A Birdy Weekend

Friday evening I was typing on my computer when I glanced on the deck to see a blue bird eating the left over canary food I set on the railing. The bird didn't look like a bluebird. There was no rosy chest and this bird was larger and a darker blue. The head was deep blue and there was some black on the wings. IT WAS AN INDIGO BUNTING! I had to verify it in my bird book. This is my second spotting of an indigo bunting ever. Today I met my friend from St. Cloud and we drove through the wildlife drive at the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped and saw a killdeer family. There were 4 chicks ahead of us on the path and the parent bird kept faking an illness to protect the chicks. First the parent killdeer faked a broken wing as it squeaked loudly to draw our attention. When the chicks got way ahead it walked normally. When we caught up to the chicks again it faked being dead on the ground. When that didn't work, it faked a broken neck. We were walking on a short paved path back to the parking area so we bothered and were bothered by the killdeer family the entire way. I told my friend there were eagle nests here and I wanted to see one. We came upon a strong telescope and it was pointed directly at an eagle nest. "Good job!" I said to my friend, "Next I want to see some hoary puccoon." Hoary puccoon is a wild flower with orange-yellow primrose-like blossoms featured on the information kiosk we were looking at. We drove up the road a few feet and there we saw a bunch of hoary puccoons. "Hoary puccoons!" We yelled out the window. It sounds like a swear word so we repeated it a half dozen times. "Very good Debbie, now show me some wild lupines. Three minutes later we came upon some beautiful blue lupines. I told my friend, "My trip will be complete when you show me some sand hill cranes." We found some Canadian geese with their goslings. We found an immature bald eagle sitting atop a dead tree. By mile 3 she spotted a pair of sand hill cranes on the edge of a pond. We watched them for a while. Whatever I asked my friend to show me we seemed to be able to see. "Very good!" I said as I punch her in the shoulder, "Now I'd like to see a mammal - a fox, coyote or bear will be fine." We pulled off the side of the road to watch some more geese and goslings when we spotted a big white bird farther back. Through the binoculars we could see it was a Trumpeter swan. Off to the left we saw some more white. We kept watching and eventually saw another trumpeter swan with 2 babies in tow. I think those are called cygnets. I heard a call of a sand hill crane beyond a row of trees. We drove past the row of trees and I did find another pair of sand hill cranes. We finished up our drive without seeing a bear, coyote or fox. We did see a man standing by his truck with his shirt off and my friend thought she should get credit because he was a mammal. We had an amazingly successful wildlife drive and we drove back to Big Lake. When we got into town I noticed a lot of white crab apple blossoms on the road. But no crab apple trees could be seen. Turns out it wasn't crab apple blossoms. It was hail. We saw lots of hail in Big Lake today. We ended our trip with dinner at Russells on the Lake. With all the wonderful birds I've seen on Friday and Saturday, I wonder what I'll see on Sunday? If this trend continues I might just see Big Bird tomorrow.

First Thing I See In The Morning

This time of year my yard is like a fairy land. The yard looks like a fairy land and it smells like a fairy land. The crab apple trees and lone apple tree are in blossom. When I sit up in bed and look out the window, the entire window, side to side and top to bottom, is solid pink crab apple blossoms. It's a beautiful sight to behold. Alabama may have 12 foot azalea bushes. Florida may have bougainvillea shrubs. Hawaii has bird of paradise. But you can't beat Minnesota for it's crab apple trees and lilac shrubs.

Prime Land - Even Primer Now

I learned tonight that the prime land I visited on Saturday has been harvested for wild ginseng and morel mushrooms. I've never seen ginseng in the wild. I think I saw morel mushrooms once when I was walking through a city park near Coon Creek in Coon Rapids. Mushrooms frighten me because a plant misidentification problem can lead to death. I don't want to die from eating a mushroom. If I were to eat a morel mushroom I would identify it from a full-color mushroom field guide first. In any case, I want to go back to those woods again and look for them. What would I do if I found ginseng? I think I would take a picture for sure. If there was a lot I might pick one. Ginseng is supposed to be an adaptogen - something that decreases the body's response to stress. I don't really want to harvest it. I just want to see it and show it to others. I want the experience of finding it in the woods more than anything.

Potato Sausage Soup - An Olive Garden Knock Off

I made a soup last weekend from a recipe I got at work that was so delicious I just have to share it.

Olive Garden Potato Sausage Soup

Ingredients - 1 lb vegetarian Italian sausage, 4-6 strips veggie bacon, 1 large white onion - diced, 3 lb. russet potatoes - peeled and sliced, 2 TB garlic puree (or one entire bulb diced), 1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper, 5 chicken bullion cubes, 10 cups water, 1 C. heavy cream (I used fat-free half and half), 1/4 bunch kale.

