movement with the shorter pieces.  With the thicker bands, the sound was flat.  Next he tried rubber bands.  That worked great.  The mallets were made out of dowels and wooden beads.  Technically they should be plastic, rubber or metal but that would have complicated things and gluing a wooden bead was easiest.

One by one attaching the pipes.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do  It sounds great.

Sam is all decked out in his orange hat and orange shirt.  It was Hat Day at school for Homecoming Week.  Now the project is done.  All he has to do is write his report about it. 

Banana Ripening Technique Debunked

I did a little experiment recently.  I read on Facebook that bananas keep much longer if you wrap the ends of the banana with plastic wrap.  I bought a bunch of semi-green bananas.  I wrapped some of them with plastic wrap and left the others.  I took this photo after a couple days.

At first I thought the wrapped bananas looked like they had a little more green near the stem.  We ate one of each and didn't notice a difference.  I left them a few more days and this was the result.  No difference.

A week later I tried the experiment again.  I had the same result.  No change in the rate of ripening.

My conclusion is that wrapping the stem with plastic wrap has no effect on how fast a banana will ripen.  Most of all, don't believe everything you read or share on Facebook.

The Milkweed Bug

I always let a few milkweed plants grow in our perennial garden.  Although considered a weed, I like them for many reasons.  They have a pink flower and a pod which bursts in the fall leaving fluffy silky fibers with a seed attached.

These are the milkweed pods that form after flowering.

In the fall the pod will burst open and the wind disperses the seeds.

I especially like milkweed plants because they attract monarch butterflies.  It is the main food source for the monarch butterfly larvae.  I have written about this butterfly before and even used similar photos but focused on the butterfly and not the flower or pod.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/07/monarch-butterfly.html

Milkweed Bugs clustered on a milkweed pod.

What I haven't mentioned before is the Milkweed Bug.  In the fall when the temperatures are cooler at night but approach eighty degrees during the day, the female Milkweed Bug lays eggs on the milkweed plant.  When the eggs hatch, the tiny little bugs called nymphs eat from the plant.  They start out very small and molt several times until they become their adult size.

You can see several sizes here.  See the tiny one on the leaf.

They continue feasting on the plant, actually destroying the seeds and sucking the sap.  Birds and other predators don't eat them because the milky sap is toxic.  If you want to destroy them you don't have to worry about their defenses.  These bugs don't bite or sting.   I just leave them because we have more than enough milkweed surviving and reemerging every year.

Here is an adult Milkweed Bug.  The adults can fly.

Our "Morning Mist" Framed By Kalbarri Picture Framers

Last July when we were on vacation, we stopped to see one of my husband's high school friends.  He now lives in Dandridge, Tennessee after living in Australia for many years.  I had only met Dan once and had never met his wife Leonie.  It was a wonderful visit, and we felt very comfortable with them.  We learned that he had a picture framing business in Australia and was continuing it here in the states.  The name of his business is Kalbarri Picture Framers.  His website is http://kalbarripictureframers.com/ and his Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/kalbarripictureframers?fref=ts  I would recommend looking at the variety of frames he can make out of many different kinds of woods.  He has a very nice set up and an artistic eye.  We were very impressed.

Although I am not a professional photographer, I take a lot of pictures.  We thought it would be nice to have one of my photos framed.  We struggled with which one to choose.  Most of my pictures are of local wildlife, but those aren't very unique.  We thought about a family photo, but the kids change so much that in a year that would be obsolete.  Finally we decided on a picture I took recently from our deck.  Anyone who knows us or has seen my blog photos will recognize the church steeple in many of my pictures.  Off across our marsh is a view of the church.  The photo we chose was at sunrise when the misty fog was beginning to burn off.  I emailed the jpeg to Dan a few weeks ago and chose the type and size we wanted.

When the mail came today, guess what was delivered.  My picture came in this beautiful gorgeous frame.  It is so unique.  It is rustic oak slabwood with the bark still on in this irregular shape.  It is like nothing you can purchase in a store.  Although the photo looks like something you would see in any calendar, to us it is special and the view we see each day. 

Framed photo of our view from the deck.

For those interested, this is the information on the back of the framed picture. 

Organize Your Credit, Debit and Reward Cards

One of my husband's pet peeves with me happens whenever I pay for an item at a store.  I stash my receipt and change or debit card or credit card into my purse.  Then at the next store, I'm scrambling to find my cash or card to pay.  Since I'm the one usually paying, he gives me "the look".  If you have seen my husband, he can give "the look".  He taught seventh graders for thirty three years so he is really good at it.   I had gotten better in recent years.  I would put my card back in it's spot each time to avoid the problem.  I still was having difficulties with reward cards and grocery store cards.  I would forget and then at checkout they would ask if I had a reward card.  I would say yes, but then couldn't find it.  Usually they would have to look up our phone number and spend more time finding it than the benefit received from using the card. Most change purse/wallets have slots for cards, but not near enough for all of them I have.  The other day I went shopping with my very organized daughter.  You may remember her from her menu planning skills.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/02/meal-planning-system.html

She had purchased a Thirty-One Mini On-The-Go Organizer.  It was basically a small wallet with a little alphabetized file system inside.  When she paid in a store, she would easily get out the proper card.  I loved that system and knew I needed such a thing.  It would save a lot of time and dirty looks.  I found out that Thirty-One had retired this product.  I could have purchased one on ebay for about $20, but I set up my own.  I had this little zippered wallet and some index cards.

Zippered wallet that I had never used.

The first thing I did was take the pack of index cards.  I traced the shape of the credit card on the index card and put a small tab on the top by tracing a coin.

