Tree Planting

I've had the past day and half off work. I had to be home to have laminate flooring installed. Someone 18 years or older has to be on the property the entire installation time. The laminate looks great and the installer was very professional and hardworking. I'd rank him a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. I kept forgetting his name until his cell phone rang out the song, "Go, go, go Johnny go!" His name is John. Since it was so nice out, I used the time to plant my chokecherry trees and raspberry bushes. The weather was awesome. The chickadees, bluebirds and woodpeckers were singing, "See me! Mate me! Love me!" The ground was not frozen. It's funny how the soil changes from one spot in the lawn to the next. Most of the holes I dug were typical Anoka Sandplain brown sand with a couple inches of black topsoil frosting. But one spot in the front and another in the back were reddish clay that clings to the shovel even when you scrape it off with your foot. Tomorrow is Arbor Day. I will write about some of my favorite trees. On my way home tonight I took a picture of a favorite tree of mine. I stopped on the entrance ramp to Hwy. 10 from Coon Rapids Boulevard to get the snapshot. See if you don't think it's a sexy tree.

At Home During The Week

I'm at home today having my floor installed. Although it was only 20 degrees this morning, I decided to dry my clothes outside for the first time this year. Clothes and sheets and towels hung outside smell so sweet. The ground was hard though. My other plan was to plant the chokecherry trees and raspberry plants that I picked up last Saturday at the Anoka County Conservation District tree sale. I couldn't plant them last Saturday because it was snowing. Today is nicer but I'm not digging in the frozen ground. We shall see if they get planted today. I'm converting my yard from a 2 1/2 hours a week of mowing lawn to a 1/2 hour or less mowing yard. Hopefully these 25 extra plants will make the conversion process less awkward. Wish me luck.

Reptile or Reptile

Reptile - a cold blooded animal covered with scales having short or non-existent appendages. But how do you pronounce it? Rep-TILE or REP-tile. Up until a month ago, I had always heard Rep-TILE. Rhymes with smile. But now that I've heard it, REP-tile makes a lot of sense. Now I'm not sure which way to say it.

Spent The Morning In The Closet

Today I finished up cleaning up the floor by pulling carpet staples and nails up. By the end I got pretty good at it. I did the hardest part first - the foyer closet. That floor is the worst because it's in a closet and because the linoleum had a strong glue attached to it and that glue is sticky to this day. I had to scrape the foam padding up and it's still sticky. It's like a human mouse trap. Blunder laid down on that floor and I could barely get her off it. Her fur stuck. She could never have gotten up on her own. Lucky for me I had experience with this sticky mess before and I knew the trick. The trick is baby powder. Sprinkle baby powder of a sticky floor, sweep it around, and the floor becomes less sticky. Once the closet was done the rest of the floor went much faster. So I got a lot accomplished today and I learned an important lesson. I can crawl and bend and kneel for hours without increasing the back pain. So that means gardening is totally back in the picture for me this summer. I'm so glad. I was trying to be open to the idea of cutting back on gardening this summer. To tell the truth, I have already purchased 4 seed packets - Giant Russian sunflowers, gourds (small fancy mix), Big Max pumpkins, and Jack Be Little Pumpkins.

Dirt

"Hey, want to come over to my house for hours and hours of back-breaking labor?" "Sure, what time?" What a wonderful family I have that agreed to come over to my house today and work. I only hope their backs are not sore tomorrow. We moved 20 cases of laminate into vehicles and hauled them into the house along with 5 roles of underlayment and miscellaneous caulk and putty. We pulled up 400 square feet of carpeting and almost 400 square feet of carpet padding. We chiseled carpet tacks out of the floor for hours. You would not believe the dirt under the carpeting! I'm talking dustpan after heaping dustpan of fine dirt. We swept up pounds of dirt. I imagine some of that dirt has been down there for over 30 years. I suppose the vacuum picked up the heavier dirt and only the fine particles could get through the carpet and the padding. The steps were the worst. I was embarrassed by all the dirt on the floor until someone pointed out that even Aunt Evelyn did not sweep underneath her carpeting. True that. Aunt Evelyn was the neatest of neat freaks. If she dropped a pickle on the floor she would scrub the entire floor. After dinner her silverware was washed, dried, and put back into the cardboard sleeves it came in. Her house was very clean. Her living room was beautiful. The furniture had thick clear plastic protectors on it and the room was roped off with a red velvet rope - the kind you see in movie theaters. We kids were not allowed in that room. I don't know how or why Aunt Evelyn did it. How did she manage such a clean house while raising five boys? Aunt Evelyn - always known for her cleanliness, her friendliness, and handing out those frozen plastic tubes of sweet juice - freezies.