Brown the sausage and the crushed red pepper. Set aside. Fry the bacon, onion and garlic. Add bouillon cubes and water. When the water comes to a boil, add the potatoes, sausage, and pepper. Gently simmer 30 minutes until potatoes are soft. Add cream and heat thoroughly. Add chopped Kale before serving. Makes 6-8 servings. Delicious!

This is a full body recipe. When I browned the sausage with the crushed red pepper, the smell and the tang of the peppers filled the entire house. Everybody knew I was cooking something spicy. You might want to add less than 1 1/2 tsp. of crushed red pepper.

Hail

We had hail at our house the other day. I stood at the window to watch. Ice cubes were being thrown from the sky. As you can see from this picture, a piece of hail tore right through the leaf on my zinnia plant. The hail murdered one of my early boy tomato plants and one pepper plant. Most of the other plants are suffering but I think they will live. I am lucky not to have more damage. I read about a 2 year old boy being sucked out of the house and thrown into the swamp by a tornado. I really have to re-think my safety when it comes to hearing tornado sirens. The time to stand by the plate glass window is not when the siren sounds. When the siren sounds would be the time to listen to the news and go to safety if appropriate. I've had enough tree tops blown off near the house to know better. For some reason, I'm just not taking the sirens seriously lately. A friend of mine in Ramsey, just a few miles west of here, has significant hail damage on his house. Some pieces of hail pierced right through his gutters. He has gutter, roof and siding damage. I need to take Mother Nature more seriously.

In Memoriam

Yesterday, in honor of Memorial Day, my sister and nephew went to the Urbank cemetery to place crab apple blossoms on the graves of our ancestors. Mass was going on at the Sacred Heart Church so we had to be quiet as we searched for the grave site of Frank and Gertrude Suchy. I thought the grave would be in the far quadrant but no, it was closer. We had to walk to the far side of the cemetery to search because almost all the names face that way. We laid one sprig for Frank and another one for Gertrude. We laid one on Aunt Marie's grave and another on Aunt Lorraine's grave. All these graves already were adorned with flowers so someone is watching over them. The last sprig was for Uncle Leo who died just this year. Uncle Leo had a big stone with room for Aunt Helen (still alive) and Cousin Tommy. There was a wreath over Tommy's portion of the stone but I am sure that was for Uncle Leo's benefit. Attached to the circle of flowers was a tin of Copenhagen.

Prime Land

Yesterday Offspring #2 and I drove up to the farm. We talked the others into going on a hike down to the lake - the hard way. All seven of us (well, eight including Blunder) jumped into the golf cart while Medo ran along barking all the way. We went past the barn, and drove through the grass between the fields until we came to the end. We hopped off the cart and scouted for the easiest route down the hill to the lake. We chose the ravine. Just for the record, the easiest way down to the lake is NOT the ravine. If you travel further east the slope is much easier to walk. But if you do go down the ravine, watch out for those spots where it appears level because the layer of duff looks level, but isn't level - the thick layer of leaves are just hiding the deep spots. Walking along we saw lots of Solomon's Seal (real and false), some trillium, some poison ivy, and some pitcher plants. We saw about 9 pitcher plants in the same area. My sister potted the first one and then we saw pitcher plants all around us. The pitcher plants eats insects and is, therefore, a carnivorous plant. The plant has hollow, tube shaped eight inch leaves that look like pitchers. Each leaf has an open mouth and a leafy hood. The leaf holds water in the pitcher. It attracts insects by having nectar glands around the mouth. The leaf hairs point down into the tube and are slippery. The insect crawls inside the tube and can't get out, falling into the water and drowning. According to the DNR Volunteer magazine, the pitcher plant water is home to protozoans, nematodes, freshwater crustaceans and aquatic mites. Three insect larvae also live in the pitcher plant water - the flesh fly, the pitcher plant mosquito and a midge. All these animals help digest the insects that die in the pitcher plant making the nutrients available to the plant for it to live. Typically pitcher plants grow in nutrient-poor soils like bogs and swamps so they need the extra nutrients provided by the insects. My Dad is so lucky to have this prime land. This hill going down to the lake has never been farmed and never been pastured. The landscape is pretty much the same as it was before Minnesota was a state. The tall maples and birch are truly breath taking. I ran into one small tree with a diameter of about an inch that was in my way. I tried to push it aside. Both ends were attached to the ground. I couldn't tell which end was the trunk and which end was tree top. It was like a giant croquet wicket. I suspect a tree fell on the top bending the tree down and keeping it pinned there. We saw lots of mossy fallen trees. Large granite boulders line the shore. We had a hard time walking along the shore until we found a deer trail that angled up the hill and away from the lake. I kept my eye open for antler shed but didn't see any. We had a beautiful view of the lake. We saw the pelicans and cormorants enjoying the quiet water of Petey's bay. The south side of the lake had white caps and the wind was very strong. The shore here would be a great place to put a bench or a lawn chair to enjoy the view on a hot summer day.

