The Latest and the Earliest

We don't pick up Christmas ornaments every year anymore but this year we did, we got some from Erdbeere.  I really like them, they are what I'd call "old fashion".  Plus they have that "home-made" look.  Knowing Erdbeere, she most likely did make them herself.  At any rate, they came as a set and I really liked them so I got them.

And they fit well into the menagerie of ornaments that we have accumulated over the last forty plus years of Christmas trees.

Stars and orbs, "dusty" colors.  They fit well into my idea of good Christmas decorations.

This is our Christmas tree this year.  I think I have gotten a picture of our tree every year since we got married.  We have so many decorations that we've accumulated over the years that we don't even put them all on each year.  There are just too many.  But these new ones from Erdbeere and really nice.

Anyway, getting some new ones got me to thinking about our first Christmas. We had been married only several months when Christmas came.  It was easy enough to find a tree but we had no ornaments that year.  We had to actually go find some.

What we ended up getting was some little flat wooden ornaments, Brombeere found them.  They came as a kit, we got to paint them ourselves.  So we did that for Family Home Evening one Monday early in December that year.  When they were dry we hung them up and they've decorated our tree every year since.  We still have most of them.

I did some and Brombeere did some.  What a pair of artists!

Then we got some lights, made some chain garland with tin foil and put it up in front of the window of our first apartment.  It worked quite well for our first Christmas.  It was a real tree so it only did one year with us, but the other decorations were a great start to our fabulous collection that has grown almost every year since!

So, Merry Christmas!

On This Christmas Eve ...

Christmas - the celebration of the birth of Christ.  The occasion that began the culmination of the mission of Christ.  To celebrate is most appropriate.

I wonder, what does Christmas mean,

With its stars an shiny balls?

Is Christmas more than Christmas trees

And toys and games and dolls?

Of this I'm sure: There's something more,

For I've heard many say

That in a strange and far-off land,

A child was born this day.

And Christmas is to celebrate

His coming from above.

He showed us how we all should live

And told us we should love.

(Thomas S Monson, December Ensign, 1987)

The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in His works.  He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: He toucheth the hills and they smoke.  I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.  My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. (Psalms 104:31-34)

Not a Sweet Apple

So this evening after I got home from work I started some dinner.  First thing was to chop some carrots and onions.  I got them out and set them on the table where I was going to work on them.  Then I went to get some other stuff I was going to need.  While I was away a little helper came along and set to checking out what I was doing. 

Of course, he had to check out the onion.  He began peeling it.

Then he had to sample it.  Like an apple.  He tried a couple of times to bite it before I took it away. That made him a little unhappy. 

We finally had to distract him with a plate of apples.  That worked, under protest.  He really wanted to get back to the onion.

Sunday Thoughts

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

Thy wings shall my petition bear

To him whose truth and faithfulness

Engage the waiting soul to bless.

And since he bids me seek his face,

Believe his word, and trust his grace,

I'll cast on him my ev'ry care

And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Attr. to William W. Walford, 1772-1850, alt.

A Season of Bikey Fun

Well, it would appear that the biking season is over.  The weather cut it short, just like it delayed its start.  Cold and wet weather made it it difficult to get out very often.  And cold and wet cut the season short, making it hard to get out very much.  As a result, I ended up riding fewer miles this year than either or the last two.  It was better than it looked for a while, though.  At one time I wasn't sure I was going to get over 200 miles.  But in the end I did 282 miles, compared to 445 in 2015 and 460 in 2016.  I noticed that my total miles, since starting riding again, is just under 1,200.  That was disappointing, I had really hoped to get over 1,200.  Ah, well.

Because of various construction projects going on around here, most of the riding I did this summer tended to be out of town.  I normally do most of my of riding in town but some of my favorite routes were closed.  But I still saw some pretty areas around here.

It occurred to me that I tend to do a lot of my riding on the trails, using the roads mostly to get to and from the trails since none of them run right by my house.

I like to take my camera with me, you never know when you'll see something interesting.

For the most part, it never really got real hot this summer.  That was also nice.  It did get windy, though.  I don't like riding when the wind gets much over 10 mph.  I'm a wimp, what can I say.  And don't like riding in the rain.  My big objection with rain is the effect it has on bicycle brakes.  That, and the stripe you get up your back when you ride on wet roads.  My bike doesn't have fenders, or splash guards. So, yeah.  I don't got out when its real wet or raining.

At the New Glarus trail head of the Sugar River State Trail

I did manage to meet pretty much all my biking goals this year, except one.  That was how many miles I got in during the season.  I had hoped to at least meet the same number of miles I made last year. 

The north entrance to the Stewart Tunnel

One of my goals this summer was to ride the Stewart Tunnel, near New Glarus, WI.  That tunnel is about 1,200 feet long with a curve at the middle so that you can't see the other end when you start out. 

The south entrance to the Stewart Tunnel

That tunnel is on the Badger State Trail.  I did manage to get there and ride through it.  That was a bit of work but also a lot of fun.  It was a fun day.

On the Badger State trail a little north of its intersection with the Sugar River trail

There were some interesting sights along the Badger State Trail.  And the ride back to New Glarus was on the Sugar River Trail, also an interesting ride.

