Yogurt and Mozzarella Cheese

Last night I took a community education class on making yogurt and mozzarella cheese.  I've tried making yogurt before and ended up with a quart of smelly milk but no yogurt. Epic yogurt fail.  So I learned a few things at this class and we'll see if it helps me.  She gave me a tablespoon of yogurt starter.  You need a tablespoon of yogurt to make more yogurt. Bacteria begets bacteria.  Once the milk is heated to a certain temp and then cooled to another temp, you mix in the yogurt and let it ferment for 6 or so hours.  Some people buy a yogurt maker to keep the mixture at an even 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  Or you can heat your oven to 110 degrees. Or you can, like she does, fill a good thermos with hot water for 15 minutes and empty it before putting your yogurt in.  The mixture will stay hot for 6 hours.  I bought a thermos today and tomorrow I will try to make yogurt.  I hope it works.  She showed us how to make mozzarella cheese as well.  I need some supplies to do that but now I know how to do it.  In our class our small group made cheese. It was fun to cook with 3 other women for a change.  We got to take some home.  It was really easy to do and the cheese was very tasty plus free of chemicals and preservatives.  One thing she warned us against was buying ultrapasturized milk.  Ultrapasturized milk is not labeled as such but she has found it is more common at discounted prices such as generic brands or at Aldi's.  The teacher was a good speaker and quite enthusiastic.  She also teaches classes on artisan breads and preserves.  Rather than telling us about her classes and how to enroll, she chose to give us samples of her bread and some of her preserves.  I had a taste of foccacia bread with pickled onions, carrot cake jam, and blubarb (blueberry and rhubarb jam).  She also had samples of her yogurt.  One was flavored with cumin, dried tomatoes and cilantro.  The other yogurt was flavored with rosemary and onion.  I much prefer a free sample of food than having to listen to a commercial about her classes! 

The Eagle Has Landed (I'm pretty sure)

Last week a coworker said he thought the eagles were nesting at the nest on Highway 10 just east of Main Street by Lowe's Hardware.  Exciting news!  This is the time of year for eagles to be sitting on their eggs.  The DNR has a bald eagle webcam and I've been watching that eagle sit on eggs surrounded by a ring of snow.  So I've been straining my eyes every time I pass the nest looking for a white head to show.  And until today I have not seen one.  Maybe they made the nest deeper than other years so I couldn't see it over the edge.  Today I saw an eagle standing up on the nest and rearranging itself.  Yahoo! I didn't actually see the eggs but why else would the eagle be there? Successful nesting attempt by MY eagles - meaning the nest I pass at least twice a day!  I've been worried about them. I thought someone may have disturbed the nest and they wouldn't be back.  I'm happy to be wrong about that.  Eagles sitting on the nest!  Can spring be far behind? 

A Year Ago

The cold weather and deep snow can be depressing.  So to feel better I try to go back in time.  A year ago I was in Australia where it was warm.  Some places were actually hot but I was never sure exactly how hot because I'm not so good at converting Celsius to Fahrenheit.  Some parts were dusty and dry.  Other parts were lush and green.  Green!  How my eyes ache to seen green right now.  The animals were so different there.  Some animals I had never heard of before like the echidna and the quoll.  Some I had barely heard of like the wombat.  But now that I know the wombat, I love the wombat.  And thinking about the wombat makes me feel warmer.  A year ago I held a little wombat in my arms.  Aww, it was so cuddly; like a live teddy bear!  I supported it with my left arm and with my right hand I made a fist and knocked my knuckles against it's bony backside just to hear hollow sound.  Not content to do it once or twice, I knocked the wombat's backside over and over and over again.  The poor thing didn't seem to mind.  And even though it was sprinkling a light rain on us, it was a moment to remember, me holding this wombat and knocking it on the backside.  So maybe it's deathly cold outside and the precipitation has piled up higher than the top of my car in the driveway, somewhere wombats roam. Somewhere it is tropically warm.  And even if the warmth isn't here I'm comforted to know it is warm somewhere.

Knock!  Knock!  Knock!

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Owl Omens - Good or Bad?