The Eagle Has Landed

A friend sent me a link to a web cam aimed at an eagle's nest in British Columbia. When you click on the link you have a good view of the eagles. I've been watching off and on throughout the day. I can't tell if I'm viewing the male or the female (females are larger) taking care of the eaglets and tidying up the nest. Yesterday it looked so cold and windy up there. I could see the tree swaying and the feathers ruffling in the wind. The eaglets stayed under the body of the eagle most of the time. Today it looks a little less windy and a little warmer and the eaglets are out and about, gobbling up the strips of food the eagle delivers. Surprisingly there is no rest for the parent eagle. They are busy feeding and cleaning and guarding all the live long day. Check out this link to the eagle web cam: http://wavelit.com/media/702/Eagles_Nest_Live/

Disappointment

I opened up my Tupperware at lunch today expecting my homemade chow mien with veggie chicken and mushrooms and bean sprouts and brown rice and what did I find? I found an ugly congealed mass of left over plain refried beans. Man, was I disappointed. I moaned out loud in my disappointment leading the people I was eating with to offer me parts of their lunch - granola, fruit, a granola bar. The people I work with are very generous. I had a Kashi pumpkin flax seed granola bar in my desk drawer thanks to a friend of mine so I had that along with my orange. I usually stick a single piece of Dove chocolate in my lunch bag and I forgot that too. I remember a couple years ago I opened a container expecting homemade wild rice soup and I found a quarter cup of butter - again, very disappointing. Some days I'd like to fire the person who packs my lunch.

Jerry is Moving

My neighbor across the street has moved out this week. He and his wife are moving into a modular home on their property near Brainerd. He’s been our neighbor for about 8 years. They have a dog named Rambo. The dog’s name is not at all like the dog’s personality. Goofy would be more appropriate. Or Mark. Rambo has to come over and mark all upright things in my driveway with his urine every day. Jerry is a complicated, unusual character. He can be abrupt. Blunder ran across the street to greet him one day. I ran after her. Jerry says, “Your dog is going to be flattened one day.” OK, I think, your dog crosses the street several times a day too. I was painting polka dots on my mailbox. He comes over to get the mail and says, ‘You sure paint your mailbox a lot.” OK, I think, you are an art critic. He can be very generous. I went over to visit one weekend while he and his wife were sitting by a bonfire. He offered me a drink, a whiskey and soda. I said no thanks, I don’t drink. He offered me a hamburger. I said no thanks, I don’t eat meat. He didn't like to hear that I didn't drink AND didn't eat meat. He kept offering me things. He seemed more desperate to get me take something after each refusal. I went home with a carton of soy milk. It was Jerry who plowed my driveway this winter and I gotta say, no one before had plowed so thoroughly as he did. I do, however, have chunks of class 5 gravel spread in the grass - maybe he was a little too thorough. I’m not complaining though. Another time a couple years ago we had a windstorm. Several trees were blocking our driveway. He had relatives over helping him clean up with chain saws and a bobcat. Offspring #2 and I were straddling a downed tree sawing with my bow saw. We're just a half inch from finishing the last cut when he walks over to ask what we are doing. Uh, sawing a tree. Jerry then asks, "Need any help?" No, we got it, thanks for asking. He points to a sapling in his front yard that survived the storm. He says his wife told him to leave it but he wants to cut it down. "Why?" I gotta ask. "Why do you want to cut down a healthy tree that your wife wants to keep?" I am truly interested in his reasoning here. Jerry says, "I don't like that many trees in the yard." "But," I can't quit asking him questions, "Jerry, isn't your property in Brainerd completely wooded?" "Yes," Jerry replies as if he's making perfect sense, "That is different." Once he told one of the neighbors that he liked all the squirrels in the neighborhood because they made good eating. She believed him. Jerry was not the joking kind. In the eight years I've known him he has had both knees replaced. The first operation was terribly painful for him. After a month or so I told he him looked like he was walking better and he got a little angry. He explained that it hurt as much today as it did the first day after the operation. Jerry was not patient. He liked to get things done fast. When he had a roof installed he offered a bonus if they got it done in one day. They did get it done in one day. When he had an irrigation system installed, he offered $200 extra and the entire bill paid in cash if they got it done in one day. They got it done in one day. I suspected he would have a hard time being patient in selling the house. He listed it with two real estate companies. They had 3 visitors in 6 months but no offers. Even after bringing the price way down and trying to sell it himself, they had no offers. So Jerry's son-in-law is taking over the payments. So now my neighbors are a young couple with two elementary school aged children. Rambo is gone too. It's the end of an era.

