sand creek almanac

I'm still here...

2012-01-28T10:59:00.001-06:00

Yes, I am still here in the blogging world, still trying to figure out the intricacies of blogging photos on the iPad. I've been meaning to post more often, tell about my birding trip to Sax Zim Bog with Lynne, my reunion with high school friends I hadn't seen in years. Et cetera. But what matters most to me, this morning, is that I am alive and well. And I am reminded that I am not invincible.Last night, when I was driving to the activity bus stop a mile and a half from home to pick up Nina and her friend, I skidded straight through a "T" intersection and ended up well beyond the ditch. I'm fine, the car took some serious hits from tree stumps and saplings and is not drivable.It all happened so fast, I am at a loss to explain what went wrong, why such an ordinary drive I make all the time ended up that way. I was a half mile away from home, approaching the intersection which is the north end of my road. I stepped on the brakes as usual, and...nothing happened. I kept going. There was fresh snow on the road, but nothing I'm not used to. I think my brakes failed. The whole thing was kind of a blur, but I don't remember hearing the anti lock brakes grind, I don't remember feeling any slowing down when I stepped on the brakes. I know I didn't accidentally hit the accelerator because I was pressing down hard and the engine didn't rev. Whatever it was, and I'm willing to admit I probably was not concentrating as much as I should have, but STILL...anyway, I'm pretty lucky to be alive and unhurt, except maybe for my ego. I am humbled and reminded that anything can happen, anytime, and life can change in an instant. I'm still here, and I am grateful.

Testing BlogPress

2012-01-18T09:21:00.001-06:00

I got a nifty Apple wireless keyboard for my iPad yesterday. It is so small it could fit into a backpack, and the keys have just the right amount of action so it feels good typing. The iPad screen is okay for typing for a short time, but I want to be able to use the iPad for writing longer things. Like blog posts.

The problem with that is, apparently Blogger, WordPress, and other platforms have not kept up with the rapidly evolving world of apps. I can do limited writing and editing on the standard Web interface on Safari, but it does not want to add photos or hyperlinks. Blogger has an app for iPad, but again the functionality is very limited. So this morning I spent the $2.99 and downloaded BlogPress (thank goodness apps are cheap). It has tools to insert HTML so you don't have to write your own, and there is a tool to upload photos that are stored on the iPad. Apparently if I want to add a photo from Picasa I have to copy the location and insert the proper HTML. The downside is, there is no WYSIWYG interface, no previews. And when I went back and tried to complete a draft of a post I am working on, for some reason I could not start typing.

My prediction is that by the end of 2012 someone will have come up with an app that solves these issues. After all, if we can put a man on the moon...

Now for a test photo:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Monday holiday

2012-01-02T09:02:00.001-06:00

I am sitting here in my rocking chair by the wood stove with a cat in my lap, another one on my shoulders. The third cat tried to get on my lap, but since Frisky takes up most of my lap space that was not possible.

I like it when holidays fall on Sundays, because that means I get the following Monday off work. Whatever observance of the holiday is behind me, and I get a "bonus" day to relax and regroup before getting back into the normal routine.

A week ago I spent my Monday holiday doing what has become a tradition for me: the Pine County Christmas Bird Count. It was the warmest count day ever, with temperatures in the 40's, and with the lack of snow it felt more like late October than the day after Christmas. There were also strong winds, which made birding more challenging. Nonetheless, my group came up with 24 species, including a rare treat for this area: a golden eagle! Bald eagles are fairly common around here, even throughout the winter now, but I had never positively identified a golden eagle in this area. Even the expert birders I was with had to consult their field guides, and they ended up having a lengthy discussion about what features distinguished it from a dark morph rough legged hawk. In the end the wind helped them make the distinction. Since a golden eagle is considerably heavier than a rough legged hawk, its flight is less buoyant. A rough legged hawk would have hovered more and soared more lightly in the wind. It was a good learning experience for me: good birders never assume anything and consider all the details.

This Monday holiday will be a bit more home-based. I will finish cutting up the turkey we had last night, maybe making a soup from the leftovers. Maybe I will finally make the time to play music, like I keep telling myself I will. At least I've already blogged, which is more than I can say for most days last year!

Goin' wireless!

2011-12-30T15:41:00.001-06:00

Testing 123... At long last, I have a pretty good WiFi signal in the house and I'm using the Blogger for iPad app. Oh yeah, THAT was my big Christmas present! So what better subject for a test photo than Frisky.

dreaming of a brown Christmas

2011-12-19T08:49:00.000-06:00

Has it been over a month already since I've posted? 2011 will certainly not go down as a big blogging year for me. Yes, I'm still thinking of ideas for blog posts all the time, and there is always something interesting going on here to write about. But then there's this big disconnect between experiencing something, forming the words to describe it, getting to a medium where I can jot those words down for later use, and actually sitting down at the computer and connecting with Blogger. I've been going through my archives, and from what I see there it didn't used to be this difficult. Of course back then I didn't have teenage kids monopolizing the computer, and I didn't have Facebook for those moments I would have jotted down a quick blog post just to let the world know something.

This morning I have the computer to myself, finally. I stayed home from work with a bit of a sore throat and cold, just enough that work would have been somewhat miserable. I'm kind of glad to have a "me" day. The Hermit was out of town all last week, and between tending the wood stove and driving to various kids' activities, I didn't have much spare time. Fortunately the weather was very mild for December, even though some of the days were dark and gray, so heating was not a major issue. This has been one of the mildest Decembers I can remember, and what little snow we have has come an inch or so at a time. That means occasionally conditions on the pond have been perfect for ice skating, something I did not get to enjoy last year.

Christmas spirit is running at perhaps an all time high this year. Vinny found a very nice balsam fir on our property, and took it upon himself to cut it, bring it inside, and set it up by himself. Nina and Joe joined in for the decorating. I decided to make up for all the years I thought about making Christmas cookies but didn't get any further than that. Three batches done so far, about eight to go.

Brewing is also being done at the rate of about one five gallon batch a week. You'd think I'd have a lot of beer sitting around ready for consumption at that rate, but oddly enough it seems to disappear as soon as it has sat in bottles long enough to build carbonation.

Here's Frisky, official mascot of "Sixteen Pound Siamese Brewery", overseeing the transfer of a wheat beer from fermenter to carboy.

That's the news from Sand Creek for now. Come to think of it, it feels pretty good to be blogging again. I'll be back soon.

birding skills

2011-11-14T16:54:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I've done a birding-oriented blog post. It's not that I have not seen birds, but being the opportunistic birder that I am, as well as the lazy blogger, I haven't taken many bird photos this year, or taken the time to report my findings. Today, however, I had a birding moment that not only resulted in a new Year Bird, it also gave me reason to reflect on what makes a good birder and how every experience is a teacher.

In a work-related errand, I went to a small dirt road that had been built over a bog many years ago. This road had been flooded over and washed out many times in recent years. Well duh, you build a road on a wetland, what do you expect? But nevertheless, the township wants to clean out an old ditch to see if it will alleviate the flooding. Truthfully, I'm not the right person to make that determination. I'm not a hydrologist. But even without those credentials, I can tell you I really don't think clearing a little brush and silt out of a ditch will make much of a difference in the drainage of a hundred or more acre bog, especially when the land (bog) is flat and the next stop is a 35 foot deep bog lake. But whatever.

This is the road. The water level is about a foot below the road bed. Something tells me that this road should never have been built here. But again, that's not mine to judge. I liked how it looked though; with all the tamaracks and spruces, and the understory of unique bog plants, this looked like great bird habitat.

As I paused to look at the side of the road in search of a culvert, I heard the sound of little bits of something dropping from a nearby tamarack. Birding skill #1: Use your ears. I immediately scanned the tree branches for the source, likely a bird or red squirrel feeding on tamarack cones.It took a while, but I finally picked out a flock of about six smallish birds, occasionally flitting from branch to branch as they fed on buds or cones. Birding skill #2: Think habitat. What kind of bird would be using tamarack as a food source? Something told me these weren't chickadees, or goldfinches; they just weren't acting that way. Birding skill #3: Watch for behavioral cues.

I was regretting not having a pair of binoculars with me. Birding skill #4: Always carry your binoculars! The birds were just dark silhouettes against the midday sky. But I had the work camera with me, with its limited zoom, so I thought maybe I could take a few photos and examine them in greater detail later. Birding skill #5: Always carry your camera! I was also thinking for some reason that my iPhone, which has the cool Sibley bird app, was still in the car. Birding skill #6: Carry a field guide! So I decided to head back to the car and get my phone. But before I did that, I decided to try "pishing" to see if that would bring any of the birds closer. Birding skill #7: "Pishing" comes in handy. In no time the entire flock took notice and flew across the road. I, of course, saw little dark flying silhouettes. But I did hear some vocalizations, and that was enough to rule out a few common species. Birding skill #8: See #1. I got back to the car only to realize my iPhone had been in my pocket the entire time. I opened up Sibley's and scrolled to what was becoming a likely suspect.

Recognize these silhouettes yet? The audio calls in the app matched up with what I had heard. And when I zoomed in on this photo, I was able to see some distinctive white wing patches.

White winged crossbills! My first in a long time. But along with the satisfaction of seeing a species that is only seen irregularly, I noticed that my birding skills were becoming more sharp. Perhaps the best way to develop identification skills is not by being told what species is in front of you and then watching it, but by being presented with an unfamiliar species and figuring out what cues might distinguish it from other species.

And, the Sibley iPhone app comes in very handy. :)

Changes in attitudes

2011-11-13T19:41:00.000-06:00

Remember how I used to rant about all terrain vehicles?

We own one now. And that very grown up looking young man, and one very capable driver, is my son Vinny. Now 5'11 or so.

It was an evolution in attitude. I used to be a Thoreau-driven, Luddite kind of person. But when you have 40 acres, and the acreage tends to get grown up in brush if you ignore it, and trees fall across established trails, it's hard to maintain the land without horsepower. Or gasoline power. And given that snow falls in the winter, and we have a very long driveway, and it's hard to do with a city-dweller snowblower...well, enough excuses. And Vinny doesn't need excuses. At 14, he's ready to ride!

The best thing is, we will use it to plow my new garden spot. After a lot of frustration, and deliberation, I have decided to move my garden out to the old horse pasture in the front part of our land.

I was getting tired of grasses and other weeds constantly getting into my raised beds. Which weren't really raised beds, considering I tilled down below the boards every spring, and pulled up new rocks all the time. Many of the beds were rotten and needed replacing. Added to that is the fact that some aspens are growing just south of the garden, and will shade it in the near future. The old horse pasture has less rocks, and has been enriched by manure for a while. I plan to do a more "traditional" garden, plowing up an area instead of maintaining individual beds.

Besides, the kids needed additional space in the outfield of our backyard baseball field.

Vinny and I saw this porcupine while he was taking me on a 4 wheeler tour. Not the best picture, but it was fun to see after a bumpy ride across the swamp on the old railroad grade.

This has been a very mild November thus far. We had a couple of inches of snow the other day but it has disappeared, and the pond has frozen over and thawed, and Sally can still go for a swim. She is beginning to dislike going out in the deep water; I imagine when the water is in the 30's, even a Labrador will give it a second thought.

photo comparison, and Brew Cat

2011-10-27T20:32:00.001-05:00

Just sayin'. I snapped this with my iPhone with its micro lens, and ended up with a much better exposure than what I took later with my Kodak Z740.

While I'm at it, here's Best Cat Ever (aka Frisky), looking on with interest as my St. Paul Porter is being transferred to the carboy for an excruciatingly long waiting period of secondary fermentation. This is my first brew in a few years, and I must say it is about time!

Whether snow, sleet, hail, or rain...

2011-10-27T20:11:00.001-05:00

Sally will go to the pond. And though this looks like a picture I would have taken on my iPhone, it was actually taken on my current working digital camera. What this photo does not show, and what I could not find a quick, easy fix for, is that at the time there was a very dramatic sky. Those little bolts you may see above the pond are blobs of sleet falling. Oh Kodak Easyshare Z740, you could have done so much better! You overexposed!

Anyway, the sky was dramatic as I was driving home, and I could tell there was some sort of precipitation falling nearby, although the sun was shining all the time. And since Vinny and Nina are done with sports for now, I was able to get home before the sun set. Two weeks from now when Standard Time kicks in, I will be lucky to see my home in daylight. The pond will freeze over, and Sally will just have to dream for a few months.

So the question now is...which do I want more? New digital camera, or iPad?

fall is happening

2011-10-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

And I am doing my best to stay awake for it. Life seems more hectic here than ever; I haven't even had the time to stop at my refuge, Banning State Park, for over a week. These are photos from my last visit there, and my, things have changed in a few days.

It has been unseasonably warm and very dry here. The fall colors are beautiful, but I enjoy them more on a crisp, cool day.

My life mostly revolves around driving to work, and driving my kids to and from sports. My 2006 Subaru Outback just hit the 100,000 mile mark two days ago, which is not out of the question considering we live 15 miles from school and 30 miles from my job, but still it is a sobering reminder that I am, for now, dependent on driving. I love these fall days, but sometimes I wish the progression of the seasons, and the events in my life, would just slow down for once so I could enjoy them a little.

I mean, how in the heck did my kids end up so old already? :)

energy

2011-09-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

I found a rock ledge today, perched on a slope some 50 feet above the Kettle River. It is just yards away from a major trail, but yet it is hidden from view. It was just me and the rock and the river. I sat in a sort of meditation for a while, then I wrote. I will share what I wrote, unedited.

I am hidden from the world of humans. Down a rocky slope towards the river, underneath a sandstone ledge that long ago broke away from the hillside. It was the work of the water, the water that carved the valley, the water that now rushes far below. The leaves, beginning to show hues of soft yellow and blushes of red, come and go. Trees anchor their roots in rock crevices. The water still does its work. I feel its energy in the sound. If there were no sound, that is if I had no ears to hear, I would still feel the dull roar as it echoes off the sandstone behind me. The leaves turn sunlight into energy, the water finds power in the pull of gravity, even the bonds that hold the rock together are energy on another scale.

Here I am rock. I am leaf. I am water.

september

2011-09-18T20:20:00.000-05:00

I have been easing back in to the routine of kids going to school, and me picking kids up from various activities. Vinny decided to play football after all, and Nina is playing volleyball, so after I get off work at 4:30 I usually end up doing errands and then waiting until about 6 when they are done with practice. When the weather is nice, and there are no games to watch, I've been spending my time at Banning State Park, which surrounds the school grounds. This has become one of my favorite places. The Kettle River cuts through a sandstone gorge, creating amazing rock formations. I like to walk down by the river, or sometimes I find a rock outcrop high above the river and I sit and read, write, or just unwind. I would hesitate to call what I do meditation, although I am trying to learn meditation and make it a part of my life. Life is just so noisy, so chaotic, sometimes I need to quiet the thoughts that keep racing around in my mind. The river, with its constant rushing and tumbling on rocks, helps.

Totally effortless compost garden, revisited

2011-08-26T19:15:00.000-05:00

Remember the stuff I had growing in my compost bin? Take a look now. I love this kind of gardening!

Yeah, there's a compost bin in there, somewhere. But it has been overtaken by squash, tomatillos, corn, and a tomato plant, although like most of my other tomatoes this year, it is not faring well. I don't know what it is with me and tomatoes this year. Oh well.

I have at least five of these acorn type squash ripening on the vine. The funny thing is, they do not look like any acorn squash I have ever planted before. The coloration looks a lot like Delicata squash, which I did plant last year, in the same bed as acorn squash. I think they somehow cross-pollinated, and the seeds I scraped out of one and tossed in the compost bucket grew into this. I can't wait to try the result; maybe I have come up with a new heirloom! Delicata are delicious, acorn squash are delicious. A cross between them....we'll see!

I also have at least three Montana Jack pumpkins growing where I planted them last year, but where this year potatoes are ready to be harvested. And I will have a bumper crop of tomatillos from several garden beds, even though I did not get around to planting them this year. I love this kind of gardening.

so what's up?

2011-08-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

I don't know about my whole blog energy lately. This blog is such a part of me I will not quit it, ever, but I just have a hard time keeping up. Maybe it's the whole computer location thing. The computer is still in the cabin, which is just out of WiFi range of the house. I can't get used to blogging on my iPhone anyway, the computer needs to stay in the cabin for space and gaming reasons (the XBox is there, dammit!), and it is hard for me to come out the the cabin and write what I want to write. And I do really want to write.

So what does this mean? I don't know. I know that I want to write, and I have to keep working at it. I know that there are so many things I want to say that remain unsaid. I will work at it.

Did I mention my son Vinny is now at least 3 inches taller than me, and my daughter Nina is catching up fast? Wow. And Vinny made a pretty mature decision to not go out for football. Or basketball. He is a baseball guy. And I like that. Football takes so much time, what with two a days and all that, and I think as long as he concentrates on his talents, which include baseball, music, AND every topic in school, he will do all right. He actually told me "I will have more time to focus on academics." To hear this from a 14 year old kid is priceless. He told me his math teacher said he was probably the smartest kid in his class. And I believe it!!