I have made a new friend in the past couple weeks.  She is talkative, lively, friendly, and from Romania.  We've been talking about owls.  She knew about owls in Romania where she lived in the northeast quadrant.  in the northwest quadrant was Transylvania, the home of Dracula's castle.  She said her husband wanted to tour the castle but she didn't because of the owls.  Near the castle are many owls living in the deep woods.  In Romania, the tradition is that if you hear an owl in your home at night, someone in the house will die soon.  To prevent the death someone in the house would throw bread out of the door when the owl hooted.  So the high population of owls is why my friend didn't want to visit the castle.  Now I've heard owls outside my house at night.  I've heard barred owls hooting back and forth in conversation.  I could hear them moving from tree to tree while they were talking.  And I felt blessed to hear them; not at all worried about a death in the future.  I've never heard of the owl/death legend before.  According to a BBC article I read this week, the owl/death legend isn't just for Romania. It is also known in Chile.  But they are finding the opposite is true.  In Chile some of the rats are carrying a virus that doesn't hurt the rats but can be fatal to humans.  To combat this rat born infection, one of the solutions is to encourage the owl populations that prey on the rats.  So in Chile, if you hear an owl hooting outside your house, it could be a sign that you have a greater chance of escaping the virus and living rather than dying.  In fact, other than vultures circling above me if I was staked to the ground, I really don't fear owls or birds of any kind.  If an owl hoots near my house at night, I'll get up and start hooting back at it while counting my blessings.  I gladly offer up any voles, mice and rabbits that happen to inhabit my yard to hear an owl hoot.

I Hope The Birds Appreciate This

I hope the birds appreciate the work I went to yesterday to refill the peanut feeder, the thistle feeder, the sunflower feeder and to put suet in the suet feeder. I actually had to don my snow shoes to get out there.  Just a short trip, I thought, no need to buckle my shoes on tight.  That was a mistake.  Try walking in snow shoes in hip deep snow balancing 3 feeders and a bag of suet. I fell three times.  It's not easy getting up when you have nothing to push against.  In fact, when you do push your hands against the snow you end up in deeper snow that you were before.  Normally this chore would take me 3 minutes to complete but in this weather and including the times it takes to put on snow pants and snow shoes, it took a good half hour.  My snow shoes kept coming off when I tried to pick up my foot and move forward.  So much snow collected on top of the shoe that it was hard to keep my feet in the straps.  After I collected the feeders it was much easier putting them back because the trail had been broken.  It's times like this that I am glad my back yard is a private spot and no one saw me out there.

For Your Listening Pleasure

In the mid 1970's, a group of us would get together Wednesday nights for a pot luck supper, some drinks, and to watch the Muppet Show on televison. We had  anywhere from 8 to 35 people in attendance.  Anything to avoid studying I guess.  Good times.  Good times.

I Got So Excited!I

I got so excited at work yesterday when I opened a new box of letterhead stationary and found this!  A million dollar bill!

Until I turned it over.  You're welcome - less than a million.  : (

What I Deserve

I think I deserve a gold statue for making it to work today because it was a challenge.  Despite spending over an hour shoveling snow last night, I was up again at 5 a.m. to shovel again.  That decision I made last night where I shoveled the last 3 feet of snow in the driveway out onto the street didn't seem so smart today.  I thought others would drive over that hump of snow and the plow would have taken it away but no, the hump was still there and I would have to cross it.  By 6:45 I was in my car leaving.  I made it down my now skinnier driveway alright.  I was about to put on my seat belt when I hit that hump of snow I pushed into the street last night.  Whoa! I temporarily lost control.  No time to put on the seat belt right now.  My road was not plowed and only 1 person had traveled my block so far this morning.  I was pushing snow ahead with my "low to the ground" Honda civic.  I couldn't slow down or I would get stuck for sure.  My car swerved back and forth pushed by the snow.  When I got to the second block two cars had passed so it was slightly easier to drive but not easy enough for me to take my hands off the wheel to put on my seat belt.  I was turning the wheel left and right to stay on the road.  By the third block more cars had passed making tracks for me so I had hope I would make it out of my neighborhood.  As I approached the intersection where our neighborhood road leads to the highway I saw a problem.  There was a huge hump of snow at the end of the road.  There was also a SUV trying to enter our neighborhood who was hung up on that hump of snow.  To my left was a snow plow idling, waiting to enter our neighborhood.  I stopped to help the SUV get unstuck.  I grabbed my shovel out of my trunk and the young guy gratefully used it to shovel the snow away from all four of his tires.  As he handed it back to me I had to actually bite my tongue.  The driver looked to be in his early 20's and too old to hear me say, "Zip your coat!  Where are your mittens!"  I was bossy with him though.  As his tires spun round and round in both directions I said, "Here.  You get out and push and I'll drive."  Aren't I the assertive one?  Well, it bothered me that the snow plow was waiting.  I got in his car, turned off his radio that was blasting way too loud, and rocked his vehicle.  No good, he was still stuck.  The snow plow moved forward and back again.  I didn't notice but he dropped a pile of salt right by us.  The snow plow driver got out of his truck, wearing a short sleeved shirt, silently took my shovel and threw some salt around the back tires of the SUV.  Then he got back into his plow.  We tried again. We shoveled some more.  I pushed.  He rocked.  I shoveled.  We were at this for about 10 minutes.  I was frustrated.  I told him, "Here I am, shoveling the damn street."  That came out harsher than I meant. But maybe it was helpful. As I took my shovel back to the salt pile for more salt, the SUV got loose and drove away.  I tossed the salt up in the air and walked back to my car.  The snow plow driver took the corner.  I waved as he went by. I drove over to the plowed side of the street and got on the highway.  Even though I helped a driver get unstuck, I am not a total good Samaritan.  I thought about leaving the street but didn't because I thought a. I might get stuck and clog up our road even worse than it was, b. swerve and hit the SUV accidentally, and c. look like a selfish ding dong to the snow plow driver and every driver who would drive by me the entire time I was stuck.  Once on the highway I was pleasantly surprised how easy the rest of the ride was.  The roads were icy and slippery but plowed. The traffic was light and the drivers were driving carefully.  I was proud that I had made it to work even though once I got there I learned that we were closed for business because of the weather.  My work continued though and I got a  lot done today.  Due to changes in our database, changes in state rules for our agency, and normal business, I was way behind.  After today I am much closer to being caught up and it feels great.  Everyone else left early.  I was the only one working until 4.  After all I went through to get here, I was NOT going to lessen my accomplishment by leaving early.