Automobiles

Today I was a meeting where we were busy making "important policy decisions" and we started talking about cars. One guy started it by saying his car was smarter than he was. I have learned to stifle my remarks so I didn't say anything. He explained that his car can sense the raindrops on his windshield and will automatically wipe the rain away without him having to do anything. Someone asks what happens in a car wash and he explains you can override that automatic feature temporarily for car washes. His car also has a screen that shows the road behind the car when he puts the car in reverse. He tells me that his seats are heated; both front and rear seats. But they're not cooled. Some cars have heated and cooled seats - I'd never heard of such a thing. Heated seats are very cool. My first experience with a heated seat was when a friend picked me up from the Chrysler dealer before work in the morning . I had been waiting outside in the winter for her to swing by. To make me more comfortable, she preheated the passenger seat in her Buick. I sat down. I felt the heat. I said, "Uh, Jan, I am sorry to say this but I think I peed my pants." I honestly thought I had an accident. Luckily it was the heated seat I was feeling. There's more futuristic automobile features that I hadn't heard of. Some cars have heated cup holders for your hot beverages and cooled cup holders for your cool beverages. And some cars, at the push of a button, will heat your windshield fluid to a scalding 180 degrees so you can squirt your frost and snow away. Technically speaking, you could be defrosting your windshield while heating the front passenger seat for your under-dressed teenager while cooling the back seat for a menopausal friend, warming your coffee, and cooling your passenger's Mountain Dew, and viewing the road behind you while you're backing up all at the same time.

The Beauty of Technical Writing

This week I assembled a lawn swing that I bought. I took 115 separate pieces and put them into one swing. I followed a total of 18 steps with 22 accompanying diagrams. If I am not in a hurry, I can become very focused and content while following directions. I enjoyed putting this swing together. I remembered taking a technical writing class back in 1982 at the U of M. I learned to appreciate the beauty of well written assembly instructions. The beauty is comes from the intensity, the clarity, and the direct communication. There are no extraneous adverbs in technical writing. Everything is written in the active tense - sort of like a recipe. "Add 1/2 cup milk to egg mixture and stir." "Attach the cross supports and rear upright supports (#6, #7) using bolts (#24), washers (#30) and plastic nuts (#21)". When I work on assembling things like this, I feel a real connection to the author of the instructions. I pay close attention to anything printed in red ink or labeled "Note." I read and reread the 7 pages of instructions. Through it all I noticed only one extra word. Only one word could have been left out and that word was "Congratulations." That word came at the end of the 7 pages followed by "To avoid danger of suffocation, please always keep plastic bags or small parts away from babies and children."

Mourning Cloak

Working outside today, a butterfly came to watch. It flitted by, soared, flit, soar, flit and glide. I bought a field guide to North American butterflies so I thought I'd try and figure out what kind of butterfly was watching me. I think it's a mourning cloak. It was brown with white trim and very large. Like the book says it flies with a series of quick wing beats interspersed with flat-winged glides. I learned their favorite food is oak sap and they'll walk face first down an oak tree sipping the sap. Like most early pupating butterflies, their color is dark to absorb the heat from the sun. Mourning Cloaks live longer than most butterflies - up to 10 months or more. Way cool.