The Tomorrow River State Trail

I also rode on the Tomorrow River State Trail. That's another beautiful trail. 

The Tomorrow River State Trail

The Tomorrow River trail runs for 29 miles between Portage and Waupaca counties, through some very nice terrain.  And for the most part, the trail is level.  Most places where there are hills are small and gentle.  My kind of riding.

The Tomorrow River State Trail

I like the places along any of the state trails I've been on where the foliage closes in close to the trail.  There was one ride where I left pretty late in the day and traveled part of the trail after dark.  Good thing I have a good light, made it trip much nicer.  The only downside of riding after dark is I can't see what gear I'm in.  But that's a minor thing.

One other things I've been wanting to do was ride to a certain train trestle.  I had ridden to where I thought it was last year but it turned out to be the wrong crossing.  This year I made it to the right crossing.

There really isn't anything special about this crossing, its just one that caught my attention.

And the fun thing about the trip there is just as I was putting things away, getting ready to head out, a train went by.  That was unexpected and serendipitous. I like trains so it's always fun to have one go by up close and personal. 

Riding out in the country gets away from the urban areas, away from the city streets and sights.  And it brings its own set of smells when riding around.  Fewer fireplace fires, fewer barbecue cook outs, and less burning leaves.  More of the pungent smells of various barnyards and farm fields.  Freshly plowed fields, freshly mowed hay fields.  I've always loved the smell of fresh cut hay, since I was a kid and we'd go help my grandfather harvest his hay crop.

Saw plenty of deer while out on my bike this year.  In fact, there is one area that every time I went through it there were a number of deer.

On the trails around this area there will often be sections of boardwalk, places where the path goes through a wetland area.  In those places they will build a boardwalk to keep you up out of the mud and water. 

Whether on boardwalks or not, I think my favorite time to ride the trails is in the fall when the leaves turn colors. 

The variety of trees is amazing.  Lots of maple trees, which have the best colors when they turn.  That's where all the reds, yellows, and oranges come from.

The oaks make rusty browns that linger longer than the other trees.  The oaks never really drop their leaves, they will stay on all winter so that sometimes people have to rake in the spring as well as the fall.

Anyway, I really like riding out in the trees on the trails.  Lots of interesting things to see. 

I will often see animals and birds but not be fast enough to get stopped and get my camera out for a picture.  I almost always take my camera with me when I ride.  Never know what you'll see on the trails.

Sunset through the trees

One thing I accomplished this summer was something I've been wanting to do for the last couple of years.  There is a parking garage in the area that has a number of different levels and a circular drive between the levels.  Like a spiral staircase for cars.  I've wanted to ride down that since I began riding my bike again.  This year I did it.  And what's fun is I was able to get it on camera.  The light kind of played with the video quality, going from light to dark to light to dark from the lights in the garage.  But it still turned out to be a fun video.  Went pretty fast, even though I had the brakes on nearly the whole way down.

So that was my biking summer. Except for not being able to get out as often as I would have liked, it was a good summer.  One thing I found was that the Stewart Tunnel is not the longest bike trail tunnel in the state.  I was pretty sure I read somewhere that it was but later I discovered that Tunnel No. 3 on the Elroy-Sparta trail is 3/4 a mile long, quite a bit farther than 1,200 feet.  So next year I have to get to that tunnel.  That will be one of next year's biking goals.  Let the good times roll!

Back in the Kitchen Again

A while back I celebrated my 35th anniversary of working for the same company.  The company gives anniversary gifts on each multiple of five and they get nicer and nicer the longer you're with the company.  So at 35 years I had a pretty nice selection, especially since you can also pick from any previous year's offerings.  So I had almost the full catalog.  I picked a Cuisinart food processor.  The other day I finally unpacked it and gave it a try, I made a cabbage dish and discovered that it made chopping cabbage super easy, I fell in love with it. 

So I've been wanting to try making coleslaw again every since discovering how easily it chops cabbage, which I like.  I have tried a few other cabbage dishes in the past, including coleslaw, but chopping the cabbage fine enough is such work that it takes all the fun out of it.  So the other day I went shopping and got all the stuff I needed for Southwestern Coleslaw and today I did it, I made it.

There aren't a lot of ingredients in coleslaw, I got them all out and got started.

I chopped the scallions the old fashion way, that's not hard.  I do it all the time for salad.

I also chopped the bell pepper by hand.  It has been my experience that some food turn to paste when run through a chopper and I didn't want that to happen with the peppers.

Then came the fun part, the cabbage.  It only took about five minutes to do the whole head of cabbage.  Quick and easy.

I also ran the carrots through the chopper, along with the jalapeno pepper. It didn't turn the pepper to paste. That was a good thing. Maybe I could have done the bell peppers.  Ah, well.

So I did all the vegetables and then made the "dressing" separately.  The recipe called for seven cups of cabbage but a whole head of cabbage makes about 11 cups so I increased the dressing about 1.5 times and it worked out pretty well.  Then it all went together, mixing it thoroughly.

Serving Suggestion

I thought it turned out very well. Coleslaw is a very versatile food, it goes well with a lot of other foods.  It goes with seafood; brats, burgers or hot dogs; fried chicken; or a variety of other foods. Its a good picnic food.  I had it for breakfast, with another of my favorite foods.  Yummy stuff.