 

Warm Thoughts

Tonight as I was shoveling the driveway (AGAIN!) I had a thought that warmed me up a little.  I got an email from the DNR asking if I wanted to participate in the frog and toad survey near Kroschel, MN again this year.  If we didn't want the route they would give it to someone else.  Last year they had more frog and toad volunteers than ever.  So we responded that we did want to do our frog and toad survey again.  It's hard to believe that frog and toad survey time is anytime near, given this winter and a half.  Being asked about it makes me think spring is nigh.  I look forward to those nights in Kannebec county where the mosquitoes buzz, woodcocks cluck, frogs croak, and fireflies light up the night sky.

Geology

Last night our Master Naturalist chapter had a geology speaker.  I can't remember his name but I do remember that he had a degree in earth sciences and an advanced degree in computer science and is currently employed at Wells Fargo as a computer architect.  At one time in his life he was a naturalist in the Badlands of South Dakota.  He was really interesting.  He had a way of weaving ideas together that made sense yet were challenging.  He said Minnesota has some of the most interesting geologic features on this planet.  We have some really, really old rock exposed here.  He talked about the formation of the planet, how the moon was formed, black holes, Pangaea, agates, rift valleys both here and in Africa, the periodic table of elements, carbon dating, St. Peter sandstone, fracking, erosion, ice ages, tectonic plates, tsunamis, earthquakes, and the Milky Way.  I don't remember all that he said but I enjoyed every minute of his talk. His enthusiasm and his ability to connect with his audience were very charming.  He makes me want to learn more about geology.