Happy Earth Day - April 22

Happy Earth Day to Everyone! Did you read the letter to the editor by Amy Kloubachar in today's Star Tribune? Very well written in my humble opinion. Yeah Amy! She reminds how our air and water was dirty and polluted back in 1970. Changes were made. People got politically active to save our earth and great strides were made. Our air and water are much cleaner now because of the value our citizens placed on our planet. Lets hope our elected officials pull their heads out of the sand and do something to protect our earth, our natural resources, and our future. One of the reasons April 22 was chosen to be earth day is that is it the birthday of Julius Sterling Morton - the founder of Arbor Day. He was an Illinois businessman who loved trees and encouraged people to plant trees. And here's another interesting but virtually useless fact - Julius had a son that he named Joy. Joy, overcoming what had to be a humiliating first name, became a successful businessman who eventually founded the company known by the logo of the little girl with the umbrella - Morton Salt.

Spring

I've been reading "The Collected Works of Robert Frost." Here is a poem he wrote about spring.

A Prayer to Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest;keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Lik nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

The whcih it is reserved forGod above

To sanctify to what far ends He will,

But which it only needs that we fulfil.

Prohibited?

Saturday was a wonderful day for me. I was busy running from morning until night. I stopped by the Environmental Expo at city hall. The raptor center was there. Oliver Kelly Farms was also there. The old fashioned farm chicken was oblivious to the hungry stare of the eagle from the raptor center. At first I would startle every time the chicken crowed but after a few minutes I almost stopped hearing it. Some alpaca farmers were really trying to get me involved in raising alpacas or at least buying their wool. The wool was very pretty but I'm not buying any wool until my current project is finished. If I'm not careful I end up like one of those crazy craft ladies who has an extra room full of craft supplies for future projects. I met some people I knew and that was fun. I picked up a book titled, "Trees of Ramsey." I opened it up and flipped through the pages as we talked. At the end of the book are 4 pages of prohibited trees. Wait, what? Prohibited trees? I can see hemp bushes being prohibited or maybe poppies, but trees? I look at the list of prohibited trees. What? Amur Maples? I have amur maples. I actually have 25 amur maples. What does prohibited mean anyway? Yeah, prohibited is not good. I ask. I gotta ask, this is freaking me out. Hello? I have 25 prohibited trees on my property. Turns out I don't have to cut them down. I can keep them. I should not buy more thought because amur maples will seed themselves and spread and take over the native species. If my amur maples spread, I should try and prevent that. I explain I got these trees from the county conservation district. He says they were behind the curve for a while. So I guess things have changed since I planted these trees about a dozen years ago. I am surprised at the list of prohibited trees because they're all available at our local nursery stores. Russian Olives are prohibited as are Japanese Barberry and Siberian Elm (sounds like anti Asia immigrant policy). Some honeysuckles are prohibited and columnar buckthorn and black locust too.

Guess What?

Put down your coffee. Sit in your chair. You'll never guess what happened. Today, Saturday, April 19, 2008, I used all seven letters in a game of Scrabble! This is the first time in my life that I got the extra 50 points for using all seven letters. This is huge! It's like getting a hole-in-one in golf. I yelled, "Yahoo!" I was pumped. The word is together. Yeah for me!