Ah, time. Vinny drives the old truck like it's second nature. Next summer he will be taking driver's ed. Meanwhile, I stop and try to breathe in every last breath of August that I can...

finally seeing blue

2011-07-31T16:34:00.000-05:00

I planted blueberries five years ago, anticipating that I would have huge harvests within a year or two. But as usual, things didn't work out as planned (do they ever?) Plants got nibbled by rabbits in winter, weeds competed in summer, and every year I was left with blueberry bushes about the size of the ones I had planted. But last fall, I took some time to weed the bed and pile on a heaping load of pine needle mulch (plenty of that around here). The response was very positive: good plant growth in spring, good flower set, and now, ripe berries. Yeah, they look imperfect, but they taste wonderful!

This is the entire harvest, and that's before tasting. Yeah, I know...but if I do what I did again this fall, things should just get better, right?

I saw another kind of blue in the blueberry patch- blue vervain. This wildflower is one of my favorites for its spikes of dainty purple-blue flowers. I'll let this weed stay.

The rest of the garden is coming along, although I have a resident deer who is quite fond of cucumber plants, bean leaves, Swiss chard, and even tomato plant tops. I managed to harvest enough snow peas and sugar snap peas for a couple meals, although I won't have enough to freeze. Despite the deer depredation, I may be harvesting green beans in a week or so. And my first summer squash is on its way.

I can't believe it's almost August. Every summer I have grandiose plans of accomplishing so many things that can only happen in the summer, and I always fall short. I have managed to restart my running this summer though, and I am feeling the benefits: 5 or so pounds lost, hopefully more to follow, and the exhilaration of jumping into the pond after a 5.8 mile run being chased by deer flies. I only saw one vehicle the whole time this morning.

easing back in to work

2011-07-21T22:10:00.000-05:00

It felt surreal driving into the parking lot by the strange looking blue and white pole building that has been my workplace for the past eight years, and where I worked for seven years before that. Before children, before the tough decision to follow my husband's job opportunity in a different state, before all of the strange path that led me back here. I had been off work for nearly three weeks due to the state government shutdown, my longest break from work at any time that I have been actively employed. I had found myself enjoying the time off, not worrying about the money I was not making, not being ruled by a time clock.

As a rule, I rarely show up to work "on time". It drives my boss crazy sometimes, and I'm sure it annoys others, but I think there is more to life than being punctual. I showed up my usual ten minutes or so late, and did not miss a thing. As usual.

I did not have a hundred emails waiting for reply. I did not have a "to do" list a mile long. Pretty much as I had left my desk three weeks ago. My job is like that, I don't have responsibility for many urgent things, but what I do has value in the long run. My boss was on vacation, there were no immediate plans, so I decided to do something that might be of value somewhere down the road. I hopped in a truck, hooked up "my" boat, and headed for a lake to take a leisurely cruise around the shoreline.

Now that may sound kind of like a luxury job, but I had a reason for my choice. This lake, on the border of Pine and Carlton counties, has had Eurasian watermilfoil in it for about six years. Being the person in the office responsible for aquatic plants, I have followed the progress of this species, considered invasive in certain situations, in this lake for about four years now. What I have found has been interesting: while for a year or so there was considerable growth of Eurasian watermilfoil, and some control efforts were undertaken, the plant all but disappeared from the lake a couple of years ago. Since then it has appeared here and there, but nowhere at a level I would call "invasive". I had not heard anything about milfoil in the lake this year; I considered no news to be good news, but I wanted to check it out for myself.

I was alone, I had "my" boat, the weather was nice, and I was headed for a good day. The solo launch went well; I am one of those rare women who can back a boat down a ramp and launch it myself! I was sidetracked momentarily by a battery connection problem. It turned out the connectors were pretty corroded, so I filed them off and got the boat started. I like being able to solve problems.

It was a good day out. I found Eurasian watermilfoil in a few spots, mostly where it had been before and not growing in any quantity. I found more lush growth of native plants, such as whitestem pondweed, largeleaf pondweed, variable leaf pondweed, and others. I have found that when a lake has a lot of native vegetation like that, invasive species find it harder to take hold.

I also saw kids jumping of docks, smiling and laughing. I saw a dog swimming out to retrieve a tennis ball thrown by his human friend. I was reminded of my childhood days at the lake, swimming all afternoon and never getting tired. My job is a paradox: while "working" I experience all the fun things a Minnesota summer at the lake is supposed to be, but as an observer. I find myself wanting to be that girl on the sailboard again, finding joy on the water, on my own.

Weather and politics are making me surly...

2011-07-18T16:05:00.000-05:00

Another Monday at home. While I rather enjoyed the first couple weeks of the MN state government shutdown, I am getting a little antsy about my extended vacation. I can apply to get my first unemployment check this week, but if there is a budget agreement this week and it includes back pay to July 1st, I would just have to pay it back. So I'll wait another day or so...

It's not the money that's bothering me. I'm saving about $50 a week on gas, cutting back on household expenses, and making do with back pay and The Hermit's income. And while I basically like my job, I am not going stir crazy being away from it and my coworkers. I try to not let my job define my life. And if there is one thing this vacation period has shown me, I have a life outside of my job that is much more meaningful than earning a paycheck.

What bothers me is that, while Governor Mark Dayton pulled what I think was an incredibly savvy move and agreed last Thursday to the Republican legislative majority's budget plan, MINUS a few social agenda issues that I do not think should ever be part of a budget bill, the legislators have continued with business as usual, bickering, dragging their feet, and complaining about the legislation THEIR party drafted. They are basically holding 22,000 state employees hostage, not to mention those that depend on suspended services. Dayton will not call a special session to end the budget stalemate until all the ducks are in a row so to speak, which I think is wise governing, because with the pathetic toddlers we have in office, a special session without said ducks in a row could turn ugly. So I may return to work later this week. Or not. I never thought it could come to this.

By the way, my state senator and representative are both Democrats, very much involved in the community and good examples of responsible elected officials. I was in a school/community musical last fall with the wife of Senator Tony Lourey, their three children, and the granddaughter of Representative Bill Hilty. I am proud to know them and to have voted for them. I am glad that they are not part of the party that created this fiasco.

So here I sit at home. It's better, however, than being out working in chest waders on a lake this week. The whole state of Minnesota is experiencing a high pressure system producing heat and humidity that has not been seen in years. It is 91 degrees here now, with humidity off the charts. This is expected to last throughout this week. I have complained about frost in July before; this is just another turn of Minnesota weather. We even have an air conditioner now. I have never thought one would be of much use here, maybe one or two days a year. However, my stepson Ryan happened to have one that would not fit any of his windows, so he loaned it to us. It would not fit any windows in the house, so we put it in the cabin. It is a mixed blessing. It provides a thermal refuge, but it makes it that much harder to go outside or to the house and face the reality of summer. Summer here is so short anyway, I won't complain, but I can't even play my mandolin because of the humidity!

So I'll end on this note: When the going gets tough, the tough get Surly. Surly beer, that is. Perhaps the only good thing that came out of this year's MN legislative session was a bill that allowed this successful MN microbrew to sell their own beer at a proposed brewery/restaurant. Imagine that! That such a proposal had any opponents is living proof that we have not reached the age of political enlightenment. Yet. Until then, I'll sit back, enjoy the show, and sip a Surly CynicAle. Perfect. Or maybe I should just forget state work and apply for a job at Surly. :)

Abundance in the garden

2011-07-06T15:31:00.000-05:00

With my abundance of free time lately, I have been able to get some work done in the garden. Last year it seemed like I never had time to work in the garden; I was always busy doing home improvement projects when I was not at work. By the time I got around to the garden, the grassy weeds were so overgrown in some beds that I just gave up. It's nice to be able to look at neat, (mostly) weed free beds for a change.

These Provider bush beans got a late start but they are growing like crazy now.

Note to self: You can NEVER eat that much arugula! What were you thinking? Also in the bed are red russian kale, lettuce, and Swiss chard.

My sugar snap peas got a late start in the spring, and for some reason did not germinate well. Nevertheless I spent yesterday morning weeding the beds and improvising trellises from old hay bale twine. I hope I get at least a few pea pods before these plants give in to hot weather. Not that the current very pleasant 81 degrees is relatively hot, I'm not complaining, but peas don't like it much. Perhaps I should throw a row cover over them for shade.

While weeding the snow peas, I noticed several Asian green looking things growing. I think the above one is mizuna. I harvested one bunch, but left the others where they were. I thought I had peas in that bed last year, but who knows?

My garlic is growing well with little help from me. For several years now I have not had to buy garlic for planting or eating. I even have some left over from last year's crop; it keeps extremely well.

And finally: This is NOT a garden bed, and I did NOT plant these. This is my compost bin! There are a couple of extremely well nourished tomato plants, one tomatillo, a few unknown squash, and even one corn plant. How's that for easy gardening? It will be interesting to see if these plants bear fruit, and what they will look like.

I have discovered that when I have enough time to not worry about the endless other household chores that must be done, gardening does not seem like work and I don't get tired of it. It is pleasant, actually, listening to the birds and letting my mind wander. It is a form of meditation, of worship.

summertime...

2011-07-03T15:13:00.000-05:00

It is a Sunday afternoon, as lazy as Sunday afternoons get. In a rare stretch of time, I have the house/cabin/40 acre compound to myself (not counting dogs, cats, rabbits, and chickens). Vinny and Nina are both away for the weekend, camping with friends, and The Hermit and Joe headed to town to get away for a while. I can never get enough of being home, so I declined to accompany them.

Actually, I may be home for an extended weekend of indefinite length. The State of Minnesota is shut down, and I am in temporary layoff status since Friday. No new budget talks will happen until at least Tuesday, so Wednesday would be the earliest day for me to report back to work. I don't mind having a couple days off without pay; I'm enjoying relaxing around the house, getting a few things done. And realistically I don't think the shutdown can continue for more than a few days without serious consequences: the state is losing money, state parks and rest areas are closed, and vital services are not being provided. I didn't even think it would come to this, but the Republican leadership in the state legislature was not willing to negotiate in good faith. I had a lot of admiration for Democrat Governor Mark Dayton when I voted, and I have even more admiration for him now for sticking to his principles of doing what's best for the people of Minnesota.

I would say more, but I don't want to go there on this beautiful afternoon. This too shall pass. I hope to spend some of my free time writing, playing music, trying new recipes, and living in balance. This morning I went for a 4.4 mile run, and while the last mile or so was not feeling so good, it was all worth it when I jumped into the cool waters of the pond at the end. It was like instant euphoria in every cell of my body. I'm still walking on air it seems.

Luna moth

2011-06-20T20:59:00.000-05:00

Finally saw one of these beauties on the cook shed door. Exquisite.

Blanding's turtle!

2011-06-15T18:26:00.000-05:00

While I was driving home from work today at 55 mph, a turtle caught my eye. Turtles laying eggs by the side of the road are fairly common this time of year, but this one was DIFFERENT. It was the size of a small snapping turtle, maybe twelve inches long, but the shell was too round and helmet-like for a snapper, and it was too big to be a painted turtle. I eased to a stop (appointment for new brake pads is in place, don't want to overuse them at this point), turned around, and parked nearby. I took the above photo with my handy iPhone.

The Blanding's turtle is considered a threatened species here in Minnesota, and this was the first one I had ever seen. They live in wetlands, especially adjacent to running water, and nest in sparsely vegetated upland areas. Unfortunately, they seem to like roadsides for nesting. I'm guessing this one came from Bear Creek, which could mean she would cross the road when she is finished laying eggs. It is not a busy road, but I'm praying for her!

These eggs will probably hatch in August or September, and the young turtles will have a long journey to find a suitable wetland or Bear Creek to spend the winter. I marked the location on my phone, and I will be thinking about the mama turtle and her eggs every time I drive by.

They're so grown up...

2011-06-09T17:17:00.000-05:00

Vinny and Nina spent the afternoon at the neighbors' house, earning money for mowing and other chores. Now I just watched them take the truck, alone, out to the horse pasture to feed the horses.

WOW. And, I'm so glad we live out here where they can do this stuff!

Minnesota weather...just follow the bouncing ball

2011-06-07T18:27:00.000-05:00

As I sit here in the very un-air conditioned cabin, it is probably about 90 degrees. The Twin Cities had a record high of at least 103 degrees for this date, so I should be thankful I'm at least in the outer reaches of the Lake Superior cooling effect. But if I remember correctly, and I do have a short memory when it comes to these things, we had frost last week. And, lows in the 30's are predicted by the end of the week. So it's a good thing half the garden is still a jungle and the beautiful heirloom tomato plants my neighbor Patty gave me are not in the ground yet.

Does anyone from Minnesota (Lynne?) remember the Northwestern National Bank Weatherball? In the days before the Internet and instant weather updates, the bank had a cool idea: build a gigantic neon ball atop your building, come up with some catchy slogans ("Blinking white- cold weather is in sight), and there--you're a Minneapolis icon! I remember I even had a plastic coin bank with a replica of the weatherball. Unfortunately, the bank building was damaged beyond repair in a Thanksgiving Day 1982 fire that was caused by arson in the neighboring vacant Donaldson's department store building. The bank became NorWest, then Wells Fargo, and the weather ball was no more.

I thought about the weather ball today and the wisdom it might hold. I would have had another code for it: Weather ball is pink--don't blink. The weather will change in a minute!

I do have a blog post in mind about a great weekend, which involved, among other things, the most ukuleles I have seen in one place at one time. But that will have to wait.

cedar waxwing

2011-05-30T20:57:00.000-05:00

Seen while fishing a secret spot this evening with a favorite fishing buddy (Joe). No fish, just tangled lines and a few nibbles. And a few good birds.

guess who came to my feeder today?

2011-05-23T19:23:00.000-05:00

I think I've just died and gone to heaven, except the TV is playing a tribute to Harmon Killebrew, who is there now, so I must still be here.

An Indigo Bunting! And I got a clear, croppable photo! Made my day. :)

glorious days of spring

2011-05-22T13:08:00.000-05:00


Calvin (Vinny) and Starflower (Nina) after the second to last ball games of the season

A lot of time has passed since my last post. Time filled with work on a lake in some cold, windy, rainy Minnesota spring weather, time filled with junior high baseball and softball games, a band concert, and little time for anything else. May is slipping by, and warmer weather is finally upon us after lots of waiting and false starts, Minnesota style. Things are running well behind last year; I just planted onions, potatoes, peas, and greens two days ago. Today it is 72 degrees and humid, with more rain on the way. It's a good day to catch up with indoor tasks, like playing music and blogging. I try not to do too much housework on Sundays. :)

Long time readers of this blog will probably barely recognize the pair in the above photo. I swear they have each grown several inches in the last month! For reference, I am 5'7 and between them in height. Yes, Calvin has surpassed me and I don't think he'll stop growing for a while. Starflower and I have been sharing footwear for some time, and I hope for her sake her feet are done growing, because it's hard to find shoes beyond size 10! I can't leave out Mr. Attitude; he's approaching five feet tall and just as full of attitude as ever.

When I started this blog six years ago, or at least some time shortly thereafter, I decided to use pseudonyms for my family members. I thought it only proper to protect their privacy online. A lot has changed since then. The kids now have iPhones and text messaging and Facebook accounts in their real names (after some good conversations about online privacy and some common sense reminders). Many of you who are on Facebook know them by their real names. So I think the time has come to start referring to them as such on this blog. Part of it is for my convenience; I have to stop and think about which names to use in which context. So may I now present to you: Calvin = Vinny (or Vincent), Starflower = Nina, and Mr. Attitude = Joe. The Hermit will remain The Hermit for the time being, because it fits him. ;)

I enjoyed watching Vinny and Nina play baseball and softball this year. Nina, sixth grade, was in her first year of school softball, and she decided early on she liked playing catcher and worked hard learning what can be a difficult position. Vinny, in his third and last year of junior high ball, was outstanding. I know, I sound like I'm bragging, but he has matured into a thoughtful pitcher, quick-reflexed infielder, and solid hitter. His coach told him and two other players that they could be playing some varsity games next year, as ninth graders!

Now for a couple random bird feeder photos. If you think that looks like wreckage behind those beautiful male goldfinches, you are right. We had one of those tarp-covered Quonset shelters, with perhaps too much random junk inside, but one March day it collapsed under heavy snow cover. It's pretty unsightly right now, but there hasn't been much time, or good weather, to sort out the mess. So it sits.

This has been the Year of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the feeders. For the last couple of weeks, we have had as many as six of them at one time. The front one in this photo is a first year male, and the other one is fully mature. In addition to these and the goldfinches, I have had purple finches, pine siskins, black capped chickadees, downy and hairy woodpeckers, red breasted and white breasted nuthatches, chipping sparrows, Baltimore orioles, and.......one male indigo bunting! A feeder first for me. Of course the camera was not available. Maybe some other time.

I have so much more to catch up on, and hopefully this post will break the ice and get me back in the habit of writing. For now, it's starting to rain and I think I hear a mandolin calling my name.

Annual exuberant pond opening post!

2011-04-11T19:35:00.000-05:00

Today was the day. The pond is 99% ice free, and of course Sally had to celebrate. We humans will wait a while, at least until the water temperature is within 30 degrees of body temperature.

Spring is unfolding in the wondrous way it always does. Birds are returning, woodcock are doing their spectacular display, ruffed grouse are drumming, robins are singing, and in the last couple of days, frogs have started singing. It's a wonderful time here.

Early spring evening at Sand Creek

2011-04-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

The daily highs have inched up into the forties and sometimes fifties, but the wood stove is still a necessity. The major snow cover is gone, but snowbanks still persist on the north side of buildings and anywhere large amounts of snow were piled up. Road restrictions are in place, which means I can drive without meeting logging trucks. There will be no logging trucks until the frost is completely out of the ground.

