My First CSA

I picked up my first CSA (consumer supported agriculture) allotment today.  As I expected, I'm eating a bigger variety of vegetables.  Tonight I got 2 dozen radishes, a head of red lettuce, a head of romaine lettuce, 20 spears of asparagus, a pint of green beans and a pint of snap peas and 2 cups of strawberries.  There weren't many strawberries but the taste of these strawberries was more intense than what you can buy in a box at Cub.  So tonight I ate some asparagus, some romaine, one radish and all the strawberries.  Radishes, man, I just don't like radishes.  I ate one just to be sure I still don't like them.  I found out I still don't like them.  And they don't like me either.  I already gave 1 dozen to a neighbor.  I remember sometimes my Mom would make her potato salad with radishes and sometimes without radishes. I would be very disappointed if she included the radishes.  They're not easy to pick out when they're diced because the white part looks just like a potato or an onion.  So far I'm pleased with what I got.  When I picked up my food I was told that last year we got 5 or 6 ears of fresh picked corn almost every week.  I'm looking forward to that!

Living in Spicer

During my week living in Spicer I stayed in a camper cabin at Sibley State Park.  I shared the cabin with a friend who took the same class.  We had the spacious cabin to ourselves.  This kind of camping is luxurious compared to the walk-in campsite I had rented at Afton State Park.  Here we could drive right up to the cabin.  Unloading was easy.  The outhouse was right across the road from us and so was the water supply.  Showers were about 3 blocks away.  The showers were nice.  A green tree frog lived in the women shower room.  I took 3 showers with the frog in attendance and so did my cabin mate.  One morning I got up early to go to the shower house.  Some other woman was in there taking a shower and I heard her say, "Oh, hello little froggy.  My little froggy!"  We had it pretty nice in the camper cabin.  Unfortunately the cabin wasn't available Thursday night - our final night.  I had reserved a tent campsite near the lake.  When I heard rain was in the forecast for Thursday evening I wasn't so happy.  On top of that I was getting tired of black beans and rice that I had packed for my suppers.  One can eat black beans and rice only so many nights in a row.  Some other master naturalists were staying at the Spicer Castle.  They said we could get a room for $50 or $60 dollars.  I had looked at their website earlier and remembered much higher prices.  Because they raved about the place we decided to ditch the camping and stay at the Castle.  We drove out there after class and went to check in.  The two women who were staying there went up to their rooms to get rid of their bags.  We were shown prices of $89 and $119 for a night.  We weren't sure what to do when one of our friends came back down. Her name is Virginia.  Virginia is a force to be recognized.  I knew she was a pistol but had no idea how magical Virginia could be.  She "Virginiacized" that desk clerk.  By the time she was done talking we both had rooms for $53.  My room was in a separate building.  I got a room with an electric fireplace, a fridge, a microwave, and a hot tub big enough for four people to sit in. The hot tub was in the bedroom area. This was an amazingly large tub for a room with a bathroom so small my knees touched the wall when I sat on the toilet.  Still, I had a nicer room than Virgina!  We met for dinner at the Spicer Castle at 6:15.  The rooms at the Spicer Castle might be overpriced (unless you know Virginia) but the food is totally worth the cost.  The four of us had a great dinner.  We got a great dinner salad topped with a real orchid and a fresh popover.  Virginia ate her orchid.  I saved mine and put it in my room. One of us had steak, another elk, another fish and yours truly had ravioli. We had a great discussion about evolution and intelligent design.  After dinner we all wanted some alone time and I went to my room.  The Spicer Castle is a little run down and some of the art work is, um, how do I say this, terrible?  Here is the original artwork that stared at me from the wall at the foot of my bed.  

Here is a photo of a painting showing a boy sitting on a box holding a diffenbachia stalk with a goat behind him.  The eyes of the goat caught my attention.