The Office

Have you been watching The Office this year - the funniest show ever? The season finale was an hour long show. Usually I prefer the 30 minutes shows but not this time. This show didn't drag at all. Spoiler alert - don't read this if you want to watch the show. The writers really developed the character named Kevin. Kevin is this jolly, extra large man. He gets along well with his coworkers and he is unusually interested in the people he works with. When he thought Pam and Jim were having a romance, he followed them in his car to find out for sure. That is crossing a line there. He thought Pam Beasley and Jim would be good together - like pb&j - Pam Beasley and Jim, peanut butter and jelly. Kevin is into food. On an earlier episode there were two office parties going on simultaneously. Both party planners wanted Kevin to attend. He had a hard time deciding. One party had more likable people but the other party had brownies. He really had to weigh out that decision and ended up choosing the brownies. He holds out his hands flat in front of him and says, "Brownies? Or Angela?" He's a good guy though and he plays in a local rock band. He does favors for his office mates. In this episode, a coworker pulled a prank on the new girl in the office and told her Kevin was "special," implying a developmental disability. She thinks it is so nice that the office keeps Kevin employed and she treats him with extra kindness. When you see Kevin through her eyes, he totally does come across as someone with a disability. He speaks slowly. He enunciates his words very carefully. His sentences are short. He moves slowly. He's standing at the vending machine considering a purchase. He takes a while thinking it over. She thinks he needs help. She counts the change he has in his palm. "Oh, that is a button," she says. "You have enough money for anything in the top row." (Insert me laughing out loud here.) She thinks she is being kind to Kevin, the special guy and he's thinking, "Oh, she likes me. I am totally gonna nail her." Most of the episode revolves around Toby's departure from The Office to Costa Rica. His boss is celebrating his leaving (they never got along). The boss actually gift wraps a rock for Toby with a note that says, "Suck This." Phyllis plans a great going away party. Jim chips in $50 for fireworks because he's gonna propose to Pam tonight. The entire Office is outside in the parking lot enjoying a band, a small Ferris wheel and fireworks. Jim is fumbling getting the engagement ring out of his pocket when Andy Berrard jumps up, grabs the microphone, and proposes to Angela. For some reason, Andy's parents are also at the party. Angela, who really liked Dwight but rejected him because he mercy killed her cat, hears the proposal, looks at Dwight, sees his stricken face, and says yes to Andy. Angela doesn't mean it. She only says yes to Andy to hurt Dwight. Jim puts the engagement ring back into his pocket - the moment is spoiled for him. He can't propose to Pam the same night Andy proposes to Angela. At the end, Toby gets a picture with Pam - something he has been trying to get all evening. Now, in a rare non-work related email exchange today, I asked a friend if she thought that was the end of Toby or did she think Pam and Toby would be connecting again in the future. Here is her theory - Pam will eventually break up with Jim and date Toby. Shocked as I am to hear that, she could be right. Watch next year to find out.

Congratulations on Your Engagement!!!!!

Congratulations to my sister and her fiancee!

Pulling Things Up

This weekend I've been pulling things up. I spent 3 hours on the stairs pulling up carpet staples and nails. I filled a soup bowl with staples and nails. The treads of the stairs look like very nice wood which I will probably countersink the nails, fill in the holes, sand, stain and varnish. The risers, on the other hand, look like plywood to me. I think if I stain them they will looked like stained plywood. I guess I'll try it and if it doesn't work, go to plan B. Plan B? I'd like to tile the risers. If you've ever noticed the stairs in Charlie's house on "Two And A Half Men," he has tiled risers and they look very sharp. The thing is, I've never tiled before and I doubt the risers are square. Tiling such small irregularly shaped spaces might be too much for a first time project. Maybe I'll paint the risers. Or I could stencil them. I will try stain and varnish first and see how it goes. I've also been pulling weeds. The dandelions I've pulled out have such thick stalks it's almost like pulling carrots. On Saturday I had the unique experience of having my body traced with chalk on a concrete driveway by a 3 year old girl and a 4 year old boy. Wow. I traced both of them so it was my turn to get traced. I layed down on the driveway and handed them the chalk. The boy said, "I'm giving you long hair." I said I just got a hair cut. He said, "But I'm GIVING you long hair." When I stood up I saw that yes, indeed, I had long hair sprouting in all directions from my head. Looked like I had stuck my finger in an electrical socket. When they were tracing the torso, they both took a short cut from the hip to the hand. I said, "Hello - I have a waist here, we don't need to go so far out from the waist." They both ignored me. I ended up with webbed arms and wild hair. Actually, it was very fun having the two of them work on me like that. They were really concentrating. For their little size, they had to do a lot more moving that I did when I traced their little bodies.

