Harvesting the Heart

Jodi Picoult wrote Harvesting the Heart in 1993.  This is one of her earlier books. The story explores the life of Paige, a young woman artist from Chicago.  She is abandoned by her mother at the age of 5.  She moves away from her father to the east coast where she is almost immediately swept off her feet by a medical student named Nicholas.  They marry and after five years have a child.  She put her schooling and interest in art aside to support him in his quest to be a cardiac surgeon.  Neither is ready to be a good parent.  Her husband can escape the tribulations of a newborn by going to work.  She can't.  Nicholas is not understanding or forgiving.  The book is good except the ending blows.  I think authors ought to decide what happens and provide us with resolution. I don't like to be left hanging. 

Freaking Squirrels!

Squirrels. I spend more time and energy trying to foil the squirrels but I never succeed for long.  I received a gift of a bird feeder designed for peanuts and a bag of peanuts..  I strung it on the line with squirrel deterrents such as pvc pipe and empty soda bottles.  The dang squirrels knocked it down and ate all the peanuts in a single day.  I took the feeder out of the snow, refilled it, and hung it on a hook on my deck.  The wire mesh that constitutes the sides is too small for squirrels to get their pesky fingers into it.  So what did the squirrels do?  They took the feeder apart.  They actually took one vertical wire completely off thus doubling the space to get the peanuts out.  I was told this when I got home from work.  I looked and saw a fat and sassy squirrel sitting on the snow bank on the deck munching on peanuts with his back to the deck door.  My blood boiled. My brand new bird feeder was destroyed.  I took up my super soaker, pumped it once, opened the deck door and yelled “You Die!” while soaking him.  I forgot I wasn’t home alone.  Both offspring were there.  You really got to think about how you come across sometimes.  For an offspring who has been to Iraq and back, this was a funny, “you tube” worthy performance.

Sad News About Phyllis, the Chicken

Phyllis the chicken (see her on the far right) died today in her coop in Ramsey.  She was hatched April 1, 2009 in Iowa.  Phyllis died December 29, 2010 at the age of 1 year and 8 months.  Cause of death is unknown.  She is preceeded in death by her two brothers, Dwight and Angela (Angelo).  She is survived by three sisters, Kelly, Pamela, and Meredith.  Phyllis survived a vicious dog attack by a min-pin with attitude in the fall of 2009.  She was missing her left outer talon.   Services have been held.

Project Feeder Watch

American Crow-4, Black capped chickadee-5, White breasted nuthatch-4, Red bellied woodpecker-1, Downy Woodpecker - 2. I usually count some juncos and they are around, they just weren't around during the time I was watching this weekend.

British TV Commercial Awards

On Monday, Offspring #2 and I went to the British TV Commercial Awards with some friends.  I've gone every year for 4 or 5 years now.  The best commercials are shown.  This year I thought the selection was not as good as previous years.  The topics were darker.  One of the most disturbing commercials involved bodies falling from the sky in a downtown area.  At first you couldn't really tell what the bodies were but it reminded me of scenes from the destruction of the Twin Towers. Eventually you can see the bodies are polar bears dropping onto vehicles and onto the pavement.  The message at the ends indicates that every time you take a plane ride your flight introduces greenhouses gases into the air equivalent to one polar bear.  Well, how disturbing is that?  Next month I will be taking six plane rides (three to get there and three to get back). The video above shows the number one winner.  Now I want to be a part of a flash mob.  I heard there is a flash mob in Minneapolis that rides the light rail in January without pants.  Ok, I could maybe try wearing boxers on the light rail in July but I cannot ride without pants in January - it's downright dangerous.  I want a fully clothed flash mob experience.  Another good commercial involved sheep wearing LED lighted blankets, herd dogs, and a large field on a hillside.  They got the sheep to move on the dark hillside to look like an Atari game.  One group of sheep formed the round ball while two lines of sheep seemed to make the ball bounce back and forth.  I don't remember what they were advertising with the sheep but it was entertaining.  Some commercials were too long.  I think one was 3 minutes long.  I watched one that old the story of a young teen who loved music and wore make up and dressed androgynously. He tried college but dropped out.  He lost job after job because of his attitude.  He loved guitar hero.  He lived with his parents and his Mom cheered him on when he played guitar hero.  I thought the commercial was about guitar hero. The last scene shows him loosing another job and jumping off a ladder into a bin of Doritoes.  That is when we learn the commercial is for Doritoes.  He never even eats Doritoes or shows any interest in Doritoes.  Maybe you have to be British to get some of these commercials.