Today I saw my first turkey vultures of the year, soaring over the Kettle River. Sand Creek has absorbed the majority of the snow melt, and may have reached its crest today; the banks are overflowing but are nowhere near reaching our house; that's the nice thing about having huge areas of low wetlands upstream.

The woodcock were putting on their show tonight, making their strange call before spiraling into the sky in a shower of twitters. What an amazing bird.

Still waiting for frogs, and it will be a week or so. But it will happen.

Maladjusted Minnesotan kids on spring break

2011-03-29T20:18:00.000-05:00

EVIL WINTER MUST DIE!!!!

Starflower and Mr. Attitude are pretty close these days. They come up with all kinds of unique ideas to celebrate their week off from school. I had a well-deserved laugh when I came home tonight and saw this. Kinda reminds me of the Calvin & Hobbes snowmen!

shirttail relatives

2011-03-06T15:23:00.000-06:00

Calvin has a new friend at school. Last night they went to a movie, and today his friend went to baseball camp to be Calvin's catcher. What makes this friendship special is that Calvin and he are distantly related. Very distantly. Here's the deal: My aunt (mom's brother's wife) is a cousin of the kid's grandma. I don't even know if there is a technical term for that kind of relation. Tail of the shirttail maybe? Anyway, Calvin is kind of proud to hang out with his "cousin".

I think the reason Calvin enjoys this connection is because we don't have family in the immediate area. My dad and brother and his family are a hundred miles away, while my aunt and uncle and grandma are a bit closer at sixty miles away. The Hermit's family are all in Michigan and Ohio; one of our nephews is even an attorney in Ireland. I'd love to visit him some time! But there are a lot of families around here that have been here for a long time and have scores of relatives within a stone's throw; Calvin and Starflower's best friends up the road are an example. So finding a connection with someone in the area is probably important to them.

I grew up seeing my first cousins infrequently. They lived in Walla Walla, Washington, St. Augustine, Florida, and Newton, Massachusetts. I barely know them. I have a few second cousins I saw more frequently, but I am not that close to any of the family. So I can totally understand Calvin's enthusiasm at finding someone he is related to, however distantly. :)

The first of March (or, my annual optimistic spring-is-almost-here post)

2011-03-01T15:06:00.000-06:00

The first day of March should be considered a holiday. I’m talking a full blown, no holds barred celebration complete with music, dancing, bonfires, and revelry!

Why, you may ask, especially if you live a lot closer to the equator than I do. Why? The official explanation is that the first of March is considered to be the first day of “meteorological spring”. That is, the typical coldest 90 days during the calendar year, December 1-February 28, are behind us.

In my mind, winter officially loses its death grip when the calendar page turns over. Yes, we may still have some nights of subzero temperatures, and you can expect a snowstorm or two. But when March arrives, whether as a lion or a lamb, the weather is guaranteed to get warmer. Sooner rather than later. Snow will melt on a sunny day and freeze with a solid crust at night. Patches of open ground will be revealed. The cool sweet smell of damp earth will permeate the air at twilight.

The warmth of the sun and the motion of flowing water will work together to break through the fragile ice on the Kettle River. The newly opened patches of water will attract a pair of trumpeter swans or Canada geese or hooded mergansers. Kestrels and red winged blackbirds will appear over every marsh and field as the tawny grasses emerge from their winter snow cover.

And I will emerge once again from what always seems like the long sleep of winter. I will plant seeds, which is after all one of the most optimistic acts in the world. I will bask in the warmth of a sunny afternoon at the south facing window by the wood stove, and not know which is warming me more. In my hands will be a musical instrument playing tunes that seem just a bit more lively than I played a month ago.

Then I will go outside, running, laughing, filling my lungs with cool air at sunset. And so it begins again, as it always does.

woodpecker central

2011-02-27T14:36:00.000-06:00

The pileated woodpecker has to be one of my favorite bird species. And this winter I've been fortunate to see one at the suet feeder fairly often. While this isn't the best picture, you can tell this one is a female by the absence of red on her face. She really did a number on this suet cake just today; the picture was taken this morning, and now in the afternoon there is barely any left.

After Ms. Pileated left, I got a rare shot of a hairy and a downy woodpecker close to each other, taking turns gleaning from the remains of the suet cake. Yesterday afternoon when Mr. Attitude and I returned from our birding adventure, there were three downy woodpeckers and one hairy in this same tree at once!

Ms. Pileated has been busy around here. This is a dead white spruce that continues to provide wonderful habitat and food for woodpeckers and other birds. I am looking at it out the window right now as I write this at the computer, which is in the cabin. I have had the pleasure of watching a pileated woodpecker work on these holes throughout the winter, and yesterday The Hermit called me to tell me one was at it again. The long hole to the right is pretty deep, and I can't help but wonder if this will be a nest site this summer. If so, the location is perfect as I can get good views (and photos) from inside the cabin!

Birding the Bog with Mr. Attitude

2011-02-26T17:59:00.000-06:00

I had a couple of errands to do in Duluth today. Actually I was going to do one of them on Monday, my day off, but it was snowing pretty good that morning so I did not want to drive. I rescheduled my appointment at the Subaru dealership for today. Then Calvin's new iPhone went on the fritz yesterday, so I decided to, pardon the expression, kill two birds with one stone. But as long as I was driving that far, it was only about thirty more miles up the road to some of the best winter birding in Minnesota. And I had promised Mr. Attitude a special day.

We had not gone three miles from the house when we saw our first birds of the day: Two adult bald eagles! I had seen these eagles in the same location yesterday, and The Hermit has seen them. I'm wondering if there is a nest somewhere nearby; not that it's nesting season yet, but I have heard eagles are starting to return to their breeding grounds.

The car appointment was good in that I did not have to pay anything today, it was just for a strange noise that started right after I had my car serviced there last time. The noise turned out to be nothing major, although I noticed it is still there. On the other hand, I may be looking at replacing the catalytic converter in the near future. Ouch.

After a visit to the AT&T store, I ended up having to take Calvin's phone to the UPS store so it could be shipped to Apple to be replaced. I am shaking my head. Why can't AT&T and Apple get their act together so I can get a same day replacement? I could have, if there was an Apple store in Duluth, I was told, but the nearest one was in Minneapolis.

I was so ready for some quiet scenery and good birding after that. We stopped at Subway, and noticed a very vocal raven perched on top of a utility pole. Then we headed up Highway 53.

The Sax Zim bog (named for two former town sites in the area) has an almost surreal quality to the landscape. Think the movie "Fargo", only more so.

I couldn't resist taking this picture. Now this is Minnesota!

Our first stop was at a house with a feeder along County Road 7, where we saw a large flock of pine grosbeaks along with redpolls and black capped chickadees. The male pine grosbeaks are such an exquisite rosy red color.

Joe had the first raptor sighting of the day: a rough legged hawk! I usually see a few of them around in the winter, but I had not seen more than one or two this year.

We came to a recently bulldozed logging road that I had heard was a likely spot to see a black backed woodpecker. I drove in, and was surprised to see a congregation of vehicles at one spot. Some of them were birders, and some of them were locals cutting up recently felled tamaracks with chain saws. There were signs of black backed woodpecker activity everywhere, as bark was stripped from standing trees, but the birders were there to see this bird:

Northern hawk owl! One of the very birds I had hoped to show Mr. Attitude! He was thrilled. My woefully inadequate camera could not capture a good shot, but I love this owl's sleek profile.

As we continued up the road, we saw a dark brown creature crossing the road ahead of us. From its size and shape, I think it was an otter, although it could have been a fisher. We were able to locate the tracks; they were spaced fairly far apart.

On the way down Admiral Road to a roadside feeder station, we were accosted by four domestic dogs who seemed determined to not let the car pass!

The Admiral Road feeders were bustling with activity. Pine grosbeaks (all female), redpolls, downy woodpeckers, black capped chickadees, and a couple of red squirrels were working the suet and seeds. Within a couple minutes, I was able to see another bird I was hoping for: a boreal chickadee! Most of the birds were not fazed by our presence. We got out of the car, and I was hoping to get a boreal chickadee picture. I did not get one, but I think this photo is far more precious:

Mr. Attitude was amazed that he could get so close to a pine grosbeak.

It was a big day for him, and an amazing day for me. Mr. Attitude is nine years old now, and of all my kids I think he shows the most affinity for nature. I was so glad I could share this day with him. He wants to go birding again next week! :)

February thaw

2011-02-13T15:30:00.001-06:00

Garrison Keillor had a great observation on "A Prairie Home Companion" yesterday. While I don't recall the exact wording, it went something like this:

It's a fact of human psychology. When you're someplace cold and the weather is warmer than what's expected, it always feels warmer than when you're someplace warm and it's colder than expected.

That would explain why I was sitting out on the deck in short sleeves yesterday drinking a Hop Ottin' and watching the afternoon sun disappear behind the pines. It was 35 degrees.

Of course, I was basking in the afterglow of some outdoor physical activity, brought on by the warm sunny weather. Sometime in the middle of the afternoon I had the urge to go running. I had not been running in oh, several months or so, at least since school started in September. Why? I don't really know. Lack of time I'm sure had something to do with it, but also lack of motivation. I wish I could explain the lack of motivation part. Running always feels incredibly good to me, and it has done great things for my body over the last three years. But for some reason, last summer and fall I wasn't really into it. Oh well. There's always a chance for a new beginning.

I only ran up to the corner and back, about 1.2 miles. I was going to go farther, but my rational brain told me that probably was not a good idea considering the above paragraph. So I went that far, and it felt just right. Pretty good, as a matter of fact. So good that when I got back I saw the big step ladder, and the shovel, and the foot and a half of snow on the cabin roof, and thought it would be a good time to get some of that snow weight off of there, before ice dams and leakage and all that good stuff set in. I went up, and actually had a good time. The part of the roof that needed shoveling is not steep at all, hence the need to shovel, so I was not worried about falling. Calvin joined me, which was a good thing because there was a LOT of snow up there, more than one person could comfortably handle. We got the job done in the afternoon sunlight and relative warmth, and it was nice being up on the roof, enjoying the view.

After the roof was done, I rewarded myself with the Hop Ottin' IPA, from Anderson Valley Brewing Company in California (just up the road from that nice beach where the photo in the last post was taken). But I swear it wasn't the beer, even though it probably had something to do with it, but for the longest time that afternoon I felt better than I had in LONG time. My whole body just felt warm and tingling and alive. That feeling lasted into the evening when at last I stepped inside, sat in front of the wood stove with another beverage, and listened to "A Prairie Home Companion" broadcasting live from Bemidji, MN, which is even more of an icebox than here.

Of course, payback is hell. Today I'm hurting in places I haven't hurt in a long time. I am so anxious to continue my running, to feel the way I felt yesterday, but as the earth thaws and the sunlight returns I know the time to do that will return also. Yesterday was just an appetizer.

A sunny scene for today

2011-02-09T13:15:00.000-06:00

Navarro River Redwoods State Park, California, 2002

This picture has been hanging in my office cubicle for a long time, and today I decided it would be good to scan it before it faded. Calvin and Starflower were 5 and 3 at the time. Mr. Attitude was less than a year old.

Calvin, by the way, won the school spelling bee Monday night! He gets a cash prize of $50, plus the chance to compete in the regional spelling bee in a couple of weeks. In his usual style, he didn't do much to prepare for the competition; he just told me afterwards "Spelling is easy!" He must get it from me. :)

Now where was I?

2011-02-01T20:30:00.000-06:00

It's depressing, really. I was looking at my blog posts from last year, about this time, and they sound too familiar. For someone who prides myself in personal growth, this year has been a bust. I'm right back where I started.

I even missed my sixth blogiversary, which happened on January 21st. But I can be excused, maybe, for not thinking of my own milestones that weekend. On Sunday morning, the 23rd, I nonchalantly checked my Facebook page on my iPhone, and found some devastating news. Jim, a friend from nearly the start of this blog, had passed away. It literally knocked the breath out of me.

When I started blogging, I never imagined that I could develop friendships that transcend place. And when I thought I had reached that level, I thought "oh no. you've never met them IN PERSON. You don't know what they're really like."

So why did I find myself feeling like I had the wind knocked out of me, crying uncontrollably, feeling such a loss for some old hippie from California who happened to have a blog, and who happened to write very well, and who happened to share my passion for good folk music and good beer? Because I felt as close to Jim as I have to any friend I have "in real life". And sometimes I question whether I have any close friends "in real life". Jim and I shared music and beer through the mail, and his comments on this blog were always warm and friendly and thoughtful. I felt Jim's love for his family, his rage against a world gone wrong, but yet his appreciation for all that was good with the world. I really wish I could have made it out to Big Bear Lake, CA and shared a couple of homebrewed beers and a few tunes with him.

Didn't see that coming. Tomorrow is not a guarantee for any of us.

So where was I? In the middle of a Minnesota winter, which hasn't been too terrible around here. I happen to live in a small area which has managed to dodge the bullet from all the major snowstorms that have happened to the north and south of here. We had one or two nights of -20 degree weather, which if I remember from my first year of blogging, isn't that bad.

Most of my time is spent going to work, and then going to basketball games or picking Calvin and Starflower up from practice. I am so proud of them. Calvin, 8th grade, has found his social niche through sports and band, and Starflower, only in 6th grade, has shown amazing dedication to becoming a volleyball and basketball player. I look back at my junior high career and think wow...these kids sure didn't get their social skills from me!

Now if I could only figure out a way to spend less money on auto maintenance. A series of oil leaks in the Subaru, followed by a blown tire today. Sigh. That tire was only two months old! Either logging debris or bad stuff in the road sand.

Sorry this is so disconnected. It's just my state of mind these days...but maybe if I wrote more, it would get better. It's worth a try.

wintery weekend

2011-01-16T13:18:00.000-06:00

It's been the kind of Sunday morning I enjoy most, waking up slowly, drinking coffee and reading and watching birds, making a breakfast of blueberry pancakes with locally processed maple syrup, and later playing some Irish tunes on flute. The birds have been very active this weekend--this morning I had two hairy woodpeckers, two downy woodpeckers, and one pileated! They're attacking the suet cake I have hanging from the birch tree in front of the house. Sorry no pictures--I can't find a pair of AA batteries for the regular camera, and my iPhone camera doesn't zoom.

The iPhone camera is nice for times like Friday afternoon when I took a few hours off work to go cross country skiing at a local state park. (Sorry for the blurriness; I emailed this to myself at low resolution). The trails were in great condition with two inches of fresh fluffy snow that was still falling. The trails were in better condition than me or my skis, which are in need of glide wax. Nevertheless I had a great time and enjoyed the scenery and the roar of the Kettle River rapids.

Apres ski, I went across the road to the school for Starflower's basketball game, then endured a slow crawl up I-35 fifteen miles in increasing snow for Calvin's game. Traffic was moving slowly, which was appropriate for tthe conditions, but I was getting nervous because my oil light was starting to flicker on. I made it to Willow River and purchased two quarts of oil. My Subaru is experiencing an oil leak that threatens to rival BP's. Appointment tomorrow at the dealership in Duluth; hopefully it's not a big thing.

The Willow River game is fun because Calvin played with these guys, including a best buddy of his, two years ago on a sixth grade traveling team. Funny, they all seem to have grown a foot in height! Here is Calvin shooting a free throw. His team ended up losing, although they fought long and hard.

It's the time of year when I start mulling over seed catalogs, planning my strategy for the growing season. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post about my plans soon.

reacting

2011-01-13T20:19:00.001-06:00

My mind has been on a vacation lately. At least that part of my mind that can take the experiences of my life, and turn them into coherent blog posts. I really miss being able to do that, and am doing everything I can to ensure that I will be able to do that again as soon as possible.

Until such time as that happens, I have a couple observations on the events of this past week. My heart cries for those who were killed in Tucson, and I, while not being a praying kind of person in general, nevertheless say a prayer for Gabrielle Giffords whenever I can. For her, and all those whose lives were changed in an instant. I continue to be amazed at Ms. Giffords' strength and recovery, and I somehow wonder if the positive energy sent by so many people doesn't have something to do with it.

We do not know what exactly provoked this tragedy. We may never will. But regardless of whether or not hateful rhetoric had anything to do with it, I ask this: Can anyone who calls themself a Christian condone any rhetoric that implies violence? And if mental illness had anything to do with it, how have we as a society supported early diagnosis and treatment of mental illness? How have we shown support for individuals who may be suffering from a physiological illness, who manifest it by appearing antisocial? Have we lost the ability to care for those within our community, or have we become victims to chemical onslaughts we don't even know about? How about alienation in general...which I think is an ailment that afflicts more and more.

Maybe an afternoon of cross country skiing tomorrow will help me to think more clearly.

2011-01-11T15:19:00.003-06:00

Testing Blogger mobile

2011-01-11T15:19:00.001-06:00

Testing Blogger mobile

one week into the new year...

