Decade in Review

10 years ago I was the single parent of an 11 year old and a 15 year old. My life revolved around the school district calendar. I was busy with school conferences, doctor appointments, hauling kids here and there, permission slips, lunch money, orchestra concerts, my Girl Scout cookies, and worried about infrastructure failure from the Y2K bug. I drove a maroon Plymouth voyager minivan that I hated. How times have changed.

Now I am a single parent of two young, independent, successful and healthy adult children. The eaglets have fledged. My life revolves around things I like to do like watching birds, reading, gardening, appreciating nature, swimming, knitting, making crafts, watching movies, and visiting with friends. I am busy with exercise classes, book club, community education classes, and home improvement projects. I drive an older Honda civic that gets close to 50 mg on the highway. I like my car. I’ve driven the Honda to the west coast once and the east coast twice.

In the past 10 years I’ve learned how to whittle, knit, identify some birds, make mosaics in tile and glass, make ricotta cheese, and raise chickens. I became a Master Naturalist. I’ve seen Tracy Chapman twice in concert. I’ve traveled to Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain and Glacier National Parks, Mount Rushmore, Waukegon in Illinois, Oregon, Salt Lake City, Fort Deven in Massachusetts, Kenya, New Orleans, Groton in Connecticut, San Diego, Estes Park in Colorado, London, Paris, and Newport in Rhode Island.

I feel so fortunate that I can hardly freaking believe it.

Pay Extra for Nitrogen?

Today I finally had time to replace the worn tires on my car. My Firestones had more than 60,000 miles on them. Given the fact my driveway has 10 layers of ice on it, I want the best traction I can get. I stopped at Wright Tire to get some new ones. I think I got a good deal on the tires. I paid less than I thought I would. The cost was $160 less than what the car dealer quoted me. I was asked if I wanted to pay an extra $20 ($5 each tire) to have them filled with nitrogen. I was told nitrogen has larger molecules and fewer molecules will escape through the tire. I will have less of a difference in tire pressure as the seasons change from winter to summer. As the sales clerk was talking, my mind went back to the diagrams of the nitrogen cycle we were shown in my master naturalist class. Do I want more nitrogen? Do I want to pay extra to have nitrogen in my tires? Will this be bad for the environment? Nitrogen is an ingredient in fertilizer. Lightening adds nitrogen to the environment. Leaving the roots of bean plants in the garden keeps the trapped nitrogen in the soil. Wait a minute, isn't there nitrogen in our air already? My mind is racing a thousand ways while the clerk is waiting for an answer. I pass on the nitrogen filled tires. When I got home I looked it up on the Internet - the source of all correct information, right? Yes, our air is composed of 78% nitrogen. According to a popular mechanics article, the benefits are less moisture inside the tire (keeping the rim corrosion free) and consistent tire pressure resulting in slightly better mileage and lower tire maintenance costs. Good information to have. I wish I had it a little sooner so I could have made a more informed decision.

The Power Of A Name

I had a wonderful birthday the other day. A sibling gave me a gift early this year and I saved it to open on my birthday. I sat down to breakfast and while I ate, I opened the gift. There were 3 wrapped packages in the bag. One was a vegetarian cookbook - very nice. The second was an orange candle holder with tea candles - also very nice and in my favorite color. Does she know me or what? The third gift was a lightweight clear plastic cyliner with a bright label. At first glance I saw packing material inside. Then I read the label - mealworms. Mealworms to feed the birds. That wasn't packing material, those are worms on my kitchen table. My tummy did a little flip flop. I wrapped that one back up and put it back in the bag and moved it off the table. Wow. I worked on my birthday. Tradition states the birthday person brings a treat to the office. Usually people are sick of chocolate, cookies and sweets after the holidays. I made a double batch of split pea soup. I brought it to work in a crockpot. My grocery store was out of green split peas so I bought yellow split peas. I think I like the yellow ones better. I was going to make a sign so people would know what kind of soup it was. My first sign read, "Yellow Pea Soup." That just didn't sound appealing so I threw that one out and wrote, "Yellow Split Pea Soup." Much better. All the soup was gone by noon. After work my offspring took me out to eat at the Good Earth restaurant. We had a great meal together. The waitress brought a piece of carrot cake higher than the length of my fork. A candle was burning in the top of the cake. I hesitated to bite such a big piece of cake. The kids asked, "What are you waiting for? Us to sing?" "Sure, " I replied, knowing they wouldn't. That must have sounded like a dare to them because they BOTH started singing "Happy Birthday" at full volume. I waved my arms to make them stop. I was very surprised they would draw such attention in a public place. One of the gifts I got was a snuggie. This is a perfect gift for me because I am always cold in my office. Cold air pours in from a vent in the ceiling. I wear a lap blanket 12 months a year. I also use a portable heater off and on. The heater helps but I get too hot and then too cold and then too hot, etc. Today I wore my snuggie and was perfectly comfortable without the heater. A coworker (a guy in his late 20's) came to visit me and was surprised to see the snuggie. He said he heard about them but would never wear them because of the name. I had to ask, "What is wrong with snuggie?" He said a snuggie is when you get your underwear pulled up out your waistband. I told him that was a wedgie and he said in his neighborhood, that was a snuggie, not a wedgie. Another coworker (a woman in her 20's) came by and said the same thing. She would never wear one because that means getting your underwear pulled too tight. I don't have a problem with the name. At one point a stranger came by my office looking for directions. I got up to help them find their way. "Excuse me," I said, "I have to remove my snuggie first." That was a little awkward but feeling cold all day long is awkward too. I'd rather be warm in my snuggie.