Season of Belief

This holiday season I once again believed in the magic of Santa Claus.  Somewhere in my parent's house is a record.  For those of you who don't know, a record is a black vinyl disc with a small hole in the center. As it rotates on a turntable, a needle picks up the patterns in the grooves and converts it into sound.  This particular record was made at Dayton's Department Store in St. Paul.  When kids visited Santa at Daytons  in the early 1950's, they were given a record of the conversation they had with the jolly old elf.  On this record, Santa asks my older sibling what she wanted for Christmas. She answers, "I want something for Susie and Tilly."   Awwwwww!  Isn't that sweet?  And generous?  Doesn't that answer embody the magic of Christmas?  I've never been that kind hearted.  Susie is me.  Don't ever call me that though.  Only my older sibling can call me that.  And Tilly was our dog, a weimaraner with a short, sausage like tail, large ears and the patience of a saint.  I'm glad to get top billing over the dog.

May All Jollity Lighten Your Christmas Hours

Battle Brook Where We Saw The Trumpeter Swans

Here is the location near Elk Lake where we saw the 6 trumpeter swans swimming in Battle Brook.  Wish I had thought to take a picture when the Trumpeters were still there.  Even without the swans, it's a pretty sight to see.

Google Ngram Viewer

Google has a new feature where you can graph the frequency of words used in books over the years.  The graph above charts carnivore (in blue) and vegetarian (in red).  You can see a huge increase in the use of the word vegetarian since 1980.  You can go to http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/ to graph your own selection of words.

Project Feeder Watch Update

Northern Cardinal-2, Blue Jay-2, White breasted Nuthatch-4, Black capped chickadee-5, Junco-3, Crow-1, Downy Woodpecker-2

This was the first weekend without a snowstorm for 2 or 3 weeks.  It's amazing how much more I can accomplish when I don't have to spend hours shoveling.

Bicycle Fence

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can barely see the bicycle fence I was telling you about yesterday.  Look in the distance, beyond the first ten oak trees, and you can see a line going across the horizon at the bottom of a slope. That is the fence line of bicycles.  Is it reycline?  Is it art?  Is it a line of junk?  I don't think it matters to this homeowner what I think this is.  The homeowner seems to be lining up these bicycles for their own reasons.

Miracle on 34th Street

On Friday some friends and I went out to dinner and then enjoyed the play, Miracle on 34th Street at the theater in Anoka.  The show was sold out.  The Kris Kringle character was excellent.  He exuded Santa Claus.  He had a confidence about him that let us know he knew we believed he was Santa Claus just a little bit too.  The girl who played Susan was also very talented.  Another little girl had a bit part.  She played a little Dutch orphan and was so traumatized by her journey to America that she could not speak until she sat on Santa's lap.  Then she started talking.  Santa talked to her in Dutch and together they sang a little song together.  That moment was very touching. Overall it was a great performance. My only complaint was the incredibly distracting and numerous set changes.

