Hungry Heart

 I read Jennifer Weiner (it's pronounced Why-ner)'s book Hungry Heart. In a series of essays she tells about her family, her upbringing, her education, her career, her love life, her children, her successes and her failures. I had not actually heard of her before but she is a famous writer and one of her books was made into a movie (In Her Shoes).  Her first book was titled Good In Bed. As I read the pages I was suddenly glad there are no writers in my immediate family because she is painfully honest about hers. Jennifer is a complicated person. As loudly as she advocates that women should accept and love their own bodies, she goes into a dark place when she is criticized for hers. She is very sensitive yet she continues to put herself out there hoping to be a voice for women who can't or won't talk about these things.  Jennifer is definitely a feminist yet she devotes an entire, painful, chapter to the television show, The Bachelor which is not a feminist show at all. That chapter was the worst. Sometimes she is downright funny. Her essay on how male writers are taken more seriously than female writers was very good. She is definitely a dog lover and I can relate with that.  I liked the book except for the chapter about The Bachelor. I have never watched that show and I don't intend to.

The Pileateds Come For Suet

 This morning Mr. Pileated Woodpecker visited my suet. You might be able to see that he has a red mustache in the photo which marks him as male. An hour later Ms. Pileated Woodpecker came by too. The females don't have the red mustache. She didn't want her picture taken though. Most of the birds on the suet have been hungry black capped chickadees. The chickadees take such a small amount they hardly make a dent in the suet. Hairy woodpeckers have also come by but not as often as the chickadees.

The Bright Side Sanctuary For Animals

 Becky Mandelbaum wrote The Bright Side Sanctuary For Animals. The story is about Mona and Ariel Siskin, mother and daughter. They live in western Kansas at an animal sanctuary with dogs, cats, horses and pigs. This is a no-kill shelter which Mona runs. Mona puts all her strength and energy into caring for these animals and finding homes for them. Mona neglects herself, she neglects her house, and she neglects Ariel. When Ariel graduates from high school and earns a full scholarship to attend college on the eastern end of Kansas, Mona says no. Mona says Ariel should live at home and attend community college. This causes a rift so large mother and daughter do not talk to each other for six years. Ariel goes to college. One day Ariel sees that a vandal started a fire at the sanctuary. Two horses perished in the fire. In her head, Ariel thinks this might be her fault so she heads home. I don't want to give away the story of two hard-headed women meeting again after a six year separation but this made for a very interesting story.

Snow Buntings

 I walked to my local post office to drop off a letter to a relative. The air was cold and my hands were cold inside my gloves. My cheeks were red with the cold despite my coat, mittens and scarf. I was glad I had my wind pants on over my jeans. I was crossing the parking lot when I saw a small group of birds hopping around on the asphalt. Snow buntings! Seriously? In the parking lot? I have looked for snow buntings for years and only saw them twice. Both times I was in a vehicle moving down the highway. And here they are right by my feet! Snow buntings are the only songbird that nests as far north. Snow buntings are hardy little birds and it was a real treat for me to see one.

The Spectator Bird

 I read another of Wallace Stegner's novels. The Spectator Bird won the national book award for fiction in 1976. The story is about Joe and his wife Ruth who are around 70 and have retired to a home in northern California. Joe has arthritis and is a bit cranky and it seems that he and Ruth are a happy couple. On the surface Joe seems curmudgeonly but inside he is a deep thinker and a kind man. Joe gets the idea that he acts like a spectator in his own life instead of the major character. One day he gets a postcard from Astrid, a countess that he and Ruth met 20 years earlier when they traveled to Denmark. Joe and Ruth rented some rooms from Astrid and their lives became intertwined during the months they spent with her. Joe eventually brings out three books of a diary that he kept while they were in Denmark and he reads them to his wife before they go to sleep at night. As I read I got caught up in the story and sometimes the words made me laugh out loud. I very much enjoyed reading The Spectator Bird.

Bats

Today I attended a Zoom meeting of the local master naturalists. Our speaker is a senior at the U of M in Duluth studying environmental outdoor education. Her favorite animal is the bat. Her research project was at the Boulder Lake Management Area which has a nature center which is about 22 miles north of where I live. Using a device that recorded bat sounds and identified the species, she found all seven of the Minnesota bats staying in the bat houses at Boulder Lake. She also walked three paths at Boulder Lake to find other bats. She is designing a citizen science project for people who might help her with the research. A local boy scout group made 70 more bat houses so she could use some help in monitoring those within the Boulder Lake Management Area. I have done frog surveys and owl surveys and bird surveys and secretive marsh bird surveys but never a bat survey. This could be a fun activity to do after sunset on summer nights with another person. I don't think I want to do a bat survey in the dark alone. 

