Bear? Bare? Behr? Three days after my last post I accepted a paying (eventually) challenge. Whatever drives me to moonlight has taken over all my extra brain space, which explains why I haven’t posted in a while. I’m posting now to celebrate almost completing the first stage of that project.
This doesn’t mean things haven’t been rolling right along. It does mean Michael has been doing all the heavy lifting.

Michael harvested a number of downed trees, which now just (!) need to be split and stacked. We had our first sprinkle of snow today, so filling the wood bins has become the driving need.

Updates. So much happens so quickly here in fly-over country. Here goes:

We are not the only ones preparing for winter. In mid-September we noticed a hole next to our driveway. On close inspection we discovered a bear raided a ground bee nest for its honey. Who knew ground bees were there?

Michael harvested the rutabagas he planted end of July. A magnificent crop, some paraffined for later consumption.

Rutabaga is an essential ingredient of Finnish pasties, a Yupper (or UP-er, meaning a denizen of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) staple.

Mashed rutabaga eats well. Clockwise from top: braised carrot and leek mash, Blue Hubbard mash, braised duck leg, and rutabaga mash. All from our gardens!

We ended up with 73 winter squash. We managed to distribute/barter about 40. The rest are in our basement. It feels good to share the garden wealth.

We bottled the rhubarb wine. Michael did the math and figures we have enough to drink a bottle a week for a year, with some left over to share. It’sa little raw, but Irene says it’s delightfully drinkable.

The leaves have been magnificent. Most are gone with the wind, rain and snow of the past week.

Ground cherries magically appeared in our garden this year. Think tiny, sweet tomatillos. They make a most amazing jam.

On the construction front, we have begun the process of creating a direct passage between the old house and the addition. A window used to reside in this hole. A doorway will go to the right of it someday.

The last of the ducks made it to Freezer Camp. Always good to get this done while we can still work outside. We love our ducks. I always have to stroke their breasts before and after the chopping block, to calm them and thank them for their lives.

Today’s snow did in most of the gardens. We have a small patch of leeks and carrots left.

A final photo of those marvelous rutabagas. Having cabbages and root crops stored away makes me feel rich indeed.