Perspective

We had a motivational speaker at work on Monday who helped me regain perspective.  The speaker was John Kriesel, former National Guard soldier, former state representative, and current director of veteran services in Anoka County.  John spoke about joining the National Guard and how he volunteered to go to Iraq in 2006 so he could be with his buddies.  He called his buddies his brothers.  He talked about his first night on a base in Fallujah.  The tent he was assigned to was right next to a spot on base that had been blown up by a missile the night before.  Insurgents would fire missiles into the base from the back of a pick up truck and then take off before the retaliatory missile could get there.  From his bed John couldn't tell if the missile was coming or or going out.  He didn't get much sleep that first night.  One night they went out to investigate an intersection.  Soldiers had spotted someone planting something on the road - probably not flowers.  He was in the second vehicle.  The first vehicle, a small tank, missed the trigger switch for the IED by inches.  The front left tire of his Humvee triggered the switch.  He woke up in the ditch.  His right leg was barely attached.  His left leg was mangled.  One of the soldiers from his vehicle was pacing back and forth repeatedly asking, "What time is it?"  The plan was for a hot meal that night if they could get back to the base on time.  Hot meals were rare.  John told the guy to forget a hot dinner tonight, it wasn't going to happen.  But the guy had a concussion and couldn't remember so he kept asking, "What time is it?"  Medics were called and were on their way via helicopter and ambulance.  A medic's first job, according to John, was to comfort the patient.  The first medic came by, smiled, and said, "I'm not gonna lie.  Your legs don't look great.  But you are going to be alright."  He put a tourniquet on his left leg and went to check on the others.  The second medic came by and with the fakest smile ever seen said, "John.  You look amazing. I've never seen you looking so good."  He put a tourniquet on his left leg.  John felt itchy but was not in much pain.  He was extremely tired and kept falling asleep.  His medics tried to keep him awake by slapping him in the face.  After the fifth slap John said that was enough.  He didn't want to have to explain to his wife why he was beat up besides the leg problems if he lived to see her again.  Instead they assigned his concussion friend to keep him awake.  His concussed friend asked him the name of his wife and kids.  "Katie, Elijah and Brody," he answered.  Fifteen seconds later his concussed friend would ask him the same question.  John was so grateful when the helicopter arrived.  He thought he just might live through this.  Then they moved him to a stretcher and moved his legs up over his abdomen.  He passed out with the pain and didn't wake for eight days.  When he did wake up a nurse was calling his name.  She asked him if he knew where he was.  He guessed - Germany?  She said he had been in Germany but was now at Walter Reed hospital.  His wife was in the room.  She asked if he remembered her name.  Actually he didn't remember her name.  But he was smart enough not to guess - Tiffany?  Mary?  Brittany?  He waited and did not answer until it came to him.  Her name was Katie.  He had passed her test.  Although sad to learn he had both legs amputated, he was more sad to learn that two of his buddies, two of his brothers had been killed in the blast.  One of the brothers was Kevin McDonough.  Tears sprang to my eyes when he said this.  I actually went to Kevin McDonough's funeral at the Cathedral of St. Paul.  I didn't know him. I didn't know his family.  I knew he was a local soldier that was killed in Iraq at the same time Offspring #1 was in Iraq.  So I went and stood in the pew with a sibling and mourned with everyone else.  John said he was sad but because of his wife and his two little boys he chose to look on the bright side.  Being positive had always been a part of his personality but it was never so strong as it is now.  He had to wait 3 months for his pelvis and coccyx to heal before he could stand on his prosthetic legs.  He had surgeries to take care of the damage the shrapnel did to his abdomen.  When he recovered he decided to run for office. John wanted to prove that a regular guy (non college graduate) could be elected.  He was elected. He served one term.  Then he stepped down because he had promised to teach his boys how to hunt. Now he works in veteran services helping other vets get the benefits that are due to them.  John said it is true he suffered but others have also suffered.  What you suffer isn't ask important as your attitude. Will you be content to play the victim or will you try to make something good out of a bad experience?  The choice is ours. 

Birding in Duluth

Stoney Point - off Alseth Road and the Scenic Drive north of Duluth

The ice broke into blue plates.

This lake ice is easier to see through than the window of the school bus I was on.  A speck of snow gives me that Trident sparkle.

It's crazy that the harbor has frozen.  I could walk to Bayfield but it would be a long drive home without a car.

The ice is spookily beautiful.

Two birders walk up the mound of built up ice.

The ice is pretty.

A pine marten walked by here probably sniffing around in all the ice holes.

The wind was blowing hard here at Canal Park.

Mallards swim by.