Project Feeder Watch Update

Black capped chickadee - 5, White breasted Nuthatch -1, Blue Jay - 1, American Crow - 1, Downy Woodpecker - 1

(the birds are slowing down on the eating this week. Maybe they don't like this brand of sunflower seeds.)

Squirrel Stripping

The gray squirrels in my backyard have been systematically stripping the bark off my basswood tree branches. They chose branches that are about an inch in diameter and peel the bark back in strips many feet long. They gather the strips of bark into a bundle and form a ball with their squirrelly little hands. When the bark is all balled up, the climb down the basswood tree and jump across the snow into the basswood/oak forest behind my house. My basswood tree is large and old and can probably withstand this abuse. I can see about 8 branches that are creamy yellow in color instead of the gray/brown barked branches. I first noticed squirrels doing this in early November. I believe they are doing to fend off starvation. In early November we still had acorns and walnuts sitting on the ground, ready for the taking. In this area at least, it has been a banner crop of tree food. I've never seen so many acorns and walnuts before this year. So why are the squirrels taking basswood bark to eat now?

Let It Snow

Happy Holidays

To all those who enter my virtual world here, have a redneck happy holidays. Love ya!

Punny

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’
14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me..
15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’
16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’
17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
21. A backward poet writes inverse…
22. In democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.
23. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
24. Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Christmas Cactus

Some years my Christmas cactus blooms at Thanksgiving. Other years it blooms at Easter. This year it's living up to it's name and blooming at Christmas. Anytime this cactus blooms, I feel the loving presence of my Grandmother in my house. Her spirit is here with me now.

Project Feeder Watch Update

Blue jay - 1, Downy Woodpecker - 2, White breasted nuthatch - 1, Pileated woodpecker - 1, White capped Chickadee - 3, Dark eyed Junco - 1

Oh Tannenbaum

Here is the tree fresh from the cold garage. See how it holds it's limbs tightly to the trunk? It's freezing cold.

Here is the balsalm warmed up. The limbs are relaxed and outstretched. It's drinking a quart a day of fresh water. The tree is all gussied up with ornaments from school, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, trips, and gifts.

Mystic Lake Casino-Cirque Dreams Holidaze Show

Some friends and I went to see a holiday show and have lunch at the Mystic lake Casino today. We carpooled from the parking lot at work. I was the first to arrive. With fresh snow and an empty parking lot, I had a ton of fun writing my first name in cursive with my car in the snow. I formed the S fairly well and went into the U. After reaching to top of the first point on the U, I put my car in reverse to loop back up and went back into drive to finish the rest of the u and the E. As SOON as I finished my name, my friends drove all over it. I waved my arms to make them stop but they thought I was waving hello. I've never been to this or any Minnesota casino before today. My last trip to a casino was Las Vegas in 1972. I've heard about casinos though and walking in, it was just as I had pictured it. The air was smoky. I saw rows and rows of machines. I saw card dealers standing in front of tables for black jack. I saw people seated while looking at machines with bleary eyes and smoking. Being around smokers was strange. One woman was standing right by me smoking a cigarette and holding an ashtray. With the smoking bans in place for so long, I was momentarily outraged that she did that. The place was noisy, bright, crowded, and loud. The buffet was delicious. The tomatoes Provencal took me into a heavenly zone - I lost touch for a minute or two - because they tasted that delicious. The Cirque Dreams Holidaze show was very entertaining. The set was beautiful and surreal with glitz and glamour. We saw jugglers, singers, hula hoopers, and gymnasts. Wow, those gymnasts can really move their bodies. Now that my body can't move as well as I used to, I really enjoy watching dancers and gymnasts and remember the days when I could move freely. Some of the gymnasts laid on their backs and held people up with their feet. I remember doing that with my children when they were small. We had a good time today.

Christmas Bird Count

Today I participated in the Christmas bird count for the first time. Our area was the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge and our assignment was the area in the Sand Dunes State Forest. Four of us carpooled. We drove for a while, hiked for a while, drove, hiked, drove, hiked, drove and hiked. We started off big - a bald eagle who turned out to be our only raptor of the day. There aren't many birds out there this time of year. Here are our totals: Bald eagle-1, Rock Dove (same as any ordinary pigeon you see sitting under a bridge)-12, Red bellied woodpecker - 2, Downy woodpecker - 5, Hairy woodpecker - 2, Pileated woodpecker - 2, Blue jay - 23, American Crow - 54, Black capped chickadee - 25, White breasted nuthatch - 5, Robin - 2, American Tree Sparrow - 13, Dark-eyed Junco - 26, Northern Cardinal (a very Christmas looking bird) - 3, and Goldfinch - 33. We drove through the forests and through housing developments. We looked for bird feeders. Most bird feeders were empty. One feeder was full and we saw about 40 birds in that spot alone. We had a total of 233 birds. I wore my new red snow pants and sorrel boots. My toes were cold but otherwise I was comfortable. I had a great morning - hiking in the piney woods with friendly, funny people who know a lot about nature. I couldn't ask for a better day. Yuletide update - the tree in the garage had a cookie sawed off the bottom and has moved into the living room and sitting in warm water, stretching out it's branches. No lights or decorations on it yet. One step at a time.

Getting There

I am a little slow this year getting ready for the holiday. I bought a tree but it's still out in the garage. I have lights outside the house but no decorations inside. Most of my cards have been mailed but not all. I've decided to get ready for Christmas as and if I feel like doing them instead of rushing to meet arbitrary deadlines. I think I'm just about ready to start hearing the holiday music. Tomorrow I'm doing a new holiday activity - a Christmas bird count. I might be starting a new tradition.

The Olden Days - Like the 1980's?