Lake Finder

If you want to get information about a lake, you can go the the Department of Natural Resources website and search for the lake finder. Or click on the title of this entry and you should go right there. You can get all kinds of information about a lake on this website such as lake maps, lake water levels, fish consumption advisory, lake water quality, lake water clarity, lake water clarity by satellite, recreation compass and topographic maps. Take a lake and type it in along with the county and voila! Here is information about a lake you may know - Block Lake in Ottertail County. I learned that this lake is considered to be in a northern hardwood forest. Block Lake empties into the Minnesota River. That surprised me a little because I would have guessed the Mississippi or Red River. Block Lake is considered to be an mesotrophic lake. The choices for water quality are oligotrophic (pristine, clear water), mesotrophic (healthy clean lake), eutrophic (green water during the dog days of August) and hypereutrophic (on the verge of turning into a wetland). Water clarity is measured with a secchi disk (bright shiny metal disk) lowered into the water and measuring how far it goes before it cannot be seen anymore. All the data for Block Lake is in the website. The secchi disk can go down 2 meters in April but less than a meter in August. Water quality is 2005 was much better than the years previous and after. The lake is 263 acres in size and the deepest point is 23 feet. The shoreline is 3 miles long. The website says "Some emergent aquatic plants such as hardstem bulrush and cattail are prevalent at various locations around the lake. These emergent plants provide valuable fish and wildlife habitat and are critical for maintaining good water quality. They protect shorelines and lake bottoms from erosion and can actually absorb and breakdown polluting chemicals. Emergent plants provide spawning habitat for fish species like northern pike, largemouth bass and panfish. They also serve as important nursery areas for all species of fish." A fish sample completed in 2001 tells us that the most numerous fish was the yellow perch followed by the bullhead, walleye, black crappie, northern pike, pumpkinseed sunfish and blue gill. The average northern weighed 2.74 pounds and the average walleye weighed 1.77 pounds. In 2005 132,000 walleye fry were stocked. Have fun looking up your favorite lake.

The Poll Has Closed

The poll has closed and the results are in. My readers think some people are optimists or pessimists because they're born that way, others think it is due to circumstances of life and others think its a matter of choice. The origin of optimism and pessimism are complicated. So lets us celebrate our differences! After all, if you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a terrible warning.

My Friend Ken

I met up with my friend, Ken, last night. He was ever so helpful. The first time I talked to Ken was when I redid my bathroom floor. He was amazing. He was so helpful in making my decision. He whipped out some paper and drew a three dimensional diagram of a toilet and how it sits on the pipe and the important things to remember when taking it off and putting it down again. Another time I took a tiling class. I learned how to grout tile on the wall and on the floor. Ken was the instructor. Again, he was a wealth of information. He had so much to tell that the hour class lasted two hours. Last night I talked to him about laminate flooring in the living room, hall, foyer, two closet and the stairs. Again, he whips out some paper and does a three dimensional diagram of a stair tread. He starts describing how I will have to remove each stair, cut the bull nose off with a table saw, replace it and then put the laminate on. Ken, hello? I got a bad back. I'll be paying someone to do that. In that case it would be cheaper to have each step replaced with oak and have it stained to match the laminate. Good to know, Ken. I have an appointment on Friday for a "measuring." Oh, the joys of getting off work early on Friday! It's a sacrifice I'll have to make. This old carpeting is probably 33 years old and it has become a historical map. Look - there is the "Grape Kool-Aid Incident" of 1992! Over there on the steps? That was the "Who's bright idea was it to carry a lit red taper candle down the stairs?" fiasco. And over by the window was the
"It's not a good idea to paint your model airplanes on the carpeting" lesson. And we have the Blunders, I cannot count the Blunders on this carpeting. Ken will help me with all this. He can help you too!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words - Or More!

Yesterday I saw a photo that made a big impression on me and has been in my mind for most of two days now. The photo showed a woman standing outside next to her 13 year old son. The son is smiling and he is at least 6 inches taller than his mother. The mother is smiling too. I saw this remarkable photo at the funeral wake of the mother. I've known her for almost 19 years. I didn't know her well. I only saw her or talked to her on the phone a handful of times each year. She was very positive and she was full of grace. I work with her son - the one who was also in the photo. I have known him for 19 years. I speak to him probably every working day and sometimes we talk at length. He is a very nice man, a real gentleman. When he was 13 he had an accident - soon after that photo was taken. He was walking on the side of the road. A drunk driver struck him. He had a severe head injury. He was in a coma for months. He came out of the coma and his family took him home to care for him. He uses a wheelchair most of the time. Because of the head injury he has little short term memory. In 95% of our conversations he tells me he used to live on xxx street in xxx city and now he lives on xxx street in xxx city. He's lived there for over 20 years but to him it's new. He'll repeat that story many times every hour. He can't recognize his parents sometimes because they don't look like they did in 1976. He repeats himself over and over but there is no use in getting frustrated by it because he honestly cannot remember telling you before. After 12 years of telling him my name he began to remember it, especially if I gave him my first name. He remembers it because he thinks it's funny. If you say both my names quickly, it sounds like Suzuki - another brand of motorcycle. Every time he says it he thinks he's making a funny joke for the very first time. He raises his arms and twists his wrists like he is gunning up the motor on a bike. He had a Kawasaki dirt bike. In fact he still has it. His family had it restored and it's sitting in the shed. This guy is a wonderful man. He's very hard working and he has a 13 year old's black and white sense of justice. He has a happy life. And in my head I knew he had an accident and I knew his life took a different path because of the accident. But my heart didn't understand until I saw that photo of him standing outside with his proud mother. What kind of life would he have now if not for that drunk driver? Would he be in the sheet rock business like the other men in his family? How would his mother's life have been different? How about his father and his brother? If I had a child in an accident such as his, would I be as positive and graceful as his mother?