I Know A Hummingbird Lover

This photo isn't my father but he's the first person I thought of when I saw it. My Dad loves hummingbirds. On the farm he has his recliner near the south bay window. He has 3, maybe 4 hummingbird feeders up. He keeps them filled and watches the hummingbirds feed. He buys sugar by the 10 pound sack. He watches the hummingbirds and orioles so closely that he can identify the hummers apart. He says the hummers fly around his head while he puts up the feeders. He might like a hat like this one although it may interfere with reading the sports page.

4H Plant Sale at the Fairgrounds

Grandpa Stenger always said to wait until May 15 to plant. Today is the 16th of May and I've been thinking about the 4H plant sale at the Anoka county fair grounds all day long. I've been salivating for this sale. I was in a vulnerable condition when I got there. I picked up a cardboard box and started throwing in petunias (red and white), geraniums (orange), saliva (orangy peach), snapdragons (gotta have them), zinnias, allysum, begonias (purple leaves with white flowers), sweet potato vine, cherry tomato, green bell pepper, cabbage, some flowing/vining plants and oh, I can't remember what all I got. Wait, I got a perennial called Snow on the Mountain as well. I filled up one box and set it on the counter. The women were eager to ring up my order. I told them I wasn't done yet. I got another box and filled up that one too. Then I saw a whole new section I hadn't looked at yet. I picked up three containers. A woman offered me another box and I said no, I already had 2 boxes and this was my self-discipline technique - I could buy no more than what I could carry in my hands. I got a lot of plants for $51. When I left the woman said they were open tomorrow. I asked her not to even tell me that. She said Ok, but the hours were 8 until 1. She was ruthless. I am so excited!

So Lucky To Love My Job

This week has just flown by because I had a lot of meetings at work. We've had several admission meetings of people graduating from high school and coming into our program. I am busiest at those meetings because I'm trying to get a stack of pages signed, W-4 and I-9 forms filled out, while collecting names and addresses and phone numbers. These days I also ask for email addresses. Plus we're trying to fill out a risk management form (13 pages) while I'm talking and asking questions and giving orientation. I come out of admit meetings exhausted, hoping I got it all done. It's interesting to watch people at these meetings. If a teacher attends, they're either a little misty eyed (teachers are softies) or trying to hold back their glee at seeing someone graduate. The people themselves are sometimes cautious, anxious, or eager. The parents of these new participants, almost all of them will need supervision for the rest of their lives, sometimes have the hardest time of all. I try to put myself into the shoes of a parent of a person being admitted to Achieve Services. I imagine it is a little like sending a kid off to college or to the military. It's hard to let go sometimes. But college or the military means the child will become more independent and eventually live on their own. They will learn to fight their own battles and solve their own problems. For parents of Achieve participants, these kids may not ever live on their own. They'll always be vulnerable. Maybe they don't have the skills to eat by themselves, or cook a meal, or walk un-aided. Or maybe they're too trusting of strangers or too affectionate. Maybe they will give their money to anyone who asks for it or they can't count the change to know if a store clerk has ripped them off. It has to be hard for these parents at admission meetings. After they learn to trust us, to know that Achieve staff will keep their person safe from harm and busy working, they can relax a little bit. A few phone calls during that first month go a long way to earning trust. One parent burst into tears after the admission meeting. I never saw that coming. At a meeting of a long-timer today, the parent said their son moved into his group home 18 years ago. I was shocked. I remember when he lived at home and when he moved into that group home. Golly, I am so old! I've been meeting with these parents for almost 20 years now - twice a year, May and November. We have a good relationship. We don't know each other well but we know each other long. People fascinate me. That is why I am so lucky to love my job.

T'ai Chih

I used to exercise to Jane Fonda every morning. I followed her for years. She had a lot of energy. That got to be too much jumping for my joints so then I went to mall walking. I walked 2 miles at Northtown mall 5 days a week and walked more on the weekends. That is too hard on the joints now too. I dabbled in yoga for a couple years but there are many positions that I just can't do anymore. So I started T'ai Chih. I've borrowed a T'ai Chih tape from the library and I've been following a 20 minutes set of exercises almost every day. The beginning of the tape has explanations followed by Arizona scenery followed by a hot young Native American flautist. Explanation, scenery, hot flute player. Explanation, scenery, hot flute player. I skip through all that and just do the exercises. T'ai Chih involves shifting your weight from one foot to the other, rocking back and forth, and moving your arms slowly. Sometimes you move your arms like you're tracing the edges of a 3 foot platter in front of your chest. Sometimes you trace the edges of a bass drum in front of you. Sometimes you carry an imaginary silver ball of energy clockwise in front of you. You move slowly and think about giving and receiving from the universe; going up into the mountain and down into the valley; and trusting that the universe will meet all your needs in time. When I do T'ai Chih, I don't really feel like I'm exercising. I'm not getting my heart rate into the target range. I'm not out of breath. I don't even sweat. But when I am finished, I FEEL like I have exercised. I feel like I can breathe more deeply and I feel more flexible. If only I could watch the handsome flautist do the exercises instead of the lady in the orange sweat suit.