Today I was consulting with a 22 year old whippersnapper - a supposed Excel wizard. I showed him our dinosaur of a mailing list - an excel spreadsheet with 7 columns and 987 entries. I showed him how I sort and find things. I, and others, have worked hard on this mailing list. We've kept it up to date. We've made improvements over the years. I asked him what he thought. He said, "Insane!" I look at him until he notices and then he adds, "But not in a bad way." I asked for his advice on how to move those addresses onto envelopes or labels. He showed me a way that I already was using. I asked for advice on how to improve this dinosaur. He said he would look it over if I e-mailed him a copy. He told me to be sure not to replace his version with my own because I might loose what I had. Well, I already knew that. There is no way I am going to jeopardize my dinosaur of a mailing list because I cannot imagine having to enter all that data again. The he asked me a question. He says, "How did you address envelopes in the olden days - like the 1980's?" Suppressing the urge to slap his pretty face I answered with clenched jaw, "We typed out a mailing list on a typewriter. We copied off that list to type out an envelope or else we wrote it in longhand." He looks at my with his big blue eyes widened and tosses his blond bangs back on his forehead. "Insane!" he says again. "Totally, " I add, knowing we're not talking about the same thing. When did I get old? How did it happen? Wasn't it just last week I got my driving license? If it is true that I am old (and I'm not saying it is), when will I feel mature?

.

Revolutionary Road

I finished this book today called "Revolutionary Road." This book was made into a movie with the same title starring Leonardo Di Caprio (who looks JUST like Offspring #1) and Kate Winslet. The story involves a young couple by the name of Frank and Lisa Wheeler. Each brings to their marriage a version of the marital difficulties of their parents. Both of them are harsh critics and finger pointers. If I thought everyone thought like this couple thought - the world would be a very harsh place. Their story is sad and fascinating. Both seek escape from feeling trapped. Revolutionary Road is a street in a fashionable section of Connecticut where other young married couples raise their children in the mid 1950's - a time when gender roles were rigid. If a woman like Lisa Wheeler wants to make a point that Frank isn't keeping up with his manly role, she puts on his shirt and mows the lawn so the neighbors can see her doing "his job" while he recovers from a hangover. The book was good. I plan to put the movie in my Netflix queue.

Nothing To Get Excited About

This morning was nothing to get excited about. The temperature was snot-freezing low; the kind of cold that makes your tires feel not entirely round for the first mile or so. I had a meeting in Anoka so I wasn't sure I would get a place to park in the lot when I arrived after the meeting. As I drove to Blaine from Anoka around 9 o'clock, I saw the most amazing sun dog I have ever seen in my life. I had my eyes on it the entire trip. Usually I see a small parentheses shaped sundog on either side of the sun. But this morning it was huge and I could pick out every color in the rainbow. Closest to the sun was the purple and blue then green, red, orange, yellow and a huge band of white. I've never seen the colors so brilliant in a sundog. The white part was very wide closer to the horizon. And as I looked up, I could make out an entire arch above the sun. The colors weren't as bright above the sun but I could definitely make out the shape. I was lucky enough to get one of the last spots in the parking lot a LONG way from the door. I bundled my scarf over my neck, slung my purse and lunch bag over my shoulder and my papers under my arm as I walked. I had to walk slow because it was slippery and agitated drivers were patrolling for open spots to park. I saw about 10 birds with speckled backs and black beaks hanging around the crab apple trees bordering the parking lot. I hadn't seen them before. I forgot about the cold and tried to memorize their appearance so I could look it up later. Seeing a new bird is exciting for me. I think they could have been European starlings. As the name implies, European starlings are not a native species. They were introduced by a guy by the name of Eugene Schieffelen who wanted to introduce into this continent every bird mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. He brought 60 birds. Now we have 200 millions European starlings in North America. Some of Shakespeare's fans have a screw loose. In any case, although the morning was nothing to get excited about, two very exciting things did happen.

It's One Of Four Things

It's one of four things. Getting stuck in the driveway tonight was either because I should replace my tires that are good for 60,000 but have been driven 62,500 miles, I need a vehicle with higher clearance from the ground, I should have driven up and down the driveway more times since the last snow, or I should have shoveled first.

Project Feeder Watch Update

White capped chickadee - 5, Dark eyed Junco - 2, Pileated woodpecker - 1

Raptor Biofacts Project

Warning - parts of this post might be gross. Today I went to another naturalist's home in Cambridge to prepare biofacts for the Wildlife Science Center. I didn't really know what I was getting into except it involved hawks, owls, scalpels, Styrofoam, and pins. We prepared legs, wings, tails and skulls to be shown in nature classes. Most of the birds came from the Raptor Center. We all looked at the Great Horned Owl ears. They were hard to find under all those feathers. I was surprised how big the ear canals are. I started with a Great Horned Owl leg. I peeled back the feathery skin down the leg to the sharp black claws. Owls have feathers all the way down their leg. Hawks have bare legs. After I peeled the skin back I used a scalpel to cut off the meat. Owls have meaty little legs. I stacked up the pieces of red meat on my cutting board. Then I pulled the skin back up over the bone. I set the leg so that the claws stuck into the Styrofoam. Owls can move 2 toes to the front and 2 to the back. Hawks have 3 in front in 1 in back. I stuck a pencil in the foam and tied the leg so that it bent forward as owl legs do. My friend will let it dry for 3 weeks. Now that most of the meat is out it won't smell bad. Then she will freeze it again for a week to kill any bugs or eggs left in the feathers. Me - a vegetarian who cannot stand to cut chicken did this. Was it gross ? Yes, a little gross but if handling this owl leg turns some kid on to the wonder of nature, it was worth a little discomfort. I think I may have inhaled some owl feathers today. My next project was a juvenile red tail hawk wing. I pulled the skin back from the spot that looks like a shoulder but is actually the elbow. I used the scalpel to remove the extra meat. I pulled the skin back up and sewed the edges of the skin together with thread to cover the bone. I spread the wing feathers wide to show the beauty of the shapely feathers and pinned it to Styrofoam to dry. I didn't do any tails but the other women in the group did. My last project was the skull of a long eared owl. I used a scissors to cut the feathers off the head. Man, what a mess. We had feathers flying all over the place. This owl had surprisingly little meat on his head. By now I was dancing along the line of having gone too far past my comfort zone. The smell was getting to me. I was wearing gloves but didn't want to handle any more small pieces of owl meat. I knew removing the eyes was beyond what I wanted to do. The woman next to me announced, "I got your eyes out!" I looked at the HUGE eyes that took up almost the entire skull and my stomach turned just a little. They were just pulling a turkey vulture out of the box of frozen birds when I announced I had to go. What an interesting afternoon!