Yeah! My Rhubarb is Showing Signs of Life

I wish I could figure out a way to make my pictures larger when I upload to this site. I don't know if you can see it but there is a little red tip poking through the soil and debris - the sprout of my rhubarb plant. In honor of this special event, here is my recipe for a spring treat I make every year. I have made this every spring for the past 15 years.

Yorkshire Rhubarb Desert
Ingredients:
1/4 C. butter
2 eggs
3/4 C. Milk
3/4 C. flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 C. sliced rhubarb
1/2 C. brown sugar

Heat butter in a 1 quart baking dish in 425 degree oven till bubbling. Combine eggs, milk, flour and salt in blender. Pour into hot butter. pour rhubarb into the center of the batter and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until crust is brown. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream. Serves 4-6. (341 calories and worth it!)

Regeneration

Here is a photo I took for my Master Naturalist capstone project. The photo is to demonstrate regeneration. In the foreground is the trunk of an old white oak surrounded by 10 year old oaks. Way in the back are some 100+ year old oaks. The fallen oak tree is like a nurse tree for the smaller oaks - enriching the soil in it's decomposition.

The Line Is Busy

Two people, very near and dear to me, told me yesterday, "I can't get a hold of you because your line is always busy!" I am sorry. I was dinking around on the Internet. Dial up is such a slow process. I promise to keep my cell phone charged and near me from now on.

On another note, I've been very surprised to learn most people don't agree with me that people are born to be either optimists or pessimists. So far most people think it's a choice or because of life circumstances. What I don't get is why people would choose to be a pessimist. Pessimists don't live as long and they suffer more. Why wouldn't everyone desire to live longer and suffer less? One theory I heard yesterday is that pessimists get more attention. People try to comfort pessimists and show them the bright side in an attempt to cheer them. Does that mean pessimists are short-term thinkers - looking for instant gratification? And if life circumstances can make you a pessimists, why is it that some of the pessimists I have known don't seem to have suffered more than other people, they just seem to take things harder. Don't they understand that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional?

Hanging In There

Ooh, the April wind was howling last night. Every time the wind blows hard I check outside to see if some limbs have fallen. Here are two shots of my biggest limb worries. The shot on the right is a close up of the same limb pictured on the left. The large limb of the tree broke at the trunk and then broke again about 7 feet further up the limb. It's broken but not quite all the way through. This is a tough old tree. The limb wouldn't be up in the air at all if it weren't for the two smaller trees that hold it up. The leaning limb is forcing those two trees to bear it's weight thereby making them lean way over above my driveway. I've been watching this limb for 18 months. I was really glad it didn't fall on anyone's car during Offspring #2's grad party last year or at any other time. The limb is sure to come down soon. I'll leave it to decompose in the woods there. Actually, I'm not even totally sure that tree is mine. It lies between my property and my neighbor's yard. He asked me once if the tree was mine or his. I said, "Oh, that broken one? That one is definitely yours." He laughed and said he'd take care of it. On another tree topic, while surveying the yard during the snowstorm, I saw more evidence of rabbit damage. I had some volunteer crab apple trees in my yard. Several of these trees were 6 feet tall. The consarnit rabbits girdled 3 of them. But, on the other hand, they girdled one of my many prickly ash trees. I WISH they had girdled more of those ash. These ash trees have thorns that rip up my arms when I try to mow by them. I do not like these evil trees. The prickly ash are a native species. They grow about 10 feet tall and they grow in thickets making it impossible to get through. I understand that native Americans would chew their bark to relieve toothaches. There is salicylic acid in the bark which is an ingredient of aspirin.