2011-01-08T12:49:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about time a lot lately. Or, more specifically, the lack of free time I seem to be experiencing, and the discombobulated state of mind that results. Not to mention the lack of blog posts. I still have a lot to say, but in order to blog I need to sit down in front of the computer, the real computer, not the iPhone, and ideally have some peace and quiet while I compose my thoughts. The computer is still located in the cabin, which is not a bad place for it. When I came out to the cabin twenty minutes ago I had it to myself. Now three boys are here playing video games while The Hermit decided now was the perfect moment to pick up a month's worth of cans and trash from all around (This is a man cave, after all, and I DON'T clean here.) We are still configuring the wi-fi signal so it reaches the house consistently, and I suppose when that happens I could learn how to type faster and write real posts on my iPhone.

I have decided that once in a while, a woman just needs to treat herself to a hair appointment. I had a particularly bad hair day Wednesday, thanks to our hard water and dry wood stove air. I took one look in the mirror and saw a flat, unflattering, overgrown hair style with dirty highlights and frizzy grays springing up here and there. I know, I've earned them, but still...so I got on the phone and made an appointment for this morning. I walked in saying "I'm open to suggestions..." which is a pretty bold move for me.

The results: LOVE it! It seemed at times she was randomly swiping a razor at my hair, but my hair now has shape to it. The color reminds me of photos of me at about 4 or 5 years old, when I actually had a tinge of red in the color mix. Most importantly, it makes me feel good. More youthful, maybe. Does that make me a shallow person? I don't think so.

In other business, I watched Calvin play in a very exciting eighth grade basketball game on Thursday. I don't particularly like watching basketball, but this game had me on the edge of my seat. The score was never more than four points in favor of either team, and both teams were playing hard and fast. With minutes remaining, the score started to favor Calvin's team, and they held on to it for a 41-37 victory! Starflower had two games this week, and the schedule looks busy right through mid February.

Mr. Attitude has been spotting lots of ruffed grouse (he calls them "partridge") eating buds in the trees at dusk. The redpolls are finally starting to show up at the feeders, and there are still large flocks of goldfinches. And of course, chickadees.

Today's afternoon includes some general housekeeping, possibly taking the Christmas tree down, and maybe, just maybe, some music.

Just for fun...

2011-01-04T16:48:00.000-06:00

I'm blogging on my iPhone! I'm at Nina's basketball game; they're winning 12-8 at the half.

Merry Christmas from Sand Creek

2010-12-24T10:28:00.002-06:00

There is plenty of snow on the ground here to guarantee a white Christmas. The creek is very much open, enough to attract waterfowl that have lingered in the area. Yesterday The Hermit saw an unusual, slate-gray duck on the creek. I went out with binoculars and camera but I did not see it. However, I scared up a pair of mallards- the first December mallards I have ever seen here. Later I saw a mammal swimming; from the size and color I'd say it was a beaver. The Hermit, after consulting Sibley's bird guide, said the duck he saw looked like a black scoter. That would be the most unusual "yard bird" ever! I'll be checking the creek often.

The tree is decorated, the stockings are hung from the stairway with care, but I have yet to bake Christmas cookies and wrap gifts. The Hermit will take the kids to town to go sledding while I do some "setup" on certain gift items...I am just itching to use mine, and it's my gift to myself so I would be allowed to do that, but that would give the whole thing away, you know! Then I'll make a Christmas eve dinner of ricotta stuffed pasta shells, not exactly traditional but it sounds yummy. Tomorrow after the big unwrapping we'll head to my brother's house for the family Christmas. I hope this holiday finds you surrounded by people you love, with many blessings to share!

(for those of you who saw this post BEFORE I edited the egregious spelling error, in the title no less, I apologize! I'm usually so obsessive about spelling!)

my first Christmas bird count

2010-12-18T19:31:00.001-06:00

'Tis the season, and while my count isn't until the 27th, I'll give you a little tale of my first attempt at being a serious birder...

I was in my first year of graduate school in South Dakota, and I had dated a guy in my undergraduate ichthyology class a couple times. He was already a passionate ornithologist, while I carried a more casual interest in birds from my childhood. I always wonder why I went into fisheries instead of birds...the tradeoff between more jobs and more fun I guess.

He asked me if I would like to go on the Brookings, SD Christmas bird count, and I agreed. (at this time I did not even own a pair of boots rated for South Dakota winters!) A neighbor in my well-preserved historical Classic house, that was now divided into apartments, was also going. We went to the bar the night before. That's where the fun began...

Let me tell you this: Never go on a Christmas bird count with a hangover! I sat all day in the back seat of a car with a poor heating system, my feet frozen, with my cheap K-mart Focal binoculars, trying not to throw up. I tried to be interested in a flock of horned larks, and I reluctantly got out of the car in a small rare hardwood forest to see a couple of great horned owls. I was mildly amused when the group got together at the end of the day and some of the older birders vehemently disputed our duck sightings. ("They were in OUR territory!")

I did not go on another Christmas bird count for over twenty years. I met The Hermit right around the time this count occurred, so my ornithologist guy got dumped, although I don't think it was serious at that point. I probably went back to my studio apartment in that beautiful old house, got under the covers on my futon, and shivered it off. I had a bird feeder outside my window, and I got an occasional red breasted nuthatch that winter. Life was good.

action: music

2010-12-15T11:56:00.000-06:00

Okay, it was a good idea at the time, but I'm having trouble keeping up with Reverb10. It's a time thing, mainly, but I'm also not feeling particularly inspired by the writing prompts. Maybe it's because I tend to be a reflective person, and the prompts are usually for thoughts I've already considered. Like this one:

December 13 – Action When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step? (Author: Scott Belsky)

I took that next step on Saturday (the 11th). My "aspiration" in this case is to DO something with my music- to send it out there for the universe to hear, to write, to perform. I've been dragging my heels with the "doing" part of it; my inner critic can be powerful at times. But on Saturday, for some reason I felt the urge to sit down with my guitar and record some songs. Recording has been intimidating to me, maybe because it makes me more conscious of the act of playing and singing, and as soon as I'm aware of what I'm doing, mistakes happen. The only way around it: get used to recording; I can always hit "erase".

I did manage to get used to it enough to record a few songs. I made myself listen to them, and for once I liked what I heard. I liked it enough, in fact, that I wanted to share it. I have shared music before by making YouTube videos and on MySpace, but both are pretty cumbersome to use for music sharing, and people can't download an mp3 from them. (or maybe you can on YouTube? I don't know) So I did some Googling, and found out there are all kinds of file sharing sites available, most of them offering a couple gigabytes of free storage space. I decided on Dropbox based on a few good reviews. It's pretty easy- just drag files to a special folder on your computer, and they appear online!

I now have the songs I did Saturday, plus an older recording of "Amazing Grace" on flute, on my sidebar. To listen, just click on the title (or right click to open in a new window). Depending on your default media player, you can download the song by right clicking in the player window, or by clicking on a pop up menu.

The songs are old favorites that I have been singing for years, except for "Pancho and Lefty", which I just started doing recently after hearing Emmylou Harris' version. More to come soon!

Catching up on Reverb10

2010-12-09T20:58:00.000-06:00

My friend "rayfamily" at Tilting at Windmills has been participating in Reverb10, a daily series of writing prompts designed to help reflect on the year gone by and set goals for the year ahead. I've been following, thinking "Yeah, this might be good for me, BUT...(enter excuse here)". Well, today when I looked back on my blogging efforts for the year and found a measly 65 posts, I decided this might be a good thing to get me back into the habit of writing. So I'm jumping in, but I have nine days' worth of catching up to do. I won't go into each prompt as much as I'd perhaps like to, but they have stimulated some good introspection. And I won't take the time to write out the entire prompts in this catch-up post, so if you're interested in the whole story, please visit the Reverb10 website. And, if I can get into the game this late, you can too if you want.

December 1- (One word that describes 2010): Motion. It seems this year I have constantly been in motion. From the busy-ness of everyday life, job, and kids' activities, to moving forward with some much needed house projects, to the inner sense of motion. Motion = the opposite of standing still. In the past I have had a tendency to stagnate, to avoid action. I think I have been much more in motion this year, always seeking, growing, sometimes spinning in circles, sometimes trying uselessly to swim against the flow, but always in motion.

December 2- (What do you do every day that discourages writing): Basically getting caught up in everyday life, and NOT taking that time for myself that I know I need.

December 3- (Recall a moment in 2010 when you felt the most alive): Okay, this is one that deserved a blog post in itself, and I fully intended to do it, but I got too busy...

The evening of Halloween I took Calvin, Starflower, Mr. Attitude, and a couple of friends trick or treating in the town of Sandstone, about eighteen miles from home. Calvin had no intention of trick or treating, but he had hoped a friend would come along so they could lurk around and scare kids. (Teenagers!) That friend could not make it, so Calvin and I had an hour or so to ourselves. I decided to drive down to the Kettle River, to an old dam site and some cool trails that go through rock crevices and over the sandstone bedrock by the river. It was near sunset when we got there. The river was raging from the torrential rains that had happened earlier in the week. For a few minutes we stood at the water's edge, just listening to the power of the water. Then we walked around, hopping over crevices, noticing rocks carved by years of flowing water, but now well above the river bank. The sky was pink and indigo, the paths were covered with fallen leaves, and the air was crisp. Calvin and I were noticing the same things, and appreciating them in a way we seldom get to do. We lingered there in the twilight, mother and son. I think we even hugged once or twice.

(Then I got the wild idea to drive down this small road that follows the river. I didn't get too far, and almost got our 2007 Suburban stuck in a gigantic puddle. Calvin and I could not stop laughing.) NOW THAT'S LIVING!

December 4- (What have you done to cultivate a sense of wonder this year?) I have tried to catch myself "in the moment", aware of my surroundings, turning off the internal noise. I have tried to see the lesson and gift in every experience and every person I encounter. I have contemplated the Tao te Ching.

December 5- (What did you let go of?) Tough one. Some things are easier to let go than others. I can think of more thoughts/ideas that I should let go of than ones I have. Perhaps the big one was letting go of my disappointment in politics after the election, and turning to working towards what I believe in.

December 6- (What was the last thing you made?) Those of you who follow this blog have probably figured out I'm not a crafty person. The only things I make are food and the occasional home brew, and I don't consider those "made" by me since I am only a facilitator in natural processes. I am a musician, but again I don't "make" music so much as I facilitate it.

December 7- (What have you done this year to connect with community?) That's easy. Surprisingly, Facebook has helped me connect with people, even a couple new local friends. That, and participating in community theater. It's been a good year for community.

December 8- (How are you "beautifully different"?) I'll take a rain check and give this one a think.

December 9- (What was the best party you attended this year?) I'm not a party person. I'd have to say camping out at the bluegrass festival, meeting up with some old friends and picking with Dick and Lloyd was my party event of the year.

Looking forward to tomorrow's prompt, and I will do my best to stick with this.

Bragging about my bird watching son

2010-12-01T19:58:00.000-06:00

When I arrived home some time after dark with my older two kids in tow (basketball practice), Mr. Attitude had some news for me. "Mom! I saw a big gray bird!" Cool! I asked him "Was it this big?", while approximating the size of a Gray Jay with my hands. That would have been a rare thing! "No", he said, making a smaller measurement with his hands. "But it was bigger than a chickadee?" "Oh yeah!"

Then he got out the camera. The boy, who just turned 9 on Monday, had taken PICTURES!

Even on the tiny screen of the camera, I recognized this Northern Shrike! I have been keeping an eye out while driving, hoping to see the first Northern Shrike of the winter, and my son sees one right out the window near the bird feeder. A lifer for him, and a proud birding mama moment for me.

Northern Shrikes are a rare, but pretty reliable winter visitor around here. We usually see one on the Christmas Bird Count, but they are solitary and you have to know what to look for. They are predators, and this one was probably scouting the bird feeder. I love their gray color and black mask.

Saturday evening musings

2010-11-27T20:05:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here in the cabin, where the computer is located, watching a Lawrence Welk public TV pledge special. How nerdy is that? Actually, Lawrence Welk brings back warm fuzzy memories of evenings at my grandparents' house. There was an innocence and earnestness about those shows, along with a healthy dose of corniness, that sticks with me.

I've been kind of floundering this week, re-adjusting to having free time in the evenings again. Being in "Hello, Dolly!" with Starflower was a good experience. I'll never forget the energy the cast brought together, and the feeling of performing a quality show for local audiences. That's what I love about community theater- it's one thing to pay exorbitant prices for tickets to a traveling Broadway show, but a totally different, wonderful thing to see people you see regularly show their hidden talents and bring a Lawrence Welk-type earnestness to every show. That said, I don't know if I'll do it again. It's a huge time commitment, I have a few other musical projects I might rather work on, and it would have to be a show I really like. Please, Ms. Director, don't even consider "The Music Man!"

So I'm coming off that, the darkest part of winter is upon us (well, not the darkest yet, but the month leading up to the darkest day is pretty dreary), and for some reason my mind has been cluttered with random thoughts. I've found it hard to focus on anything lately. I've tried to remedy that by starting to do yoga, but so far whenever I get near the yoga mat I have three cats and a dog wanting to get in on the action. That, and I can't figure out how to hook up the Blu Ray player and there are no batteries in the remote so I haven't been able to watch a yoga DVD. So today I did probably a better thing...I went for a walk outdoors. The air was crisp, and a dusting of freshly fallen snow sparkled in the sunlight. I went out to the pond first, which had several inches of ice, enough to walk on. There was some slush above the ice on part of the pond though, so I'm going to wait a week or so and hopefully it will freeze enough to shovel for skating. Then I walked along a ridge which used to be the edge of a gravel pit in the 1930's. I saw lots of deer and rabbit tracks, and even a few snow free spots where the deer had bedded down for the night. I followed the old main railroad grade back to the railroad siding which leads back to the cabin. I noticed a lot of fallen trees since I had last walked that way; our big wind storm in late October may have brought down some dead and/or dying wood.

I came out of the woods with a new sense of clarity. Not completely clear, but it was what I needed to get back into living on this late November day.

winter is here

2010-11-13T14:32:00.002-06:00

I spent the morning taking care of unfinished summer business while the snow fell, like bailing water out of a canoe and kayak and turning them over on shore. I guess this is to be expected for this time of year, but last week's 60 degree weather had me thinking there would be more time.

This is going to be a busy week. Dress rehearsal for "Hello Dolly" is tomorrow evening, complete run-through rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday, and a morning performance for the elementary school on Wednesday. Then evening performances Thursday-Saturday, and a matinee on Sunday. So unless I find something really unusual to blog about, see you a week from tomorrow!

under the blue roof

2010-11-07T10:30:00.000-06:00

My other blog is back after a long hiatus. Check it out! (the link is on the sidebar)

election reflections

2010-11-04T12:08:00.001-05:00

Like many people yesterday, I was in a state of shock, anger, and despair at the election results. Not that I had any particular affinity for the Democrats that were defeated, but that mean-spirited divisiveness had once again prevailed. I think that many people voted with emotion, whipped into a frenzy by rallies and slogans, instead of reason. And I fear that many average people—working class neighbors, churchgoers, men and women who gather in Main Street diners across the nation—were manipulated. The media industry told them they were dissatisfied, and since people have a tendency to want to identify with a group (the tribal mentality), they started feeling more and more dissatisfied. And sincethat media industry has taught us we no longer need to be civil in public discourse, hateful words flew like never before.

I admit to getting caught up in that negative energy at times, letting it consume my thoughts. Last night I vented my despair on Facebook, which is good for purposes like that. What followed were some very thoughtful comments that helped me to put things in perspective. I will repost them here:

John: Actually, no one having a clear majority for a while might be good. I'm hearing some Republicans admitting that they do not have a mandate. Maybe that whole, "listen to the people" thing might happen. Yeah right, beer me.

Robin: It always blows my mind that there are powerful people who think destroying the environment is an acceptable way to make money. Like they don't have to drink clean water or breathe clean air. Short-sighted lunatics.

Will: Note to Deb: the federal govt is a lost cause. Has been for awhile. Not that they wont cause trouble (er.. not be honest about real troubles). Concentrate on local, on social networks. sustainable agriculture & culture. permaculture. Read up on Sharon Astyk, Transition Town, Nicole Foss ("Stoneleigh"), etc & other wise souls. listen to nature, forests, wildlife. work for peace.

Will: (quoting Chunyi Lin)

Hello my friends! Take everything easy. Whatever will be, will be. Don't make your own judgment. As long as you know you are doing good things for people, no matter what other people may think or say about you, just continue with ...what you are doing. Then you will find peace in your mind. Then you will live a happy life.

Laura: Easy there, Deb. I've been really down this week; I know, despair is so tempting, but remember this: we who are tempted to despair, we who notice, we who care: we need each other.

Vicki: Well, I've been blue today, too, finding it hard to believe that arrogance and self-interest continues to rule. Then I remember what my grandmother always said: Pride goes before a fall. I believe it.

Today is a new day. Life is too short to get caught up in despair and helplessness. So I will stop spending my precious energy raging against what I cannot change. I will do what I can to make my small part of the world a better place. I will smile and say hello to strangers. I will attempt to understand and listen to someone I do not like. I will sing and dance. I will play the flute. I will plant a garden. I will do crazy, fun, spontaneous things with my kids. I will teach what I can. I will always be learning. I will practice compassion. And, as Wendell Berry says in Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front: I will laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. I will be joyful, though I have considered all the facts.

Edited to add: There were actually some good things that happened on the local level. Our county elected a new sheriff, who I believe will make much-needed improvements to local law enforcement. My district re-elected two state legislators, both whom I know personally and I think are outstanding people. And they both have family members in "Hello, Dolly!"

