How High Is The Water?

The rivers and creeks are flooding with all this rain we've gotten this week.  So this song came into my mind and has stayed there.  Please enjoy this video.  The music starts at minute 2.  I'm surprised how skinny and how restless a young Johnny Cash could be.

Chickpea Casserole

I tried a new recipe today.  Despite the bland beige color it tasted really good!  Ingredients:  3 cans chickpeas-drained and rinsed, 1 cup brown rice-cooked, 1/4 large red onion-grated, 2 large cloves garlic-also grated, long squirt of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, 3 eggs-beaten, 1 C. cottage cheese, 1 cup plain yogurt, 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese divided, 1/2 cup fresh parsley, 2 stalks fresh rosemary, 2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs, olive oil.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9x13 pan with olive oil.  In a large bowl mix the chickpeas with the rice, onion, garlic and lemon juice.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mix the eggs with the cottage cheese and yogurt and half of the Parmesan cheese.  Add the minced herbs.  Stir into the chickpea mixture.  Spread in the 9x13 pan and top with the remaining Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.  Bake for 45 minutes or until bubbly and golden.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

On The First Day!

This one made me laugh out loud.

Candied Ginger

I've been enjoying ginger lately.  Ginger is supposed to have health benefits such as acting as an anti-inflammatory agent and helping digestion.  I enjoy ginger candy that I found in the Asian aisle at Cub Foods.  And I also enjoy eating candied ginger which is sold in the health food section at Cub.  I thought I'd try to make my own candied ginger.  Offspring #2 brought me a really big chunk of organic ginger.  I split it in half.  One half I planted in a flower pot hoping to grow my own ginger.  The other half I peeled and sliced as thinly as I could.  I boiled the ginger root slices in water for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes there was about a cup of water left in the kettle.  To that water I added a half cup of white sugar and boiled another 20 minutes until all that was left was the ginger slices and a couple tablespoons of thick ginger syrup.  This made the house smell very nice.  When I looked down through the steam into the ginger my nose would run like a faucet.  Once most of the liquid was gone I removed the ginger from the kettle and laid it on a wire rack to cool and dry for an hour.  I coated each ginger slice in more white sugar and let it dry for another couple hours.  Delicious!  Much cheaper than I could buy at Cub.  You can grate this ginger to use in recipes calling for ginger.  Or, if you're like me, you will just pop one in your mouth and enjoy the hot gingery sweetness.

Something

Last Sunday Offspring #2 and I moved the chickens from the winter headquarters to the summer headquarters on the east side of the house.  Now they have fresh ground to explore and the morning sun to enjoy.  I'm sure they appreciate it after having the same small section of earth since November.  That particular section was covered in chicken crap about 3 inches deep even though I had removed gallons and gallons of it over the season.  This morning I went to check on them and throw them a handful of delicious black sunflower seeds.  I saw evidence of something digging at the outside of the chicken run.  Something dug, or tried to dig, two holes.  Something was trying to get into the run.  Lucky for the chickens we placed the run in a spot where we are trying to get rid of the wild grapevines that were taking over that spot of prairie.  Grapevines are tough to get rid of.  Grapevines are hard to pull out. Grapevines roots are incredibly durable.  The grapevine roots frustrated the something that was trying to dig a hole.  I wonder what the something was.  A dog?  A fox?  It might be time to set up that trail camera. 

Turtlely Awesome Night

Last night my Master Naturalist chapter meeting met in Carlos Avery where a herpetologist trapped turtles for us.  He also trapped some minnows, some diving beetles, and two wood frogs.  The trap is on the left (shallower) side of the open water way and is strung between two wooden stakes.  The mesh trap has 3 funnels.  At the rear of the trap is a pop bottles filled with sardines and poked with holes so the delicious aroma attracts the turtles.  He set the trap on Monday.  You can see the rounded top of the mesh trap (just left of center in the photo) between the two poles.  Some of the mesh is above the water so the turtles can come up for air.

He set 3 turtle traps and two minnow traps.  This was the earliest he had ever trapped turtles so he wasn't sure he'd get any.  But he got at least 30 painted turtles.  See the long, sexy fingernails of the male painted turtle above?  Male painted turtles attract their mates by dangling their fingernails in her face.  The painted turtles came in all sizes from extra small to extra large.

He caught 3 Blanding turtles.  All three were large and at least 40 years old.  The reason we worry about Blanding turtles is that only older ones are found.  Blanding turtles below the age of 20 are not found and that is concerning.