This morning was another bird field trip; this one in Duluth.  When the alarm went off I thought to myself, "Do I really want to do this?  Will the birds in Duluth top staying in this warm bed?"  I convinced myself that it would be worth my while to go birding.  We boarded the school buses at the Miller Hill Mall and drove out to the Hartley Nature Center.  The temperature was -13 degrees; windchill of -33 degrees F.  We walked around the nature center and saw two black capped chickadees.  With sixty pairs of binoculars pointed at two black capped chickadees, again I thought, "Is this really worth it?"  We piled back on the buses.  Every few minutes we had to scrape the ice off the windows with our scrapers.  We drove past a soccer field where a snowy owl was but wasn't here today.  Ok, this was becoming disappointing.  We drove down a residential neighborhood where we spotted another hawk owl sitting in a tree.  Those hawk owls are so tiny it's hard to see them very clearly.  On the other hand, hawk owls and snowy owls tend to stay in the same area making it easy to find them.  Then we went on a long ride north of Duluth on the scenic drive.  We turned on Alseth Road and got out of the buses.  It was cold.  We could walk along the road or walk through the snow down the shore and onto the lake.  Forget birding.  I wanted to walk down on the lake.  Another birder picked up a plate of ice and had his photo taken.  I asked him to take my photo too.  As I bent over to pick up a plate of ice, I didn't notice that my camera fell out of my pocket into the snow.  Lucky for me the snow was so cold it wasn't wet and the strap on the camera was poking out.  I retrieved my camera and he took my photo.  Then he told me to hold it up to my face.  My face came out clearer that I thought it would because from my point of view everything was blurry.  I had fun breaking plates of ice for a while - I take pleasure in destruction sometimes.  We found some tracks.  I asked what they were.  Two fellow birders, one an environmental education instructor in Ely and the other a PhD student in environmental education at UMD debated on whether it was a pine marten, a long tailed weasel or a short tailed weasel. The final decision was a pine marten.  How lucky am I to be surrounded by people who can debate these tracks in the snow!  We got really cold out there and walked back to the buses after a half hour or so.  The people who stayed on the road saw rock pigeons, a crow and ravens.  I made the right choice on walking onto the lake.  Spirits up now, we drove into Wisconsin to the Superior landfill.  We were looking for gulls.  We saw a few gulls flying around along with some ravens.  The ravens were displaying courtship behavior by flying in tandem.  We stood in the cold for a long time looking at the herring fulls.  Suddenly hundreds of gulls flew out of the landfill.  Four gulls looked different.  Two were larger and darker and they were greater black backed gulls.  Two were whiter and they were glacous gulls. It sure was nice to have gull experts around to point out the differences.  We ate lunch on the bus.  After lunch we drove to Canal Park.  The wind was really strong out there.  In the open water beneath the lift bridge we saw mallards, common mergansers, and common golden eyes.  And back to the Miller Hill Mall we traveled.  I made some friends on this trip; a nice lady from Pittsburgh, a nice couple from Eau Claire who used to live in Northfield, another couple from Richfield, a man from England, and a woman from Georgia.  Many of the people were older like me.  We joked about arthritis medications.  One older woman from St. Paul, usually very proper and polite, would talk sexy when ever she saw a life bird.  "Hello big boy," she'd say flirtatiously, "What a looker you are!  Show me some more leg."  She cracked me up.  She wants me to come to a warbler weekend at Frontenac State Park in May.  Maybe I will!

Birds In The Bog

Prowling the bog for a Great Gray Owl.

Those are clumps of peanut butter stuck to that horizontal branch.  And a gray jay is just leaving the branch flying away to the upper left of the black bird feeder.

A lifer for me - a northern hawk owl on top of that tamarack is staring down at me with disapproving yellow eyes.  It looks much closer in the spotting scope.

Some female pine grossbeaks at this bird feeder.