Holiday Raspberries

When I was a kid, I thought it was hysterically funny to watch someone upside down as they talked. Picturing their chin as their nose cracked me up every time. My Grandparents lived with us for a time and I remember laying on the couch so that my legs were on the back rest and my head on the floor. I would watch them talk upsidedown. Here is a cute site where you can enjoy holiday music and watch these little faces perform. Watch out for the raspberry at the end of the song. http://sundog.net/carolofthechins/flash/card.swf

Cold Week For Chickens

Today I used one of those really large eggs one of the chickens laid last week. There were two yolks inside. I've been worried about the chickens. This is their first encounter with really cold weather. I don't think they like it. They've been staying inside the coop. Their water is in a heated dog dish outside the coop and I wasn't seeing any tracks in the snow. I worried they weren't getting enough water to drink. But the water level in the dish would go down so I figured they must really stretch their necks from the ramp on the coop to drink water before heading back inside. This morning I cut up an apple and threw it in there before I left. After shutting the door it sounded like typists in the coop because the chickens were pecking so hard at the apples. Having four hens inside the coop all week resulted in one stinky chicken coop. When I got back I opened the door and let the coop air out today. The chickens flew from the coop and landed on top of the picnic table - one of the few places they could stand with their feet out of the snow. I guess they don't like to put their feet in snow. When you touch chicken feet, they do feel strangely warm. I emptied out the coop and put fresh bedding in there. I took their feed can and filled it with fresh chicken feed and some sand. Chickens need grit in their stomachs because they don't have teeth so I sprinkled clean sand in their food. I took the can into the garage and shut the door so they wouldn't come in. As soon as I shut the door I heard someone knocking on it. It was Pamela pecking at the door, urging me to let her come in. I have to say the chickens are thriving even when cooped up because of the cold weather. They huddle together in there pretty tight. I am glad I got rid of the roosters. This coop is made for 4 or 5 chickens. Six would have been too many.

British TV Commercial Awards

A group of us went to the Walker to see the British TV Commercial Awards. We've gone before. Supper at Kinhdo and then the Walker - it's an annual tradition. This year my favorite was PG Tips Queen. I think PG is a brand of tea. This puppet monkey, playing the Queen in her annual Christmas address to the commoners, was NOT drinking tea. Each attempt to give the speech was worse than the one before because it as not tea in that glass but alcohol. This commercial reminded me of that one Lucy episode where she is selling vitamins on television. It was pretty funny. Again Volkswagen had a lot of very entertaining and creative commercials. Funny they don't show them here in the states. Other commercials obviously could not be shown here as we are not as accepting of alternative lifestyles. I am speaking of a commercial for the Satinelle Ice Epilator - definitely something we will not be seeing here anytime soon. Several public service announcements won awards. There were a couple anti-binge drinking spots that showed young people getting ready to go out for an evening. The people would tear their clothes, smear makeup, mess up their hair, hurt themselves by banging into walls or hitting themselves with objects, vomit, smear food on their clothes, and one guy even tore an earring out of his ear. The point was, if you don't want your evening to end like this, don't drink too much. Several charities for children had ads that were hard to watch. A teenager was being verbally and physically abused and that was tough to see. One creative commercial showed a guy going home from his office by undressing and walking over by the elevators to take a water slide down the building, through other buildings, outside, back inside, through a grocery store where he picked up a banana and swiped his card to pay for it, outside, back inside, next to a sidewalk, down a hill, outside and eventually into his own living room. Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to go home at the end of the long day (except for the part where you walk through your office in your swimwear)? Audi had a great commercial using gymnasts to represent the workings of a car engine. All the commercials were good.

Almost Moon

I've read books by Alice Sebold before. I read "Lovely Bones." Loved it. I read "Lucky." Loved it. So when I saw this "Almost Moon" on the library table, I thought I would be in line for another good book. Wrong. From the first paragraph, I did not like the main character. I really didn't like her. By the end of the first chapter I decided not to finish the book; that is how much I didn't like her. I felt the same way as I read through all the chapters. Now that I finished the book, I still really don't like her. I don't know why I finished the book. Unlikeable characters are strangely compelling. Helen Knightly was her name. Her job? A nude art class model. She's a terrible, broken person. Don't bother reading it.

Blindside

I got a new flick buddy and we went to see The Blind Side tonight. Yes, Sandra Bullock is in it but she actually does a fairly good job acting this time. Kathy Bates stars as a tutor and she is good, as usual. We enjoyed the film. I pay NO attention to football but I still liked it. I know I didn't get all the football references. But I saw Lou Houltz and I remember he was an actual football coach.

