DELIGHTFUL COOLER DAYS

The cooler evenings are such a relief. So lovely to be able to sleep under a blanket in cozy comfort.  

Mike and I so enjoyed our day at the farm last Monday (Sept. 21) that we returned on Wednesday to stay a few days. It seemed to me that the fall colors along the river were more evident on Wednesday than they had been on Monday. I noticed it at the farm, too. I suppose that’s silly, but it does have to happen at some time and in some way. And when we returned to town on Saturday, the colors were again more vibrant.

Thursday afternoon it was a lovely 78 degrees at the farm, but it began to cloud up, and by Friday noon it was raining. Looking at the forecast, lows will now be in the 30s. Since a freeze might happen anytime, I decided to pick the rest of the tomatoes – 70 in all.

Farm yard from north field

For years, green tomatoes from our garden were slim to none, and I was able to make just a little mincemeat, but this year I could make a full batch twice over. Mike and I both enjoy a small mincemeat pie a couple of times during the autumn / winter season, but there’s a limit to how much mincemeat we can consume. The rest of our family doesn’t care for it. Come to think of it, I don’t know many people who do like mincemeat and a few who remark with disdain. It’s expensive to make this mincemeat, but it’s even more expensive to buy it.

So, this morning I chopped 12 cups of green tomatoes and placed the bag in the freezer to be processed on the next trip to the farm. And I also chopped up the Empire apples and cooked them into apple sauce.

While we were at the farm, I made two batches of elderberry jelly – 11 jars. Mike picked more elderberries, so I processed the juice and will make another batch of jelly with the next stay. KW

A BEAUTIFUL LAST DAY OF SUMMER

On the last day of summer (Monday, Sept. 21), Mike and I made a day trip to the farm. It was a beautiful day – sunny and warm with a cool breeze. I noticed right away that our fields have been planted, and I love the new look! It’s canola, which will be bright yellow in the spring.

Mike serviced the wood splitter and put it to bed for the winter. I helped him cover the pine logs in the front yard with the old metal roofing, as if we need to protect more firewood. We’ll never use all that we have in storage now. And we don’t know but what the winter will bring yet more downed trees.

In the afternoon, Mike enjoyed a rest in the hammock. He was going to put it away last week but decided to leave it up a while longer.

I washed sheets and jeans and hung them on the clothesline. They were dry by mid-afternoon. I picked eight tomatoes and three zucchinis and watered the raised beds. I see a lot of green tomatoes, and as warm as the afternoons have been, some of them might ripen before Jack Frost comes to visit.

Pear tree changing to autumn garb

You know, back in Ina’s day – or even my dad’s day – the growing season at Gilbert would likely be over by Labor Day, if not before. It was a short growing season at altitude. These days we can wait it out a bit. However, the shorter days and cooler lows are still a factor, and we don’t quite know what to expect anymore.

I loaded up projects and food to carry back to town, thinking that we wouldn’t return to the farm for a while, but now we’ve decided to spend more time there this fall, so I’ve had to readjust. It doesn’t hurt to keep using up the food, but I don’t like to burden Mike with a lot of packing back and forth. The fact is that it’s a lovely time of year, and I like to be at home at the farm. We’ll see if we can keep the house open through December.

Then Mike rode the XT back to town, and Bess and I followed in the Jeep. I drove. KW 

AUTUMN'S BOUNTY -- TOMATOES AND APPLES

 

Ah! Just smell those apples! This year I picked a bumper crop from the little Empire tree – three dozen mostly worm-free apples. The Freedom tree yielded 10 small apples – it’s first crop – and they also were worm-free. The Honey Crisp only produced a dozen or so, and they were terribly infected with worms. I picked them anyway for the good I could get from them, and I made separate batches of applesauce with the Honey Crisps and the Freedoms, both of which were pronounced delicious. I used a few Empire apples to make a delicious apple crisp.

Last spring, when it was time to spray the apple blossoms, the wand on Mike’s sprayer was broken, so I used an ordinary spray bottle to give the three trees an initial treatment. The repeat application the following week worked for the Empire and Freedom trees, but the Honey Crisp blossoms had already passed. At least, I think that’s the difference. I take courage that this was a better year and look forward to trying again next spring.