This morning I was up at 5 a.m. so I could catch my bus bird tour of the Sax Zim Bog.  Buses were loading at 6:30 and the location was an hour away from my hotel.  I work all my warmest clothes and put warming packets in my socks on top of my toes.  I had the greatest day today.  Nine hours of watching birds in cold weather on a Floodwood Schools bus with complete strangers with whom I have a lot in common; it was great.  Some people who live near the bog put up bird feeders for visitors.  This is nice for the community because it lures us bird watchers to the area and keeps people from getting upset when they find a group of 25 people staring at their house with binoculars.  At our first stop we saw black capped chickadees, blue jays, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, and ravens.  I got a good look at a white breasted nuthatch and red breasted nuthatch at the same feeder and in the same view of my binoculars.  That is the first time I've seen the red and white varieties next to each other.  The bus drove on and at the next stop we saw pine grossbeaks, goldfinches, and many of the birds we had already seen.  Some people saw some snow buntings but I didn't get a good look at them.  We walked down Admiral Road looking for the great gray owl.  We never did see the great gray owl.  I did see some terribly large animal tracks in the snow.  What in the world could make these giant tracks?  I would think they were as large as moose feet but they didn't sink into the deep snow like I would think a moose foot would.  I asked around and learned that tracks I saw were made by a snowshoe hare.  Up the road further we saw some actual moose tracks.  A birder leading another group had seen a moose on this road on Friday. I wish I had seen that moose but the tracks are the next best thing.  The next bird feeder had a group of 10 pine siskins, gray jays and evening grossbeaks.  We stopped in the town at McDavitt to use the heated bathrooms at the fire station.  Inside were two fire engines, a small fire truck, coffee, cookies, and a very nice bathroom that had scented hand lotion on top of the sink.  Such luxury was much appreciated.  Back on the bus we found a snowy owl on top of a black spruce.  We admired it for such a long time our toes got cold.  We stopped for lunch.  We ate on the bus.  Our bag lunches had our names on them.  I was hungry.  Inside my bag was a sandwich on whole wheat.  I had asked for a vegetarian sandwich.  In my mind I pictured bean sprouts, tomato slices, and onions.  Inside I found white cheese on wheat bread and no vegetables at all.  I also had a singles serving of mayo, a chocolate granola bar, and chips.  Ironically the chips that came with my vegie sandwich that had no vegetables were made with cheddar and bacon.  This was a calorie dense lunch!  I ate the parts I wanted.  Our next search was for a black billed magpie.  Generally these magpies are found in the western states but a few come as far east as the Sax Zim bog.  Unfortunately we didn't see any.  We looked for the black backed woodpecker.  We could hear it singing and drumming but we couldn't get a look at it. As we drove down St. Louis county road 7 the woman in front of me spotted the snow buntings.  I looked at them through a spotting scope in a large open field.  The flock flew up and crossed the road right in front of us as the snow began to fall heavily.  The snow buntings flew like big snow flakes with black wing tips.  They jumped and danced on both sides of the railroad tracks while we watched with snow piling up on our heads and shoulders.  Our next destination was Owl Road where we saw the Northern Hawk Owl.  After that treat we went to the bog visitor center to warm up and look at birds out of the windows.  We had more pine grossbeaks, chickadees, blue jays and a fat red squirrel sitting inside the glass bird feeder.  For the third time we went back to the feeder on Admiral Road.  The boreal chickadee had skunked us twice so far.  It was cold and snowing heavily and after waiting 15 minutes, the sneaky little boreal chickadee flew in, grabbed a bite of peanut butter and took off before we could focus our binoculars on it.  No matter, it had been seen and that was all that counted.  It was almost 3 o'clock.  We had been on the bus for 8.5 hours and heading back to the community center when we spotted our third snowy owl.  Of course we wanted to get out and look at that too.  This snowy was much darker than the others which mean she was a first year female.  As the train came by she flew up and flew over a barn to a different tree set farther back from the tracks.  Cold, dehydrated, exhausted we returned to the center.  There was another speaker tonight from the Eagle Center to talk about tracking golden eagles but I chose to skip that and the dinner.  The snow was coming down heavy and I wanted to get back to town and into a warm room where I could defrost my tootsies.  I had a great day birding in the bog. But I got to say the bog is poorly planned.  Two railroad tracks run through it north and south and they're about 1/8 of a mile apart.  That makes no sense to me.  Nice tar roads cut across the bog right next to each other and then we go 5 miles with no roads at all.  Even though the human infrastructure makes no sense, the Sax Zim bog is a beautiful place.

It's Good To Get Out of Town

Scenic Highway 23 just as it starts heading down toward the St. Louis river.

Sandy Kimoto telling us about his big year.

This weekend I decided to get out of town.  Winter was getting so long so I chose, for some reason, to go to a forsaken bog in the middle of no where to look for birds.  Actually I do know why I chose to go.  Last spring I listened to a presentation about this box from Sparky Stensaas.  The Sax-Zim Bog (isn't that a scrabbilicious word?), he said, is a magical environment.  Sparky is a naturalist and a photographer.  He showed us a video he had made and put to music and I fell in love with the place.  That is why I came.  I got there and was registered by some very friendly people from the town of Meadowlands.  We each got a little cloth bag, a name tag on a Sax Zim Bog lanyard, and a Sax Zim bog window scraper. The scraper was to use on the school buses we would be riding this weekend.  We had a lovely dinner of pasty pie, green beans, cole slaw, rye bread and cake.  They had vegie lasagne for the vegetarians.  After dinner we listened to Sandy Kimoto speak.  Sandy Kimoto still holds the world record for seeing the most birds on the North American continent in a single year.  He saw 746 birds I think.  If you saw the movie "The Big Year,"  he was played by Owen Wilson.  Sandy loves birds and is an engaging speaker.  He is one of those humble people who doesn't always know when he is going to be funny.  His sincerity is genuine. I enjoyed the talk but I was one of the first ones out of the Meadowlands Community Center.  I knew I had to be up at 5 a.m. to catch my bird tour school bus in the morning. 

The All-Girl Filling Station Last Reunion

Oh, Fannie Flagg, how she makes me laugh.  What other author would ever write a sentence such as this?  "You know, a woman doesn't reach her sexual peak until age 60?"  Oh, she makes me laugh.  And while I was laughing I learned some history while reading The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion.  One thing I learned about was the WASPS.  I love that word.  Wasps.  Say it out loud.  Wasps.  Cracks me up because it is impossible to wasps with any dignity.  The WASPS were the first women to fly military planes.  Although not officially not a part of the United States military, they flew planes from the factory to military bases all over the country.  Unfortunately the WASPS never got the recognition they deserved. What I like most about Fannie is the way she writes about female friendships.  I can just tell, by reading her hilarious works, that she must have some very good friends in her life.  So if you are up for some feminist hilarity, be sure to read this book.