"an extratropical cyclone of rare intensity"

2010-10-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

We Minnesotans like to talk about the weather. At my workplace there is often an undeclared competition over who had the lowest overnight temperature, or the most rain in the rain gauge. But don’t think for a moment that we would dare call two days of gusty winds, heavy rain, and even snow by a name as exotic as “cyclone”. We get blizzards here, not hurricanes. This enhanced satellite picture, taken at about 4:30 Tuesday afternoon, sure looks like a hurricane, though! And I was just south of the eye.

I had been hearing since Monday that rain and heavy winds were expected starting Tuesday. The Hermit spent the day bringing wood in the house and putting tarps over outdoor wood piles. The rain began Tuesday morning, and all afternoon I had the strange sensation that my sinuses were about to explode. This was due to the record low air pressure that was making its way across northern Minnesota. By afternoon the wind was starting to pick up.

Starflower and I had play practice in the evening, and indoors we could hear the wind blasting the upper level of the auditorium as the rain pounded the roof. Meanwhile, out on the football field, our high school’s team was battling the extreme conditions and came out with a 48-0 victory in their first playoff game. Go Eagles!

Our drive home was interrupted by a large spruce that had fallen and was blocking the road. It had to be a good two feet in diameter at the base. I had to take a three mile detour, all the while thinking about trees, wind, and power lines. I was happy to see the lights still on at my house when I finally pulled into the driveway.

The rain fell late into the night, occasionally driven like nails drumming on the steel roof. I found out the highest wind gusts were over 40 miles per hour here, and may have even hit fifty. However, the strong frame of the house barely shook. Some time over night the rain turned into sleet, then snow, and I woke to an inch or two covering the ground, and still coming down. When I looked out at the rain gauge in the morning I could tell there was already more than two inches of rain.

By the time the rain stopped Wednesday afternoon, there was five inches in the rain gauge. I found out on the National Weather Service Web site that Askov, the town where the spruce fell, had the highest total precipitation for the storm, at 4.94 inches.

The Kettle River and all the local creeks were swollen like I'd never seen them before. Not even in the spring has the water ever been this high on Sand Creek since I've lived here. This photo, a mile upstream from my house was taken yesterday, after the water had gone down a bit.

The water was so high the three 3-foot culverts under the road were completely submerged. The flow created vortexes like this one on the upstream side at each culvert. One dead end road to the east of my house was completely under water.

And I have a new pond, for now! The water had already gone down quite a bit when I took this photo yesterday. Needless to say, Sally's Pond is as full as it gets, but it was already in the shadows and I could not get a good photo of it.

The good news is, we did not lose any of our large white pines in the wind, and the house is still high and dry. A cyclone in Minnesota...What will they think of next?

Well! It's about time for an update!

2010-10-22T16:44:00.000-05:00

Has it really been over two weeks since my last post? Life has been THAT busy. Between the normal work busy-ness, Calvin's football games, Starflower's volleyball games, Mr. Attitude's piano lessons, play rehearsals that sometimes last until 10 pm, and a weekend trip to Nebraska, I have hardly had time to breathe. But for me, that's a good thing. Sometimes I have a tendency to get mired in stillness and reflection. In a month, after the final curtain call, I will have more than enough time to sit in front of the wood stove and contemplate life. Hopefully I'll have the energy at night to pick up a musical instrument and do what I love.

We had a wonderful, if all too short, trip to Lincoln, Nebraska for my stepdaughter Sarah's wedding two weeks ago. It was fun to be "on the road again", fun to see my extended family all there, and fun to have a reason to get dressed up and curl my hair! Lincoln seems like a nice city, and I hope to visit there again when I have more time to see the area.

When we returned home all road weary at 9 pm that Sunday, I went out to the well to get a jug of drinking water. When I turned on the faucet, nothing happened. No water, no pump turning on, nothing. The Hermit and I drove that shallow sand point well by ourselves about fifteen years ago when this place was just our weekend getaway. It originally had a hand pump, but when we moved here nearly eight years ago we installed an electric pump and pressure tank, which were run by generator power until we got electricity. The well had given us years of reliable, clear water, but in the last couple of weeks something had changed. The pump would no longer hold its prime, and the water had sediment in it. I don't know exactly what happened, but it was a bit disconcerting, to say the least, to suddenly be without a source of water.

Our plan had always been to drive a new shallow well in the 8 x 8 basement in the house. The Hermit and a neighbor worked on it this summer without success; funny how water can be about 12 feet down by the cabin, but not by the house 200 feet away. But I think The Hermit shares my feelings of having had enough of this do-it-yourself-ness. We wanted water, and we wanted it now. So we borrowed some money from my dad, and had a well professionally drilled. With the economy as it is, the guy was available to come out and drill just two days after we called, on a Friday, and the water line to the house was completed the following Monday. We now have running water in the house, even if it is only a hose with a valve on the end. It makes all the difference!

It turns out we are sitting on a dream of an aquifer. Just 37 feet below the surface, in sandstone bedrock, the water flows at over 40 gallons per minute. If we lived just a mile to the south or east, across the Douglas Fault, the bedrock would be basalt and water would perhaps be much further down. There are no sources of pollution that I know of in our watershed, and the water is crystal clear.

I can't wait to get the plumbing finished, and water heater up and running! No more hillbilly showers!

When the guy came with the backhoe to dig the water line to the house, he smoothed out a lot of the back yard. Starflower is contemplating a regulation-sized volleyball court there next summer. I'm all for it; from what I saw in her games, she has a lot of potential as a player. Her middle school team consisted of all sixth graders with little or no experience, yet they held their own and even won a few matches.

Here's Calvin, who is now officially as tall as me (5'7). He lives for football and pep band (and X box). He will be traveling to New York City in March for the St. Patrick's Day parade--our small town marching band was selected, the first band from Minnesota in many years! But today he was doing a necessary chore, hauling wood from the big pile out front to the house. We had our first fire in the wood stove a week ago, and while the fall has been mild, I know cold weather will come soon.

I have survived the first month of rehearsals for "Hello, Dolly!" It has been a lot more fun than I expected, mainly because of the people involved. I have made new friends and reconnected with a couple old friends. I have a new appreciation for all of the work that goes into a theatrical production. My favorite part is singing; just the other night I was very tired and not wanting to go to rehearsal, but after a few minutes of singing I found a new energy, and I was hitting all the high notes and getting into the whole stage character thing. But, for the time commitment reason, I won't be sad when it's over.

So there you have it. I didn't get to certain things, like my garden harvest, but I have the next two days free, so...

Real tomato ketchup, Eddie?

2010-10-07T08:37:00.000-05:00

I could write about the wonderful fall colors that are quickly disappearing. I could even take some photos. I could write about the beautiful weather we're having, how we've gone nearly two weeks without rain (which, by the way, is a good thing). I could write about the multitude of green tomatoes I harvested nearly two weeks ago before the first big frost hit, which have been sitting on a table top in the entry way and have now suddenly decided to ripen, the day before we leave for Nebraska to attend The Hermit's daughter's wedding. That's right, I'm actually crossing state lines, and not just a quick foray into Wisconsin, which doesn't really count. I don't remember the last time I have been so far from home!

But, speaking of tomatoes, I wanted to share a culinary discovery I made last night. Of course I most likely did not discover it, there are probably a million recipes out there on the Internet, but I thought it was pretty cool. As I was preparing our baseball playoff celebratory meal (Go Twins!) of hot dogs, I suddenly realized we were almost OUT OF KETCHUP! Surrounded by ripe tomatoes, but no ketchup! I can stand a hot dog with mustard only, but when you're watching baseball it just ain't right.

While I was weighing the options, the least appealing of which was driving ten miles to the store, I recalled that I usually keep a small can of tomato paste in the pantry. Hmmm....What is ketchup, but tomato paste plus a few other flavorings? Using the ingredient list from the near-empty bottle of Annie's organic ketchup as my guide, I started mixing. A little vinegar here, a little Worcestershire sauce there, onion powder...Voila! Ketchup! I don't have an exact recipe to share, but those are the essential ingredients. Most commercial ketchups contain a lot more sugar or high fructose corn syrup than they actually need; I added a tiny pinch of sugar but it would have been fine without.

I don't have a laptop so I won't be blogging from the road, but maybe I'll have some time to compose some rough drafts with pen and paper. Have a great weekend!

my newest adventure- musical theater!

2010-09-21T20:35:00.001-05:00

I was never a theater person in high school. When you're in a graduating class of 600+, activities like "sports", "band", "drama", and "industrial arts" quickly get allocated to those students who claim them first and make their mark, and there is not the opportunity for everyone like there is in a small, rural school district. Like where I live now.

I was a "band" person, and I was happy with that. I also dabbled in cross country and cross country skiing, but I made my mark in band. Not to brag, but I was voted "Outstanding Senior Band Member" the year I graduated. Okay, so I was bragging a bit there.

Anyway, I never had the desire to get into theatrical productions. Nor did I have the encouragement. I was just a shy teenager, with at least the encouragement that I was good at playing the flute.

Fast forward 25+ years. I know I have an aptitude for music, I have a desire to become more involved in the community, and...Starflower expressed an interest in trying out for our local school/community production of "Hello Dolly" this fall. So what did I do? At first I wanted to be in the orchestra, but I found out they had two flute players last year, and only one of every other instrument, so my services would probably not be needed. But, I thought, if I would be driving Starflower to late night rehearsals, I might as well be involved onstage! So I auditioned, and Starflower and I got parts in the chorus.

The theater bug is getting to me. I am mildly obsessed with the musical parts I am singing, getting the parts embedded in my head, and I actually look forward to learning choreography and everything else that goes with a stage production. So we'll see how it goes, and if nothing else, I'll emerge as a better singer!

here's the problem

2010-09-18T09:29:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to fix this header photo thing for a couple days now. Whenever I upload a header photo, no matter what the original size, it is automatically scaled to 300 pixels wide! Anyone have any ideas?

UPDATE: I have found a way around it. I just have to make sure the original photo is 920 pixels wide, no more, no less, and be sure to uncheck the "shrink to fit" box. For some reason "shrink to fit" is shrinking the original photo to 300 pixels, not 920. Ahh, Blogger...But, I get what I pay for. And it's still a bargain!

By the way, the new header photo is actually an old one, taken in September 2007 at one of my favorite places, Banning State Park. Our school is just across the road from the entrance to the park; in fact, the school's land is pretty much surrounded by park land. The cross country team practices on the park trails. I recently purchased a new parking sticker for $25 so I can go to the park while waiting for kids to be done with football AND volleyball practice. That's right. Starflower is now on the junior high volleyball team! She's in sixth grade, and they need all the players they can get so they allow sixth graders to play. They won their first match Thursday afternoon against my mom's alma mater.

Things just keep getting busier and busier...

new look

2010-09-12T17:01:00.002-05:00

I finally had some free time this morning to mess with the blog. Unfortunately, Blogger's response time was kind of spotty so it was frustrating getting what I wanted done. Anyway, I like the new design features, and the ability to have pages that are linked right below the header. I mean, that concept is how many years old??? And this afternoon, when I had taken some pictures and wanted to write a post about my never-ripening but oh so abundant tomatoes, my computer would not read the SD card. Sigh.

Leaping into another activity-filled week here. Calvin has football, Starflower is now entering the world of middle school sports in volleyball, and Starflower and I are auditioning for our school/community theater production of "Hello Dolly" tomorrow--wish us luck! I was just going to volunteer for the orchestra, but I found out they had two flutes last year and one each of several other instruments, so my services would probably not be needed. If they need a flute player I would by all means do it, but I'm thinking my first ever onstage role might be kind of fun...

UPDATE 9/15- Suddenly my header photo appears to have been re-sized. WTF??? I will not have a header photo until I can figure this out....

tales from the river

2010-09-02T21:44:00.002-05:00

It was an interesting day at work, so interesting I would rather post it here than on Facebook...where I already have an interesting status for the day...let's just say my daughter and I will be testing our wings in local musical theater...

Anyway, rain was predicted, so we headed to the closest electrofishing sampling station, which happened to be full of fifteen pound carp. I absolutely refuse to suffer a work related injury bringing these things into the boat; I'm too old for heroics. So I did more of a graceful dance with them, and somehow it all worked out.

We decided we had enough time to go down river and sample another station. The access for this one was barely a dirt track down to the riverbank, which was not sloped for convenience. We got in okay, and actually saw some amazing fish, including several 18" smallmouth bass, before rain shut us out.

Perhaps we should have exercised some judgment in launching. After all, there had been a half inch of rain in the area the night before, and the ground was kind of soggy. But since this is not really my project, I went along with the decisions of the crew leader. In this case, that led us to backing a heavy boat and trailer down into a place where it was not immediately possible to get the whole rig up over the river bank and out of the water again. Not to mention, there were mosquitoes. Lots of them.

After an hour and a half, and lots of ideas, and lots of mosquitoes, we got the trailer and boat out of the water with minimal damage. We arrived at work about ten minutes after quitting time. I was about seven miles away from home when I got the cell phone call: "Mom, are you going to pick me up at Kenna's house? We have sixth grade orientation tonight!" So I turned around, so close to home but yet so far and still reeking of fish slime, and brought Starflower to her orientation and taught her how to open her locker and all that. We arrived at home, long enough for me to cook a quick spaghetti dinner, before I had to drive back to school to pick up Calvin from his day at the Minnesota State Fair with the marching band. Whew.

Tomorrow is school clothes shopping. The adventure never ends!

About that other trout stream...

2010-08-17T21:59:00.003-05:00

If you recall, last week I gave a little teaser about sampling a trout stream along the St. Croix. We made it there on Thursday, and it was NOTHING like that meadow-meandering stream I wrote about last week. This stream was nothing short of mystical.

If you're looking for it from the river, all I can tell you is good luck. We could hardly find the mouth; it was a narrow flowage barely visible in the grass. But once you get out of the river plain and start walking into the woods, this stream takes on a life of its own. It rushes over rocks and sand, twisting and turning through floodplain forest. As soon as we took the first turn into the woods, armed with backpack electrofisher, my coworker and I found our first brook trout.

A bit about electrofishing...it is the accepted way to sample small streams. The fish are stunned by an electrical current, but not enough to kill them. They are netted, usually put into a bucket, and when there are a good number of fish we stop sampling to measure them, take scale samples (to determine ages), and release them. Of course, it is more effective than rod and reel fishing, which is probably why I hardly fish any more. The action is just too slow. :)

Back to this small stream...as it wound its way up the St. Croix bluffs, we shocked up brook trout after brook trout, and hardly anything else. There were hardly any pools more than a foot deep, but still they were there in the cool spring water. Most of them were small, averaging about 4 inches, but we did get a couple 8 inchers. We ended up with over a hundred brook trout, from the mouth of the stream to where the water got too shallow to find any more.

Brook trout amaze me. They survive in the smallest of streams, as long as water temperatures are right. They are beautiful fish.

morning in the garden

2010-08-15T14:23:00.004-05:00

I can't decide if this looks like a garden, or like all the other neglected areas of our yard. But believe me, a bountiful harvest lies within. The sun was breaking through the morning mist.

The jeweled orbs of web weavers were everywhere.

My tomato plants have been going absolutely crazy in the combination of abundant rain and high temperatures. I have not had to water the garden since I planted it. And for the first time in years, we have not had frost in June, July, or the first half of August! But still I have been impatient for RIPE tomatoes. Yesterday I found the first blush of red among the Stupice tomatoes. It's the beginning of a wonderful, crazy barrage I hope!

And my winter squash long outgrew the confines of their 4 x 8 bed. Vines are sprawling everywhere, and it appears as though I will have an abundance of several varieties. Including one pumpkin! This beauty is already the size of a basketball. I have never successfully grown a pumpkin before.

I have been picking green beans every few days, canned eight pints of dilly bean pickles, and froze about eight quarts of beans. I picked two more buckets of beans today, but the harvest may be winding down. That, and a deer has been eating the leaves.

I harvested onions this morning, and was kicking myself for buying the cheap onion sets at the grocery store instead of the tried and true starts from Territorial Seeds. The white onions did okay, not spectacular, but I didn't get any red onions bigger than a golf ball. Half of them flowered, and that means the plants put their energy into flowers, not bulbs.

Garlic did as well as ever, although I almost waited too long to harvest it; the bulbs were already starting to separate. I have not spent money on garlic, for eating or planting, in several years now.

Cucumbers and watermelons have had a slow start, but I may be on track for a record watermelon harvest this year. Just one sweet, juicy melon would be worth it!

Today is a cool day, with the high only around 70, and lows in the 40's predicted. It's supposed to be windy, so I don't need to worry about frost yet...I hope.

UPDATE: A second look reveals that I have TWO pumpkins, as well as some Guatemalan Blue squash!

wild cardinal flower

2010-08-11T16:04:00.002-05:00

I had another fish-seeking adventure at work today. The destination was a small, unnamed tributary to the St. Croix River that I first blogged about nearly four years ago. I can't believe it's been that long already. If you were following me at that time, you may recall that this stream had been dammed by beavers and was quite difficult to walk. This year it did not appear to have any active beaver dams, although remnant logs were scattered here and there and the stream was still challenging, especially on a humid 85 degree day. We only caught two trout by electrofishing, one of which may have been young-of-year, but several others were missed in the dense overhanging vegetation and swift current of this cold, clear stream.