Flowers in the Yard

Here are some photos of some of the flowers in my yard. The first is my amazingly beautiful Northern Lights Azalea that is thriving in the acid rich spot north of a spruce tree. The azalea was a lovely gift from a sister.


The second is a close up of the azalea blossom - so vividly purple it doesn't even look like a real color.



The third is a red tulip that should open soon on the south side of the house.





Here is a cherry blossom being pollinated by a bee. Took a while to get this shot because the bee was busy and he kept moving before I could focus. These Nanking cherry bushes were free with my order from Gurneys.





This is a pink crab apple bud. Gee, the city prohibits amur maples because they are invasive but these crab apples are the ones that sprout up all over the yard.

Here's a forsythia blossom. The bush is over 6 feet tall but I only get blossoms on the very bottom limbs. I might have placed this bush in too much shade. I have it on the southeast corner of the lot near the compost pile and next to the path that goes down the hill.

Dandelion - east side of the house by the dryer vent.

I really don't know what these are - some wild bush that is among the first to leaf out in the spring.

Happy Mother's Day to All

I'm a day late here but I want to proclaim that I had a great Mother's Day. Offspring #1 and I talked for over an hour. Offspring #2 and I spent time at a park (I got to choose the activity). We went to the Itaska Park in western Ramsey (not the Itasca State Park - headwaters of the Mississippi). Together we walked the dog, kept track of our journey on a GPS that we're not entirely sure how to run, took notes on the trail, and took pictures for the trail description I'm working on doing. One natural feature I want to highlight is the "Leggy Tree." You can find the "Leggy Tree" at coordinates N45degrees 15.117 and W 93degrees 29.396. The picture on the left is from a distance and you can see the Leggy Tree to the right of the trail, a healthy and hearty white oak just about to burst into leaf. But it has legs. On the right you can see a close up of the base of the tree; Blunder coming through the opening between the legs of the tree. This poor tree has been used and abused but it still grows healthy on the eastern shore of Lake Itaska. If you go there you can see the scars from where someone attacked it with a hatchet. You can also see the burn marks where someone lit a fire between the legs. The Leggy Tree is another of my favorite trees. It is the very definition of resilience.

And resilience is what being a mother is all about. Before I had kids I thought being a mother was all about making good choices. I was wrong. You have to be resilient. You have to be like that toy punching bag - keeping coming upright after you get knocked down. Keep trying. Keep the faith. Keep bouncing back. I remember the moment I decided I would be a mother. I was going into the ninth grade that fall. My mother was gone all summer in Seattle caring for Aunt Marie. I had a lot of responsibility that summer because of her absence. But she came back with Aunt Marie. Aunt Marie was a favored Aunt of mine who lived in Seattle. She had a busy life as a single woman working for Boeng Airlines. She was well-traveled and successful. She, along with her sister Dorothy who also lived in Seattle, was fashionably dressed and elegant. But Aunt Marie had colon cancer. Although she was very, very sick, she wanted to return to the Twin Cities to see her family one last time. She came to our house from the airport via ambulance. We had her room all ready. We had a hospital bed and Aunt Jolene and I cleaned that room top to bottom. We put clean linen on the bed and gave her a brand new pillow. The ambulance pulled up and the attendants wheeled her out on a stretcher. I saw my father's face crumble in the shock of seeing her condition. She looked like she was about to die and she did die within a few days. She had to weigh all of 85 pounds. The cancer had eaten away at her body. She knew she was dying. I helped her a little in the few days she had left. She told me her only regret was that she didn't have children. That was the moment I decided that come hell or high water, I was going to have children. And I did have children. I had two wonderful children and they have been the joy in my life. I am so blessed to be a mother.

Blunder

Blunder - to move unsteadily or confusedly; to make a mistake through ignorance, stupidity, or carelessness; to utter ignorantly, stupidly, or carelessly; to make a stupid, careless or thoughtless mistake.

Sometimes I call her Blunder Mifflin. Actually she is doing pretty good lately. No toileting accidents. No major noncompliance issues. She knows what I want and she's pretty agreeable to it. She's gained a couple pounds now that I dress up her meals with yogurt, rice, cheese, or peanut butter toast. My biggest complaint is that she studies me so intently it's unnerving. She'll sit and stare at me when I read the paper, studying my every move. I tell her to stop staring and she watches more intently. If I block her view with the newspaper she'll go and sit down in her dog bed. I go to the bathroom leaving the door partly open and soon enough, a little white head comes around the corner, watching what I am doing. I reach up into the cupboards for the olive oil and when me feet come back down I'm stepping on her hair. Sometimes I feel like I'm the object of a research project.

