Books & Nature.

As part of Blog Action Day, we talked about what I might post. Would it be about all of the things we do at home or about the natural area around us here in Wisconsin. No, what I think is more relevant to us is life with kids. My kids are young, and I know that there are many things that are a part of our lives that also make an impact on who we are, what we love and are passionate about. For us, those things include books and nature.

Books are a big part of our life. The boys love books about habitats and environments we cannot see here in our area - oceans, mountains, desserts and all of the magnificent creatures that are found there. They also love books about other things like garbage, recycling, and conservation. It is an amazing thing to learn what happens to our water and garbage when it leaves our home, and about how what we do can impact the big picture. Here are a few we are reading now:




Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?: The Dangers of Global Warming









Why Should I Recycle?





Nature is next. We love to go wandering and exploring in the woods, on beaches, and in fields as much as we can. Be out and free a little more, see wildlife and insects and plants just exploding around us. Participate in conservation or restoration. Feel connected to it. Learn about it. Enjoy it.

What do you enjoy as a family that you feel makes an impact on the big picture of your lives : environment : above and beyond the obvious things (lightbulbs, cars, food, cleaning supplies, energy...etc.)?

Devil's Lake State Park.

Today we ventured north to Devil's Lake State Park to do a little wandering, playing on the beach, and checking out the fall colors. This park is so beautiful - massive cliffs and bluffs, large serene lake, steep hills and rolling valleys.


Our plan was originally to visit a "Fall Festival", but letting the boys dig, play, roam, wander, explore, and just BE outside on a chilly beautiful fall day seemed a better idea. They loved the lake and beach. They threw rocks, played with "seaweed", collected pine cones/shells/acorns/leaves, found big sticks to poke into the sand, ran down the beach, got too wet, and found all kinds of fun things.


We spent a few hours wandering down the beach and back and took lots of photos. I posted a bunch of our photos from today on ||Flickr||. Check them out! :)

Cider pressing.

Today we visited the farm where we get our organic wheat. They also have 120 trees of organically grown apples. Some varieties are great for eating/baking. And there are some special antique apple varieties which are particularly good for cider. Hard cider. We have really enjoyed chatting with this couple, and were excited to go today. And cider apples was our mission.

We first dropped off my husband so that they could get all the equipment set up and rolling. No, we didn't just drive over and pick up the finished cider. We met the farmer and pressed it together!


I went and visited a park with the boys for awhile, and then went back to join them after the first hour. A was very excited. The pressing machine is very loud (yes, they have the hand crank variety, but we were pressing over 80 pounds of apples!), so the guys all had on ear protection -- there was even a kid sized set for A. I didn't have any ear protection, hence many of my dark from a distance photos.


At a certain point in the process A was able to hold containers under the nozzle and collect. He was given a special cup to taste test the freshly pressed apple cider as it flowed out--mmmmm.


After all 80 pounds were done, we finished up, chatted a bit, and loaded the car with our cider, plus some frozen cider for a neighbor. A got to sit in some special John Deere machinery, which made his day, before we left. We picked up another 5 pounds of wheat for bread making too.



It was such a beautiful day to be outside - cold and cloudy, dry leaves underfoot, wind blowing through the trees. Standing outside in the chill chatting about fresh wheat bread recipes and kids. Very fall, very fun.

Our neighbor plans to use his cider to make hard cider the modern way - using yeast and sugars. We plan to try our first batch of naturally fermented hard cider - which should be ready in about 6 months. We'll see how it goes!


Oh, and where was G? He fell asleep after playing in the park and slept through the entire event, in the car, 20 feet from the loud cider press. Amazing.

CSA Box This Week.

This week in our CSA box: Arugula, french breakfast radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, carrots, delicata squash, italian parsley, garlic, "mystery" squash, and some roma tomatoes!

Photo of the Day.

After an unusual year of weather comes this unusual fall - so many places that are normally a riot of color right now have almost nothing. And then, driving along, we will suddenly come upon a little spot or area of such wondrous color that it takes my breath away.