Christmas Bird Count

Today a sibling and I went on our second annual Christmas Bird Count from the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.  This is an annual citizen science event that has taken place every year since Christmas, 1900. For the first five years the practice was to shoot as many birds as possible. Since 1905 the practice has been to look; not shoot.  A 15 mile diameter circle is drawn from a starting point.  We were assigned the south east slice of the pie.  Our bird party consisted of my sibling, myself, and our former bird teacher. We drove around in a big, old Buick looking for birds.  I wasn't sure how much outdoor walking we would be doing.  I overdressed.  I had so many layers on I wasn't a bit cold.  My main problem was bending my arms.  I really had to struggle to bring my binoculars to my face because all the layers braced my arms to stay straight.  We did very little walking so I really didn't need to wear all those clothes.  It's hard to take layers off when you're buckled into your seat.  We drove around for at least 15 minutes before we saw any birds at all.  We started with a 7:30 meeting to discuss details and assign territories.  By 8:30 we were on the road.  Our first bird was a blue jay. And then we saw 300 more birds for a total of 18 species.  Here they are in order of frequency:  Bald eagle - 1, House finch - 1, Pileated woodpecker - 1, Red tailed hawk - 2, Hairy woodpecker - 2, American Tree sparrow - 3, White breasted nuthatch - 4, Cardinal - 4, Red bellied woodpecker - 6, Trumpeter swans - 6, Downy woodpecker - 12, Junco - 12, Pheasant - 15, Crow - 18, Goldfinch - 18, Blue jay - 52, Turkey - 70, Black capped chickadee - 81.  We saw the turkeys near the end of our excursion so, pound for pound, that added a lot to our total.  I think the most exciting part was when we crossed Battle brook near Elk Lake. The water was open on the brook by the dam.  As the Buick crossed the bridge, I saw some white hunks of snow in the water.  But wait, they weren't white hunks of snow. They had necks!  Those trumpeter swans really got my heart pounding.  There were two adults and four cygnets.  The pheasants were fun too.  We were passing a field with gravel hills in the distance and a small gravel hill near the road.  My sibling said she saw a bird on the hill.  She got out of the car.  We had our binoculars set on the gravel hills in the distance. As she moved toward the near hill, a flock of pheasants took off flying.  As we counted the pheasants, blue and white lights flashed behind us. The sheriff asked what we were doing.  He had a stern look on his young face.  When we said we were counting pheasants for the Christmas bird count and he saw the binoculars, he relaxed and told us he usually sees pheasants or turkeys in this area.  Our pie slice reached down to the outskirts of Elk River.  I knew a master naturalist in the area.  I suggested we go there because I remembered he had bird feeders.  Sure enough, he did have bird feeders and we added another dozen birds to our total.  Heading back toward Zimmerman, we came upon a street named Fresno.  We decided to take that street just because we hadn't been on it yet.  We found a house with some bird feeders that had feed in them. Lots of houses have empty bird feeders.  This house, besides the full bird feeders, had an unusual fence.  If my photo turns out I will try to post a picture of the most unusual fence I have ever seen.  The fence was chain link about four feet tall.  I know that does not sound unusual but lining the chain link was a line of bicycles of all colors. We saw at least 100 bicycles in a line, all facing forward toward Zimmerman.  I hope the photo turns out.  We finished up about 1 o'clock and turned in our totals.  I look forward to doing it again next year. 

Barred Owl

This is the same kind of owl that ate a mouse out of my hand a couple years ago.  I'll never forget those big brown eyes and yellow bill.  I love the way the owl hoots with it's whole body.  The neck gets huge and round, the head lowers and the tail raises up.  The owl gives a whole body hoot.

The Bridal Wreath

Sigrid Undset wrote a series of three books, the first of these is The Bridal Wreath.  She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 for this series of books.  The series focuses on a woman named Kristin Lavransdatter, a Norwegian woman living in the tenth century.  The first book focuses on Kristin's early life until the age of 18.  Funny, it doesn't matter if it's medieval times or modern times, teenage girls sneak out of the house to meet their boyfriends and some of them have premarital sex.  The story is the same, only the times are different.  When we discussed this book in my book club, some people wondered how a medieval romance series won the Nobel Prize.  One person mentioned she did live in Norway as if that gave  her a better chance of winning the prize.  In the group of 20 plus people, no one completed reading the entire book.  My excuse is that I only had it for ten days so I read as much as I could before I had to return it to the library.  I read the first third and the final chapter.  If I liked it more, I would have found a way to finish it.

