Approximately 25th Annual Canoe Trip

Yesterday four of us paddled the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway. We put in at the Sunrise River landing and took out at Wild River State Park. Our journey was 3 hours long. The winds were blustery but the winds blustered in our favor. A considerable amount of zigzagging ensued. 

We saw bald eagles, turkey vultures, belted kingfishers, swallows, a sandpiper, dragon flies, butterflies, soft shell turtles, mussels, wild flowers and breathtaking scenery. We ate lunch on a sand bar. Here I am waving at a perfectly moist snag with car keys in my hand for no apparent reason. Good times.  Good times.

 

Salsa!

Today was my day to monitor my streams. I got to my first location about 9 a.m. Then I stopped at a farm near the Cloquet River to buy some vegies. For ten dollars I got 2 trays of jalapeno peppers, two trays of cherry tomatoes in three colors, 2 zucchini, 2 trays of new potatoes, and 2 trays of carrots. I got a great deal there. Then I stopped at my second stream monitoring location (see picture). I am standing on the gravel snowmobile trail right above one of the 3 culverts. Last week when I was here I spent 15 minutes breaking off the flowers of the invasive tansy. In the picture above you can see the yellow tansy on the right and the wild sunflowers on the left. I could tell that the work I did last week destroying tansy flowers made a difference so that made me happy. Every blizzard starts with a single snow flake so every destroyed tansy flower helps.

I would much rather see sunflowers instead of the nasty tansy. I went for a walk and met a guy who lives 3 houses away from the river (which is at least a half mile away). He said he saw a trout in the river this week. I asked him to pronounce the name of the river. He tried but he had no idea. We both laughed. He and his kids like to pick agates on this road. His five year old daughter finds inch sized agates every day. He said she has a talent for it. Also, it helps that she is small and close to the ground. He gave me some tips on where to find large agates at a new location a lumber company has cut into the hillside. Then I made a few more errands and stopped at another vegetable stand to buy more tomatoes and onions. These tomatoes came from Stewartville, MN which is down by Rochester, MN.

I made salsa from this old recipe I got from a coworker. I made this recipe before years ago which is why it is stained with tomato juice. 

The salsa turned out delicious but on the mild side. I wish I had added three or four more jalapenos. I ran low on clean jars so I put some in a butter dish to keep in the fridge. The fresh salsa tasted delicious on fried eggs for supper.

This should last at least 8 months.

 

Munk!

This chipper chipmunk with cheeks full of food is getting used to me taking pictures. Chipmunks spread their toes more than I thought they would. Yesterday I was shaking the dust out of my throw rugs off my balcony and I could hear a chipmunk saying, "Munk! Munk! Munk!" way up high in my neighbor's birch tree. That chipmunk was as high as I was. From the back yard my balcony is three flights up.

Two chipmunks in the same photo reveal one is reddish and the other is tawny. After this photo the reddish chipmunk chased the tawny chipmunk full speed up the hill of the driveway. Chipmunks can be fast.

Yesterday I went to an agate festival in Lincoln Park. Wow, the agates are beautiful. Take a look at these beauties I bought. The top one is a slice of a Brazilian agate that clearly looks like a whale to me (or else a very fatty slice of bacon). The ones below are polished agates from Minnesota. Some vendors rub mineral oil on unpolished rocks. Other vendors keep their agates in plastic totes of water because the rocks are more attractive when they are wet. Plus, rocks get very hot to the touch when sitting in the sun on an August afternoon. I also got to tour Duluth Maker Space which is a building full of cool tools that artists can use if they pay a small monthly fee. The building has laser cutters, computerized laser cutters, electronic equipment, kilns, wood working equipment, welding equipment, sewing machines, wood burning pens, stained glass equipment, wood routers, wood chisels, and drill presses. They have tools I had never heard of before. The pandemic set them back some but now they hope to enroll about 70 more artists so the space can be sustainable. 

 

Long Weekend of Primitive Camping Concluded

Camping brings out the real you.

You wake early. You dread the outhouse. Then you see a shooting star and suddenly all is well.

You look for bear tracks on the prairie road.

You suddenly want a sun bonnet like Laura Ingalls Wilder wore.

Morning mist over the prairie. I feel bathed in nature yet in severe need of a hot shower. Hygiene standards are shockingly low by Sunday morning.

Find a penny.  Pick it up All the day you'll have good luck. But not in the outhouse. Now is not the time to be thrifty.

Tumbling

I got what I wanted for Christmas this year.  I got a rock tumbling kit.  (If you keep an Amazon wish list updated you just might get what you want).  When I was a child my neighbor tumbled rocks.  I was a bit afraid of the man but I did admire his shiny rocks.  I've been tumbling rocks for a month now in my lower level.  I set the tumbler in an area as far away from my bedroom as physically possible while still being warm.  In summer I can tumble rocks in the garage but not in the winter because I'm afraid the water in the tumbler would freeze solid.  I put the tumbler in a cardboard box and covered it with a chair and a heavy quilt to muffle the sound.  With the tumbler came a supply of rocks. As you can see in my picture some were clear, some white, a couple purple ones, and a couple granite rocks.  The center blue/gray rock was from my own yard.  In December I mistook it for a blue potato so I decided to polish it up.  Wow, the rocks in my yard must be softer than the others because this rock lost at least half of it's volume.  Loosing 30% of volume is typical when a rock gets tumbled.  I had a little trouble with my tumbling.  The first cycle with the coarsest grit went fine.  The second cycle was troubling.  I wasn't careful enough to make a good seal with vegetable oil.  Water leaked from the tumbler.  The grit got into the lid and turned into cement.  I cemented the lid of my tumbler on tight.  There was no budging it.  So I soaked the tumbler in water for 5 days.  I have to be really careful not to get this grit into my sink because it will cement the pipes shut. Every day I would try to open the tumbler without luck.  I would dig a little bit of grit out of the lid at a time.  One the fifth day I finally got it open again. Now I know. Carefully apply fresh oil to the lid before tumbling. Best way to learn a lesson is the hard way.  My rock tumbler came with some jewelry clasps for key chains and "one size fits all" rings.  I really don't know what I am going to do with all these polished rocks.  I'd like to start a collection of Saint Cloud granite and Lake Superior granite polished rocks.  I'll think of something to do with them, right?