 

 

Goat Eyes

As I tried to relax in my bed at the Spicer Inn I noticed the goat kept staring at me.  The boy stared too but he didn't bother me as much as the goat.  Goat eyes typically creep me out because of the keyhole shape of their pupils but this goat was worse.

This goat had human eyes, only yellow. And he's chewing on that diffenbachia (also known as dumb cane because the toxins in it make your tongue swell up so you can't talk).  The goat is looking at me and chewing the diffenbachia as if it knows.  If that goat had a thought bubble it would say, "Yeah, I'm eating a poisonous plant and we both know it."

I had to force myself to look away!  I was beginning to wonder if a soggy sleeping bag would be better than having this yellow eyed goat stare at me all night long; even in the dark. This goat had a malevolent air about him.  Could you sleep with this "artwork?"

I Will Try To Make You Wave Back!

Today I got the opportunity to be in a parade - something that hasn't happened since my Girl Scout troop put their collective foot down and said, "No more parades!"  I love being in parades.  I love waving at people.  I like making people wave back at me.  To induce a return wave I look them straight in the eye, smile broadly, and give them eye contact until they wave back.  This technique works 75% of the time.  I was working the crowd today.  I handed out leaflets and candy and I waved both arms.  My feet have blisters, both arms are tired, and my face is sore from smiling but it was a good day.

Spending Time On The Prairie

Chalk Faced Corporal Dragonfly

I spent the last week on the prairie learning about the prairie.  I stayed at Sibley State Park near Spicer, MN.  I studied the prairie and pothole course with the Master Naturalist program.  This, I think, was a really good use of my vacation time.  I learned a lot of information, made a bunch of new friends, spent hours in the wild learning from nature experts, and had a really good time.  The first thing I noticed when I entered the park were the dragonflies.  Hundreds and hundreds of dragonflies were buzzing around the fields, the roads, the trails, and the parking lots.  Dragonflies must have had a recent hatching because I can't remember the last time I saw that many dragonflies.  As a part of the course we have to do a capstone volunteer project.  We have 4 days to get this project done.  I decided to join in on the dragonfly capstone.  With four other people we developed and produced a one page (both sides) handout for families visiting Sibley State Park.  The handout is designed to provoke interest in dragonflies and damselflies.  We hope the handout will get people to notice the flying insects and learn that they don't all look alike.  Together we had fun netting dragonflies and identifying them.  I got pretty good at netting the creatures.  Soon I became experienced at holding them by their wings inside the net as I turned the net inside out and carefully took them out.  Today was graduation day from the prairies and pothole course.  I drove out of the prairies and back to the big woods, big river biome. I won't miss the power point slides but I will miss everything else about this week.  

Kandiyohi

I visited the Kandiyohi Museum in Willmar today and saw one of the last 4 oxcarts.  These oxcarts carried supplies from St. Paul to Winnipeg from 1840 to 1870's.  The squeaking of wood on wood could be heard for 5 miles.  Some remnants of the oxcart trail ruts can still be seen on the prairie today.

I've read about these oxcarts but never thought I'd get to see a real one.

This museum had a display about how death was handled in the 1800's.  Here is a horse drawn hearse with windows so everyone could view the deceased on the way to the graveyard.

Here is the view from the conductor's seat of a stream train engine.

Lots of steam gauges inside the engine.

The Kandiyohi Museum has a lot to offer!

Gardening

I found a monarch instar while weeding the peas.  I let milkweed grow in the garden but pull out the other weeds.

The chickens stayed pretty close to me.  I think she feels safer that way.  The fox has been hanging around all week.  My neighbors chase it out of the yard when I'm not home.

This chicken kept coming close to me but was camera shy.  This shot was taken by pointing the camera behind me between my knees.

Don't eat the carrots!

The same camera shy chicken. Photo was taken as I bent over and pointed backward between my knees.  Lest you think I am more flexible than I am, it was a lucky shot.  I wasn't looking at the screen.

A pleasant afternoon spent in the garden battling the weeds-just me and my chicks.