 

Extraordinary, Ordinary People

 I just finished reading Condoleezza Rice's autobiography Extraordinary, Ordinary People;  Memoir of Family. Condoleezza writes about her parents and grandparents growing up in Birmingham, Alabama where segregation existed.  The Governor, George Wallace, said "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever."  To cope the black families tried to stay separate. Rather than ride in the back of buses they walked or drove cars. Rather than use public toilets for blacks only they waited until they found a better one or went home. Her parents were college graduates. Her mother taught school and her father was a preacher. Later in life he went on to be a college administrator. Condoleezza grew up playing the piano at parties and church events. Eventually the family moved to Colorado for her father's job and that is where she went to high school. She also took ice skating lessons. Eventually she figured out she was not going to make a career of ice skating nor the piano. She wasn't sure which major to choose in college until she met Josef Korbel (who happened to be the father of Madeline Albright). He influenced her to go into political science and focus on Russia. Eventually she went to graduate school at Notre Dame and Stanford. Her parents sacrificed for her education. All their savings went to their daughter. She eventually became a tenured professor at Stanford and later the Provost of Stanford. I was hoping to read about her years at the White House but the book ends just as George W. Bush was elected. I enjoyed reading her book.

Twin Ponds

This is a picture of Twin Ponds. With a round trip of six miles, walking here is a pleasant way to get some fresh air and exercise. This picture was taken two days ago. There is a bridge on the far side where the other pond is. I have seen people fishing in the pond on the other side and people swimming in this pond. On this day, ice has formed covering most of the other pond.

Today the other pond is completely covered in a thin sheet of ice. This pond is still open. The water flows from the other pond through this one and over a stone wall in a thin and noisy stream. The snow makes the birches less visible but it's still a pretty place.

 

Sitting Pretty

I decided to read a non-fiction book this time and I chose one by Rebekah Taussig called Sitting Pretty; The View From My Ordinary, Resilient, Disabled Body.  Rebekah has a Ph.D. in disability studies and lives in Kansas. She uses a wheelchair and has an Instagram account called sittingpretty. She writes about what it is like to be paralyzed since the age of three. Her memoir is warm and funny and sometimes sad. As I read the book I thought about a woman who worked at the same building that I worked, back when I worked. She parked in the handicapped spot near my window. I would watch her arrive in the morning, twist in her seat, haul the main part of wheelchair over her lap to the open door. She would snap on both wheels with practiced precision and haul herself onto the seat, gather her things, and wheel inside. In the afternoon she transferred into her car, took off one wheel and then the other, hauled the wheelchair over her lap between her body and the steering wheel, shut the door and drive off. She was a strong woman to haul those awkward pieces back and forth from the back seat. I thought of her as strong and independent. Rebekah Taussig also seems strong and independent. She talks about ableism which is the mindset that typical abilities are better than and more important than less than typical abilities. I understand what she means. She wrote about her first year of teaching high school. Besides English she taught a disability class. She tried to get her students to understand ableism and with some students she got no where. Her frustration with that felt very real. She writes about people who mean to be kind but aren't. If a person sees her getting in or out of her car offers help she will tell them she can do it herself.  She has a system. If they stay and watch, ready to help her when she falls, they aren't being kind anymore because they didn't respect her answer. This was a good book to read because it opened my eyes to ableism in my own life.

In The Guise of Another

 I read a couple of books by Allen Erskens including The Life We Bury and The Heavens May Fall. Both had a Minneapolis detective named Max Rupert in them. So when I borrowed In The Guise of Another, I thought I would like it. I did like the drama between Max and Alexander Rupert, brothers and both members of the Minneapolis Police Department. The relationship between the two brothers was interesting. This book had a faster pace than the previous two books I read by him. What I didn't like was that the violence, bloodshed, and murder was dialed up to a degree that made me queasy.  When you read a book where a character or two dies in every chapter, you know that book is too violent.

The War I Finally Won

After reading The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley I went ahead and read the sequel, The War I Finally Won. Both books are best sellers and award winners. I liked both books as well. The story is again about Ada and her little brother Jaime living in England during World War Two. The novel is full of strong female characters and kind people who are determined to survive and even enjoy their lives. I think my favorite parts are the psychological insights Ada comes to in her mind as she thinks things through.

Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

 Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is the debut novel of Carson McCullers. Carson was only 23 years old when it was published. The story is set in a small town in Georgia during the depression. The story revolves around John Singer. John is a deaf man who works as an engraver at the jewelry store in town. He has a friend of Greek origin, Spiros, who is also deaf. Besides Spiros, John has no one who can understand his sign language. When Spiros has to leave town, John has no one to listen to him unless he writes his thoughts on paper. Yet people come to John and think he is a great and non-judgmental listener. Mick, one of my favorite characters, is a tom boy who lives at the boarding house with John. Surrounded by her parents and five siblings plus all the other boarders in her house, she is lonely and spends time with John Singer in his room or following him around town. Biff is the proprietor of the café when John has his meals. Biff is a great observer of the people in the town and is also drawn to John. Jake Blout is an alcoholic political agitator who shares all of his deepest thoughts with John. None of the people who are drawn to John know or seem to care what John thinks about. I think this was a great novel about regular people and I can see why it is considered to be one of the great American novels.

The War That Saved My Life

I just finished the achingly beautiful The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Bradley. The story starts out in London. Ada and her little brother, Jaime, live with an aggressive and abusive mother. Ada has a clubfoot and is forced to stay in the apartment at all times. Her mother tells others that Ada is "simple." When the London schoolchildren are evacuated to the countryside before world war two, Ada and Jaime also leave. They end up in a small town in Kent near the English Channel in the home of a woman named Susan. I don't want to give the story away because it's well worth your time to read.  Ada is the narrator and her voice is very powerful.

The Stranger In The Woods

 Michael Finkel was a journalist who enjoyed camping. One day while scanning the news on his phone he came across a story of Christopher Thomas Knight. Christopher Knight was a 20 year old man employed in the business of home security systems when he impulsively quit his job in Maine, drove south to Florida, drove back north to Maine into the woods as deep as he could get. He parked his car, left his keys in the console, and walked into the woods to become a hermit.  He disappeared for 27 years. Christopher grew up in a close-knit family with four older brothers in Maine. His younger sister had Down Syndrome. His family was hard working, quiet, and independent. His family never reported him as missing. Christopher went into the woods to be alone. He found a spot surrounded by huge boulders and a thick tangle of trees. The woman on whose property he stayed never noticed him. To survive he broke into cabins and took food, tents, clothing, propane tanks, camp stoves, books, batteries, sleeping bags, tarps and hand held video games. In 27 years he met only one hiker. He learned how to walk without leaving prints. During the heavy snow of the Maine winters he stayed in his tent where he had enough food to last him until some of the snow melted away. Owners of the local cabins were aware of a burglar and had varying opinions about him. Some didn't mind missing some food. Others were upset because he stole their peace of mind along with their things. Christopher regularly broke into a camp for person with disabilities to steal food and batteries. A local sheriff was bound and determined to catch him in the act. The sheriff installed a motion detector in the camp's kitchen area. Christopher was busted by the sheriff and went to jail. In jail, Michael Finker wrote to him and came to interview him six times and wrote his story as The Stranger In the Woods; The Extraordinary Story Of The Last True Hermit.   Christopher Knight did not have any reasons for his actions. Stealing caused remorse but he kept doing it for 27 years before he got caught. He knew he ought to be punished. The author suggests he might be on the Austism spectrum or perhaps had a schizoid personality. Christopher Knight remains a mystery to me even after I finished the book.

The Worst Hard Time

 Note to self - don't read two long books in a row about disasters because it is depressing. The Worst Hard Time-The Untold Story About Those Who Survived The Great American Dust Bowl was written by Timothy Egan. He was a reporter and wanted to get some first hand accounts from people who lived on the high plains during the dirty thirties (1930's). He researched the people from Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Nebraska and New Mexico who did not leave. He found a number of folks willing to talk about surviving a decade on a farm that gave no crops. He also researched the reasons for the dust bowl. Some government decisions such as exterminating the buffalo in order to get rid of the Native Americans didn't help. The Homestead Act insisting that farms be 160 acres did not help. Encouraging farmers to plow up the prairie and plant wheat did not help. Some parts of the high prairie do not get enough rainfall to sustain anything other than prairie grass. The railroads and the government encouraged people to take unsafe risks. Some people left but two thirds of them stayed. The dust blizzards were so bad they had to wear face masks and put Vaseline in their noses. The high winds and fine silica sand blasted the land, the cattle, the houses and the people. Many people died from dust pneumonia. People tried to keep the dust out of the house by shutting all doors and windows tight and hanging wet sheets over the doors and windows. Dust still got in. The air quality was hazardous to health. Dust piled high in some places completely covering fence posts and some farm machinery and outhouses. Some people were so hungry that they ate and fed their cattle salted Russian thistle (tumbleweeds). The President, Franklin Roosevelt, tried to help. He hired Hugh Bennett to solve the problem. Thus began the Soil and Water Conservation Act which is one of the few of Roosevelt's programs that is still around. Bennett bought back some of the worst farms. He taught farmers to practice contour plowing. He planted grass on those farms which are now national grasslands. This was a very interesting book about our country's worst, self-inflicted natural disaster so far.

