Add one pound ground venison and two cups chopped apples, fresh or frozen. (I use apples that I picked from our trees, preserved by freezing.)

Cover and continue sautéing. Stir occasionally to crumble ground venison. Saute until meat is cooked through and onion, garlic, and apples are soft.

Stir in two cans dark red kidney beans, four tablespoons pure maple syrup, one large can stewed, diced tomatoes, one medium can tomato sauce, and one small can tomato paste. If you wish, use prepared marinara or spaghetti sauce (like Ragu) instead of the above tomato ingredients.

Optional: season to taste with hot red pepper, chili powder, salt, and/or freshly ground black pepper.

Adjust amounts of all ingredients to taste.

Eat as is or top with sour cream, your favorite cheese, or anything else you would like.

Serve with homemade corn bread bars or muffins or homemade oat crackers.

The weather was perfect and I had a few free hours, so I took advantage of the opportunity. Carpe diem! I wanted to get in a bike ride before the snow and ice of winter arrived.

I went to Lowes Creek County Park in Eau Claire County, which offers a fitness course and trails for skiers, mountain bikers, and hikers. By the way, there’s also fishing in the trout stream that runs through the park.

A student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire told me that he was surprised to find such a high quality system of mountain bike trails in Eau Claire.

Trails of easy, intermediate and advanced levels were color-coded. Abundant signage displayed creative trail names like ‘Missing Link,’ ‘Willinator,’ ‘Tetanus Shot,’ and ‘Axed.’

I started out with easy trails – represented by the color green on maps and signage. At first I slowly navigated the S-curves, but built up speed with experience.

I biked through a series of pine glades, enveloped in an atmosphere of calm and beauty.

A doe jumped up and ran as I rounded one of the curves.

Then I decided to at least try an intermediate trail. The trails are multi-use and I could walk my bike if I felt unstable.

Well, I alternately biked and walked over roots; on a curved, canted bridge and a multi-level bridge; and on hills, jumps and bumps that were too steep for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed the new experience and the scenery!

Moving closer, I discovered that it was a large, healthy maple. But the bark was peeled from the root level to about two-and-a-half feet high. Only the bark was peeled, no gouges – the work of an expert.

A thick layer of small bark chips surrounded the tree.

Leaning in for a better look, grey and white quills stood out against the rich browns and oranges of the chipped bark ground cover.

Porcupine!

I scanned the trees in an unsuccessful attempt to spot one.

Back at home, I looked at the Wisconsin DNR website to find out more about porcupines:

• Winter diet – bark of pines, hemlock, maples and birch; needles and buds of pines.
• Where to find porcupines in the winter – near small piles of freshly-snipped branches; in caves and hollow logs; in an area with fecal piles and/or smelling of concentrated urine.
• They travel the same paths daily.
• The fisher is the porcupine’s only significant predator.
• The mostly silent porcupine sounds like a cross between a piglet and a crying baby.
• And from a Northern State University site (South Dakota):
  • They don’t hibernate, they eat at night, and smell strongly of old sawdust due to their diet.

Visit the above links to find out many more interesting facts.

Transition time … acclimation … or is it acclimatization time? Okay, I looked it up in Webster’s New World Dictionary – both words are correct.

I actually become acclimated to cool temps when I spend time outdoors.

We keep our home cooler than some, so I wear sweaters and cozy socks. When I’m inside looking out, it seems cold.

So during the first week of cooler days, especially when it was overcast, I would look outdoors and decide to stay in, unless I had to go out.

Thank goodness I went out! Once I was outdoors, dressed for the weather, it was no problem. And I loved it.

By the way, I’m not talking about going out shopping or driving somewhere. I’m talking about walking or working in the outdoors for hours.

I’m old enough to realize that I will face this sometime every fall or winter, so each year I’m ready for it and really don’t spend time thinking about it.

On the flip side, when we experienced unseasonably warm weather last winter and spring, I found myself wanting winter to last longer.

Here are a few images my eyes and camera captured while in the outdoors during the last few weeks that I didn’t share with you yet.

Others agree … the tamarack larch has been used as an ornamental landscape plant and for bonsai.

What did I know when I was young and dismissed it as just a scraggly tree in swampy areas?

I find it interesting that tamarack is used for posts because it is tough and resistant to rot. Tamarack has been used in making guitars, snowshoes, wooden boats, and corduroy roads.

Before 1917 surveyors used it to mark the northeast corners of sections in Alberta because of its durability, availability, and light weight.

Tamarack bark and roots were used to treat a variety of physical ailments by indigenous people, who found many other uses for it such as toboggans, woven bags, and goose decoys.

Anyway, I just like the special yellow colors that tamaracks develop in the fall and their distinct shape and texture.