I was at this stream about a month earlier than the last time, and there were more species of flowers in bloom along the stream and river banks than I remembered. Ironweed, blue gentian, Joe-Pye weed, goldenrod, and cardinal flower, which I have not seen any further north along the St. Croix River than this area. I took this picture on an island where we paused for lunch before walking the stream.

Tomorrow I am headed back to the river to sample another small brook trout stream just north of the Osceola landing. I am told that one is much easier to walk, and much more scenic, than this one was. I'll bring the camera!

No more ugly floor

2010-08-02T18:50:00.002-05:00

(the view from Starflower's room; notice one very relaxed kitten in my rocker, and one perplexed looking flame point Siamese checking out the new floor)

Things are really coming together in the house now. I spent the weekend installing a laminate floor in the great room, to cover up the bare weathered plywood we have been living with for so long. I think it sets off the colors in the slate hearth nicely. I will be doing the same slate in the entry way some time soon.

This is the same flooring that I installed in the master bedroom last Sunday. Installation in both rooms went amazingly well. The hardest part was starting out, figuring out how to stagger 51 inch whole boards with cut pieces to span the length of the room. Once I worked out a scheme, The Hermit ran the table saw cutting boards to my specifications. I have found it's always dicey doing home improvement projects with a spouse, but we managed to work together somehow.

In other matters, I picked two ice cream pails full of green beans tonight, and I have three heads of broccoli ready to cut. Garlic is ready to harvest when I have the time, and if all goes well I will be in tomato heaven starting in about three weeks.

life is full of twists and turns

2010-07-29T18:19:00.003-05:00

I've been in a state of disbelief for the last 24 hours. Remember the girl down the road whom I ended up giving rides to school last winter? Her mom passed away last week. I don't know any more details. I didn't even know until last night, when Starflower wanted to spend the night with the girl at her grandparents' house, which is about a mile away from us. I was wondering why this girl was staying at her grandparents' house with her uncle. So I drove over there to check things out, and learned the sad news.

It's a double whammy. Her uncle was there because her grandparents were at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester; grandpa undergoing medical tests.

I don't know what's in the future for this girl and her sixteen year old sister. All I know is, I feel compelled to help out any way I can.

By the way, the mom was my age. Even had the same name: Deborah Ann.

finding delight

2010-07-28T18:35:00.002-05:00

Boredom is not the same as having too much time on our hands. Its root goes much deeper...to what (can be described as) a failure to find the world and each other compelling or interesting. We find the world boring because we don't see very clearly why it is valuable and good or how and why we practically and beneficially belong to it. We are bored with ourselves because we don't think that what we do really matters much or is of life-giving interest to others. And so we become disengaged from each other, wandering about in a fog of diminished hopes and expectations. Not knowing what to do, and having become suspicious of what our society encourages us to do, we sit around, hoping to find some inspiration. What we have here are the ideal conditions for the entertainment industry to pump us up with artificial stimulation, excitement, and false hope...

If we remember that delight is made possible by our loving and deep affirmation and embrace of others..., then it is easier to see how our desire to possess or be entertained by others works against our joy in them...

-Norman Wirzba, Living The Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight

I realize my lack of posting lately may be due to being preoccupied with worldly matters and not taking the time to experience the delight that daily life has to offer. But without this sense of delight, we are the dead walking. Stay tuned for a renewed and refreshed sense of delight and wonder!!!!

we 'r Siamese, if you please

2010-07-23T20:37:00.003-05:00

This may just be the cutest kitteh ever. Really.

I have always had a thing for Siamese cats. Even when I was not yet four years old, I guess I fell in love with a friend's Siamese and announced to my parents that I wanted a Siamese cat for my fourth birthday. Amazingly they obliged with Mittens, my first ever seal point Siamese. I was hooked.

We have a strange cat gene pool around here. There are a few outdoor cats that somehow showed up, and every year we get a few kittens. We have had a few blue eyed Siamese mixes over the years, including Puffball, a grey Siamese who died suddenly of a blood clot, and Boofy (a.k.a. Blue Flame), a flame point Siamese with the bluest eyes ever. He insists on sleeping with me every night.

But this year there was one litter, from a nondescript black and gray tabby, that included this very Siamese looking kitten. We brought it inside to protect it when it reached the exploring age. Our dog Togo would have had it for a plaything otherwise. We kept it in the rabbit cage for a while, to protect it from Sally and the adult indoor cats.

Originally, we were going to give this kitten to a friend of Starflower's. But as we cared for it, we somehow came to the decision we could not part with it. So Frisky, the Friskinator, whatever you want to call it, is our newest house kitty. Like we needed another one. But like I said, I have a thing for Siamese.

Welcome to the House of Color

2010-07-06T18:04:00.002-05:00

I have spent my last 3 days priming and painting walls during one of Minnesota's rare hot and humid spells. I can't believe how much work it's been, and I can't believe I've done so much and how the house looks so different inside. But I'm done now, so I can sit back and enjoy the results.

This is the master bedroom, painted entirely in Budding Fern. Why so green? Because for six months of the year in Minnesota we don't see any green outside, so in January this will look really nice.
(The Taylor 512, sweetest sounding guitar ever, at least to me, is placed there just for effect.)

Here we have the monolith stair wall painted in Earthenware Orange. A daring color for someone like me, but I like it, and believe it or not it is a neutral color. I can't imagine any color that would not look good with that as a background. I plan to use a lot of blue accents in the great room for contrast. In the back hallway you can see a dark version of Peach Beach, which we used there and in the entry way. I could not get a good picture of the color in the light. In the kitchen you can see Lemon Balm, which again, I could not get a good picture of.

It was a long job, but I found I actually enjoy painting. Next job is the flooring, which will probably have to wait until next payday. Enough time for me to recover.

summer days

2010-06-30T21:00:00.003-05:00

Days filled with work...which means cruising around on a boat in lakes sampling plants, but also seeing pelicans, hawks, eagles, ospreys, ducks, obscene shoreline landscaping, and everything in between.

Gardening...peas are peaking, everything else is looking great thanks to the abundant rain in June.

House- projects are moving ahead. Drywall is up and mudded, and if everything is on schedule I should be spending my Fourth of July long weekend painting. Not just primer white mind you, but colors like Earthenware Orange, Lemon Balm, and Daybreak Fern for the master bedroom. We are living in color now.

But if I get a break from painting, I hope to be launching our family pontoon boat in a nearby lake, where we were able to get a dock slip at the golf course. We still have plenty of summer left to enjoy it. Although cruising around a lake in a boat sounds a lot like work to me...I'll be watching the aquatic vegetation closely.

Tomorrow is the first of July, and I somehow lament that fact. I love the month of June, and I wish it would never end. June in Minnesota is paradise, if you can handle a few mosquitoes. And sunrises at 5:30. And sunsets at 9:00. And intense greenness everywhere, punctuated with wildflowers. The other day I saw fireweed starting to bloom. No way, it's a July flower!

Wherever you are, enjoy the moment. It is, after all, everything.

This really ties the room together

2010-06-24T18:03:00.003-05:00

My life is turned upside down for a few days, but we are finally getting drywall in the great room, master bedroom, and back hallway! When it is finished, this house will look pretty much finished inside. They just hung it yesterday and today, mudding and taping will probably start Tuesday.

It looks like a totally different house. Now I can envision what each individual space will look like, and I think I will make a run to Menard's this weekend to browse paint colors and maybe even price out kitchen cabinets.

Perhaps the most striking effect of the drywall is seen in the back hallway leading to the bathroom, utility room, and back door on the north side of the house. This space used to be so dark and undefined, now it is a space in itself that leads somewhere. We hope to add a deck outside this door yet this year so we don't have to bring firewood in the front door all the time.

It has been a long journey. To be honest, I would probably not do it again. Once in a lifetime is enough for a project like this.

a new approach, wildlife, and such

2010-06-20T21:04:00.004-05:00

This is a look down our new, much improved driveway. Before, it was a mess of ruts and holes left over from the mud season, basically the month of April. Now the crushed rock and gravel should stand up to rain and spring thaws without us having to go mud bogging. And it's a lot nicer to walk down without having to dodge mosquito breeding puddles.

There are big things happening around here, finally. The driveway, and this week we're getting the drywall done in much of the house. That will involve much upheaval, like not being able to cook in my kitchen on my electric range for a few days, but when I think about the road we took to get here, a few days shouldn't matter much.

I am finally running again on a regular basis, as of this weekend. For the last month or so I had been suffering from a severe case of not wanting to run, maybe related to the too many thoughts running through my brain and the lack of capacity to process it all. But it's an interesting feedback loop: When I get it into my mind that I don't want to, or don't have time to run, I get into this strange apathetic state that makes excuses for not running. Which is sad, because I feel 100 percent better, physically and mentally, when I run. I need to run, period. I am also looking for the fringe benefit of weight loss, which, I have found, only happens when I run regularly.

So I went for my 4 mile run this morning, along my usual, beautiful route. It's so peaceful, I hardly ever see a car, and when I do it's usually nice people who wave. The only dogs I encounter are friendly dogs, from my kids' best friends' house. And I hear tons of birds; last week I came up with more than twenty species heard in three miles.

I was taking it easy this morning, having pushed myself yesterday with sprinting intervals, which was a form of self-torture. I just ran slow and steady. When I was approaching the point where I had decided I would turn around, I looked up and saw a doe and two fawns in the road ahead. I watched them for a while, but I did not want to scare them so I decided to turn around and begin the course back home.

I had only gone back maybe 2/10 of a mile when I saw something in the road ahead of me. A large black animal. BEAR! I stopped dead in my tracks. I was thinking, okay, usually black bears are pretty harmless, but I didn't want to take my chances. It was about 5oo feet away, maybe more, ambling across the road, taking its time. I watched it as it looked around, sniffing. I wonder if it sensed my presence. If it did, it didn't seem to care. Finally I watched it walk down a side road.

I approached that road cautiously. Then I remembered some advice from somewhere that said, when in bear country, talk loudly. Clap. Sing. So I sang whatever came into my head, told the bear that I did not mean any harm, and punctuated it with hand clapping. It must have worked, or else the bear didn't really care one way or the other, because when I reached the side road there was no sign of the bear. I started running again, then a couple hundred yards later I came across the still wet footprints where the bear had come out of the ditch onto the road.

I am most surprised about how not scared I was. I reacted with a sense of "Oh wow! A bear!" more than anything. I guess that comes with living out here; you develop an appropriate sense of caution. I don't think it will be necessary to carry a can of Mace on any future runs; after all, I have been running the same route so long, and this was the first bear encounter. I still worry more about humans, but on my running route I don't even have to worry about them too much.

the summer look

2010-06-09T22:02:00.003-05:00

I switched back to this header photo I used last year, because I think it captures a Minnesota summer better than any other photo I have ever taken.

Speaking of summer, it's coming by leaps and bounds here. The next three weeks or so will be the peak of daylight at 46 degrees north latitude, which means the last streaks of light disappear about five hours before they reappear in the eastern sky. I love June. I only wish I didn't feel so squeezed for time in my daily life.

now, this is LIVING

2010-06-06T20:26:00.003-05:00

I just returned home from a wonderful weekend away from home. The Hermit, kids and I packed up our new 1968 camping trailer and the Suburban (yeah I know, gas guzzler but it is really the ultimate family truckster) and headed about a hundred miles southwest to a beautiful campground on the shores of a central Minnesota lake. This campground was the site of the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association's annual Homegrown Kickoff Festival. (Kickoff meaning, the beginning of summer and the music festival season around here) This festival features all local acts representing the best in bluegrass and old time music in the region.

I was in a band that performed at this same festival, different location, eleven years ago. It seems almost unreal to say this. To think I was actually in a bluegrass band, singing lead vocals on a couple of songs that I taught to the band. But then we moved to another state, the couple that formed the heart of the band broke up, and that was that.

Enough about the past. I'm writing to tell about how I had an absolutely wonderful time in the almost 48 hours we were at the festival. It was not nearly long enough. We arrived Friday afternoon, after much packing and all the worry that accompanies a family camping trip, when you have not done anything like it in years. But we got the trailer in place, set up camp, cooked dinner, and gradually relaxed. I started having a musical itch, and walked around for a while after dark looking for a music jam I could fit in with. But being inexperienced and rather shy at this kind of thing, I returned to our family campsite with unfulfilled musical urges. It had been way too long since I had done this festival thing, walking up to a bunch of strangers playing music and jumping in.

It turns out I was just walking around the wrong part of the campground, and the best music was within earshot of our camp site. The next morning, as I was returning from the bath/shower house located near our site, I ran into an old friend of mine, Dick Kimmel, a very accomplished bluegrass musician who happened to be camped out less than a hundred yards away from us. His RV was parked next to Lloyd LaPlant's RV; Lloyd built my mandolin, and he is about as nice of a person as there is. I walked over there with my mandolin that morning, into a music jam already in full swing. I was welcomed, and I overcame whatever nerves I had and joined in.

It was the best thing ever, musically, for me. At the start I had a hard time even moving my fingers to find the right chords, but about an hour later I was amazing myself that I could actually play solos! All I needed was to get together with other people.

The kids had a blast. There were several families camped nearby with kids, and they played wiffleball and soccer together. It rained Saturday into the mid afternoon, so Calvin discovered the fun of playing X box video games on the 19" flat screen TV in the camper. (The Hermit is fully responsible for this, not me!!!) And the kids made numerous trips to the beach.

Saturday evening, after 24 hours of being there, I was overcome with a feeling of absolute happiness. All the nervousness about making this trip had disappeared, I had reconnected with some old friends and played music, just as I had hoped I would, the family was having a good time, the camper trailer was working out okay, and I was reclining in my new super lounge chair with a cold beer. I was even seeing some good birds: catbirds, phoebes and pileated woodpeckers around the camp site, and the pair of loons on the lake had two babies.

Sunday before we left, I played music again with my friend and a few other good musicians. As I was leaving the jam, Lloyd came up to me and said "You're sounding great on that mandolin!" Coming from him, that is a compliment I will cherish. And I believe it. I sounded better than ever, and it was just the effect of playing with other people. I am more ready and willing now to seek out every opportunity to play music. Aside from my family, music is what I live for.

But this isn't all about me. This is about my family, finally going out and doing fun things and living life in the moment! It's about letting go and living. And we had not done nearly enough of that for the last few years. Now I know we will.

Nettle/dandelion beer tasting

2010-05-22T21:00:00.003-05:00

The beer has been in bottles for a few days, so today was the time to taste the finished product. I imagine, as with all beers, it will only get better with a little aging in the bottles, but I don't have the patience of a wine maker, or a Scotch maker. As long as there is a little yeast sediment in the bottle, it's ready in my opinion.

I poured a well-chilled bottle into one of our best beer steins. Two things came to note right away: one, the beer is not clear. I'm not too particular about that, but some people are. Second, there is no head. The beer was carbonated enough, but it didn't have the proteins from malted barley that produce a head of foam. I have had home brews that are hard to pour because of all the foam, so I don't necessarily consider the head to be everything.

The first thing that comes to mind when tasting a home brew for the first time is: Is it drinkable? Drinkable meaning it is anything better than Budweiser. And yes, it was very drinkable, although if your taste buds are expecting a watered down malted beverage, this would be a shock.

The flavor is very complex. I don't know if my taste buds are sophisticated enough to know what the nettles or dandelion greens contribute, but there is a green depth there I cannot describe. Also a definite tartness from the lemons and lemon zest; I might cut back on those if I make this again. And the ginger shows up in a good way. So imagine drinking a spiked lemony ginger ale with green earthy undertones.

Alcohol content? I didn't go the scientific route and take a hygrometer reading before and after. So I can only guess. It is there, but not overpowering. It was like an average beer.

All in all, it goes down more like a champagne than a beer. It was very fizzy, which means I added enough sugar before bottling. It is very light bodied. It is a beer to be enjoyed in the shade after a hot day's work tilling garden beds (which I did). It was very refreshing, with probably less aftertaste than a Diet Coke. I would definitely make it again. I have plenty of nettles and dandelions around.

bike ride

2010-05-21T18:13:00.004-05:00

I bought my bicycle in 1989, the year I graduated from college. I had had a succession of bikes before that, of course, but this was my first Serious Bike that cost around two hundred dollars. It's a Raleigh 12 speed with upright handlebars and semi-rugged tires.

That bike stayed locked to the porch outside my small apartment in a historical Classical house in Brookings, South Dakota where I attended graduate school. Except when I rode the bike daily to campus, a mere six blocks away, or took it on more adventurous outings, up to twenty miles and more.

Then there was the time in 1992 when a recently married couple drove nonstop from Minnesota to Telluride, Colorado for the Bluegrass Festival, and upon arriving in town, sleep deprived, 8500' altitude, hopped on the bikes and pedaled through town to festival headquarters. Major lightheaded rush!

Then I had kids. And it all kind of stopped there, with short interludes, much like my music playing. I am happy to have hopped back on the bike today, after getting it tuned up at a local shop. I rode a bit less than five miles, and found out bike riding is not much like running. I'll know more when I ascertain which muscles are sore tomorrow.

broad winged hawk?

2010-05-19T14:40:00.002-05:00

Sometimes a bad picture is better than no picture at all.