Wear and Tear On My Treads

Many years ago a parent told me that tires do not wear out on snow like they do on asphalt or cement or dirt roads. Ever since then when I get the chance, I drive on snow. I go out of my way to drive over fresh snow. I love being the first car making tracks through the parking lot. Sometimes during a snow storm the other traffic has made tracks to the right or left side of the road. I try to keep two wheels on the fresh snow and the other two wheels on the traveled road. I'm saving wear and tear on my treads and making fresh tracks at the same time.

In An Instant

"In An Instant" by Bob and Lee Woodruff was the book chosen by my book club for December. This is an a dual autobiography of a former news anchor and his wife. The book covers the their youth, their college years, courtship, marriage, children, careers and the traumatic brain injury Bob suffered while covering the war in Iraq. Lee and Bob take turns writing chapters. Lee wrote all the chapters during his five week coma. Some parts were very moving. Their experiences in Tiananmin Square and the head injury proved the most interesting. Imagine having to tell your four children that their father was badly wounded by an explosive device. Imagine bringing 6 year old twins to the ICU to see their daddy when he is in a coma and part of his skull has been removed to relieve the pressure on his brain. Two thumbs up for "In An Instant."

Snow Reveals Secrets

One thing I do like about snow is the secrets it can reveal. I hear from my coworkers that snow is predicted for us soon. This photo shows little bird tracks on my deck. Snow allows me to see where the squirrels come and go in the yard. I have found deer tracks in the snow on my sidewalk - right up to the front door of the house, as bold as you please. I heard on the news that a mountain lion was spotted on a police dash camera crossing Highway 169 right at the Mississippi River; less than six miles from my house. That is four lanes of traffic right there unless it crossed at the lights in which case it could be eight lanes. Amazing!!! Mountain lions have been spotted in Minnesota before but no cubs have been found. Until cubs are found, mountain lions are considered to be transient; furry pilgrims traveling through. I really hope mountain lions get established here. I think our ecosystem will be healthier with more secondary predators. Plus more mountain lions would equal fewer deer which equals fewer car/deer accidents. I'm sure we would loose some cats and dogs. Would that be so bad? I heard on Saturday that house cats kill one million song birds per day. I would feel terrible if my pet were killed by a mountain lion. On the other hand, there are a couple standard sized poodles in my neighborhood who cry like babies EVERY SINGLE MORNING when they aren't let back in the house as soon as they wish. You should hear them. By the sound they make you'd think they were being murdered.

Scatter the Darkness

"Scatter the Darkness" is the name of the St. Olaf Christmas music festival this year. Voices of almost 500 young men and women blended together with a full orchestra. This is the concert you can see on public television during the holiday season. We sat behind the basses in the orchestra. I had a good view of the tuba player, the organist and the trombone players. I enjoyed seeing all the young adults moving with the music and singing their little hearts out. One song was new to me - "Jesus Christ The Apple Tree." What is wrong with me? Again with the involuntary snort and subsequent breath holding to abort the snort! All through the song I kept thinking of sentences that would start with "Jesus Christ the apple tree." Jesus Christ the apple tree fell over; is on fire; dropped all the apples; is beautiful this year; is dying; grew a lot; has lots of apples; has no apples this year; is full of cedar wax-wings; has worms hanging all over it. I suspect I have a deviant sense of humor. The concert was great. I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Paper Conference

Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything seems to be going in the right direction? When you feel valued and appreciated and lucky? I hope so because they feel sinfully good. That is how it's been going for me this past week. I am lucky to be rich with friends and to spend my time doing things that I enjoy. Today I went to a Minnesota Ornithological Paper Conference at the U of M Bell Museum. We had power point lectures from 9 until 4:30. Topics changed every half hour to 45 minutes and the day sped by. I met people I have met before from my birding classes or my master naturalist classes. The Bell Museum building is something to see. One fellow mentioned he could see Dorothy and the Tin Man walk in here. As I looked around, I did see an Art Deco resemblance to the Emerald City - very 1939. The dioramas are very interesting. There is even one diorama depicting Inspiration Peak - a place I've been to many times. I wish I could remember what animal was featured in that diorama. I guess I was so impressed with the location that I overlooked the rest of the display. We listened to many speakers during the day. Today made me realize that I have lived in an amazing time. During my lifespan the birds I observe have changed significantly. When I was a child, it was a "once in a lifetime" experience to see a bald eagle. Now we see them all the time and the bald eagle is off the endangered species list. Same with the peregrine falcon and trumpeter swans. In the 1960's we had zero wild turkeys in this state. Now I see turkeys perched on my deck and posturing at me through the patio door glass; acting like they own the place. In the 1960's red-headed woodpeckers were common. Now they are very rare. I did see a map of their nesting sites. Next June it is my intention to see one of these woodpeckers. Purple martins numbers are way down as well. I really enjoyed the conference today. Some of the information was pretty challenging for me but I like to be challenged sometimes. At one point they elected officers for next year and remembered birders who died in the past year. They read the names and short biographies of the deceased. At the end of the list of deaths, the speaker asked for a moment of silence to honor their "final migration." Final migration?! The strange thing about a snort of laughter is that it starts with a sharp intake of breath. If you hold your breath, you can abort the snort. I am SO glad I held my breath. This was not a Possum Lodge moment.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients: 1 can sliced pineapple, 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, 3/4 cup light brown, sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup buttermilk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 4 maraschino cherries cut in half
Directions: Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet (use any skillet you want - mine was 14 inches), over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and stir to combine. Increase the heat to medium high and cook until the sugar mixture is bubbly, about 2 minutes. Arrange pineapple slices in the skillet in a pleasing pattern and continue to cook for 2 minutes, or until the sugar mixture turns an amber color. Turn the pineapple slices over and remove the pan from the heat. (The mixture will continue to cook even though the heat is off.) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.Stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the remaining 1/2 cup butter and the granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in 3 batches, mixing at low speed after each addition until just combined. Stir in the vanilla and rum.Spoon the batter evenly over the pineapple slices in the skillet. Bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown and a tester comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.Cool the cake in the skillet on a wire rack for 4 minutes only. Run a thin knife around the edge of the cake and, wearing oven mitts and working quickly, invert the cake onto a cake plate, keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together. Carefully lift the skillet off cake and replace any fruit stuck to the bottom of the skillet, if necessary. Arrange the fresh cherry halves, cut side down, into the top of the cake, in the center of the pineapple rings.Serve cake warm or at room temperature. Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Unaccustomed Earth