They’re different … in a good way.

Some hike a few miles at a time, eventually finishing the trail over the years.

Others are thru-hikers, traversing the trail in one trip. The average length of time to thru-hike the trail is three months, doing 12 mile days.

One ultra marathoner ran it in 22 days and 6 hours in 2007.

Several ‘thousand-milers’ are regular volunteers at Ice Age Trail work events.

Last Saturday at the Devil’s Lake Segment work event I took sunrise pictures of 2011 thru-hiker Tom Teeples (trail name ‘LRRP’). The pictures feature the detailed, evolving artwork he paints on his helmet.

Jason “Sticks” Dorgan, the ultra marathoner who ran the trail in 2007, volunteered last weekend.

Other thousand-milers were there as well.

I dug up photos from February, April, and September to compare seasonal changes.

In February I hiked for the fun of it.

In April I helped to map that section of the Ice Age Trail.

In September I maintained the trail, snipping thorny berry canes growing in the trail. They snag and scratch hikers clothing and limbs.

I pruned away branches reaching across the trail. The general standard is to remove vegetation in the corridor (corridor clearing). This zone is the area within
arm’s reach over the head and to the sides of the hiker. I remembered to take
into account hikers who are taller than I am.

I cleared away plants blocking trail signage.

Another volunteer mowed the trail.

I did trail maintenance near there in August, but didn’t take photos of the dam.

I studied the architecture and construction work done by the beavers: the spiky stumps left after they felled trees; the long, strong dam; the lodges; and the pond, or what I would call a lake above and below the dam.

Never a dull moment outdoors!

It was ideal for the wedding I attended in a ‘church’ carved out of a cornfield.  Guests parked near the barn, then strolled down country lanes between cornfields, entering the sanctuary through a foyer with cornfield walls. Hills on the horizon displayed fall colors.

Horses and wedding carriage, hayrides, flowers, decorations, the family barn transformed into a reception and dance venue, and creative touches such as a tree topped by an eagle statue in a nest made lifetime memories for family and guests.

Nearby (the next day) I took part in the Christie Mountain Annual Leaf It to Rusk
Fall Color Chairlift Ride. The brilliant leaves changed the way the world looked!

Food, art, pumpkins, indoor and outdoor rock climbing, bungy trampoline, Playstrong Adventures Challenge, electronics recycling by 5R Processors, Rusk County Sheriff’s Department displays, and Bruce Fire Department demonstrations were also available.

To top off the weekend, I had time to watch a winning game of the Green Bay Packers!

I volunteered at a work event in Marathon County on the Plover River segment of the Ice Age Trail.

On Friday evening we pulled into the Dells of the Eau Claire group camp site, set up our tent in the cold rain, and ate a hot meal of meat, potatoes, gravy, vegetarian options, green beans, garden fresh salad, and Thelma’s famous bread pudding.

A lively performance of jazz flute by Doctor Marilyn and guitar favorites by her husband Doctor Dave followed.

Saturday morning began with a hearty breakfast and morning stretches led by ‘Rambo’ before setting out for the work site.

Building long sections of boardwalk was a major focus of this project. I heard stories of how hikers and hunters have been trapped in the mud, needing help to get out. So the long boardwalk is appreciated.

Many hands made the work lighter: a charter school group, the National Guard, the University of Wisconsin-Madison outdoor recreational club Hoofers, the international student group SEED, and other volunteers worked together over several weeks. Work on this project will continue during the 2012 season.

Glacial features on this segment include many boulders, a ‘stone hole,’ a boulder train, and a terminal moraine.

According to the odometer in my car, the parking lot for the Reclaimed Flambeau Mine Nature Trails is .6 miles south of the Flambeau River Bridge, which is on Hwy 27 near Rusk County Hospital, and .3 miles south of the Ladysmith city limit sign on Hwy 27.

While hiking there early last spring I saw a fuzzy caterpillar, waterfowl, and a man walking a lively dog. During late summer I walked the trails through reclaimed woodland, grassland, and wetland, enjoying scenery filled with plants, waterfowl, and flowers.

If I’m in the area again, I might go to the picnic area overlooking the Flambeau River.

Other Ladysmith trails are Copper Park Equestrian Trail, Riverview Trail, and Greenwood Park trails. Further from Ladysmith, but still in Rusk County are the Sisters’ Farm Trail System, the Blue Hills Trail, and the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.

Complicated, controversial issues surround the reclamation of the copper mine in Ladysmith.  The Wisconsin Resources Protection Council has posted graphs on their website showing high levels of copper and zinc in water and fish. I walked by the monitoring wells, which are shown on maps provided online and on interpretive signs at the site.