Joseph, his Coat, the Ordway

I got a call from a sibling in the middle of the day on Sunday offering me a free ticket to the Ordway production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  I already had my evening planned:  clean the house, water the plants, clean the chicken coop and watch Desperate Housewives while knitting.  So I had a decision to make, desperate housewives or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Ordway?  Forget the housewives, I wanted to go to the Ordway.  So I threw off my sweat pants and and headed to St. Paul.  Even though the snow had stopped 24 hours earlier, many downtown streets were not plowed.  We parked in a lot across a  park decorated with Christmas lights from the Ordway. The air was frigid and the walking was treacherous but it was pretty downtown.  We had to walk through the lobby of the St. Paul Hotel to get there.  The St. Paul Hotel is always an interesting place to walk through but at Christmas it is really dressed to the nines.  Wow, what a difference between a Broadway production and the local productions I am used to.  The show started out with a couple kids up on the stage tossing a ball back and forth.  We wondered if they were supposed to be up there.  More kids came up.  Some played marbles and others jumped rope.  Eventually we figured out these weren't errant day care kids but really part of the production.  The children added a nice touch.  The singing, the dancing, the choreography - it was all amazing.  Joseph was a great performer.  He spent a lot of the performance without a shirt on.  I think those pecs were real - they can't be drawn on.  I love to watch people dance and this show had some truly excellent dancers.  We were so enthralled that when we left, the air didn't feel as cold and we were singing "Go go Joseph, Go!" all the way back to our parking ramp.  What a wonderful evening.  I am so lucky to be invited.

  

Project Feeder Watch Update

Red bellied woodpecker - 2, Downy Woodpecker - 2, Junco - 2, Black capped chickadee - 5, White breasted Nuthatch - 2, Crow - 1, Blue Jay - 1

(Tough weekend to be a bird.  I had to don my snowshoes to fill up the bird feeders).

Suspicious

Today was a good day to stay home and bake cookies.  Even before the blizzard was predicted baking cookies was my plan. I stocked up on almonds, flour, orange extract and pistachios on Friday so I was all set.  In the middle of one recipe I found I was out of cream of tartar.  I've had this can of cream of tartar forever.  Who knew it would run out?  And how many recipes call for two teaspoons of cream of tartar?  And just what is cream of tartar anyway?  It's nothing like tartar sauce.  And nothing like the stuff that sticks to your teeth.  I suspect it has some chemical property that makes food rise.  I looked in my food bible, The Joy of Cooking for  a substitution for cream of tartar.  There isn't one.  So I called a neighbor and asked if they had any cream of tartar.   They did and were willing to share.  I said I'd be right over.  No, they said, we will come to you.  These neighbors are truly wonderful people but this is a freaking blizzard.  I insisted on coming over.  They said they would meet me half way.  So I dressed up and trudged over to their house.  We met almost halfway.  He got a little farther.  He didn't stop to put snow pants on like I did.  Neighbors across the street were shoveling out what the plow put in.  I opened my empty can of cream of tartar.  He opened his full can and shook some of the white powder into my can.  We talked for a minute and parted ways.  I have to wonder just what the shoveling neighbors thought we were doing.  We had to look suspicious.  So on my way back, in an effort to allay their suspicion look friendly I said, "Enough snow for you?"  They agreed it was enough snow. 

Cloud Chamber

I just finished reading Cloud Chamber by Michael Dorris.  I have previously read two of Dorris' books; A Broken Cord and Yellow Raft in Blue Water.  Michael Dorris wrote this book in 1997.  He committed suicide the same year.   He was married to Louise Erdrich, a Minnesota author. I've read many of her books and also saw a play at the Guthrie based on her book, The Master Butchers Singing Club.  Dorris led an unusual life.  In 1971 he became the first unmarried man in this country to adopt a child.  He eventually adopted three children, all native Americans, and all with fetal alcohol syndrome.  In my work I have some experience with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).  FAS is a tough diagnosis.  Parental guilt is huge.  I've seen brain scans of people with and without FAS.  I was amazed how much damage alcohol can do to a developing fetus and how easy it is to see on brain scans.  Seeing the scans makes me grateful because there, but for the grace of God, go I. Alcohol damages the developing cells.  When a fetus is only 4 cells big, or 8 or 16 or 32 cells big, the damage is much worse than in the third trimester.  FAS is tough too because some people with FAS know they are not being treated like other people but can't understand why and cannot, for the life of them, learn from any mistakes they make.  Because of my work, I was fascinated by Dorris' book The Broken Cord.  And although he did a great job describing FAS and how hard it is to raise a child with FAS, I could not agree with his idea to put pregnant alcoholics in prison.  The book, Cloud Chamber does not address FAS.  This is a tale about a family that originates in Ireland and ends up on a reservation in Montana. It's a story about women who assertively express their opinion knowing they will hurt the feelings of others and the people who have to live with them.  Dorris is a talented storyteller.  He makes smooth transitions as he tells the story from the voice of different characters.  I would never guess by reading it that the author would soon kill himself.  The characters are compelling.  I found myself reaching for the book to find out what happened to them.

