Vacation Post 2- Waving at Kymber

We are on stop 2 of our journey this week. We are staying in Chequamegon National Forest near Sailor Lake. As you can see, we are within waving distance of Kymber!

National Forest camping isn't for your people that want cable tv, bathrooms with lights and showers, or comforts from home. Most of the time we camp very rustic. However being so far out from civilization does have its drawbacks. 30/30 came with us for bears.

Hopefully by this time, we have a cooler chocked full of ice and fish. We are going to stop in Park falls sometime this trip near Fond Du Lac to pick up a couple of pounds of Obijwe wild rice. The Native Americans up here still farm it on the lakes.  Hoping as well to pick up a couple lbs of dried cranberries as they farm them up here as well. Cranberry Rice stuffed fish anyone?

We will be heading home in time for the 4th of July holidays, plus to catch up on weeding at the farm.

Vacation Post 1

Vacation Post 1- I have hopefully scheduled these for posting when we are away.

We are staying at a sweet county park that we found a couple years ago up in South West Wisconsin for a few days.

It's run by the county and to be honest is a gem of a campground. While you will find NO electricity, NO showers and lowly porta toilets for use, the park has so much to offer! A large lake that is teeming with bullheads, a river that offers a wide variety of fish, and a night sky that is unbelievable! There is no light pollution up here and at night it looks like a paint bucket of stars thrown across the sky. Just after dark, the hoots will start hooting at one another and won't stop til dawn!

The monument is something that I enjoy "defiling" or "counting coop" on everytime we come up here. This park was the site of a battle between Kickapoo Indians and the army where all the Indians were killed by the army. The Indians managed to take 4 of the army soldiers out and this monument is dedicated to them. Each year I come up here and lay white sage, sweetgrass and tobacco to burn on the base of their monument in honor of the Kickapoo warriors.

We took the dutch oven this time camping and hopefully I will be using it more this trip. Yellowstone Lake State Park is nearby and I'm hoping to get out and leave my crawdad trap out overnight. Low Boil anyone?

How Dry it is!

Swiped this from the NOAA site. The closer to red it is the dryer it is. According to NOAA we are at a stage D3 drought. I think its a little off since I believe we are in a localized area that is receiving less rain than most. Storms thru this area seem to divide and go north and south of us.

Places such as where Pioneer Preppy is are in a D2 or D1 drought. Down where MM Paints is is also in that D1 classification.

I have a feeling while certain crops of mine are enjoying the sparse rain, its going to be a failed garden year. Makes you think though.

If TSHTF and you were relying on your garden to put up for the coming winter, water and the means to pump it or carry it at least to your crops would be so important.

Bear's Idea of an Emergency

 We are gonna be super busy today getting ready for trip on Monday (fishing!) so I will leave you with this update about Bear.

This is truly a dog emergency!

WE ARE OUT OF ICE CREAM!!!

Privileged

Gee darn I guess I'm supposed to feel guilty now..

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It just leaves me speechless...

Chocolate Raspberry Jam To Die For!

Okay so its not pretty, but fruit and chocolate seriously? you can't go wrong!

Gather your materials.

6 cups raspberries (I threw some strawberries in there for good measure)

4 cups sugar

1 box low sugar pectin

5 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup Dark Chocolate cocoa powder

Mash your berries and start bringing them to a low boil. Mix the cocoa powder and pectin. *Cuss loudly because you spilled some on the counter*

Once the raspberries are at low boil, add the cocoa powder and pectin mixture.

Stir well.

*Stop to say aloud and to the dog and anyone randomly listening thru hidden mics (just kidding) Wow, that looks like baby....*

Bring back to a rolling boil for 20 min. Makes 3 pint jars or 6 half pint jars. Waterbath for 15 minutes. Make sure you taste it before you can it, it may not make it to the canning stage if you do!

While it is in the water bath, click the link on the side of this postK's Fajita Seasoning and gather the ingredients.

Be sure to duck as the spices come falling out of the 3 little cabinets that you have to store food in.

Sneeze several times from the peppers.

Place in a mason jar for later use!

By the way, did you know that the tops from parmesan containers screw on perfectly to mason jars?

Thanks to Sherri from http://russ-stickacres.blogspot.com/ for joining our site. You should check out her beautiful huskies and she's a blogger for GRIT magazine!
Love that magazine when I'm lucky enough to get a copy. Grey Knight works in transporation and brags about my garden so occasionally people will send me farming and gardening magazines.

I'm off to can some Chocolate Raspberry Turnover Filling. Recipe to follow later!