Winged Migration

Two Thumbs Up for Winged Migration, a documentary about, well, migration. This isn't a movie with a plot or a story. Barely any words are spoken. The cinematography is absolutely amazing. The camera work makes the viewer feel like they too are migrating. You can see the view from one of the geese flying in a V formation across the beautiful fall-colored forest, through a snow storm, and landing in the water; or, in one case, the bone dry desert. My favorite parts were watching the red headed cranes in Asia jumping and leaping for joy plus these black birds in Africa who covered their heads with their wings like little black umbrellas so they could reduce the glare and see into the water to hunt for fish.

Do We Have a Choice?

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.…………Winston Churchill

I got into a discussion last Saturday with an interesting woman who I do not know well. We got to talking about optimists and pessimists. She asked if I thought people were born to be one or the other. I know some people who seem optimistic and others who seem pessimistic. I think they are two different breeds of people. I find it easy to put people in one category or the other. I can't recall a single time that a pessimist has ever surprised me by sounding optimistic. I consider myself to be an optimist. Sometimes I have pessimistic views but they don't last long. In the past 10 years I have tried to cultivate an "attitude of gratitude." I find life to be less painful when I'm optimistic. I am against all suffering so this works out for me. Of course, an optimist would be against suffering. I'd rather be an adventurer than a martyr. So, dear reader, what are you? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Please take the time to complete my poll and help me in my unscientific research. Thanks! I know you'll do it - I'm an optimist!

How Much Would You Pay?

Yesterday I read a story on the BBC website about game hunting in Africa, South Africa specifically. We talked about this on our trip. I understand big game hunting is not allowed in Kenya but it is available on a limited basis in Tanzania. No one spoke about South Africa. But you can hunt big game in South Africa. Besides the cost of the trip and shipping your kill back home, here are the costs of some of the game. Quoted from the BBC: Everything is on offer, including porcupine ($250 - is it possible people really hunt these?), warthog ($300), on through a multitude of indistinguishable deer-like species, up to the big ticket items: $8,000 for a hippo, $14,000 for a buffalo, between $25,000 and $35,000 for a male lion, and between $50,000 and $100,000 for a rhino. End of Quote. These prices are not hunting for human consumption. When I was in Africa I asked about that. I was told no, they don't eat zebra - it'd be like eating a mule or a horse. No, they don't eat impala or gazelles. Those animals seemed like deer to me. People here eat deer. One Maasai man told me it's not legal but both giraffe and elephant meat tastes very sweet. So anyway, these hunters are not after food. They're after the thrill I guess. I don't understand the prices. I can see a warthog being a smaller animal and costing less. But lions are 600 pounds, much less than a hippo. And it's not entirely about the danger because the most dangerous animal to humans is the hippo. Why is the rhino so expensive? Does it look the best with it's head mounted on a wall? A rhino mounted on a wall would take up a lot of room. That protruding horn is long. You'd either have to have a lot of space available in front of the head or have a high ceiling so people could walk under it. Are they the least plentiful? I really don't understand the motivation. It's not that you can say it was kill or be killed. The hunter has a gun and the animal doesn't. The hunter comes into the shooting area with the purpose of killing. If I had that much disposable income - well, I can't even go there - the idea of having that much disposable income is preposterous. This whole concept perplexes me. I'd like to talk to one of those big game hunters and ask them a few questions.

