Candy Freak

A man in my book club recommended this Candy Freak: A Journey Through The Chocolate Underbelly of America with a warning. He said after reading this book by Steve Almond he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  The man was 61 years old and it's not typical to get juvenile diabetes at that age.  Instead of scaring me off, I was intrigued.  Could a book induce a chronic disease?  I don't think so but time will tell.  Steve Almond is a joy to read (get it?  Almond Joy?)  His humor is infectious.  His sarcasm very thick.  His descriptions of the sensations of eating chocolate are almost pornographic.  This man really enjoys his candy. I like candy too but not like this guy.  He has pounds of various candies stashed around his house.  He got all upset when Caravelle candy bar was not available in stores anymore and he wouldn't stop talking about it.  His friends, no doubt sick of hearing about Caravelles, encouraged him to write a book.  So he did write a book.  Certain regions of the country have their own candy bars.  We have Nut Goodie and Salted Nut Roll here in Minnesota.  Some candy bars are too delicate to be shipped in planes or by truck.  This authors travels to small candy manufacturers and tours their plants and listens to the history of each business.  I really enjoyed this book.  Here is a quote from it:    “Every now and then, I'll run into someone who claims not to like chocolate, and while we live in a country where everyone has the right to eat what they want, I want to say for the record that I don't trust these people, that I think something is wrong with them, and that they're probably - and this must be said - total duds in bed.”

Friendaversary

A friend and I wanted to celebrate our anniversary. We met in 1975 and from the start we thought each other was funny.  Months will pass without a word and then we pick right up where we left off.  So we met on Sunday in Munsinger Gardens in Saint Cloud.

We had a picnic lunch and then strolled the gardens.  This is the purple section.

Here is the yellow section.

Munsinger Gardens are a beautiful place.

This crane fountain is one of the largest fountains in the world.

Nothing like matching pink footie pajamas (with hoods) to celebrate a friendaverary!

Sometimes I Lymph

I can't decide which one if the funniest.

Last Day of North Shore Training

The director of Wolfridge gave us a talk about teaching kids about climate change.  He had a big red balloon attached to the ceiling.  I'll be the balloon was at least 4 feet in diameter.  That balloon represents the carbon left from burning one gallon of gasoline.  Wow.  I fill at least 10 of those balloons every week in my car.  He has a computer rigged up to his education building that shows the amount of energy currently being expended.  He challenges the kids to increase the energy spent.  The kids race around the building turning on all the lights and equipment.  Then he challenges them to bring the energy use down.  He said it's a great way to get the kids invested.  He showed us several other good tips for teaching kids about climate change without depressing them too much.  After that we headed out to our bus and drove to Isabella.  We went down a forestry road in the national forest and pulled over by a bog.  The bog had a moat around it so we had to step over a big span of water to step onto the floating bog.  I made it onto the bog without falling and then was fascinated by what I saw.  Carnivorous pitcher plants were everywhere!  We were all enthralled.

I give my new rain boots from Fleet Farm an A+!

This is cotton grass.

I can't remember all the names but we saw leather leaf and Labrador Tea.

The spagnum moss was squishy to walk on.  I felt like I was on a trampoline.  One lady struggled.  She grabbed me for support several times.  I tried to move away from her because I did not want to fall in the bog.  I just had my hip replaced.  I really want to avoid falling.  Eventually she did fall on her rear and she almost took me down with her.  She said it was a very soft landing. I didn't help her up.  I started to but then thought better of it.  Three other people were right there to give her a hand.

We found lots of fungi

It was so cool to be on the bog.  Walking on it damages it.  Our footprints will remain.  But education about a bog is important.  Our instructor said in the long run educated people will do more to protect bogs so walking on it today will be worth it.

Lots of white moths out today.

If you cut a pitcher plant open you can see the insect carcasses inside.

If you stand too long in one place you go deeper.  We were warned we should all wear hats in the bog.  That way they can find us easier if we fall through.

This fungi has pores on the bottom.

If you looked carefully you can see the webs of hundreds of bowl spider nests.

Then we drove further to a mature bog.  My feet are dryer here and a few trees are living on it.

Like the beautiful tamarack trees.  Their needles are arranged in beautiful star shapes.

We found lots of chantarelle mushrooms - all a little bit past their prime.  On our way driving out of Isabella we saw a logging truck had run off the road in the past 45 minutes.  It looked like the driver had to climb out of the broken windshield.  The engine was still warm.  We hoped the driver was okay and had been rescued already.

We drove to Crosby Manitou State Park for our picnic lunch.  After lunch we had a hike and found these cool fungi called Deadman's Fingers.

And this fungi growing on a dead spruce log is called witches butter. All this rain is bringing up some crazy mushrooms.  After this hike we headed back to the bus to the Cloquet Forestry Center where our cars were waiting for us.  We all bought some books from our instructor Larry Weber, made our farewells and headed home.  After 3 days of rain  and cool weather it was really a culture shock for me to come home and see people wearing tank tops, shorts and sandals.  I am glad I took this chance to take time off work and learn things about the North Shore. Even though the fall color was only at 15% I enjoyed my trip very much.

Training in Grand Marais

At the end of the day we took the bus up to Grand Marais to walk around the harbor.  Here we saw more columnar jointing.  At this location I usually walk out to the breakwater.  Since the wind and the water were so high and since the instructors went the other way, I went the other way too.  I picked my way slowly over the rocks, the roots and the mud and did my best not to fall. 