The kids in the group were happy to hold all the turtles.  The closer Blanding turtle has a leech on it sucking the algae off the plastron.

At the end of the evening we set the Blanding turtles down so they could go home.  One of them took off.  See how he extends his right hind leg?  The other two were too cold or too scared to come out of their shell so we put them down on the water's edge for safety.

My Owl

I took a owl class.  Tonight was our second session and we got to take our owls home to roost.  I made mine so her little black beady eyes looked upwards.  To start with we were given a cement form.  We added the two round cheeks first and then the beak.  At this point everybody's creation looked like something that was embarrassing for the only guy in the class.  Then we added the round eyes, the glass pupils and the feathery front.  My owl's left ear is larger than her right but that is okay because it makes her interesting.  The instructors were great and the shop we worked in had a great atmosphere.

Gnocchi Dokey

Offspring #2 took this photo of the gnocchi we had for dinner on Sunday.  It was so delicious I had to moan out loud.  Here's the recipe:
Ingredients - 1 lb potatoes peeled, boiled and grated, 3 egg yolks, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. ground pepper, 1 cup flour (plus more for rolling the dough).

Clump the grated potatoes together and form a well in the center.  Into the well put the yolks, cheese and spices.  Mix together with your fingers.  If a clump or two of potatoes falls to the floor, leave it be.  You don't need that much gnocchi anyway.  Sprinkle a half cup of flour over the clump and work it in with your fingers.  Gradually add the second half cup of flour forming a dough.  Mix it well but don't knead it.  On a floured surface divide the roll into 8 parts.  Take an eighth section of dough and roll it into a long rope until the rope is a half inch in diameter.  Cut each rope into 1/2 inch sections and set separately on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Roll each gnocchi in a little flour before putting it on the cookie sheet.  Do the same to the other seven sections of dough.  Set the pan of gnocchi in front of a fan on a low speed for 30 minutes.  Turn the gnocchi after 15 minutes.  When you are ready to cook the gnocchi, bring a pan of water to a full boil.  Add the gnocchi.  Boil the gnocchi until it rises to the surface.  Wait 90 seconds and remove from the water with a skimmer.  If you want to freeze some of the gnocchi for another day, freeze it on a cookie sheet for an hour before putting it in a smaller container.

Ingredients for the mushroom sauce:  a full stick of butter, one bunch green onions, one container of fresh mushrooms cleaned and sliced, 5 cloves of garlic minced, 1 tsp. parsley, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp. basil, 4 ounces of cream, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.  Melt the butter in a skillet.  Saute the onion and mushrooms and garlic in the butter.  Add the spices.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Pour the cream over the mixture and reduce heat.  Stir in the Parmesan cheese until well blended.  Heat on low for 5 minutes.  Spoon over the gnocchi.  I'm guessing a billion calories per serving.

Frog & Toad Survey #1

Another year has passed and we're back on the frog and toad surveys again near Hinckley, MN.  The sky was partly cloudy and the temperature was about 35 degrees.  Snow was present on the sides of the roads.  Lily Lake was still covered in ice.  Smaller wetlands had open water.  Corn fields and ditches had open water.  On our drive out we saw 30+ deer standing in the cornfields.  We were glad they were in the fields and not on the road.  A few sand hill cranes stood with the deer.  I thought it would be too cold to hear any frogs but I was wrong.  At first we heard a few chorus frogs.  These frogs sound like running a fingernail down the teeth of a plastic comb.  With the cold the sound was slower than usual like the finger was pausing between each tooth of the comb.  Not very many frogs were talking.  Usually the frog sounds are overwhelming out there in the wetlands.  Last night was so quiet we could hear the traffic on Hwy. 35 and the sounds of trains passing in the distance.  We heard a couple spring peepers at two spots.  The stars were beautiful as we stood there in the dark and tried our best to listen for frogs.  It's unusual for me to listen so intently.  I wondered if musicians would be better at this than I would.  Or maybe they would be worse because their ears would be damaged by their profession.  Maybe people with blindness would be better at listening to frogs.  We heard barred owls calling at two spots.  I tried talking back both times but I got no response.  Some day.  Someday I want to have an owl talk back to me.  We heard snipe winnowing.  They sound like flying saucers.  Or I should say they sound what I think flying saucers would sound like.  I've never actually witnessed a flying saucer.  I worry about these awkward little snipe flying around in the dark.  I hope they don't run into anything.  I guess they probably land in wetlands instead of trees.  Safer that way.  We were glad the roads were in good condition.  Some parts of the road we take are surrounded on both sides with wet lands just an inch or so below the level of the road.  So when I saw fields and ditches flooded with water I got worried.  No one likes getting stuck in the muck out in the middle of no where.  But we were fine.  A few puddles in the road are nothing to worry about.  We had a good time on our survey.  And now we know.  The frogs have declared.  Spring is really here.