I'm Here To Make You Look Good

Dear Bald Man with Blue Goggles and Pink Swim Cap with Black Goggles,

Perhaps you noticed me between you in the pool today. That stroke I was using? I call that the dog paddle. Keeps my head way above water which is good because I have a perforated ear drum. I noticed you guys doing the Crawl and the Breast Stroke. Looking Good! Did you notice you could swim the length of the pool and back again before I even got to the other side? Yeah, that is because I'm here to make you look good. That's my job - to make you look good. Pleasure to be of service. See you next Monday.

Sincerely,

Sue aka pruney fingers

Rest In Peace Heather Schmoll

The story in the paper about Heather Schmoll broke my heart this week. Heather was 17 years old and living in Stewartville, MN when she ran away in 1993. She was 17. She was just a girl. The newspaper says due to "undisclosed family problems" her absense was not reported unil 2007. Her family waited until she would have been 30 years old to report her missing. After asking, the family found out she died. Heather was dead and buried in an unmarked grave for 14 years.

Rest in peace Heather Schmoll.

Esker

Here is a nice shot of the esker we walked on yesterday, in case you are interested. I think it's interesting especially at this time of year when I see the piles of dirty snow in my yard. All the sand and dirt left from those continential glaciers - glaciers that were 5 to 10 miles thick in places, gathered together as the glacier melted and fell into a crevice and the dirt dropped out to form this esker. These glaciers scoured our landscape nearly flat. What little elevation we have left is due to what happened when they melted. The only part of Minnesota that wasn't scraped flat by the glaciers is a little triangle down at the southeastern corner - down by LaCrosse and Lanesboro. I think the bluffs down there are absolutely breathtaking.

Today Was A Great Day - Or - My Little Chickadee

Today was a great day. As you can see in the picture, I got to hold a black-capped chickadee. I let him or her go. I'm sure he or she was thinking, "You big lummox! Pick on someone your own size." This chickadee had lots of moxie because he kept biting my finger to make me let go. I could feel it's little heart pounding in my palm. This chickadee flew into the house. Another guy rescued it and showed me how to hold it. What else made today a great day? The weather was wonderful. I got to see an esker, climb an esker, walk the ridge of an esker and climb down the esker. I had never recognized an esker before so I was pretty excited. An esker, in case you don't know, is an elevated ridge left by the dirt that settled from a glacial ravine. This esker was near Princeton and was at least 20 feet high and a couple football fields long. I got to see a couple deer scrapes, some raccoon scat, a couple sand hill cranes, two juncos, and a old cow hoof left in the woods. We saw an entire hillside loaded with snake grass. We called it snake grass as kids but most people call it horsetail. It's that plant that comes in sections that you can pull apart. I learned the Native Americans called it scour rush because it's stiffness was helpful in cleaning pots by the river. Horsetail is a prehistoric plant that has survived since the dinosaur days. My Master Naturalist class went on a field trip. We had a wonderful day together. The people in this class are really great - full of ideas and willing to share. We all brought food for a pot luck feast. It was nice enough to sit on the deck while we ate and watch the river flow by. Honestly, my cheeks hurt from laughing so much. I couldn't ask for a nicer day.

I Did It!

I replaced the headlights on the Honda! Only one was burned out but it's best to do both while you're at it. I could have paid Pepboys $10 to do it for me but I did it myself. It's not very hard to do but it's a skill set I use only once every 10 years or so. I don't get much practice changing headlights. The headlight went out on Sunday. I bought the bulbs on Monday. I waited until a warm, sunny day like today to change the bulbs because I work best when I'm not shivering.

On another note, I've changed the canary's name to Migwe. Tschaivosky just wasn't rolling off my tongue like Migwe does. Plus the bird always sang more when I played my African music CD so I named it after the driver on my trip - the guy who was always playing music. Now that the bird is a little older, he's starting to sing so prettily. He sings the most when I'm working at the stove or at the sink. He rolls his r's and he trills up the scale and trills back down again. The music is so sweet - much more pleasant than my previous parakeets or finches.