If You See A Bird On Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow.  I read a legend about Valentine's Day and what it means if a woman sees a bird fly overhead.  If a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a rich person.  So all you single ladies - keep your eyes open tomorrow!

Raven Black

My book club read Raven Black by Ann Cleeves this month.  It's a mystery novel.  I didn't get a chance to read the entire book because my Amazon order took so long to get here.  I read enough to know the author does a good job at character development and at setting the scene (a small island north of Scotland).  And she had plenty of time to work on that because mysteries have no plots.  In mysteries someone is killed in the beginning of the book and the reader tries to read the clues and guess who committed the murder. Please, spare me.  I read the first eight chapters, skipped to the last chapter, read that, and went back to the ninth chapter.  I just don't appreciate the mind games of mystery writers.  So despite the fact that I liked the setting and the fact that one of the characters was a bird loving naturalist, this book is not one of my favorites.  I'm not even going to bother finishing it.

Bird Protection

This weekend as I drove down Highway 10 I noticed tracks in the snow leading from the highway to the tree that holds the eagle nest just east of the Main Street exit.  Somebody walked from the highway to the eagle's tree.  Why?  Why would a person walk to the eagle tree?  Was it an innocent stroll or shenanigans?  I have been looking and have not seen the eagle on the nest yet this year.  If I remember correctly, they were sitting on the nest by this time last year.  Is somebody messing with my eagle nest?  The snow is hip deep out there and it could not have been an easy hike.  On top of that this afternoon I read that a birder observed some owl watchers in Ramsey acting dangerously around the owls.  They were baiting the owl.  They had mice in their hands and were teasing the owl to come and get the mice. The owl baiter was almost struck by the owl.  The observer was horrified and disgusted and ended up driving away because they couldn't stand to see the owl being mistreated like this.  Maybe the owl baiter didn't know any better.  Maybe the owl baiter didn't think about the owl getting struck by a car or getting too familiar around people.  Maybe the owl baiter had a child with them and was trying to strike a spark of interest about nature.  Maybe the owl baiter had all the best intentions.  I don't know.  I myself held a mouse in my hand while a wild barred owl flew toward me and took the mouse off my palm.  It was one of the most exciting moments in my life.  But was it the right thing to do?  I don't know.  I was in a bird class at a nature center and a naturalist offered the opportunity.  I took it.  Some times it is hard to know what is right and what is wrong.  How is giving an owl a mouse any different than giving a blue jay some sunflower seeds?  On the other hand if that Highway 10 eagle is disturbed and doesn't nest this year or that Ramsey snowy owl gets struck by a car, somebody is going to have some explaining to do!  

Americanah

Yesterday I participated in my first on-line book club.  Our book was Americanah by Chimamanda Ngoze.  The book was interesting and it was fun to think about people all over the country reading the same book to discuss.  But when it came to discussion time, I couldn't get a word in.  We were discussing via the comments on the book club leader's blog. I would write a comment, click yes when I was ready to post, type in the box the words or numbers that I saw and then be asked to click yes if I wanted to post - an endless cycle that got me nowhere.  None of my comments ever got published.  I spent so much time trying to publish a comment the whole group was two questions ahead so my comment would not have made sense anyway.  The leader says she will change the way the comments are posted next month.  This book was about a woman who was born in Nigeria and her experiences in the United States in her 20's and 30's.  She ends up going back to Nigeria.  The woman's name is Ifemulu.  Isn't that just a most beautiful name?  Ifemulu.  I love it.  But she's a hard woman this Ifemulu.  She is harsh, judgmental, and critical.  And very sensitive. She can dish it out but she can't take it from others.  She holds herself a little distant from all the situations she experiences.  She blogs about race issues in America.  Ifemulu is an interesting character and through her experience, we learn what it is to be a Nigerian immigrant. 

You Got a Fast Car

This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite performers.

Thirsty Robins

I had a flock of robins and cedar waxwings drinking from the water dish today.

Things got a little crowded.

And the waxwings were camera shy.  I just couldn't get a photo of one.

Look closely at the spot below the robin on the left.

See the windmill out there in the background?

In front of the windmill is a blurry cedar waxwing.  Above him is a robin coming in for a landing.  It was a busy yard out there today.

