Deer Hunters Anyone

I took a picture of this spike horn deer out our slider window this morning. There were two of them, one a doe. When I first saw them they were on this side of the grape vine fence, but they ran away as soon as I opened the slider. So I left the slider open and within a few minutes they were back. There is a corn field just behind them and to the right, and that is were they came out of. They are a beautiful creature other than they like my grapes and apples.

ARTPRIZE

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Grand Rapids held an ARTPRIZE exhibit throughout the city.  There were exhibits like these outside which probably attracted the most attention, and there were many more in buildings EVERY WHERE that you could go into and look at.  One of our favorites was not outside but inside the Civic Theatre and it was a wall hanging depicting the different newspapers and carriers.  I think we liked it because it was self explanatory and you didn’t need to scratch your head and say “I wonder what this one means”.  You could vote on the ones you liked the best and the winner will walk away with a nice big prize for their exhibit.  There were many times we would look at a painting or an exhibit and say “Why?” or “This is ART?”.  Some were beautiful and some were just plain strange.  But then I may not have an ‘artists eye’.  Well, as we made ourselves down by the water-front where it seemed to draw the most attention, and they definitely were more fun to look at, I kept seeing other beautiful sights throughout that area that caught my attention and I kept thinking “what really is TRUE art?”  Is it something generated by man or is it the beauty we find in how our Great God designed so artfully the things He created in nature for our enjoyment? Like the way He designed how this tree would shed it’s bark so beautifully, or the sweetness of a bee finding nectar in just one of the thousands or millions of varieties of flowers He created.

How about the way the water flows over the rocks in a stream or the artful design and beautiful colors He put on the Mallard Ducks you see here.  Of course this picture doesn’t do it justice, but you know what I mean, you’ve all seen the bright green head of a male Mallard Duck.  One thing I didn’t get a picture of, but oh how I think it is a work of art, is how a spider can weave such an intricate web.  Have you seen one on a frosty fall morning where the entire web is defined with a crystal effect? 

Do I appreciate art? Oh, you bet I do, but how much more do I not want to miss the beautiful artwork that God created to bring us enjoyment every day. 

Christi

It’s Harvest Time

It’s time to make some Apple Pie filling and some Apple Sauce. These apples in the bucket are what I harvested this year off my two trees. The nicer big apples I used to make apple pie filling from a recipe of a friend of ours. It sure was a lot of peeling of apples. Takes about 5 apples per quart jar.

Then it was time to use up the apples that were not good enough and make into applesauce. This was much easier then the pie filling. Just had to core the apples and put in a pot skins and all, and bring to a boil and cook until apples were tender all the way through. Then I ran them through the new device attachment I purchased for our Kitchen Aid mixer which separates the good stuff from the bad. The good sauce goes into the bowl on the right and the bad stuff comes out the end and into another container.

Then you put the sauce into a big pot and keep it hot until you are ready to fill up your quart jars with the apple sauce.

Then you just put them in the pot to boil for 20 minutes and when you are done you have your apple sauce. The picture below is my Apple Pie filling on the left and my Apple Sauce on the right.

A good canner always cleans up after their self and Christi took a picture to prove that I cleaned up my mess. All an all it was a big day which I spent most of it in the kitchen. But it was fun to see the “fruits” of my labor this summer end up on our shelves for some delicious eating ahead.