I saw this raptor two days ago when I was out on a lake about 20 miles north of St. Paul, MN, doing a vegetation survey. The trash barrel the bird is perched on is about 100 feet from the water's edge at a campground/marina. At first I thought it was one of those owl decoys people sometimes put on their docks to keep the gulls away, but a look through the binoculars confirmed it was a real live bird! I snapped this photo with the office camera, which only has about 4x optical zoom. Even so, the photo turned out good enough with some zooming and cropping.

I didn't have a field guide with me, and my first thought was Cooper's hawk. But after looking at the photo, and comparing it with Sibley's, I knew it had to be something different. The facial markings did not match those of a Cooper's, and although the size was within range this bird seemed chunkier, not very accipiter-like. For size perspective, those seams on the side of the barrel are probably 15 or 16 inches apart.

I didn't even think of looking at the broad winged hawk in the field guide; I had only seen them in flight. But when I saw the illustration in Sibley's I thought, "That's IT!"

What do you think?

By the way, the weather was just as sunny and gorgeous as it looks in the photo. It's 80 degrees today. I just put the snow shovel away last weekend. That's Minnesota in May!

radical simplicity

2010-05-14T21:16:00.002-05:00

Life has been interesting this last week or so. I was going through a crisis period where I found myself wishing I had me a sugar daddy, that money would just fall out of the sky, and then BAM. We got what we needed, and I realized my longing for money, which I had initially dismissed as inherently evil, causing even greater tension within myself, was just a normal human thing, nothing to worry about.

I mean, I was chastising myself for wanting things like a house that looks somewhat finished! Hot and cold running water indoors! Money to pay off the last propane tank fill so we could get the next one! And maybe, just maybe, new running shoes. I'm a materialistic, greedy wench! ;)

It doesn't help that my spouse and I have entirely different attitudes towards money, and the handling of it. By most standards we should have been doomed a long time ago. But somehow through our differences we still see the value that lies within our family, and it is precious. But it ain't easy.

In the midst of it all I started reading Elaine St. James' book, Simplify Your Life. It came in a box of books I received from a local Facebook/Blogger friend (not the same one who brought the yeast; social media has been very good to me locally!) After the first few hints, I was almost laughing hysterically, while I realized "How could I simplify my life any further? If simplicity means getting rid of high heels and frequent restaurant dinners, I'm already way beyond there!"

I realize there are people out there living an overbooked, overly materialistic life. And the book was written in 1994, long before the bubble burst. But still...The Hermit and I were discussing the other day about bathroom plans, and we both decided why bother with an indoor toilet if we can get by (as we have, for seven years now) without one? Why defecate indoors? Why waste water flushing waste to a septic system? (we still will run washing and kitchen water to a graywater system)

I know, it sounds radical. But would it have sounded radical less than a hundred years ago, when outhouses were the norm and $20,000 mound septic systems were not required by law? Who decided we should not be able to make that choice? (Our township is one of the few where you can still make the choice in some circumstances)

Life as we know it is bound to get "simpler" whether we like it or not. For many of us, it's a paycheck away from involuntary simplicity. I don't have much time for magazines that preach simplicity but devote pages to expensive interior design and gadgets designed to help us "simplify" things. Real simplicity comes from living without, and making hard choices.

Nettle/dandelion beer

2010-05-09T20:47:00.006-05:00

WHAT?!

She's crazy, I tell ya,

Beer from NETTLES? And I've heard of dandelion wine, but BEER? From the GREENS?

I did it. Today, because I was fascinated with the idea that in other times, other cultures, people (especially women) brewed beer from ingredients other than malted barley and hops, I brewed a beer from stinging nettles. And dandelions.

Of course, dandelions are in no short supply. And on my 40 acres, I have a couple reliable sources of stinging nettles, one of them being a flower bed right outside the house. Why nettles choose to grow there I do not know.

I did add a few non-locally harvested ingredients, among them lemons and ginger root. I also added some lime basil, because I had it, and because I thought it would add a good flavor.

Nettles, dandelion leaves, dandelion root, ginger root, and lemon zest were boiled for about half an hour, or until the leaves barely retained any leaf structure. Meanwhile, two pounds of brown sugar (that's one whole bag), and cream of tartar and the juice from the lemons (4 of them) were mixed together. When the whole mess was done boiling, I strained the liquid into the pot with the sugar and stuff, and let the sugar dissolve before pouring it into the fermenter (the 5 gallon glass carboy in the top picture). After a couple of hours, when it had cooled to slightly warm to the touch, I added the yeast.

The yeast is a story of its own. You can buy bread yeast in any store, and it might work for brewing beer, but if you want the kind of yeast that works best for brewing beer, you generally have to buy it from home brew supply stores. Being short of cash and not wanting to drive 100 miles to a brew store last week, I made an appeal over Facebook to see if anyone in my area was keeping any yeast cultures and could spare some. To my great surprise, a local Facebook friend and musician, whom I had only just recently met in real life in a chance encounter in line at the grocery store, contacted another friend of his, who had a packet of yeast to spare. Say what you will about social media, but I have gotten to know a few people locally through Facebook whom otherwise I would not have met.

A few hours later, carbon dioxide is happily bubbling through the air lock, a sign that fermentation is well on its way. We'll see how this experiment tastes in a few days. I don't expect it to be like any beer I've tasted before, and that is part of the fun of this whole project! I like that I didn't spend about 30 bucks on a pre-assembled beer kit. This is far more adventurous.

Wildlife at Target Field

2010-05-08T11:59:00.003-05:00

Thursday night's Twins game against Baltimore wasn't the most exciting game to watch on TV. A light rain was falling, and Joe Mauer was out of the lineup with a bruised heel. The Twins just couldn't seem to come through with hits when there were guys on base.

But there was one unlikely star of the show that night: a kestrel. Right in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. This bird decided the right field foul pole was a great place to hang out. After all, there were lights, and where there are lights, there are moths. And that means EASY DINNER!

The announcers and camera operators caught on to this spectacle in the middle of the game, and soon close ups of the kestrel were shown on the scoreboard and broadcast on TV. When the bird caught a large moth and started eating it (shown above), the crowd went wild.

Of course, birds and baseball are two of my favorite things, and I was thrilled to see the attention being given to an avian guest at a ball game. Actually, I am intrigued by the phenomenon. Maybe it's part of the novelty of outdoor baseball for a team that has played over 25 years indoors, under a dome on a sterile Astro Turf field. Baseball was meant to be played outside. People were meant to be outside. And if a small falcon can cause so much excitement, there is hope for humanity.

national day of...

2010-05-06T18:49:00.003-05:00

warning...semi rant ahead...

First of all, I will make myself clear. If you spent today in prayer, alone or in the community of others, I respect that. And in the U.S. and a lot of other nations, we are fortunate to live where the act of prayer is allowed, even encouraged, and not driven underground.

That said, I do not feel it is the business of our government to go about promoting prayer. As much as I feel it is not the business of our government to promote meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, reading "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books, dancing naked around a bonfire, or any other practice that suggests spirituality.

I am not a praying person. I always felt strange petitioning some father figure Up There, who already was supposed to know my needs and have some Divine Plan for me, with my own needs and wants of the day. I learned at an early age that we do not always get what we pray for. So why pray? But if it brings you peace, that is good.

I would rather see a "National Day of Reconciliation". "National Day of Talking To Your Neighbors". "National Day Where Hate Is Forbidden". "National Day of Tearing Down Walls". Prayer is easy. Action, not so much.

You may say I'm a dreamer... but am I the only one?

surreal...

2010-05-04T21:34:00.003-05:00

Mr. Attitude called me outside to see this extraordinary scene this evening.

spring metamorphosis

2010-05-01T07:19:00.002-05:00

The big burst of spring color is happening. I love this time of year perhaps even more than fall, because these colors represent new growth and rebirth. In the spirit of personal growth and rebirth, I convinced myself to go for a run this morning, and I even made it over four miles. I had not been running for a while; for some reason I was not excited about it this spring and the excuses were flying everywhere. So instead of fighting it I gave myself a break, with the promise that I would return to running...when I was good and ready.

It was one of those dramatic skies. Morning had dawned clear and blue and sunny, but the clouds started rolling in about the time I decided to go running. If I had waited ten minutes, I may have decided the wind was too much...which is of course another excuse. As it turned out, I had a great run despite the wind, and I even put up with holding the camera in one hand the entire way so I could take pictures of the ever changing skies and the spring color. These tamaracks are definitely a bit wind-tossed.

Marsh marigolds are blooming in profusion, a week or so earlier than normal. These were just up the road from my house, in an area where there are flowing springs in the ditches. I was wondering if that was watercress next to the marsh marigolds.

I have been feeling the spring metamorphosis in another aspect of life--my music. In the past month or so I have played my instruments more than in perhaps the last six months total. Sure I have talked a lot about my musical efforts on this blog, but until now something was missing, that personal commitment to make music a part of life rather than just a hobby I participated in once in a while. I always had reasons/excuses why I wasn't making it happen. But for whatever reason, that has changed. Yesterday I took the day off work and played guitar, banjo, and mandolin from about 9 AM-3 PM or longer. I worked through some fundamentals on guitar, learned some new chords and scale patterns, and learned another Greg Brown song (Billy From the Hills). I don't know where I'm going with this, but for now I don't care. I'm finally breaking down the personal barriers to doing what I love, and I think good things will happen with it.

springtime in the woods

2010-04-27T21:11:00.003-05:00

This lovely island woods on a lake in east central Minnesota was where I spent my lunch break today. Alone. I like it that way.

The spring beauties and anemones were in bloom. Too bad the work camera wasn't focusing the best, but you get the idea.

And I found just what I had hoped to see. Trilliums were just coming out. I don't have any of these white trilliums in my woods, so it is nice when I can find one to photograph up close.

Adventures in overdubbing

2010-04-18T18:42:00.004-05:00

Before you read any further, if you have a high speed connection, please open a new browser window, go to my new MySpace page, and listen to the uploaded song while you read the rest of this post.

Today was one of those wonderful musical days when one thing leads to another, and before I knew it I was in the midst of my biggest recording projects ever. It started innocently enough, with some intense arpeggio practice on mandolin. Then I happened to turn to the page in my music notebook that had the lyrics to a Bob Dylan song I really like, "Tomorrow Is A Long Time". I put down the mandolin, picked up the guitar, learned the chord pattern, and decided to do an impromptu recording of myself singing and playing the song on guitar, just a rough draft so I could work out a mandolin accompaniment later. My arrangement is based on Nickel Creek's recording of the song, and I did my best to sound somewhat like Sara Watkins. :)

The rough draft came complete with Sally's toenails on wood floor, and even a rawhide bone drop in the last chorus. But the guitar playing was pretty even, and I liked what I heard in the vocals. That's a rare thing; usually I have a hard time appreciating my own voice. So I kept the track. Then, in the early afternoon, I moved out to my new recording studio:

The Hermit traded for this camper trailer that's nearly as old as I am, and in almost better shape. Since Mr. Attitude was watching TV in the house and Calvin was video gaming in the cabin, this was the only choice for a quiet place (the flickers and sapsuckers were making way too much joyful spring noise outside). And quiet it was; with the door and windows closed it blocked out most outside noise.

I set up inside with my flute and mandolin, a glass of iced tea, and my Tascam GT-R1 portable recorder, on top of the cabinet in the middle. I spent a lot of time practicing flute with the base track, recorded one take, then found out I had set the input level so high the flute was overpowering everything else. So I adjusted levels, did a couple practice takes of about ten seconds each to make sure the levels were right, then I recorded the flute track. Right after I turned the recorder off, Mr. Attitude appeared and wanted to be my sound man. :)

The mandolin track took a lot longer, due to the need for iced tea refills, and interruptions from Calvin and Starflower. Not to mention my own developing sense of perfectionism; even if this was purely for my own recreation, I wanted this song to sound somewhat professional. So I practiced the mando with the dubbed guitar/vocal/flute track until I had an idea where I was going with it. I noticed the battery on the recorder was getting down a bit, so I hoped I could get something good recorded in one take. The first take sounded good enough for me.

I can now appreciate the process of audio recording. While this is a rough demo by any standards, I have learned what it takes to put a song together. My inner perfectionist would still be out in the camper, going for the perfect mix, and I know this song will evolve a bit as I work with it. But it's a big step for me, putting it up on MySpace for the world to see!

Quiet

2010-04-15T19:52:00.003-05:00

This blog has been quieter than normal lately, and normally I would apologize. But just as the tides ebb and flow, so does my state of mind. I've come to accept that driving myself to blog every day, or reveal all of the latest changes of nature, which is in a constant state of change, when I am turned inward and distracted, is not normal and is fighting the flow of things. So there is nothing to apologize for. Rest assured, however, that this blog is a part of me and to quit altogether would be to commit a violent act of disregard for myself and all of you, the people I have come to know through this blog. So I will not apologize, but rest assured, when the quiet storm is over I will have stories to tell.

A mosquito is trying to bite my fingers as I type. Ah, the curses of an early spring!

Play ball!

2010-04-13T20:39:00.003-05:00

Well, the Twins have now opened up their new baseball field with a victory over the Red Sox, but baseball season for me officially began today with the seventh and eighth grade teams' first games. They played on the home field against my mom's hometown. The seventh grade team (Calvin is in seventh, by the way) was scheduled for the second game so I took my time getting there after work. I ended up getting there just in time to see Calvin come in as relief pitcher for the EIGHTH GRADE team! I guess they are a couple players short so they fill in with seventh graders. Calvin started for them in right field.

Calvin pitched a good inning, not allowing any runs. He had very good form; I could tell all those miles I drove to and from pitching camp this winter were not in vain!

This baseball season is going to be fun to watch!

My new license plates, and how to have a great birding day without really trying

2010-04-08T17:57:00.003-05:00

Today after lifting twenty trap nets on a local lake and doing spleen and kidney-ectomies on a bunch of unfortunate fish (sampling for the latest fish disease, VHS, to come our way), I decided to leave work early. I had a book to pick up at the library, and when I pulled up to the combined library/city hall/license center I remembered my driver's license had expired on my birthday, and I needed to renew the license tabs on the Subaru. And it's payday tomorrow, so I could do that.

Minnesota has been issuing special habitat license plates for a while now, and last year they unveiled four new designs. I had decided a while back that when I had to buy license tabs I would get one of the new plates. I was torn between one that featured a chickadee, and one that featured a lady's slipper, our state flower. It was a close race, but the Hermit already had the chickadee plates, and a botanical plate just seems so...cool. :) Although there is some pink overload in the background...why not bog green, like where these flowers grow?

When I arrived home I installed the new plates, then Sally was insisting that I take her to the pond. Of course I could not resist. After all that, I had exactly twenty minutes before I had to drive back to the school and pick up Calvin and his buddy from baseball practice. I had heard an unusual bird song from the (new and improved) back yard, so I grabbed the binoculars and a beer and sat at the table we had set up out there.

I don't think I saw the singer of the unusual (and still unidentified) bird song, but I did see something flitting around in a spruce tree. It was difficult to zero in on it because it was one of those little birds that is constantly flitting. I started thinking of possibilities in my head: Yellow rumped warbler? This early? Then I thought: Golden crowned kinglet. A possibility, and definitely in the size range. I finally saw the eye line, and a flash of yellow on top of the head. YES!!! I'm sure golden crowned kinglets are everywhere, especially in the spring, I had just never gotten a good look at one! LIFER!!!

Then it was time to make the fifteen mile drive to school. I must have been especially attuned to the look of the trees along the road a couple miles from our house, because I noticed a bird out of the corner of my left eye. It was sitting in an aspen tree near the road, but sitting differently than most birds: it was parallel, not perpendicular, to the tree branch it was on. It was also an unusual size, maybe blue jay size but definitely not blue jay. I had to slam on the brakes and back up.

I did not have my binoculars with me, so I'll have to rely on what I saw with my naked eyes. The sunlight was doing weird things with the bird's back, maybe highlighting some iridescence. But what I saw was dark, with a light front, and a woodpecker-like bill. Its level of wariness was also notable: it did not fly even when my car was about thirty feet away and stopped. I studied it from every angle I could, and I have to go with my gut feeling: Black backed woodpecker! They are uncommon, but definitely not improbable around here as I have seen them before.

Sometimes you see the best things when you're not really trying to see anything.

Open water

2010-04-04T20:16:00.003-05:00

I apologize for not posting more frequently in this, the most exciting of seasons. It's all happening so fast this year I can barely step back and process it all. It seems like a dream: warm temperatures came and snow started disappearing in mid March, and I sat there waiting for things to return to normal, for a blizzard or deep freeze or something. It never happened, and here I sit in a comfortably warm house that will not need supplemental heat tonight. In early April!

The ice went out on all the lakes in the area this week. According to records kept by my grandpa at the lake home now owned by my uncle, this year was the second earliest the ice disappeared from that lake. The records probably go back over 30 years. Today we spent a nice Easter at the lake, watching various ducks, grebes, geese, and herons on the water.

Of course with my job monitoring fish populations, ice out meant work. I had meant to take Thursday and Friday off and spend some time with the kids while they had some time off school for spring break. Instead I was one of the first people out on a boat on a couple of lakes, setting nets and checking them for fish. I can't complain, how many jobs are there where you get paid to go out in a boat, but suddenly I'm feeling the need for some time off!

The warming and thawing has finally resolved a situation we had here with the pond over the last two weeks. The pond was flooded from melt water that had nowhere to go because an outflow culvert under our driveway was blocked with ice. Finally some time last night the water broke through the ice and I can just imagine the powerful rush as the water flowed through and lowered the level of the pond by about a foot. Thank goodness there was no damage to the driveway.