According to my notes, I picked more than six dozen tomatoes from three bushes during the season. It’s the best crop I’ve ever had. I shared some, cooked some, and we enjoyed them with our green salads and sandwiches. I picked just a few last week, and we noticed a definite difference in the flavor and texture. Perhaps I should have left them to ripen a few more days in the hot afternoon sun. Plenty of green tomatoes abound. If they don’t ripen, we’ll have green tomato mincemeat. Don’t scoff! Jarred mincemeat is hard to find, and when you do, it’s expensive. Mike and I enjoy the occasional mincemeat pie.

The zucchini didn’t do so well – just a few, as usual. Hardly worth the effort. It’s just disheartening because zucchini plants are supposed to be prolific. KW

“Vos papiers, s’il vous plait”

“It’s a terrible system we’re getting to have in our country,” said my late sister Harriet. I think of this so often these days.

“Your identity papers, please.” I never thought it would come to this in America. In fact, I put off getting my “Real ID” for at least five years, but when it came time to renew my drivers license, I finally stepped up to it.

My daughter suggested that maybe a Real ID isn’t so important for me. “Where are you going to go anyway,” she asked. But it’s a matter of compliance. And – she recently attended a hearing in a federal building in Boise, and in future I may want to accompany her, and I will have to have a Real ID in order to enter the building. You know how it is. We little old ladies cause so much trouble that we have to be scrutinized. 

So, at one month out from my renewal date (August 28), I read through the list of required documents and discovered to my chagrin that I would need a certified copy of our marriage license. Why? To prove the event that caused my name to change from my birth certificate. (This requirement discriminates against women.) Fortunately I’ve only had one name change, or this would be even more difficult. I had to order the license, and it took at least a month to be delivered. By the time it came, my driver’s license had expired.

We pay our bills online, so I didn’t have a utility bill to prove my current address. The monthly paper statement we receive to show our water usage was the best I could do, but it’s in Mike’s name. Oh well. Maybe this with the marriage certificate would work.

I don’t have a social security card showing my married name, but I do have tax statements from my state retirement fund showing my current name with my social security number. I tossed it in the file I was developing.

Once I had all my “papers” together, I made an appointment with the licensing department. I should have just gone in and taken a number. They aren’t that busy in my community. Be that as it may, I was there on time.

So, when called, I approached the representative and presented my papers. My expired license had to be renewed first – so I passed the tests and paid for an 8-year license. Then from my papers, the rep chose my birth certificate, marriage license, the water bill in Mike’s name, and my tax statement and scanned all these into the system. 

“Your license will have a chip in it so that they can scan it,” she said. “Do you mind?” What difference does it make if I mind? I mind about a lot of things. I said I didn’t mind. I paid again, this time for the “Real ID.”

And that was that. This thing that was a big deal in my mind for all these years is finally over. Maybe. KW

 

CANADA, O CANADA

 

My grandparents, Charlie and Nina Portfors, were married October 31, 1906, at the home of her parents, Thomas and Alice Mary Sanders, near the farming community of Melrose, Idaho. Within a few years, Charlie and Nina had settled in the small town of Orofino, Idaho, where Charlie established the Ford garage and operated it for the next 30 years.

Sometime after that 1906 wedding, Thomas Sanders took his family – his wife and other children (Bessie, Albert, and Muriel) – and homesteaded in northern Alberta, Canada. I don’t know the exact year, only that they were there in 1911 when Thomas died. 

Pearl in 1918

His son Albert then took over the farm, but in 1916, he came back to the States to marry my dad’s sister, Pearl Dobson. They then farmed the Alberta homestead for the next 30 years, and Uncle Al served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1921 to 1935. Of the other children, Aunt Bessie settled in the States, but Aunt Muriel married Roy German and they lived in Calgary where Roy served in a government office.

But wait! There’s more! Two of my grandfather Charlie Portfors’ brothers, Andrew and Fred, also settled in Alberta where they farmed and raised their families. They became Canadians through and through.

When I was growing up, some of these Canadian relatives were members of my extended family. Aunts, uncles, and cousins visited most every summer, and I still have warm feelings for them. Of course, the original players are gone now, but their descendants, my cousins, still live in Canada. I wouldn’t insult them or hurt their feelings for anything.