Dead Wake

 Erik Larson wrote the 2015 best selling non-fiction book Dead Wake: The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania. This is a long book with all the details about a luxury steam liner that left New York City on May 1. 1915. On board were Captain Turner and approximately 1,200 other people. They were headed for London. At the time German submarines were attacking British ships (both military and merchant) with torpedoes. This was early in World War One and Woodrow Wilson was President. On the last day of April, the day before the Lusitania left, the German Embassy in the United States printed a warning in the newspapers warning passengers that German U Boats would attack all ships leaving for London. That article was met with disbelief. On May 7, 12 miles off the coast of Ireland, a German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania and it sank within 18 minutes. Only 761 people survived. Larson wrote stories about many of the passengers based on his extensive research including the writings of some survivors. The writing of some victims was recovered as well. The author had access to photos of all the bodies that were found. Captain Turner stayed on the ship until it slipped under the water and he was one of the survivors. After this disastrous event the British Admiralty went after Captain Turner and tried to blame him for the sinking. Even though it was clear a German torpedo did the damage, the Admiralty might have been trying to pin the blame on Turner so that their lack of communication about the danger of the German submarines to the Captain. I thought this book was very readable and interesting. I would like to take a trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific sail myself someday. 

Houlton Conservation Area

 Today I attended a zoom meeting of the Saint Paul Audubon Club about the William H. Houlton Conservation Area in Elk River.  I wasn't exactly sure where it was. As it turns out I have driven by that spot many times driving or cycling through Elk River on Main Street and taking a left to curve over the dam and take the back roads to Big Lake. This area was a working 160 acre corn and soybean farm in 2016. The row crops were converted to prairie starting in 2016. As an experiment, they sowed 80 acres with a broadcast spreader and the other 80 acres with seedling plugs. The experiment is still going on so they don't know which way works better yet. The farm is bordered by the Elk River on one side (just past the dam) and the Mississippi River on another side adding up to 7 miles of shore land. The DNR owns the islands in the river near the property. The woods on the property were thick with buckthorn. Using large equipment, most of the buckthorn has been removed.  Managing the return of the buckthorn will be a large project for years to come. The farm was surveyed with the assistance of a biology teacher and the students of the Elk River High School. Already they are seeing more frogs, snakes, butterflies, bees and birds.  This fascinating project was funded in part by LCCMR. The Friends of the Mississippi River are in charge of the prairie restoration. The Friends of the Mississippi River are the ones who gave the talk tonight. I think the residents of Elk River are lucky to have such a wonderful prairie right in the town allowing them access to two rivers.

Tokyo Ueno Station

 I like to read books that take me away to other places. This book brought me to Tokyo Ueno Station, a train station in Tokyo near museums, the zoo, and the cherry blossoms. The story is narrated by Kazu. Kazu grew up in the Fukashima prefecture in a very poor family. He and his siblings had to lie and say their parents were not home when the bill collector came to the door. Kazu started working to support his family at age 12. He harvested fish and kelp from the ocean. After he married he continued to work to support his family while his wife lived with his parents and their two children. Kazu helped to build tennis courts, volleyball courts, and facilities for the 1964 Olympics. The story is told in bits and pieces going back and forth in time. Eventually it comes to light that Kazu has died but his spirit is still hanging out at the Ueno Station where he used to live as a homeless person. In preparation for the 2020 Olympics, the city officials keep moving the homeless people from place to place as dignitaries visit the area. The story is sad yet moving and I really liked Tokyo Ueno Station.

The President Versus The Press

I listened to Howard Holzer's book The President Versus the Press: The Endless Battle Between The White House And The Media-From Founding Fathers To Fake News. Much like the title, this book was long and took over 21 hours to listen to the entire thing. The book starts out with George Washington. George was treated unfairly by the press, especially by Benjamin Franklin Bache, Ben Franklin's grandson. Washington decided not to respond to the press. Other presidents such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln did respond to the press in very extreme ways such as throwing publishers in jail without trial and smashing their printing presses. Andrew Jackson rewarded favorable newspapers with government contracts. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt charmed the press to keep their secrets. Roosevelt got around the printed press by using radio. Kennedy got around the press by using television. Obama got around the press by using Twitter. The book describes in detail how sixteen of the presidents dealt with the press. Every president felt they were being treated unfairly at times. There is a mistrust between the press and the people in the  White House. Having a free press is essential to our democracy and all presidents understood that at some level. The last chapter of the book was the hardest to listen to because it was about Donald Trump's genius at manipulating the press via Twitter and "alternative facts." Overall I felt the book was educational as far as how each president responded to the press. I wish there was more information about the press and what actually constitutes good journalism.

