Not Hibernating Yet

OK, It's been a good long time since I've posted. I'm not hibernating or anything, just haven't had any profound thoughts or events worth posting.
We went hunting. A lot. The end result was that we bought a chest freezer and bagged nothing to put in it, except for vegetables. The only thing that we killed was a tire. We went deer hunting and mostly only saw elk. We went elk hunting and only saw deer and a couple of cow elk. Hunting is cool anyways. We got up before dawn, headed out to the wilderness, and waited for the sun to come up. We got to see some great sunrises, sunsets, and scenery. About a million birds. You never realize how many woodpeckers there are in the forest until you are straining your ears to hear any sign of a deer.
G. made I made a pact that we're not telling anyone where we saw the elk herd. I hope our tags next year allow us to hunt in that spot, since it is very beautiful and totally remote.
The most surprising thing about hunting is that we didn't feel like we were surrounded by other hunters. Even during the open season elk hunt, we felt like the next people were probably half a mile away.

Other than hunting, we haven't been up to much. On our last shopping trip to Bend, we bought a lot of food and stuff. Our goal is to not make our next trip to Bend till after the first of the year. We got all the supplies to install the new kitchen counter, and I have pretty much finished all the tiles. Just in time for something else to break... The shower that we installed last winter is leaking. I can't figure out where it's coming from. I thought it was just the caulk, but that's not it. My current guess is that there's a pinhole leak in one of the pipes right where it goes through the wall, and it is leaking onto the tub apron and the water's coming out at both ends of the tub. Great. Totally inaccessible, since the shower backs up to a concrete block chimney. Why didn't I realize that when we were building it?!?!? I'd almost rather sledgehammer the stupid, unused chimney to access the plumbing instead of having to go through the tile. What a pain. I have no idea how I'm going to fix this. And the new shower isn't built yet, so the old second shower is still totally non-functional. Damn, I feel dumb.

The pugmill that I bought appears to be totally functional. The only problem is that the "STOP" button doesn't work and the safety shut-off doesn't work either. So it's a mad murderous machine, and I'm not using it till that's fixed. I better get on that, cos' I need more clay...

The end of the tomato saga: A heavy frost was predicted a couple of days after my last entry. So we went out and picked all the green tomatoes, even the ones that looked like they were too small and immature to ever ripen. Well, what do you know. There must have been 500 green tomatoes on the guest room floor. Then there were 100 red ones. I made a few into freezer sauce, diced and froze some, and froze others whole. Then there were 100 more red ones. I dried them in the dehydrator. Then there were 200 more red ones. I gave away bags of tomatoes to anyone I could find, and dried some more, and still have a pile left. I am ashamed to admit that some of them have been going bad here in my kitchen. I'm not sick of tomatoes exactly but these are not as good as vine-ripened so I don't want to eat them on BLT's. Maybe I am sick of tomatoes. I don't know. But I have about 50 more red ripe ones and who knows what I am going to do with them.

Also have a dozen hard-shell pumpkins. These are fun, and tasty, but a little difficult to prepare. If I had an axe it would be easier to cut them in half. I think they must be "Lil Ironsides" variety. I made our tiny Halloween jack o' lantern by opening the top with the Dremel tool, scooping out the seeds, baking the pumpkin, scooping out the flesh, and then carving the shell with the Dremel. It made a really nice glowing face. Hmm. I just noticed that "Lil Ironsides" is listed as being a hybrid. What can I say, all of mine seemed to produce fruit true to seed, though not all of the plants were vigorous.

Along with the pumpkins, we have a pile of squash. Cool, I love squash. I just hope they all keep long enough for us to eat them all. We have Kabocha, Kuri, Butternut, Acorn, and Mystery Hybrid. So far I like the Kabocha the best, but the butternut is good too and we haven't tried the Kuri or the Mystery.

Way back when, on my birthday, we went to Lehmen Hot Springs. On the way home we stopped and picked elderberries from the side of the road. I made elderberry jelly from it. I can't say that I love it. But I have given away to a couple of people who do. I guess it's an acquired taste or something. I can see why they make wine out of elderberries, though. The jelly almost has a wine flavor to it (except for the 7 cups of sugar, that is)

That's about all the news that's fit to print.