Stuffed to the Gills

Today was another productive day. I worked in the garden in the morning. A very pretty bluebird kept me company. I hope he wasn't alone. I heard many song birds perished with our harsh spring and lack of flying insects. After lunch it rained so I worked in the garage. I had 375 square feet of carpeting and 375 square feet of padding. I found a place that will recycle the carpeting for only $10. They'll take the padding for free. Trouble is I have to deliver it to them. The place is located by the Mermaid Supper Club in Moundsview. So I cut the carpet into pieces that could fit into the car. My hacksaw cut the carpeting very nicely but I'm not a good judge of what fits in the car. I filled the car as much as I could folding down the back seat. Then I had no choice but to finish filling it sideways. Even when measuring with a mop handle the width of carpet rolls they came out too long. So I'd wedge them in sideways. I have the front seats up as far as they can go. I worked and worked. Luckily the padding takes up a lot less room than carpeting and is easier to bend and stuff into tight corners. Well, I did it. I got 750 square feet of floor covering into the car. I can drop the carpeting and flooring off to be recycled on my lunch hour on Monday. Yeah for me!

Potato Bake

I was digging in the garden again today and found a nice surprise - 15 spring onions that I didn't know were there. I thought I got them all last fall. I pulled them up and put them in my dinner that is almost done baking now.

Potato Bake

Ingredients - 1 package "Simply Potatoes Southwest Style Hash Browns", 1 package Morningstar Farms sausage patties,6 slices Morningstar Farms Bacon, 15 spring onions - chopped, one can button mushrooms, 2 cups shredded cheese, 4 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 medium tomato-chopped.

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Spray 9x11 cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Cook sausage and bacon in the microwave and cut into small pieces. In cake pan, layer half the potatoes, half of the sausage, mushrooms, onions, and bacon and 3/4 cup of cheese. Repeat. Combine eggs and milk and beat well. Pour evenly over mixture. Press lightly. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Uncover. Add tomato and remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

My Yellow Farting Shoes

I got these yellow plastic gardening clogs at Big Lots several years ago for two dollars. They're handy because they slip on and keep my feet dry when I walk out to the yard. I put them on yesterday to work in the garden and was highly amused (again) because they fart when I walk. Every step is a fart. Not just a dainty fart either. These are full throttle baked-beans-for-supper farts. I can't help but smile when you wear these shoes which tells you something about my third grade sense of humor. I walk along, fart, fart, fart, as the air flows over my toes and out of the shoe on the top of my foot. If I'm in a hurry it sounds like this - fartfartfartfart. Yesterday I used them to push the shovel into the dirt. As I shifted my weight from one foot to another, they let out a squeaky,forced sounding fart. When I was done shoveling I walked, fart, fart, fart back to the house, smiling all the way. Lets hope I remember not to wear them when someone I want to impress comes over to visit. I don't know if it was the farting shoes or the exercise in digging last night, but my back feels better today than any day in the past 6 months.

A Blessed Day

Today has been a blessed day. A good friend had surgery and was blessed with a positive outcome (oh, I hope you're not puking right now), the weather was wonderful, a huge bald eagle landed on a tree across Lake Achieve and waited until I got there before soaring across the pond and to the west, a kind coworker came and got me to show me the eagle which I really appreciate as my office has no windows to the outside, the dog has gained two pounds and is back up to her fighting weight because of the nutritional supplements I've been adding to her food (hard boiled eggs, yogurt, brown rice, peanut butter toast and cheese), I spent an hour outside tilling the soil and listening to the birds sing, and finally, no bills came in the mail today. All in all, it's been a blessed day. I learned something new about bald eagles today. They have risky sexual practices. Before mating, they fly way high up, join claws and free fall together, a$$ over teakettle, until the last possible moment when they separate and soar just seconds before they would hit the ground. Now that I would like to see.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

May 5, 1968

Does this map look familiar? I read in the paper today that on this day in 1968 nine Minnesota men were killed in Vietnam, forty years ago today. Nine young men gave up their lives. Nine families were torn apart by grief and loss. These Minnesota men would have been in their 60's or 70's by now. How would our world be different if they had lived? It is possible that my own life would be different if one or more of those men had lived. I'll never know. They didn't have a chance. Nine of them. Nine can be such a large number. I am very sad.