Wrote a Poem Today

As warm as a spring time sun
leaves much to be desired
12 inches of snow is no fun
makes me feel defeated and tired

I decide not to shovel
I can not accept the facts
moving that snow is too much trouble
Denial my option when acceptance lacks

But 12 inches is a solid foot
Traction is hard to find
A sound that definitely is not good
Spinning tires that whine and whine

Less work for me I think and hope
To dig out if needed at all
A thought that makes me moan and mope
Is shoveling a driveway the opposite of small.

I back out of the garage
Hopes high, foot on the gas
Confident look on face is a mirage
My only hope is go fast.

The first time I get stuck
The snow and the dirt make layers
White is the snow, black is the muck
Oreo cookies made by tires.

A shovel in the trunk I store
A shovel is needed here.
The snow is deeper than the bottom of my door
Will I be late?  I fear.

I move the snow from around each wheel
And from under the front of the car
Jump back in seat. Confidence I feel
Will get me to the road and the tar.

I'm moving! I'm happy!  I'm giving it gas.
But the snow is too deep for my Honda to cope.
The speed of my car slows to a stop from the fast
pace I had and now I am loosing my hope.

I step out for the second time.
My work pants are wet to the knee.
Dig. Dig. Dig. Back in the car I climb
8 car lengths and then I'm free.

I'm moving!  I'll make it. This time I'm sure.
A big push to the finish is needed.
The plow left a hump.  Speed will be the cure.
Step on it Martha! Through the deep snow I speeded.

I'm almost there.  I can see a plowed road.
On time to work I might make it!
What's that orange to my left? 72 passenger load?
A school bus.  Oh, f---ing G-- ----it!

Again I climb out and in the snow I can see
the imprint of my undercarriage.
Dig. Dig. Shovel. Shovel. Poor, poor pitiful me.
The season of winter I disparage.

Third try is a charm.  On the road I am moving.
Traffic is slow and terrible.
I'm glad I'm unstuck.  My situation improving.
Half hour late is bearable.

My pants dry by eleven. Damp calves half the day.
But that's not the worst thing of all.
My mood is what sucks.  I don't like to feel this way.
Crabbiness I wear like a shawl.

Look on the bright side I think aloud in my head
Be like the great Pollyanna.
Two strong arms for shoveling; not confined to bed
Few years I can move.Louisianna?

Border Songs

I got lucky when I grabbed Border Songs off the shelf of the library.  Jim Lynch wrote a book combining many of my interests: birds, northwest Washington (where Offspring #1 lives), autism, family dynamics, dairy farms, and ecology.  This is a very entertaining book.  The main character, Brandon, counts birds in his head.  Every morning he wakes up at zero and counts the birds he hears or sees.  And he hears and sees things differently than other people.  He is as observant as he is socially awkward.  His ability to notice subtle differences makes him a top notch border patrol officer.  Brandon is charming.  The whole book is charming.

Garden Fair

Last Saturday I went to the Master Gardener's Garden Fair at Bunker Hills Activity Center.  The keynote speaker was a landscape design professor and she talked about her yard.  I heard her before at another conference and her talk was semi-interesting then and less interesting this time.  After that I signed up for a flower pressing class.  You can see my efforts above.  My instructor was 68 years old but she looked 38 in her tall leather boots and long blonde hair.  I used to press flowers when I was in college and I've forgotten all about it.  She said I could use modge podge and decorate the tiles in my bathroom or put a border around a doorway.  This could be dangerous.  Modge podge - I don't think I've heard those two words for 30 years. I'm thinking I might press flowers on my car!  My second  class was about planting the right plant in the right place.  After lunch I signed up for a filo clay fairy garden accessory class - pictures of those will follow once I bake the clay.  My final class for the day was cooking with herbs.  We got tips on planting and harvesting herbs.  We were served dill dip with vegies, a chicken asparagus pasta dish with rosemary, roasted vegetables with french herbs, and basil pesto that gave me bad breath the rest of the day.  It was a good class though.  Who doesn't love a class where food is served?

Confused Christmas Cactus

  L

Even though Christmas was more than 3 months ago, my cactus is putting on a beautiful show of flowers!  Last spring I took a scissors and hacked off all the long branches.  I guess the butcher job did it some good.

