Christmas in Cassville

Here in small town Wisconsin, it's still politically correct to have public CHRISTmas celebrations and they do it up right.This little town by the river offers a visit with Santa at the library in the morning or the volunteer firehouse in the early evening. (FUN FACT : Of the 870 fire departments in Wisconsin, 800 are volunteer). A tour of the equipment is ALWAYS fun for Boogie, he loves trucks (almost as much as trains). The sirens and lights are very exciting! He was not sure about Santa, but did accept the fire fighters hat he offered.

All the shops are in open house mode, a living nativity complete with pygmy goat is staged and there is a warming house set up but the Lioness Club in Riverside Park, with open fires burning along the paths to warm yourself. This was really appreciated as it was chilly and windy. At 7:30 fireworks were set off. Boogie likes the BOOM! BOOMS! but we watched them from the warmth of the car as he was shivering despite the many layers of clothing.
The Rollo Jameson Museum in Platteville is offering free admission to a holiday display every weekend through Christmas with some evening concerts as well. In addition children can make ornaments to take home.
Next Saturday Santa will be coming to visit Lancaster and the awesome little theatre in town will offer a free screening of 'Polar Express'. which I am certain Boog will love.
However, tomorrow the Christmas Express lighted holiday train will be making a stop in Marquette, Iowa at 3:45 and I believe that will really make his day.
Enjoy the season, seeing through a preschoolers eyes for the first time since I was a preschooler has been a very enlightening and wonderful experience.

A Little Crafty and Christmas Decorations

WOW! December first already! So now we start the countdown to Christmas and then a brand new year. Boogie didn't quite have the concept of the holidays last season, but he is certainly making up for it this year. I began putting up the tree a few days ago, but when I went to the shed I realized that I had put up the wrong tree. Rather then take it down, we decorated both. One is done in red with bows and wooden ornaments with beaded garland.

The other is done up in blue and silver with a snowflake theme and ribbon garland. I love them both and the decorations are mostly from the thrift or purchased after season at deep discount. I do enjoy all the horse themed ornaments I got as gifts from riding students in the past too.

My little drummer boy found some empty tins and immediately turned them into a drum kit using mis-matched knitting needles as sticks.

Since there were some casualties in the ornament department last year at the hands of tod-zilla, Boog and I did a little craft with some wooden spools I had saved and some odd turned wooden pieces I found resale that look rather bell shaped. I got some beads for $1 in town and had red cotton yarn on hand and we made some ornaments reminiscent of my childhood.

By stringing beads onto the cotton and then through the spool. We finished the tops off with star shaped beads and a loop for hanging. A simple and quick project that suits my preschoolers attention span. They go very well on the red tree, if I do say so myself.

I also took advantage of the warmer weather earlier in the week to put some lights and garland up outside. I did the second story window that frames the red tree as well as the front porch door directly under it. I may put lights around a few more porch windows if I get up the initiative.

Now I need to start planning the candy making and baking, I'm thinking my first project is going to be salt caramels and then on to chocolate from there.
Here's to hoping we all get our shopping done and treats made with as little stress as possible so we can truly enjoy the season.

The 2010 Potato Experiment and Thanksgiving Preparations

Today started out warm, if a bit wet, but that rapidly changed to cold and windy just after noon.
Apparently we are about to hit a week of frigid weather so I'm glad I had gotten around to digging my second crop potatoes from my tree trunk experiment yesterday. I have a hollowed out section of tree trunk that I have been using as a planter. Doesn't look like much, but it's whats in the soil that counts! It drys out rather early in the season since it acts like a raised bed, so very early March this past spring I put in a few potato eyes and harvested a super early crop of tubers. So then it's mid-summer and I have an empty planter and just happened to have a few leftover well sprouted eyes so I amended the soil with a load of organic matter and planted them.
The result is a nice little harvest of fall potatoes, much better results then expected.

There were a large number of nodes along the roots, so I am sure had there been a longer growing season the results would have been even better.

I added a bunch of compost and rabbit litter to the already rich soil and my plans are to plant again just as soon as the soil in the trunk is thawed next spring and then plan a second crop of fingerling's. I think I can plant them a bit more thickly as well, to optimize my space. I'm also going to utilized the three or four additional trunk sections I have since this worked out so well. See, even if you have only a container garden, you could get a double harvest of potatoes from a very small space.Thanksgiving is just a few days off, the turkey is thawing and I purchased the cranberries and oranges for the sauce today, so everything is good to go. I plan on brining the bird and roasting it on top of the wood stove. I really liked the results from the brine last year and hope things go as well again. I have never roasted a bird on the stove so I am keeping fingers crossed. I'm planning just a simple menu.

11 pound brined bird
Deviled eggs
Green bean casserole
Squash
Rolls
Garlic mashed potatoes
Gravy
Dressing
Cranberry-orange sauce
Pecan pie

Hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend, good luck to the Friday shoppers, you are much braver than I!

A gratuitous photo of my pre-schooler!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

The Boogie Monster is 3 years old!

Yup! It's been three whole years since he made his early appearance on November 4th, 2007 at 9:35 PM. Could I be anymore behind in my posts? We went to McDonalds in town since they have an indoor play place. Boogie got his very first happy meal.

He was able to climb around for a couple of hours with some other kids who were also celebrating birthdays. At one point the older boys were playing a war game and when one of them was laying on the ground after being 'shot', my little birthday boy, not getting the concept, knelt down and asked him "You all right" You all right?" What a sweet heart, he makes me so proud!

My attempt at a train cake failed miserably. ( If anyone knows how to get the cake to actually come out of a dimensional pan in one piece, please pass that info along!) I picked up a store cake and Boogie helped me write Happy Birthday and he was able to blow out all three candles by himself!

Griffin
George

After cake he opened his token gift, a pair of Thomas the Tank Engine pjs, since his real gift was 2 miniature horses we got for him a week earlier.

This week we met up with his Aunt at the same said McDonalds for lunch and more cool birthday gifts.My little rock star!
Now on to find out if three really is worse then the terrible twos!

Orchards, Apples and Pumpkins, fall adventures with Boogie.

We made a number of trips to local orchards and farms this fall.

First we went on a field trip to Kickapoo Orchards in Gays Mills, then we had another

play group outing to Vesperman Farms corn maze and finally a visit to Shihata Orchards in Eastman for their Apple Fest.

Boogie always enjoys a good sandbox, or in this case a good corn kernel box.

He's also VERY fond of apples and, given how many he eats, should keep the Doctor at bay for quite some time.

Given all the animals we have at home, it never ceases to amaze me that he can't stay away from them any where we go.

Halloween is past, it's already time to start looking forward to the holiday season.

I found a nice large roaster at an auction a few weeks ago and should be able to cook a whole turkey on the wood stove. I plan to do a brine again this year, I cannot say how delicious and juicy the breast I cooked last year was after a two day brine bath.

With daylight saving kicking in this weekend, I'll have plenty of time for knitting in the evening. There is still time to order custom hats/scarves for holiday gifts, or buy a pre-made one from my Hyena Cart shop.

Here's hoping the good weather I've been blessed with lately hangs around for a very long time!