We saw fungi and lichen and cedar waxwings.  I forgot to mention that at Sugarloaf Cove we saw an American pipit and a peregrine falcon in the same minute of time.

The waves were really coming in hard but the rain had slowed down to a drizzle.

A gull watches over the town to make sure everything is in order.

We had a tour of the folk school.  A tv film crew was here for an episode of "How Its Made."  They were filming three stories.  One of the stories was on birch bark canoes.

Cedar strip canoes are also made here.  A family of 5 is here working together on this canoe.

This school offers classes on everything from forging knives, making bread, making moccasins, textile arts and carpentry.  The school brings in students from all over the world and adds quite a bit to the Grand Marais economy.  I think I should take a class here.  I think I would prefer doing something challenging and unfamiliar.  I think it would be pretty cool to forge my own knife.  The school has it's own schooner and sailing is another class that is offered.  After our tour we had dinner in town and took the hour long bus ride back to Wolf Ridge.

More Training

For our training we stayed overnight at Wolfridge Environmental Center.  We stayed in a dorm without kids and didn't even hear the 200 fifth graders and 40 eighth graders who also stayed there.  I wish my children could have stayed at this place because it would have been a good experience for them.  As part of their duties some of the kids have KP (KP stands for kitchen party).  One adorable fifth grade boy with round glasses enthusiastically offered me garlic toast and complimented me on my necklace.  He was over the top on the adorable scale.  After breakfast we had another rainy day but I was ready for it with my yellow rain pants, my new Carhart rain jacket (I give it a grade A for rain proofing), my yellow umbrella and my hiking boots.  We hiked up and down the Temperance River looking at geology features.

I absolutely love climbing on the rocks with other people who are as geeky as I am.

As one guy in the class put it, "Soaked with enthusiasm the geezers unite.'

My ability to hear a lecture about geology while rain drips on my umbrella actually improved over time.  The rain wasn't as hard as yesterday.

But the rain was hard enough that flash flood warnings were issued up and down the north shore.

It's hard to imagine the lava flowing here back when Minnesota was located sideways and on the equator before the continents separated.

The top layer of lava is ripply and is called pahoehoe (pronounced pa hoy hoy).  It's like the top layer of a brownie - ripply and shiny.  The second layer has air bubbles in it (which when filled with minerals can become agates).  The third layer makes columnar jointing as seen above.  The columns can have 4, 5 6, or 7 sides.

Last night we had a lecture from the author of "Lichens of the North Woods" and another lecture from the author of "Dragonflies of the North Woods."  I enjoyed the lectures and the crap each author gave each other about their topics.  Today I have my eyes out for lichens and dragonflies.

The beauty here is so distracting.

The water is fast and dangerous.

We have our lunch here.  As a vegetarian I get a pb&j that was severely lacking.  The meat eaters get lettuce and tomato and onion and turkey.  How fair is that?

This rock was mined near Carlton and brought here.  It is greenish in color and is called anorthocyte.  Chemically it is very similar to the rocks brought back from the moon.

Many of the people in my class have hiked part of the Superior Hiking Trail.  One of my instructors has hiked the entire length backtracking style. That means he parks at a spot, hikes half the day, turns around and hikes back to his car.  He goes home and does another section another day.  By the time he is done he has hiked the entire trail twice.  Am I too old to even think about this as a goal?  He says backtracking is the best way to go because the view is so different on the way back.

Advanced Training

I took an advanced training for Master Naturalists on the North Shore this week.  I spent Tuesday night at the Carlton Forestry Center. We left from there on Wednesday morning on a coach bus.  "Be prepared for rain," they said.  And I was.  I brought boots, rain pants, rain coat and umbrella.  But I didn't wear it all the first day.  And it poured rain on Wednesday.  My tennis shoes were so soaked they are still wet today.  We toured an experiment in Cloquet about global warming.  They have specific plots of earth warmed 1.8 degrees Celsius and two more plots warmed 3.6 degrees Celsius.  One of each plot is in the sun and another in the shade.  So far the results show broad leafed trees are thriving while spruce and birch decline.  They even included invasive buckthorn in the plots.  I had to physically restrain myself from pulling that buckthorn.  Buckthorn seems to like the warmer future too.  After that we toured some of the damage done in the 2012 flood at Chester Creek.  Then we headed,  in the pouring rain, to this Master Naturalist capstone project where they are building a bench with human forms on the backrest.  In the future children will be able to sit there and feed chickadees with their bare hands - an experience sure to ignite the passion of nature in our youth.

We visited sugarloaf cove nature Center and took a long hike in the pouring rain.

Lucky for us igneous rocks are not slippery.

Sugarloaf Cove has a huge diversity of rock varieties.

Sugarloaf Cove is beautiful.

Lake Superior has a very small tide - only a couple centimeters.  But Lake Superior can have a seiche - a bathtub effect.  Wind or weather can cause a surge to travel 8 hours across the lake and come back again 16 hours later.

I want to come back and visit during the gales of November.

Walking out to sugar loaf peninsula in the rain was a work out and an ankle strengthener for sure.  This is a good place to learn about the rift valley, lava flows, metamorphic and igneous and sedimentary rocks, and geology.  My brain was stuffed full of new information.