I traced onto index cards.

I staggered tracing the tab across the card.  I had four separate templates.  Then I just cut out the shapes and alphabetized them.

Each card had a letter except XYZ is on one.

I cleaned out my purse and collected every card I could find.  I put my important medical cards in a special place, my driver's license in the front, but took the rest and organized them by name.  Now if I go to Shopko and they ask if I have a rewards card, I look behind the "S" and there it is.  I love it.  My tabs are getting a little floppy so I think I will laminate them so they hold up longer.  I am lucky and have access to a laminator.   Yup, you guessed it.  My very organized daughter has one.

Update:  I found some plastic alphabet index cards.  I cut them to fit, and they work great and don't wear out.

A Ripon Wisconsin Corn Maze To Remember

In the previous blog, I wrote about the fun we had at the Color Vibe run to raise money for educational programs and activities at the EAA in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/09/the-color-vibe-5k.html

Then later in the day after Heather and Dylan got cleaned up from the run, we decided to attempt a Corn Maze not far from their house.  Earlier Heather had bought some beautiful plants at this farm and knew the Corn Maze was ready to open.  The maze was on the property of Kaufmann Farms and Petals and Plows (https://www.facebook.com/PetalsPlows?fref=ts)

Aerial photo of the maze.

Having done a corn maze in the past, I was fairly confident that it would be a fun activity but not too difficult.  I hadn't seen this aerial photo previous to starting out.  When we arrived there were a lot of activities happening.  They have tons of pumpkins, gourds, mums and other plants and produce for sale plus live music and carriage rides.

They even had the horses ready for carriage rides.

We purchased our tickets and received the map.  My other daughter Sarah and one of her sons had joined us.  Off we went excited to start.  The maze consisted of three sections.  There was a kiddie section, a medium maze and the long one.  We thought we should start with the long one.  Only later would we realize how long it actually was.  If you can read the map, it says 4.3 miles at the far end of the maze.  We hadn't read that in advance either.

The boys took off leaving us on our own.  They would get way ahead and and then come back to check on us.  We were struggling from the get go.  Being fairly intelligent individuals, we thought we could follow the map.  It wasn't long when we realized we were following the white line like they have in all the maze books, and we should have been following the black line.  We weren't the only people having trouble.  We ran into the same people over and over again.  I guess it is called a maze for a reason.  It is AMAZING if you ever find your way out.

After quite a bit of time, we finally found our way out.  I was pretty tired, but the kids wanted to do more.  The two big boys took off to the medium maze.  Thinking it would be shorter and easier, we thought "why not".  We started off fine, but then we got really confused.  The sun went under so we couldn't navigate by the sun, the corn stalks were eight feet high so we couldn't see over them and since this was the first day open, we couldn't follow footprints in the dirt.  We went around and around.  Ewan, our five year old grandson said "I think we're lost, we keep going around in circles".  He was right.  We managed to get all but two punches but had reached the point of "forget it, get us out of here!".  We hadn't brought water because we didn't think this would be such a workout.  When we finally emerged, there was Sam and Dylan sitting in the grass waiting for us.  They had not only finished the medium maze, they also finished the kiddie maze. They were grinning from ear to ear.  Thank goodness we didn't attempt that small one, or I'm afraid we would really have been humiliated.  

In spite of sore feet,

We are still smiling and in an upright position, so all is well.

I was even able to get out of bed this morning.  It was an awesome day to remember.  Now back to reality.  I should really go out and help stain the deck railings but my husband is doing such a great job, I think I will let him enjoy himself.

Doesn't he look happy or maybe NOT.

The Color Vibe 5K

Sometimes the best days are the ones you don't plan for.  That is what happened to us yesterday, September 12, 2015.  To some this won't seem fun or exciting, but to me it was a perfect day.  We had no time constraints or anything we had to do.  Well, that isn't exactly true, staining the deck is something that should have been done on a perfect fallish day without rain.  Hopefully that can be accomplished today unless we get another offer we can't refuse.

The day started out early.  We left the house at 7:00am to meet our daughter Heather and grandson Dylan.  They were running in a 5K Color Vibe race on the grounds of the EAA in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  It was a crisp cool morning so I put on a shirt, a sweatshirt and a light jacket.  Layering is the way to go at this time of year.  We got to the grounds and hundreds of people had already arrived.  I had not expected to see so many enthusiastic people this early in the day.  We were there to observe and take photos.  Little did we know that avoiding all the flying colored powder was going to be our biggest problem.  There was a stage set up and early on people were dancing and getting ready to run/walk.

It appeared that tutu's were the dress of the day.

As it got closer to the time of the race (which was 9:00 am), more and more people arrived.  There were a few thousand participating in all shapes and sizes.  It was a good race because it really isn't a race at all, it isn't even timed.

There were so many people that they had to start them in groups.  Heather and Dylan were in the third wave so it gave us time to get in position before getting trampled by excited people covered with colorful powder.

Ready, Set, GO!

Everyone is covered and they are just getting started. 

After everyone was on there way, we walked over to the finish line.  We knew it would take between thirty and forty minutes for most people to get to the finish line.  One guy finished in twenty minutes but he must have been a "real" runner because most of the people there weren't that serious about anything.

Yay, they finished.

A colorful ending.

It was only 10:10am and time for breakfast.  Little did I know that my day had just begun.  We had planned on attending our middle grandchild Sam's football game, but by the time everyone was cleaned up and fed it was too late.  That will have to be next weekends adventure.  Rather than go home Heather suggested the Corn Maze.  That sounded like a great idea.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/09/a-ripon-wisconsin-corn-maze-to-remember.html