This is Jhumpa Lahiri's second book of short stories. Her first collection won the Pulitzer prize. I definitely want to read that. She also wrote the novel, "The Namesake" which I thoroughly enjoyed. Her stories portray the lives on immigrants from India coping with life in the United States. Assimilation into the culture is gradual and causes conflict. I find it fascinating how people cling to their Bengali heritage. Two thumbs up for "Unaccustomed Earth."

Intruder In My House

I have an intruder in my house. I keep my doors locked and the windows shut and locked but one got in. I'm not happy. An prowler has been living here, eating my food, moving around the house and sleeping here. Wanted: One tresspasser, dead or alive!

Thanksgiving Flowers

Light orange roses, a holiday bouquet with a yellow and orange mum, and an orange, sparkly pointsettia.

Yikes, a Big Egg

I collected four eggs today. One egg was painfully large. Yikes. No chickens were limping so I guess they're okay. The egg was so large I couldn't even shut the lid on the egg carton. I don't know if the pictures really show the size. Sometimes I wonder what the chickens think. They get excited when they see me coming because they hope I will let them out of the coop to stretch their wings and run around a little. But what do they think? "Why does this lady leave some of our body waste in here for 2 weeks at a time but other body waste she picks up with her bare hands and thanks us for it?"

Project Feeder Watch

Results for this weekend: White breasted nuthatch - 2, Black-capped chickadee-5, Downy Woodpecker - 1, American Robin-1, Dark eyed junco - 2
These nuthatches have an amazing ability to bend their neck. They can look up when their bodies are aligned head down on a tree trunk or on a suet feeder. If I see a bird walking head down on a tree, I know it's a nuthatch.

A Chicken Walking on Water

The weather was cold this morning when I let the chickens out for some exercise. Water had frozen in their water dish. I put some whey (left over from making ricotta cheese) into one water dish and fresh water in the other dish. As I worked I saw Meredith walk over to the pond. I have a small plastic pond in the back yard. It's about 3 feet deep and I grow water hyacinth in the summer. Last month I made the pond ready for winter by tying a rope to a brick and the other end of the rope to a milk jug partially filled with sand. The weight of the sand keeps the jug semi-submerged in the water. This allows the expansion of the ice to crush the milk jug instead of cracking the plastic of my pond. Meredith stood on the limestone rocks to get a drink. I could hear her beak click at the ice. I wondered if that hurt as she unexpectedly hit a hard icy surface with her beak instead of the water she was expecting. I walked over there to get a better view of this. Meredith tried pecking at the ice at another spot before she put one foot tentatively on the ice. She walked across the pond to where the milk jug sat. There was a tiny rim of open water next to the jug. As she walked, the ice cap on the pond tilted down on her side. Ice came up to her left and water poured in around her ankles. She looked down. I think she was confused by the icy foot bath. She just stood there as the water got deeper and deeper. Can chickens swim? I wasn't sure and I didn't want to have to rescue Meredith from this cold water. I yelled, "Meredith! I don't think you can swim!" She became alarmed at my yelling and tried to scoot back to shore. Her blue-green feet slipped on the ice twice before she flew up and over the rocks back to safety on the grass. She walked over to the water dish with the whey and drank that. I think all the chickens enjoy drinking the whey. Overall the chickens are doing good lately. On Thanksgiving Day we collected 4 eggs. I had picked out two in the morning and the kids found 2 more in the afternoon. That was the first day I ever got more than 2 eggs in a single day. On Friday I found 2 eggs. This morning I found 4 eggs in the coop. Egg production is up lately. Let me know if you need some.

Too Many Holiday Sweets

Benjamin Franklin Exhibit at MN Historical Museum

Today we went to see the opening of the new Benjamen Franklin exhibit at the History Museum in downtown St. Paul. We saw some of his his books, his chair, his china bowl, his silver spoon, the huge bible he gave to his daughter upon her marriage, and copies of his newspaper. He's an interesting guy. When I was a child, my Grandparents had a bank account at the Ben Franklin bank on Wabasha in St. Paul. I was given a Ben Franklin bank. My bank is a coppery looking bust of old Ben and there is money in it that must be from the 1960's. I've been intrigued by Ben Franklin for a long time. A couple years ago Offspring #1 gave me a biography of Franklin that was very interesting. He was a vegetarian, like me. He was curious, practical, and he tried to make the world a better place. He was an inventor, a free-thinker, patriotic, and a slave-holding womanizer. We watched an actor portray Franklin in a 40 minute speech. Some parts were interesting and others were too long. There was one point in the speech when Ben looked up at the audience, taking our measure, and spoke about how they tried to write the constitution so that we, their progeny, would proper and thrive. For a second, I could actually believe this was the real Ben from the past observing and evaluating the citizens from the future. Beside the Ben Franklin exhibit, there are other exhibits to walk through. We especially liked the "Greatest Generation," the Minnesota 150, and the weather exhibit. One of my favorite things at this museum is Princes' purple jacket. Now they have headphones next to the jacket and you can listen to Purple Rain, Raspberry Beret, or other hits. The History Museum is a great place to spend an afternoon. We got there at 2 and the museum closes at 5. I wish we had another hour to spend there.