Pearl as a child

A lock of Pearl's hair saved in Ina's book

Most of the time the Canadians visited us rather than vice versa. Why? Because they came to shop, not just to visit. They had lists of things they needed that they couldn’t find in Canada, or maybe it could just be purchased for less in the U.S., so they would stop in Spokane on the way home to buy what they needed. It’s well-known that the Canadians shop in the U.S.

I announced to Mike one day last week that I wanted to buy another doll – a “Maplelea” Girl, the Canadian answer to the American Girl. I know it’s insignificant in the scheme of things, but I want to show my support for Canada in some way. So, from the seven dolls representing seven Canadian regions, I ordered “Brianne,” the farm girl of the Canadian prairie. With her fair skin, blue eyes, and blond hair, she reminds me of Aunt Pearl. Every doll should have her own name, and while I don’t much care for the name “Pearl,” it really can’t be anything else, can it?

She’s here! "Maplelea Pearl, Canadian Farm Girl." 

[The first photo is of my grandmother Nina Portfors' family. Seated is her mother, Alice Mary Stinson Sanders, and behind Alice is her brother. Muriel Sanders German is on the left, and Nina stands on the right. Sitting on the ground is Albert Sanders, who married Pearl Dobson. Al and Pearl were my aunt and uncle on my dad's side and my great aunt and uncle on my mother's side.] KW

SUMMERWEEN AT THE FARM

 

I like to make the most of “Summerween,” the late summer / autumn season that culminates in Halloween when days grow shorter, mornings grow cooler, and evening shadows grow longer. The world takes on a certain enchanted glow. 

Son Yancey and his daughter Emmy visited at the farm for a few days late in August, so I brought out the Halloween runners and hung a fall wreath on the front door. The world didn’t disappoint. On the evening of the 27^th, we watched the “almost” total eclipse of the moon as it rose above the barn from the earliest stages about 7:30 until 9:20 when we saw that the eclipse was waning. It was a privilege to share it with family.

With the exception of the first photo above, these were taken by Yancey with his iPhone 17 Pro. The first was taken with my old SE. There's a 17 in my future. 

“FIND MY”

Shadows at eventide

We’ve been home from our 1926 trip to Yellowstone National Park for more than two weeks. Having toured on a shoestring, I know that Ina was hungry and tired, and it’s taken her all this time to recover. She has enjoyed having plenty of garden produce to eat. Meanwhile, in 2026, it was hard work for me to keep the 1926 days and dates straight, and after that, my blog muse said she’d had enough.

Some months ago, several of our children decided that Mike and I should be connected through our cellphones, and son Murray made it happen through the “Find My” app. Frankly, we didn’t pay much attention. Months passed – long enough for us to forget all about it – and Murray had to tutor us again.

The thing is – yes, it’s frightening to think that Mike could end up in a ditch while riding his bicycle, and to be honest, it has happened. However, other things happen (like flat tires) that can slow his return, and he also forgets to take his phone, which makes me a little casual in my attitude toward his riding.

And that brings us to recent experiences. Late in July, Mike made a motorcycle trip to southern Idaho, and on his way home, he stopped in Challis to spend the night. Since he still had hours of daylight, he decided to pick up a couple of geocaches, and – wouldn’t you know it? – he lost his phone. He borrowed a phone and called me so that I could use the “Find my” app to locate his phone. It didn’t help because the app said his phone was still at the first geocache when he could prove he still had it at the second one. He couldn’t find it and came home without it.

A summerween evening

Frankly, I would have taken the opportunity to have the latest iPhone iteration, but as luck would have it, DIL Kelly had just purchased a new phone and gifted Mike with her previous one, an iPhone 12 Pro. Mike’s previous iPhone was black, which made it hard to find anyway, and this one is white – easy to see but deemed “girly.” Mike coped by buying a blue-gray case for it. It was a trial setting it up without his previous phone, but son Murray was a great help, and Mike’s data was finally restored.

Today we went shopping in our black GTI with black interior. As we traveled along, I was suddenly aware that my black purse was nowhere to be found. I felt certain I had had it, so I panicked. Where could it be? I wanted to go back to the house, but we were already close to the store. Long story short, Mike used the “Find my” app on his phone and discovered that my purse was with us. I found it under the seat. KW