Sign I Saw At The Fitness Center

How to Survive the Holidays With Sherry

I believe they were talking about a personal trainer named Sherry, not the sherry wine.  And not that Sherry is a bear to be with during the holidays.  Instead she is giving general advice for getting through the holidays.  Besides, this fitness club does sell nutritional supplements.  If they actually were talking about sherry wine, for sure there would be something on the label about omega plus, zinc, protein and antioxidants.

Wolf Exchange

Today I met a woman in Maple Grove and picked up five wolves. Four of us are working on a capstone project together for our Master Naturalist Class.  We work well together and have a chemistry that makes the work fun.  Our project involves beautifying the entry garden at the Wildlife Science Center.  We cleaned out the weeds, planted native species, laid down mulch, and added signs that label most of the species.  All that looked nice but the huge propane tank stuck out.  We thought we'd attract the eyes away from the propane tank by adding some wolf silhouettes.  I ordered the silhouettes and cut out the paper patterns.  My friend and her husband cut the wolves out of plywood.  The next step is to add primer and black paint.  I unloaded the wolves and they are sitting quietly in the foyer right now.  Over the winter I will get them painted. This should be fun!

 

Concert in Northfield or Lost In A Sea Of Nordic Sweaters

Last Thursday Offspring #2 and I went to the St. Olaf Christmas Concert.  This was our final opportunity to go to this concert because she will graduate this May.  The concert is held in an athletic facility.  Most of the audience is seated in bleacher seats on the sides while a few are given floor seating.  We always sat in the bleacher seats before.  This year we got floor seating.  I'm not sure why we got the premium seats.  Maybe we got good seats because we owe them so much money.  But wowzers, what a different experience we had.  In the beginning of the concert, the singers fill the aisles and sing before they head up to the stage.  Kids are singing to our right, our left, behind us and ahead of us.  Because this is St. Olaf, just about every kid  in choir was THE best singer in their high school.  They are singing so close to use we can hear some individual voices. Each singer was belting out the tunes.  It was enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Eventually the kids filed up to the stage like you can see in the picture.  Every once in a while they would allow the audience to stand up and sing along.  Even the singers in the audience around us were very talented.  The St. Olaf tradition is to wear Nordic sweaters. You know Nordic sweaters - the kind with patterns knitted in horizontal rows around the upper chest? Some have reindeer and some have brass buttons and they come in darker colors.  I forgot to wear my Nordic sweater this year. I stuck out like a sore thumb.  At the end of the concert, the singers came back down into the aisles to sing the last three songs.  I was so impressed.  The music was very moving and the concert was a great way to start the month of December.  And the final advantage to floor seating?  I was out of that parking lot before a line of cars could form.  I was driving east on Highway 19 before the people in the bleachers even set foot on the floor. 

39 Steps

On Friday night I went to see "39 Steps" at the Guthrie with some roommates from college.  One of my roommates lives in Isanti and we drove together.  The other roommate lives in Plymouth and met us there.  Because of the weather conditions, I ended up spending a long time with the roommate from Isanti and very little with the one from Plymouth.  We had a white-knuckle ride there and back home again.  Our plan was to meet at 5:30 and have dinner before the show. We arrived at 6:45 and had to gulp our food to make the show on time.  They held the show for seven minutes because of the weather.  How they came up with seven minutes I don't know.  30 Steps is considered to be a farce comedy; more funny than mystery.  Some parts were slapstick and some were vaudeville.  The play moves so fast you don't really have time to appreciate everything that goes on.  39 Steps has four actors.  The lead actor plays himself the entire show.  The lead actress plays about 4 parts.  The two supporting actors play about 30 characters each.  Sometimes the supporting actor's characters change so fast all they have time to do is change hats and act differently.   I think the supporting actors showed more talent because their roles called for more talent.  The play alludes to other Hitchcock films.  One segment of the action went into a shadow puppet mode.  The lead character's puppet is carried away by a flock of birds (The Birds), dropped into a lake, is rescued by the Lockness Monster, gets a big kiss from the Lockness Monster, talks about the northwest corner of the lake (North by Northwest), and going out the rear window (Rear Window).  We also see a big shadow of Alfred Hitchcock himself.  The play pokes fun of the Germans, the British, and the Scots.  39 Steps is one of those plays that you could see ten times and appreciate different humor every time. 