Happy Thanksgiving

Alphabetically, this is what we're thankful for:

Alex Technical College, Blankets, Chickens, Dirt and David, Etigin (eating?), Family and Friends, Grandparents, House, Insurance for health care, Jensen, Koalas, Life and Love and Mom, Money and Matt, Not mattresses (?), Orginized crime (organized crime), People to talk to, Quiet, Ruby (a deceased pet golden retriever), Sue, TV, Unicorns, Violets, Wedo (another deceased pet golden retriever), X-rays, You, and Zebras. That is a lot. We're a grateful family.

Here is a photo of the Andriondak Blue mashed potatoes. We did a taste test. They appear purple but taste the same as the russet and yukon gold potatoes. I made cloverleaf rolls from scratch. They didn't rise as much as I had hoped but they were still good. Someone referred to them as molar biscuits.

Bird Nest

The other day I was searching for my injured chicken, Phyllis. I found this bird nest on the side of the driveway right at eye level. How had I missed it before? I went to look at it closely. The sides were intertwined with a blue material that I first thought were pieces of blue plastic. Closer inspection revealed the nest is partially made from lint; lots of blue lint. I don't think it's my blue lint. I dry my clothes on the line. From what little clothes I dry in the dryer, I keep the lint to use as kindling for fires. What kind of bird nest is this? It's too big for a hummingbird. I think it's too small for a blue jay or crow. I know it's not an oriole nest because I've seen those before and they are whiter and tear drop shaped. It's not a woodpecker nest because they use tree cavities. Maybe it's a chickadee, indigo bunting or goldfinch nest. I'm not really sure. In my birding classes students have asked the teachers about nest identification and we're always told it's too hard to tell the nests apart. I see purplish buds on the tree branch. I guess the warm November weather is confusing this tree.

Living History

I just finished Hilary Clinton's book called "Living History." Wow, she really has lived history. She comes across as a hardworking and reasonable woman with a passion for human rights, a fierce love for her daughter Chelsea, and a broken heart. I tell you what, Bill had better watch himself because Hilary is not a doormat and he may find himself out of the house. I really enjoyed her story. I am glad I had the chance to vote for her. I hope I have a chance to vote for her again.

Project Feeder Watch

Downy woodpecker - 1, Cedar Waxwings - 7, Black capped chickadee - 5, Dark eyed junco - 1 I read that downy woodpeckers are the smallest and most common woodpeckers on our continent.

Walnuts

This weekend I started working on my black walnuts again. I had gathered these nuts in September. I peeled the husks off in October. I washed them and let them cure in a cool, dry place for 3 weeks. On Friday night I gathered the walnuts and set them in a bucket. I covered them with very hot water and let them soak for 24 hours. I drained the walnuts and soaked them again in very hot water for 2 hours. I let them drip dry for a short time. Then it was time to crack these babies open. I got a pan and a nutcracker and set to work. Oh, how foolishly naive I was. There is no way to open these nuts with a nutcracker. I don't know how the squirrels do it. They must have little dremel teeth. Hey, maybe a dremel would work. I might try that next year if I do it again. I set up a work station in the garage on my work bench. I have a cloth to hold things from rolling off the table when I pound my hammer on the nutshells. I used a clamp to protect my fingers. I used a hammer to bang on the shells. I used a sharp nail to dig the meat out of the shell. And sometimes I used a nutcracker if I had half a shell that needed widening. My first walnut took 25 blows to break the shell. With 274 walnuts left to go, this was going to be a long process. At first the walnuts were taking between 10 and 60 blows to break. The walnuts are not as round as the typical walnuts you can buy at the store. The sides are flattened on these. There is a definite top and bottom to them. Walnuts have an equator on them. I was striking at the equator line. After the first 50 walnuts I started pounding on the side of the walnut. This is much easier. Now it was taking an average of 8 blows to break a walnut. I thought this would be a great job to do if I felt angry. You could really release some anger by smashing walnuts with a hammer. After yesterday's escapade with Peanut, the red min-pin who attacked Phyllis, I tried to be angry about that. "Peanut," I said as I smashed a walnut. "Peanut!" "Peanut!" But I wasn't really angry at Peanut. He was just acting like the dog he was. Eventually I decided I was grateful I had no reason to be angry and went back to work. Some of the nut meat got smashed by the blows. On some walnuts I could pull out large chunks of meat. I threw the shells into the trash and kept the nut meat in a pan. After cracking walnuts for an hour on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday, I have about 5 cups of walnuts and still another hundred or so to open. I baked the nutmeat for 15 minutes at 250 degrees. Is this a total waste of time? Can't I buy a bag of walnuts for just a couple bucks at the store. Wouldn't that be a lot easier? This is all true. I may never do this again. But there are worse ways to waste time than standing in your garage striking walnuts. I'm sure the pioneers and Native Americans struggled with the same task. There is something rewarding about using the natural bounty your maker has given you.