Syrup

I boiled the six gallons of maple sap yesterday.  I started about 10 a.m. and finished at 8:30 p.m.  There was so much humidity in the house that the windows were steamed, the toilet tank sweated, and my hair looked like Angela Davis' hair.  I wasn't paying enough attention at the end and the syrup turned out thicker and darker than last year.  The 2013 vintage is on the left and the 2014 vintage is on the right.  Both taste sweet.

Complete

Last night I went out on the town with my college roommates.  We had dinner at the River City Saloon, famous for it's chicken and the bras on the walls and ceiling.  Yes, bras.  I noticed none of the bras were comfortable, none of the bras were white or beige, and none of the bras were any thing like the bras I wear.  These bras were black, pink or red and all of them had extra material to make a woman look busty.  The River City Saloon is a rowdy type of place.  I really felt out of place in my jeans and a flowered top.  Just about everyone else was wearing the black and orange colors of the famously overpriced Harley Davidson gear.  In any case I would not recommend the apple, blue cheese, bacon salad without the bacon.  I'm pretty sure even bacon could not help that salad.  After that we went to see the Complete Works of William Shakespeare at a local theater.  My friend got us front row seats and at first I was glad about that but as the evening progressed I wished we were sitting back a few rows.  This comedy was funny but in the front row we were 1. hit on, 2. spit on, 3. sprayed with water, 4. given flowers, and 5. fake barfed on.  One of the actors felt that, in his role as a Shakespearean female about to die, should vomit first.  Gross.  He was really good at fake barfing.  They even made one of us move and sat in our seat.  Three actors completed all the plays in 90 minutes.  Well, maybe not ALL the plays but most of them.  They kept us laughing out loud all evening with their high energy performance.

Woman in White

My book club read Woman in White  by Wilkie Collins.  This book was written about the same time as Minnesota became a state and it is supposed to be one of the 100 greatest novels of all time but I couldn't finish it.  I tried.  I really did.  I was ready to quit after the first two chapters.  So then I tried imagine hearing the words spoken by the cast of Downton Abby.  But even with Lady Mary Crawley and Mrs. Patmore talking, the book was still boring beyond tears.  So many words!  Why all the words?  A five word description of a room takes two full paragraphs.  I can read other stories of the nineteenth century.  Jane Austen, Charles Darwin and Dickens are easier than Wilkie Collins.  Life is short so I gave up on the book and read the wikipedia information instead.  I enjoyed the discussion though.  I learned the book was written in monthly installments for a magazine.  Each month required a certain number of words.  That explains the wordiness.  Depending on the audience reaction to each chapter, the author amended the plot.  That explains the meandering story line.  Other people in the group liked the book and the characters.  You might like this book but I didn't.   

Ice Out

The ice went out on the Rum River yesterday.  Finally!  I've been checking out the river every day for the past two weeks expecting it to break up and flow away.  The ice doesn't disappear all at once.  The ice from a straight part of the river stays intact and gets caught up in the river bend.  Eventually the pressure of the water and the warm temperatures crack the ice into smaller chunks that flow away with the stream.  I'm glad to see it go. 

The Birds

This morning as I was getting ready for work I heard the sound of many birds chirping.  Many birds.  Very many birds.  The sound was loud and I thought it sounded like robins.  I peeked out the window and saw many birds with reddish breasts sitting in the tree tops.  When I went outside to give the chickens some fresh water (and a handful of sunflower seeds) the birds were everywhere.  Robins, hundreds of robins, were singing from my yard, the neighbor's trees, and the trees across the street.  A flock of migrating robins stopped to rest and talk in my neighborhood this morning.  It was almost scary.  See, this is why I never watch horror films.  Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds, came out over 50 years ago and I'm still scared.

Pulled Out

I have been collecting maple sap for the past couple of weeks.  Today I pulled the last tap out because I saw the tips at the top of the tree had the reddish hue of buds.  I've heard that once the buds come out on the tree the sap does not taste good.  I don't know if that is true but I'm not going to risk it.  I have 6 and a half gallons of sap in the fridge to boil and that is enough for me.

Twelve Patients, Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital

Eric Manheimer wrote Twelve Patients, Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital.   He ought to know.  He worked there for 15 years as the chief medical officer.  He writes the story of people who fall through the cracks in society.  Abandoned children, psychotic homeless people, traumatized teens, and drug addicted Wall Street brokers all have chapters in this book.  One of the hardest chapters to read was about the author's own treatment for his cancer of the esophagus.  The stories in this book are medical but also psychological, economic, social, and even anthropological (hoping that is a word).  Bellevue is the oldest hospital in our country and treats the rich and poor, the criminal and the crime busters in New York City.  I thought all twelve stories were fascinating.