Project Feeder Watch Update

Black Capped Chickadee - 5, White breasted Nuthatch - 3, Downy Woodpecker - 2, Blue Jay - 1

I had a busy weekend and didn't have much time to watch for songbirds out the window.  These are the birds I saw while I refilled the bird feeders and washed out the heated bird bath.  One hungry downy attempted to eat suet as I was raising the bird feeder into the air.  He flew off when he realized he was being elevated.

Annual Paper Session

Today a sibling and I attended the annual Minnesota Ornithological Union annual paper session at the Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota.  I'm not used to sitting and listening for hours on end but the topics were fascinating.  The first two talks were on loons.  Loons.  I thought they were nice birds.  Loons are the state bird.  Loons make lonely calls in the middle of the night and adorn license plates.  Turns out loons are a warrior bird.  People think they have the same pair of loons for year after year at their lake.  Loon banding projects prove this is not the case.  Loons drive others off the lake and take over as the mate and parent of the chicks.  Male and female loons do this.  Loons fight.  We saw video of female loons fighting each other and male loons fighting each other.  I would not want to get whacked repeatedly by a loon wing.  Male loons will swim under the resident male loon and drive their beak into the breast of the unsuspecting loon, puncturing the organs and causing a fatal stab wound. Another topic was the scientific classification system.  Big changes are ahead for us.  With the advent of DNA analysis they are finding that birds we thought were on the same branch of the bird family are not.  In the next ten years many birds will be reclassified and we will learn about the "next new truth."  This applies not only to birds but all animals and plants.  You might want to hold off buying any more field guides until the year 2020.  We listened to talks about the two major causes of songbird death - unrestrained cats and windows.  We listened to talks about peregrine falcons and purple martins.  I had a great day learning, listening, and reconnecting with other birders.  I learned that in the United States, one of four people enjoy birding.  In Minnesota, one out of three people proclaim their love of birds.  It's funny how conversations go when the subject turns to birds.  After the session we went out visiting.  I found out that my father was nicknamed "slough pumper" on his baseball team.  We asked what a slough pumper was and why he was given that nickname, we were told a slough pumper is a shypoke and it has long legs.  True, he has long longs but what is a shypoke?  Turns out both a shypoke and a slough pumper are birds, dark in color, that live in the swamp and make a lot of noise.  I looked up both words.  Shypoke is a term that applies to several kinds of egret.  A slough pumper is a bittern (see photo), a small egret that makes a mechanical call that sounds like "pump-er-lunk."  I spent the whole day learning about birds and what I came away with is there is so much more I want to learn about birds.

We're Back In The Egg Business

This morning I found a fresh egg in the coop. We're back in the business of laying eggs again.  Do you think the public announcement (blogging) of the lack of eggs shamed one into action?

Christmas Festival Tonight

Tonight is the St. Olaf Christmas music festival.  Rats, I forgot to dress appropriately.  Tradition calls for a Nordic sweater.

I Don't Want To Be Mrs. Tweedy from the Tweedy Egg Farm but . . .

My chickens haven't laid any eggs for weeks.  What is up with that?  They continue to eat as much food and drink as much water.  Except for Pamela who is still molting, they look healthy.  They walk and talk and move about like they did before.  Chickens would normally not produce eggs in the winter because there is less sunlight.  My chickens have had a light in the coop for a couple weeks now.  The light keeps them warm. Last year the light kept them laying all winter long. I moved the location of the light so that it shines more on the door area of the coop instead of the nesting area of the coop.  Maybe that is the difference.  Maybe they are adjusting to their winter diet.  They don't eat any dandelion leaves or bugs anymore.  All they eat is what I give them; chicken mash with the occasional dried meal worms, cucumber, whey, and sunflower seeds.  This morning they had a little bit of leftover banana bread. If you saw the movie Chicken Run you might remember that Mrs. Tweedy counts how many eggs each chicken produces.  Low egg producers are made into chicken pot pie.  I'm not going to turn my girls into a pie but I do wonder, what am I getting for all this chicken feed?