The Road To Little Dribbling

 Bill Bryson wrote The Road To Little Dribbing: More Notes From A Small Island as a sequel to is first travel book about Britain called Notes On A Small Island. I had already read A Walk in the Woods (about walking the Appalachian trail) and Notes on a Sunburned Country (about travel is Australia).  In this story he writes about traveling the longest line in Britain without crossing the sea. The places he visits are different than the places he visited in his first travel book about Britain. He ends up at Cape Wrath in Scotland at the finish. In the book he describes each town. He has a satirical style and sometimes he comes across as downright grumpy. I liked the first two book I read by him much more than this one.

The End Of A Trip

We left Medora and drove across the width of North Dakota. We crossed the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota. We were hoping to camp at Maplewood State Park so we stopped in Pelican Rapids for groceries. As it turns out, there is a pelican at the rapids in Pelican Rapids. Maplewood state park was at peak color when we visited. Unfortunately it was raining. Leaf peepers were not deterred by the rain. The campground was full and so were all the overlooks on the nature drive. I definitely want to return to this park in the fall but not on a weekend.

We got a little turned around. We drove past the Ottertail River and past Dead Lake where I had been before. As we came to a "T" in the road with the beautiful Ottertail Lake ahead of us, I suddenly knew where I was. My BFF's family store, The Corner Store, is still open for business. Her family sold the story decades ago but I insisted we stop. I used to stay over at this store sleeping in either the trailer or the ice fishing house next to the lake. I used to sort eggs at this store. I used to stock the shelves and arrange the Minnetonka moccasins at this store. Being in this store again brought back a flood of memories from the good old days.

 

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We started our visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park at the North Unit. The north and south units are about an hour apart. Both areas are scenic and full of animals such as bison.

We parked the van and decided to hike to the prairie dog area. We hiked for about 45 minutes through the very dry valley between buttes before I heard a strange sound that I didn't think was a bird. The strange sound was a prairie dog probably telling the other prairie dogs that we had arrived. I turned to my companion to point out the prairie dog when over her shoulder I saw a bison. I said, "You have a bison behind you." How often do you hear those words? Not very. The bison was calming walking on oblivious to us. We sat down on the ground in this prairie dog town to soak up the prairie dog life.

The prairie dogs appeared to be nibbling on the roots of the prairie plants. I think I saw them rotating the roots like we humans rotate corn on the cob.

In the distance a pair of mountain bluebirds flew back and forth. Their brilliant blue plumage made them look Disneyesque. This is my first glimpse of a mountain bluebird. The bluebirds were too far away to catch a picture but I saw them clearly in the binoculars.

We took a nature guided hike with 21 spots to see that corresponded with a color pamphlet.

These odd red bumps on the side of the butte are iron ore deposits.

The southern unit is near Medora, North Dakota. Much of Medora is owned and operated by a non-profit called Friends of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The non-profit employs many students. Once the students go back to school, much of the town shuts down. We were able to find a campground that was still open.

The southern unit has more vegetation than the northern unit of the park.

We saw a dozen wild ponies on the prairie too.

 

Bennet Campground

 The day after we hiked to the Apgar Lookout we loaded up and headed east. Rain was falling in West Glacier and kept falling as we drove east across Montana. Highway 2 is a good road to travel. Many small towns are located near rivers. As we traveled through a town we would most often come up hill out of a river valley where the wind from Canada tried to shove us south and off the road. I quickly learned to keep both hands on the wheel as we left towns. Towards dusk we camp to the North Dakota border. Before we got into the town of Williston we headed south on Highway 85. We hoped to camp at the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. As it turns out this national park does not allow camping. Glacier didn't allow camping either but Yellowstone did; go figure. As we drove into the park four buffalo greeted us by walking down the road with their heads held high and their hooves audibly clomping on the pavement. We were lucky to find a campsite at Bennett campgrounds just a few miles away in the Little Missouri National Grasslands.  This was a basic campground with a pit toilet and a water source but little else. We were camped right in the badlands with beautiful scenery and sagebrush all around us. We were tired after all that driving and went right to sleep after a quick PB&J sandwich.