Triple Skunked

You could say we got triple skunked on the owl survey route last night.  Our favorite restaurant, The Bank, was closed.  The meat market, Thielen Meats, was closed due to a fire.  And we didn't hear any owls singing on our route.  But that would be looking at the glass half empty.  We did have a good time.  For the first time I felt like I had a really good handle on our route map.  We never got turned around or confused once.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a different restaurant in Pierz called The Pioneer.  The roads were good despite a heavy dumping of snow the night before. One section of gravel road had water flowing across it and our very last road had a pudding-like feel to it but we didn't get stuck. The sky was clear of clouds and as the night went on a million stars shined in the sky.  Between the stars and the sliver of a moon we could see quite well.  Last year it was so dark we couldn't see, only hear, trumpeter swans fly over our heads.  Last night we could have seen those trumpeter swans if they came.  No trumpeter swans this year but we did see eagles, sand hill cranes, red tailed hawks and crows.  I caught a glimpse of my first great blue heron walking in the St. Francis river on the drive up.  At our first stop an extremely loud pair of sand hill cranes flew over us and landed in a shallow pond across the street.  The cranes stood there with their feet in icy water talking, talking, talking.  Just like a tornado siren gets louder as it faces your way as it turns on the pole, the cranes got louder as they faced us.  The sound they produce makes me think their throats must hurt.  Our third stop should have been quieter because there were no cranes there but the wind whistled loudly through a big stand of red pines.  I don't know why the owls were quiet tonight.  Owls hoot when it's cold.  Maybe the winter storm upset them.  Our seventh stop was quiet but we were right outside two pig barns and it was a very smelly stop.  Our eighth stop is supposed to be right on the main street of Pierz outside the Bootlegger Bar.  We just don't feel comfortable standing, clipboard in hand, outside the back door of the Bootlegger bar in the dark on a Friday night.  Somehow that just doesn't feel right.  So we took the liberty of moving our stop a couple blocks down to a Christmas Park.  It's a park full of Christmas decorations like a big gingerbread house, a reindeer workshop, and a big candy cane.  We stood there, in the dark, for a full 3 minutes before we noticed we were parked directly in front of a fire hydrant.  Somehow that was funny as heck last night.  So we never heard any owls.  We heard cranes, geese, the wind whistling through the trees, machinery, cars, trucks, and dogs.  We saw Orion.  We saw the big dipper balancing with the handle toward the ground.  And we saw the moon.  With ten stops of five minutes each we were outside nearly an hour.  As we left town the bank said the temperature was 31 which surprised me because my cold toes were telling me it was in the 20's.  Our conversations had a strange flow to them.  We'd stop and listen in silence for 5 minutes, get in the car, blab constantly while we drove a mile to the next stop, experience five minutes of silence, and then pick right up on the same conversation again as if there was no 5 minute break.  So I learned something tonight.  It's fun to hear owls on the owl survey but not essential.  Spending time with family is what makes the experience worthwhile.

A Gift

One of the people I contact at my job knows of my interest in birds.  We took a bird class together once.  He brought me a gift today.  The gift was a photo he took while on vacation in Belize.  This photo is full of bright green leaves.  In the center of the leaves is a little bird with a maroon berry in it's beak.  The bird has a red head, a black body and yellow legs.  He asked me to identify the bird.  I had no idea.  I've never seen such a bird like this before but I was pretty sure this wasn't a Minnesota bird.   He said it was a red capped manakin.  I love the photo.  All the green leaves feel like a healing balm to my eyes that have been deprived of color by a long winter.    I taped the photo to the top of my computer monitor at work.  Then I searched the net for the red capped manakin to learn more about it.  The male red capped manakin's mating dance came up.  OMG!  For sure this would make a girl's heart go pitter patter!

 

 

 

 

My First

I had my first of the year sighting of a turkey vulture yesterday.  I saw it gliding around in the air above my yard; wings tipping back and forth in the brisk winds.  I know they hang around here and I wish I knew where they nest.  I found a poem about vultures that I want to share.

“Vulture”
by X.J. Kennedy
The vulture’s very like a sack
Set down and left there drooping.
His crooked neck and creaky back
Look badly bent from stooping.
Down to the ground to eat dead cows
So they won’t go to waste
Thus making up in usefulness
For what he lacks in taste.