The Secret

Reading The Secret by Beverly Lewis was like wearing a woolen mitten that had unraveled leaving strings of itchy yarn dangling all over the place.  The stories of Grace Bylar, an Amish teen and Heather, an non-Amish teen never intersect except once when Grace sees Heather running down the road.  They never even meet each other!  I understand now that this is what they call Christian fiction.  Even still, loose ends in a story need to be cleared up.  I also understand that this is the first in a series about Grace.  Whatever.  Even in a series a book should be able to be a stand alone piece of literature.  I'm not going to bother finishing this series.  And now that this Amish book is done hopefully I will quit dreaming about horses.  I'm glad I have a Fanny Farmer book to wash the woolly taste of this one out of my head.

Dogged

Dogged.  That is a word you don't hear everyday.   But this week I've heard it four times already, mostly in this book I'm reading about the Amish.  I know dogged means tenacity and persistence but I've never used it before.  When I think of dogged I think of Honey.  Honey, rest in peace, was a golden retriever owned by my cousin.  When we stayed at the cabin Honey was our chubby, matted neighbor dog.  Honey was friendly and well behaved and dogged.  And in great need of some grooming.  When Honey saw a squirrel go up one of the small trees on the lake shore, Honey would park her matted haunches beneath the tree and watch that squirrel for hours. Literally, hours.   Once in a while Honey would bark at the squirrel but mostly she just watched.  People would walk by, boat by, swim by and wonder what the heck that dog was doing.  Honey's owner's would explain how she was when she knew a squirrel was up the tree - dogged.  She would stay there until the squirrel escaped or the sun went down.  Honey was a dogged dog.  Ok, now I have used dogged in a sentence. .

No Challenge

In the past I've participated in the Friends of the Mississippi River event called the Mississippi River Challenge.  This year the FMR decided not to hold the challenge because it took too much energy and staff time away from the focus of protecting the Mississippi River.  I get that.  The Challenge took a huge amount of time and effort and volunteers.  FMR made the two day paddle a pleasant experience for us.  We had great food, great music, and friendly volunteers to help us shove off and paddle in.  But when you have 300 to 400 paddlers taking in and putting out on the same riverbank, damage is done.  The bank gets muddy and erodes.  Just because the Mississippi River Challenge won't happen in 2014 doesn't mean I can't paddle those same waters.  I'll just have to arrange for my own food and transportation and support.

Snow

Had to put on my big girl snow pants and get some chores done in the yard.  The snow is deep enough to comfortably sit on if only it would hold me up.  You can see the snow is level with the seat of the chair and the seat of the picnic table.

The driveway is looking more like a hallway now.

And my boulder reminds me of a whale.

This deep snow could make a person claustrophobic!

Living In The Avon Hills

I don't live in the Avon Hills but after Saturday I wish I did.  I went to the "Living In The Avon Hills" conference at St. John's University and met some fascinating people who do live in the Avon Hills.  I spent some time talking to a couple who farm near Longville when they are not busy birdwatching.  The man was born on his farm and is quite proud that he has 2 American chestnut trees growing that do not show signs of disease yet.  He hopes to harvest a chestnut or two before he dies.  Our keynote speaker was a former master naturalist instructor of mine from the Wildlife Science Center.  She spoke about raptors.  I didn't learn anything new about raptors during her speech but I enjoyed it because she presented the information in a different style and was very engaging.  I chose 3 sessions.  My first one was on designing and maintaining small prairies.  The speaker was a landscape architect and he had an enthusiastic delivery.  He made me feel much better about my yard which to some might look untidy but to me is looking better every year.  Lunch was awesome.  St. John's puts on a great bag lunch with excellent bread on their vegie sandwiches and cookies that are to die for.  I don't eat many cookies these days but I'm not passing up a chance to eat a St. John's cookie.  After lunch I went to a session on "When to help wildlife."  This session wasn't quite what I expected and I wished I had gone to the session about Minnesota Indians instead.  The woman who spoke was a wildlife rehabilitator who spends hours and hours and much of her own money nursing squirrels, rabbits and baby deer.  That alone made me question the value of this session.  She was quite proud of the fact that she is a master wildlife rehabiltator, has seven permits, and has to fill out reams of paperwork to keep her seven permits.  Her main advice is to leave baby birds and animals alone and I already knew that.  My last class was an inspiring talk about growing garlic.  I knew how to grow garlic but not how to harvest it or cure it.  Now that I know how to harvest and cure the garlic, I'm pretty excited.  I hope this excitements holds out until October, 2014 because that is the time to plant garlic.  Saturday was a good day.