Bugs Me

Yesterday we were talking about weather related anxiety. Some people get nervous when they hear thunder or see lightning or see dark clouds rolling by. That usually doesn't bother me. I like thunder. I know lightning is dangerous but it also enriches the soil. Strong winds bother me a little because 25 years ago my home was damaged by straight line winds. But weather doesn't usually bother me as much as most people. In this conversation, someone mentioned that those people who are really anxious about the weather often become meteorologists. That explains a lot! What bugs me? Meteorologists who dramatize the weather. OOOh, the coldest, the windiest, the most dangerous, the worst case scenario thunderstorm or snowfall. They quietly say the weather will probably be normal but go on and on about what could happen if things got worse. And the details! Oh, the freaking details. They'll tell you about weather patterns on the west coast and the name of this wind pattern and historical averages until I hit the MUTE button which is my way of saying, "Shut up about the weather!" Long as I'm at it, know what else bothers me? The teasing bothers me. Newscasters will spend more time hinting about what they're gonna talk about after the commercial than actually giving me the news. "Find out what health practice is shortening your life and whether you need to bring an umbrella to work tomorrow after this message." FGS! Stop telling me you're going to tell me and just tell me! I miss Dave Moore. He gave the news straight out without any teasing.

Wild Thursday

Twas a wild Thursday at the Blaine Human Services Center this week. A elderly man in a trench coat exposed himself on the second floor. We have a community service officer in our building but the geriatric exposer got away. The situation was sad, serious and humorous all at the same time. I saw a exposer once - sort of. It was the summer after 9th grade and I was walking north on Victoria, down the hill from Sextant towards Central Park with my girlfriend, Jenny. Jenny was way more street smart than I was. We saw a man pull over to the side of the road and open his car door. He stood with the car door open. Suddenly Jenny pushes me and yells, "Run! It's a perv!" I don't run. I don't even know what a perv is. She pushes me around and yells at me to run. I ask, "What's a perv?" She laughs and pushes me up the hill. I'm reluctant to run away from a crime scene when I don't even know what it is yet. The man seemed ordinary enough and he was just standing by his car door. If being a perv is such a scary thing, I want to be able to differentiate it from the other ordinary men I see standing by their cars. Her reactions are way faster than mine. My friend Jenny was always very convincing so I run with her trying to turn around and look. I get caught up in the excitement of running away from "The Perv." I actually thought it was a skin condition, perhaps something like leprosy and in that case running away from him was not a very nice thing to do. Or maybe perv is another word for alien from another planet like Mars or Pervo. Once we round the corner and we're back on Sextant, she explains that perv is short for pervert - someone who exposes their thing. And yes, Jenny had to explain what the thing was. I didn't know such things could happen. I'm lucky she was with me. The other wild thing that happened at the Blaine Human Services Center on Thursday was the sighting of a female turkey on 89th Avenue - strutting across the street and angrily fussing at the cars in her path. Turkeys have such big egos. They act like they own the place. They're kinda human in that way.

Concert Tonight - Fitzgerald Theater

My Favorite Trees

Turns out it's not Arbor Day today unless you are in Vermont. Each states sets it's own date for Arbor Day. Lets pretend we're in Vermont. Happy Arbor Day Vermontonians! In honor of this special day, I want to tell you about some of my favorite trees. I have picked out trees over the years and become attached to them. Sadly, one of my favorite trees died several years ago and has been replaced by another. This tree was a beautiful pink crab apple tree on Main Street in Anoka between 5th and 6th in front of St. Stephan's School. I first noticed it when I was marching with the Girl Scouts in the Halloween parade. Several kids were perched in the branches of the crab apple so they could get a better view of the parade. For me, it was a Norman Rockwell moment. The tree was surrounded by asphalt parking lot/playground. I was amazed that a tree could survive such harsh conditions. It might have lived longer in a grassy area. Another favorite tree is a tall elm on the east side of 35E just north of the Maryland Street exit. This tall elm stands like a dutiful sentry at the top of a high hill, silently observing. I've kept my eye on this tree for about 20 years. It's still doing well. Another favorite tree is an award winner. This is a red pine in Itasca State Park. Not just any red pine. Oh, no,this beauty is the tallest red pine in the state. You need to take the Wilderness Drive to find it. The park map points it out. Another favorite is an white oak tree on south side of Highway 10 just east of the Hanson Street intersection. The building used to be a real estate building, then a bank and now it's an insurance agency. Oaks are my favorite tree. I admire their gnarliness. Typically imperfections are not treasured for their beauty. Bumps and bulges are to oaks what smoothness and symmetry are to a cover girl. My most recent favorite tree is growing on the right side of the entrance ramp onto Highway 10 from Coon Rapids Boulevard. This is another white oak. Behind it is a storage unit the navy blue garage doors. I had to pull up along side it to take the picture without shooting through the windshield (you didn't want me getting out of the car on the entrance ramp - too dangerous). So you really can't see what it looks like driving up to it. There is a cavity about 5 feet off the ground and long grass (20 inches long?) is growing out of the tree trunk. So as you drive up you see a beautiful, healthy oak tree with a tremendous crown and arms uplifted with grass growing out of a pubic area. Trees don't really have pubic areas but this one does. I think it's a very sexy tree.