Tonight the frogs are singing, and I can even keep my window open a bit to hear them. Maybe I will hear the northern saw whet owl I heard last night as well.

hooded mergansers

2010-03-27T12:43:00.003-05:00

These three sharp looking guys were cruising the pond this morning.

the day Sally dreams of all winter

2010-03-26T21:22:00.003-05:00

The day the pond is free of ice, and Mom beckons, when she comes home from work, with the magic word: POND! It's enough to send Sally into a frenzy.

I also had to supervise some lawn tractor driving. Starflower and Calvin are getting pretty good at it. I have promised Mr. Attitude that I will give him lessons. When I'm ready.

spring sightings

2010-03-25T20:17:00.004-05:00

The pond is almost ice free. I would say totally but it's supposed to get pretty cold tonight so more ice will form. And the culvert under the driveway is still plugged by ice or something else. No more water has entered the equation, and there is not significant rain in the forecast, so I'm just hoping it thaws soon.

Today I finally spotted a pair of sandhill cranes flying, while I was commuting home. Kestrels have arrived, and northern harriers once again amaze me with their beautiful, effortless flight. And I saw the first turkey vulture soaring above the town of Sandstone today. Turkey vultures make me think of Lynne. Not that she's a "vulture" in the sense of the popular definition, far from it, she is a beautiful, fun, caring person who happens to have a personal affinity for the oft maligned turkey vulture. I like them too.

My lawn tractor arrived yesterday. I took it out for a spin, and I admit John Deeres are pretty nice. Calvin and Starflower have been taking turns driving it around the yard. I hope the enthusiasm continues once I assign them various tracts of land to keep mowed this summer!

At work, I have been practicing the Zen of fish net mending. It is really kind of fun once you learn how to do it right. Fun, that is, unless one is subjected to a radio station blaring '80s rock music, or political discussions between my coworkers. I forgot to bring my iPod today. I will definitely remember tomorrow.

Our blessedly warm March is turning colder for a few days. That will give me an excuse to not go running. I have not been feeling the running bug lately. Same with music. On one level it irritates me that I can't seem to rise beyond that, but on another level maybe I need to take it easy and approach it again in a few days. Whatever. I wish I, like the kids, had a week's spring break to look forward to after tomorrow. I'll take a couple days off if work doesn't heat up. If it's just net mending, it can wait.

what a few stitches cost

2010-03-23T20:27:00.003-05:00

Did you know a trip to the emergency room for stitches costs 700 dollars?

I got the bill for Starflower's recent incident the other day, and it nearly blew my mind. I knew we were talking at least a couple hundred bucks, but wow.

I was grateful for the bottom line: "Expected insurance coverage = 100%", although I knew better. We have not met our deductible for the year, so we will have to pay about $150. Still, I am more fortunate than a lot of folks in that my job provides health insurance.

While I think a lot needs to be done in the way of cost containment, personal responsibility, and defining why it is that people need to be on so many prescription medications anyway, I am glad this nation has finally taken a big step towards providing affordable health care for most, and guaranteeing that those who need it most will not lose it. After all, stitches happen, despite our best efforts at prevention. Although maybe next time I'll do them myself! (Taking them out myself saved us/insurance at least a $120 doctor visit.)

43

2010-03-20T17:32:00.002-05:00

Well, I guess I don't feel all that different. Better than I have in years, in a lot of ways. My forties have been a lot more fun that my thirties. I think wisdom finally comes around 40. Or so it was for me.

Guess what I got for my birthday? A LAWN TRACTOR!!! No, actually it wasn't my gift, we just happened to have bought it this morning. It will be delivered Wednesday. Even though we don't have any mowable grass yet, I can't wait!!! Our last one kicked the bucket over two years ago.

dude, where's my culvert?

2010-03-15T18:36:00.005-05:00

I think I can say unequivocally that ice skating season is over. Actually this year we did not get out skating once. The ice formed, then enough snow fell before the ice was thick enough to support its weight so there was slush. Then slush froze into hard bumps that even the best Zamboni would not be able to resurface.

The ice has been retreating at a pace unusual for March. The weather lately has been a blessing for a winter weary soul (and a blessing for our heating bill, which could use a break). Yesterday and today above 60 degrees = unbelievable (but very likable). I think after the last few years we deserve a March like this.

This fast meltdown and runoff has posed a bit of a problem though, and it's not just the mud in the driveway, which may go away sooner than normal if this continues. The problem is, the pond is at record high water levels. That means that at some point, water is not flowing out of the pond.

This is a view directly below the pond outflow culvert. So water is flowing through that one fine. But there is another culvert, underneath our driveway. There is lots of water above the driveway, but little below. A-ha.

I decided to investigate this matter today instead of going for a run. The pond outflow runs north through the outflow culvert and the driveway culvert. This is an important fact: The driveway shades the outflow below it so that thawing happens more slowly. I entered the ditch north of the driveway, and at first could not even see any sign of a culvert. Then, as I examined more closely, I saw, just above the surface of an ice pack, a curved form that looked like the top of a culvert. I chipped out some ice with a heavy spud bar (ice chisel) and it did indeed appear to be the culvert I was looking for.

I continued to chip away at the ice, thinking perhaps I could break through. I could have broken through, with unlimited strength. The ice was still sturdy and unrelenting, and finally I gave up with the idea that I had speeded the process. Just a little.

I am not too concerned at this point. Most of the snow has melted, and the pond is as high as it is going to get. Unless, of course, we get a couple inches of rain in one night. Then maybe we would be faced with a driveway washed away, unable to drive anywhere, huge excavating bill to get things back to normal. Nope. Don't even want to go there.

Hopefully another day or two of this wonderful weather will resolve the problem.

Amazing Grace

2010-03-11T11:44:00.000-06:00

The other day I had a rare moment alone in our acoustically wonderful house, and my flute was in my hands. The recorder was also nearby, so I turned it on and started playing an old favorite tune.

I think I played it better than I ever have.

I learned this version of "Amazing Grace" when I was a senior in college. The flute section played this in unison as part of our program for our band tour to Arizona and California. I have since played it many times at church services. I have played it at three funerals: my grandpa's, my great uncle's, and my mom's.

This is one of those tunes that just transcends everything.

the hill run

2010-03-09T20:24:00.003-06:00

I have been easing myself back into running for the last week or so, and it feels great to be out there on the thawing gravel road right around sunset. Today I took a turn from my usual run, which is relatively flat, and climbed up some 70 feet of glacial moraine terrain in the first half. 70 feet might not sound like much to you mountain dwellers, but it provided a challenging workout for me. And I was up to the challenge! 3.2 miles total, and I didn't think of checking the clock when I went out but it was well under an hour.

High temps in the 40's predicted all week, with lows above freezing and maybe rain tomorrow. Snow is disappearing fast, and mud is everywhere. Welcome Spring!

Sunday night unwinding

2010-03-07T20:58:00.004-06:00

I am recovering from another Sunday drive. The Hermit signed the boys up for a baseball clinic that meets for six Sunday afternoons...100 miles away from here in a suburb of Minneapolis. Furthermore, the boys need to provide their own catcher, and since The Hermit isn't quite up to squatting, kneeling, and everything else a catcher does, that would be me. They are receiving great instruction in the fundamentals of pitching. I am learning a lot too, and gaining a lot of respect for pitchers, and catchers. But when all is said and done, it eats up seven hours of a Sunday. Only two weeks left.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to I and the Bird 120, and everyone who came by to read it. It was fun putting the whole thing together, and I was able to reconnect with some old birding blogger friends and meet a few new ones.

I have my own budding young birder here. Mr. Attitude spotted three ruffed grouse in an aspen tree at twilight last night, and a short time later told me about a strange noise he heard in the woods. That noise just happened to be the saw-whet owl that's been calling for the last week! I showed him a picture of the owl in a bird book, then I presented him with a copy of a bird guide specifically written for kids. That book was a gift from a blogging friend, Cindy Mead, and unfortunately I don't have a link to her blog handy right now. Mr. Attitude sat right down and started reading. I would tell you of what he thought about the Roseate Spoonbill, but that is another post in itself, a post I hope to write this week!

Today on the way to baseball camp Mr. Attitude and I noticed several bald eagles and several red tailed hawks. We also saw a flock of crows mobbing a red tailed hawk.

I haven't had as much time for music as I would like, but in a rare moment when I had the house to myself I turned on the recorder and cranked out possibly the best version I have ever played on flute of an old favorite song. I will make it into a video so I can post it here.

Mud season is here. I can't complain about the weather, it's been sunny with highs in the 40's this last week, and it's expected to continue, but our driveway is becoming its annual mess. With a plan we have made, however, this will be the last year of impassable conditions on our driveway.

Our newest chickens have been stepping up egg production. It's nice to have three dozen fresh eggs in the fridge!

A week ago Saturday night, I was in the emergency room with Starflower as she got stitches above her right eyebrow. She and Mr. Attitude were messing around in Calvin's room, and next thing I knew she had hit her head. These things happen; now all three have had stitches and/or staples. Yesterday I took it upon myself to remove the stitches. It's not that difficult; convincing a kid that you know what you are doing (even when you don't) is the hardest part! That, and I could have used a pair of reading glasses. My eyes ain't what they used to be! But despite my visual shortcomings, everything turned out fine.

We now have a soprano saxophone player in the house. Calvin has played alto sax in the band for two and a half years, and out of the blue he started telling me he would like to try soprano sax. Cool! That has always been one of my favorite instruments. So I talked with the band director last week, and he just happened to have one available for Calvin to try out. He brought it home over the weekend, and I even got to have a little fun with it.

That's about all I can think of now. So many thoughts, so little time.

I and the Bird #120: March

2010-03-03T15:20:00.008-06:00

Welcome to this week’s edition of I and the Bird. Since the name of my blog, Sand Creek Almanac, is a twist of the title of Aldo Leopold’s classic, A Sand County Almanac, and it is March, let us begin with Leopold’s musings on March:

One swallow does not make the summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring…a migrating goose, staking two hundred miles of black night on the chance of finding a hole in the lake, has no easy chance for retreat. His arrival carries the conviction of a prophet who has burned his bridges.

– Aldo Leopold, essay “March” from A Sand County Almanac, 1949, Oxford University Press

Here in Minnesota, USA, March is a month of limbo. The calendar says winter is over, but we know spring won’t arrive until at least mid April, when our 10,000+ lakes finally emerge from a covering of ice. A warm sunny day is as much a possibility as a blizzard or a cold frosty night. We may peel off a layer or two of clothing, but we don’t pack away the long underwear…yet. (We’re saving it for the first Twins baseball game in their new outdoor ballpark!)

Perhaps it is because I was born on the day of the vernal equinox, but I find March to be the most hopeful month of the year. I listen for the first joyful honking of Canada geese. I eagerly anticipate the first sighting of a male red winged blackbird staking out his marshy territory. Although robins overwinter in some scattered areas, my first March sighting of a robin is a cause for celebration. The pair of sandhill cranes that nest in the shrubby wetland by Sand Creek near my house raucously announce their arrival in the latter part of the month. Just the other night I was thrilled to hear the call of a northern saw-whet owl. The cycle of life continues.

Bird bloggers seem to embody this spirit of March hopefulness year round. Whether they travel great distances to enjoy seeing new species, or delight in the drama in their own back yards, birders are aware and open to the wonder that is always present in life. I am pleased to present another fine collection of bird blogging!

In the Backyard

Jayne has the privilege to see a raptor in her backyard regularly, and she shows how the red shouldered hawk got its name!

Amber's Texas bird lounge took on a wintery look, attracting many visitors!

Another Texan, Kay, shows that if you build it (or fill up your feeders and baths) they will come!

There are two lessons to be learned from The Geek In Question: 1) Sometimes a bird will wait while you run inside to get your camera, and 2) Your mother in law can wait--photos like these are worth it!

March means it's time for spring cleaning, and even Carolina chickadees are getting into the spirit! Thanks Alan!

The Grizzled but still Incorrigible Scribe Himself (perhaps the longest Blogger handle ever) lives and writes by a river in Ohio. He is a newcomer to I and the Bird, and I introduce you to him via his observations of great blue herons fishing-Wow! Can they EAT!

Close to Home

RuthieJ, a fellow Minnesotan who knits, birds, and writes about it at Nature Knitter, takes us on a Sunday drive by the Mississippi River.

JSK had an opportunity to zero in and identify some ring necked ducks on a local river.

Of course, when your home is an RV, everywhere is close to home! Dawn's latest home is in Arizona where she went on a quest for a rare visitor.

And, was anyone in the USA and Canada NOT watching the final Olympic hockey game? Wanderin' Weeta and I were perhaps the only two. She found a great opportunity for an uncrowded beach walk.

Travels with Birders

Aimophila Adventures goes to Kootenai Lake, and the owl he found is way too cute.

Laura escaped this year's brutal New Jersey winter temporarily for sunny Florida.

Carrie went on an owl prowl in Canada, and let me tell you, this is one of those blogging moments when the telling of the tale is as sweet as the destination!

Mike Bergin, while in Ecuador, got up close and personal with some antpittas. What's an antpitta? I've learned so much from hosting this carnival!

The Horned Guan. It's a bird that requires tremendous physical exertion, careful planning, and a lot of luck to see. Nate gave it his best.

Birds in the News

It seems this ivory billed woodpecker thing won't go away, even after five years. Grrlscientist wonders about this "faith based birding", and asks if we shouldn't maybe spend our time and money on birds that are proven to still exist.

We know corvids are intelligent birds, but is there a limit to their problem solving ability? And do the corvids really care? John at A DC Birding Blog reports on the latest research.

Birds Up Close- Photos and observations

What's a shikra? Otherwise known as the little banded goshawk, it is a beautiful bird that looks a lot like the northern goshawk I sometimes see here. Thomas at Nature Magnified, of Karimannoor, India, gives us the details.

I don't think I've ever had a bird give me the evil eye, but it sounds like the yellow eyed junco would do it. BEWARE! Alison of IBIS tells us how to ID this bird of high altitudes.

Pileated woodpeckers. I love 'em. And by my unofficial poll, they are the most-often mentioned species in this IATB edition. Adrian at Voyages Around My Camera gives a good account of these giants of the woodpecker family.

Kestrels are another sign of spring where I live. Thanks to Moe of Iowavoice.com for showing one in its striking beauty.

I used to listen to Marsh Wrens singing at night at a house I lived in that was...next to a marsh. I never knew they built such elaborate nests! Thank you Larry for the details and photos.

Birds in Dreams

Yes. I do dream about birds sometimes. And sometimes I can't remember if it was a dream or reality. Our dreams reflect aspects of our lives. So what do these dream birds represent?

Birds and Life

Sometimes an everyday walk can provide extraordinary moments. Often birds provide the gateway to those moments. Have I mentioned pileated woodpeckers already? They cannot be mentioned enough. Robin never fails to notice these wonderful moments in nature.

A beautiful tribute to an eagle that stole Vicki's, and no doubt many others' hearts. Fly free, Spirit.

Looking towards the future, a mom writes about birds, feathering the nest, and the little milestones of childhood.

Thanks to all for being out there and sharing it with everyone! Next edition is at Birder's Lounge!

I and the Bird: call for submissions!

2010-02-28T20:20:00.002-06:00

I am way late on this. I have known for several months that I would be hosting the 120th edition of I and the Bird, the carnival of bird blogging. But nevertheless, the event has sneaked up on me and the time for submitting your excellent bird blog post for inclusion in this edition is NOW! Well, actually you have until Tuesday, but don't leave me hanging! Drop me an email with a link to flutemandolin AT gmail dot com. Thank you!

Egg comparison

2010-02-25T21:17:00.004-06:00

On the left, a "local" egg from our very local huge chicken operation that stinks up the air regularly. Our school is downwind from this hatch house, and we always dread a wind from the northwest if there be football games, or baseball, softball, or track meets.

On the right, one of our homegrown eggs. They have not had any special organic feed, nor have they had much space to roam. This is just what it's like to have fresh home grown eggs. I can almost see the Omega 3's!

I and the Bird #119

2010-02-18T19:56:00.002-06:00

Since I have nothing to say here, as has been the February curse, go check out I and the Bird, the carnival of bird blogging, over at the eloquent Laura's blog, Somewhere in NJ.

I'm up next for hosting, so if you have anything bird related, let me know! My e-mail is on the sidebar, or just leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

My coworker saw a red headed woodpecker today. Damn. I mean, good sighting! ;) I haven't seen one in years!

Testing 123...

2010-02-14T14:59:00.002-06:00

This is a test of 1) my new AMAZING toy (more below); 2) my fledgling skills at creating a video from audio and still pictures on Windows Movie Maker; and 3) my ability to record myself without freezing in stage fright.

For my anniversary/early birthday present The Hermit got me something I didn't even know I'd been wanting: a portable digital audio recorder. Well, actually it's way more than that; it has a tuner, preset rhythms, effects, it does everything but play flute/banjo/mandolin/whatever for me.

There's so much I want to do with it I didn't know where to begin, so I thought I'd just pick one of my favorite songs, play it, and try not to be too much of a perfectionist about the finished product; after all, I was more anxious than anything to share some of my music with you! This is an Irish reel called "The Laurel Tree".

There's much more where that came from. I promise.