I Thought It Was A Blue Heron With A Sore Throat

For years I've heard people talk about sand hill cranes. "Oh, I have some in my back yard in Andover," or "You should see them near the pond by my house." Well, I never saw one. And ever since I saw the Great Crested Crane, the national bird of Tanzania, on my trip to Africa, I've wanted to see a sand hill crane. So I've made it my goal to see one this year. I thought this would be an easy goal to accomplish. Last night my Master Naturalist class took a trip out to Lake Itasca. No, not the Lake Itasca near Park Rapids, headwaters of the Mississippi. This Lake Itasca is in Ramsey and was the site of the first settlement in Anoka County. It lies right on the Ox Cart Trail that went from St. Paul into Canada. Anyway, on our trip to Lake Itasca, someone pointed out the sound of a sand hill crane. It's a very distinctive sound. The sand hill crane sounds like a cartoon version of a bird rather than a naturally made sound. And I've heard it before. I've heard that sound quite a few times while walking in the park by my house. I remember looking up and thinking, "What the hell kind of goose is that?" As it flew by I thought it was a blue heron. So I figured it was a blue heron with a sore throat. Or a blue heron trying to sing like Alanis Morrisette. So I have seen a sand hill crane, I just didn't know it. Mission Accomplished!

Two More Signs of Spring

I heard my first red-winged black bird today - another sure sign of spring. Red-winged black birds are named after the male bird’s appearance. If they were named after the female bird’s appearance, they’d be called a brown streaked white-eye striped bird. These birds are among the most abundant birds in North America. Both sexes have black feet, black bills and black eyes. To display himself to a fetching female or to defend his territory, the male will spread his wings and fluff up his red patches. Some red winged blackbirds winter in Mexico but others stay around all year. Insects, seeds and grain make up their diet. Red-winged black birds make their cup like nests out of reeds, leaves or wet vegetation, line it with mud and finish it off with an inner layer of fine grasses. The nests are woven between several stems and are often over water. Each clutch has 3 or 4 eggs. I welcome the sound of the red-winged blackbirds - missed you! The second sign of spring is the ice broke up on the Rum River near the Anoka Fairgrounds today. I am grateful for the sight of open water running again.

April Fools

"Your shoe is on inside-out! April Fool!" Yeah, I've heard better. Over the years I've pulled a few. Saran wrap over the toilet seat - messy for me, the Mom, who had to wipe up the floor. Vaseline on the door knob - again, messy for me but worth it. Remove the creme filling from an Oreo cookie and replace it with toothpaste - it's really not nice to mess with a dessert - so near and dear to people's hearts. Present a covered cake pan and offer brownies - only to find inside a pan full of brown letters shaped like an E. Again - not nice to mess with desserts. Once I think I went too far. Offspring #1 was really into Gateway computers. He loved the computers and he loved the cowskin logo. He wanted one badly. So I talked a friend of mine into calling home and pretending to be a Gateway sales rep and try and talk him into buying a computer. He went for it. He even told her to hold on while he went to look for a credit card. He wasn't so happy with me when I told him I set that up. He tried to get back at me by hiding in the kitchen pantry in a crouched position, ready to spring at me when I made supper. I took so long to open the pantry door that when he stood up and roared at me his legs were so cramped up he fell right over. He scared the ___ out of me though but watching him fall over gave me the giggles real bad. My giggling (why do I giggle when people get hurt? They don't like it but I can't seem to help it) upset him so he put a handful of white flour in my hair. I went out on the deck to get the flour out of my hair. It was all over my shirt. Since it was dark out I took my shirt off to shake it out. He turned on the deck light and locked the deck door. There was an illuminated topless me on the deck for the world to see. I've been more careful since that year - don't want to go too far. I work with a guy who has pulled some really good pranks over the years. I only know this when the victim tells me. He's had some doozies - loosening a phone cord so the headset is not quite attached and then calling the person. They answer the phone, "Hello! Hello!" and the phone continues to ring. Chaining a file drawer so someone can't get her purse and keys out to go home. He has used some superglue over the years. But I haven't heard of any pranks lately. So today I asked him about it. He said he still is pranking but doesn't want to talk about it. He added he'll think of me next year. Oh, me and my big mouth.

I Can't Believe It!

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early