Tough Day for Phyllis

Phyllis, the hen, had a tough day. She and the other hens were enjoying the balmy weather outside. They especially like to scratch at the leaves under the bird feeder and eat any leftover sunflowers seeds. Scratch with the left leg, scratch with the right leg, peck and peck again. Scratch, scratch, peck, peck. Repeat. I was in the garage pounding black walnuts with a hammer on the workbench. I heard the chickens squawk. Sometimes they do that when danger arrives. Sometimes they do that when ovulating. Sometimes they do that for no discernible reason. I had both garage doors open and out of the corner of my eye I saw the chickens had run completely around the house. To me, this meant real danger. I rushed out the side door to see a red streak with a tail running after one of the chickens, chasing it toward my tin shed. A fox! The chicken was screaming bloody murder. I ran. Normally I don't run but this was an emergency. I'm sure I look pretty funny running with a limp. I yelled too. Everything was so blurry when I ran. Was I running so fast to make the passing scenery a blur? No, it was my magnifying drugstore glasses I put on to work on the walnuts. I couldn't see a thing with those glasses on. I tripped over a branch and fell. The chicken was still struggling. I thought it was funny that a fox wouldn't have left by now. I got up and pushed my glasses up on my head. I moved ahead and was close enough to see the fox had my chicken by it's right drumstick. Then I saw the red leash. I thought it was funny that a fox had a leash. My mind isn't so quick in a crisis. I pulled the leash. The fox had a red collar. It wasn't a fox. It was a dog. And who would put a green leash with a red collar? That color combination is good only a couple days of the year and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. I spied a dog tag on the collar. The owner of this dog was going to catch it from me! Just then I hear a woman say, "Is Peanut bothering your chicken?" There, approaching across the back yard, are my nice neighbors, the owners of Peanut, the 9 pound min-pin. My mind struggles to put this together. This is Peanut? Why, he looked like a fox just a minute ago. He looked a lot bigger when his jaws were on my chicken. I felt guilty for being angry at them because they are the nicest neighbors. They were a big support to me when Blunder died. They've offered to mow my lawn when I decided to let it go wild. We looked at the chicken. She asked if it was the same one I lost. I couldn't tell yet. We could see her hiding under a fallen down tree trunk. She was moving a little. We could tell she was breathing. The neighbors felt terrible that Peanut attacked my chicken. They offered to pay for it. I try to be nice. I tell them not to worry about it. Peanut was only acting like a dog. I even petted Peanut who was in my neighbor's arms even though Peanut still had his eyes on my chicken. I told them my dogs had gotten away on me before too. I showed my neighbors my walnut stash before they took their dogs and went home. I went back to whacking walnuts. I stopped to check on the chicken after an hour. It hadn't moved. The other three hens weren't around either. The yard was silent. I walked around the yard looking for them but couldn't find them anywhere. I went back to whacking walnuts. After another hour the three hens, like teenagers, came into the garage to say they were home and took off again. I saw Pamela, Meredith and Kelly. For a while the three hens squawked loudly. Were they calling for their sister Phyllis? By now it was getting dark. I walked past the shed and into the woods between the driveway to where I last saw her. I spent five minutes looking for her. Her feathers blend in well with tree bark. Finally I found her. She was tucked in tight beneath some branches. I moved some smaller branches out of the way to get at her. I had to bend forward at the waist to reach her. This was very poor body mechanics but there was no easy way to get her. I petted her back. She made some noise but did not move. She was wedged in there so tight I wouldn't be able to lift her. I nudged her hindquarters and she moved forward enough for me to lift her up and out of the tangle of branches. I cradled her in my arms. She was very still. I petted her and talked to her as I walked her back to her coop. Her head perked up when she saw the coop. I set her in there gently thinking she would rest for a time. She stood right up and left the coop to walk around with her sisters. She has some feathers missing on her right leg but she's fine; no limping. Phyllis doesn't even seem upset. I guess chickens forget quickly. She had a tough day but she's over it.

Oh, Deer

The Minnesota DNR says the deer harvest was a little less than average this year. A rainy October left corn standing in the field that normally would have been harvested by now. The deer could hide from hunters in the corn fields. Our state has 1.2 million deer. Taking 200,000 deer from the state herd would be great. I'd much rather a deer hunter harvested a deer, fed her or his family, and contributed to the hunting economy that me hitting a deer with my car. I learned in my nature class that the average doe ranges 1 square mile. A white tail buck ranges 5 miles. That makes me wonder how many deer we have in our neighborhood. I've seen as many as seven in the yard. All the does I saw this spring had twins. I've heard other deer observers mention seeing twins as well. I believe the number of fawns born is dependent on the winter weather. I am going to try to pay more attention to the deer this winter. I know we have one doe with a black face but otherwise I haven't distinguished them. My ultimate goal is to find a deer shed - some antlers in the woods. If I could come upon a set of antlers, I would definitely do a happy dance. Beginning in late January through early March, I'll have a reason to tromp through the woods.

Magnets Attract

I don't want to clutter up the new Amana refrigerator. Which magnets do I keep and which magnets do I throw or find another place for? Some of these magnets have sentimental value. They tell a history of our family. This is the Pillsbury Dough Boy and the usually unknown Pillsbury Dough Girl. Gotta keep these. They need a bath and they're good as new.

I think this is Snorlax, one of the Pokemon group. He is large and sleepy. Actually the magnet is less than an inch and kinda cute. I'm undecided whether to keep it or toss it.

This one is Alf, an alien puppet character in an otherwise human sit com aired from 1986-1990. This could be a collector's item? Throw or toss? Uncertain.

This one is from an insurance agent back in the early 1980's. We were in good hands then. Throw it.

This one is from a job I had in the late 1970's at Cardiac Pacemakers. I packaged pacemakers in a clean room. I wore a white coat, booties, and a hair net. When I first started that job and we went to break I couldn't recognize any of my coworkers without their hair nets. That job wasn't my niche and I was on to other things within six months. The bar to the magnet got lost so I use a can opener to complete the circuit. It's handy for keeping a can opener around. I think this is a keeper.

This one is from Offspring #1's long running Star Trek phase. Keep or toss, it's hard to tell.

This one is from Girl Scout Troop #631. Look at that art work. Oh, this one could be converted into a tree ornament. It's a keeper.

I think this one was made at Girl Scout day camp. I believe Blunder left some teeth marks on the butterfly wing. I think this one can go.