The Pioneers

 I finished a l o n g book called Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought The American Ideal West by David McCullough. I enjoyed reading the story from the perspective of five white men although I think the story could have been improved if the author chose more diverse people. How about a woman? How about a Native American? Women and Native Americans are mentioned but only as secondary figures. These people set out in 1788 to settle in what is now Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. They had 3 main principles and I admire those principles but not their exceptions. No slaves will be allowed. Free universal education will be available for everyone (except the Native Americans). Freedom of religion for everyone (except the Native Americans). They caught political flack for their position of slavery even from President Thomas Jefferson yet they persisted. Were they brave or fool hardy or both? I think it depends on your perspective. Some famous people moved into this territory like Johnny Appleseed and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Some of the book contains quotes from letters to or from the five white men. No doubt this author did his research. I wonder though if he should have included as many details as he did. Perhaps the subject matter was too big for only one book. I enjoyed the book but I doubt I will remember much because my mind was flooded with so many details.

Graduation

On Friday I went to a high school graduation ceremony at Bethel University. The campus is beautiful. Canadian geese and goslings congregate on the plush lawn and unlike geese I see in the remote places, these geese did not care that we were walking by so close to them. They didn't appear to give us a second glance. There is a little lake in front of Benson Hall and I heard a sora rail call out as I walked in the building. We walked through a stylish building and I found myself in the nose bleed seats. The main stage was so far away the people looked like ants. We were spaced very far apart from each other. The graduating class had between 40 and 50 students in it and I was impressed by how orderly and respectful they were. As the students marched in with their bright blue robes and blue caps Pomp and Circumstance played on a loop tape. I love that song. The music is so stately and elegant. I found myself whistling the tune all the way home. There were quite a few speeches by school staff and they were nicely short in length. Two or three students spoke. One home advisor spoke. His advice was to be where your feet are (focus on the moment at hand), don't compare yourself to others (be yourself instead of who you think other people want you to be), and remain curious about the world around you. I thought he had good advice. There was a slideshow of the students. My niece had a huge smile on her face as a big yellow snake wrapped itself around her neck and down her body. I know for a fact she loves reptiles. My nephew had several photos of him representing the Future Farmers of America and also dressed in chains as Jacob Marley. I had my phone magnified so I could catch the moment when they walked across the stage to get their yellow flower, diploma, and gift box. The lady in front of me had a big head that got in the way every time I tried to take my nephew's picture. Before the students exit the stage they pose for a photo at the marked spot on the floor. He put his flower in his mouth and hammed it up for the photo which was not caught by me because of the lady's big head. I did catch my niece as she posed though. Afterward the students threw their hats in the air and quietly filed out to the warm summer evening outside. As you can see the sun cast long shadows on the lawn. After talking for a while and offering congratulations, I headed out to the parking lot for my car where I saw this painted turtle laying her eggs in the black soil of the lawn. I've seen snapping turtles lay eggs. I have seen soft shelled turtles lay eggs. This is the first time I have seen a painted turtle laying eggs. What a great evening I had. I was lucky to be invited.

 

Happy Birthday II

 Today is my other Grandma's birthday. Her name was Gertrude and  she was born in 1889. The family history document says she was born on June 5th but we always had her down for June 4th. She was married in 1911 and she died in 1969. She was of German descent and could speak German and some Polish. She had eleven children. Eleven children! What do I remember about my other Grandma? She had nice gams. Her legs were shapely and beautiful. She was a little stout on top but great legs. She had pretty white hair and long ear lobes. She had a double chin and kind eyes. I watched her sew on her sewing machine with the foot treadle. She taught me to cook vegetables and how to bake cakes on her wood burning stove in the kitchen. The stove was a beautiful cream and blue wood burning stove and it's still in the basement at her house. She had a nice garden. I remember picking carrots and potatoes and onions that she kept in her root cellar. She kept a bucket of well water from the pump house on the kitchen counter. The bucket had a ladle and the rule was you could drink out of the ladle if you drank all the water or poured what was left into the sink before putting it back in the bucket. The water tasted good to me. She worked on the dairy farm where they had cows, pigs, chickens, cats, and dogs. The animals stayed outside or in the barn. My Dad always said she preferred to work outside rather than inside. They grew alfalfa, hay, corn and oats. They had a burn barrel for trash. I remember once during a car ride with my Dad, Grandma and my Aunt Dorothy my Grandma got sick and vomited into a paper bag. Someone threw the paper bag into the fire in the burn barrel. Somebody yelled, "Her teeth are in that bag!" My Aunt Dorothy, to my utter surprise, reached into the flames and grabbed that bag thereby saving Grandma's teeth. I thought my Aunt Dorothy was a super hero whose strength was the inability to get burned. Grandma was a snazzy dresser. In reviewing some 3D slides I saw her wearing hats with nets to pull down over the eyes, fashionable pumps, and classy wool coats. She took me to the church festival a few times and I would sit next to her as she played bingo. She loved bingo. She also loved eavesdropping on the party line telephone. Each customer would have a special ring. She would look at me and put her finger to her lips so I would be quiet as she picked up and listened in on other people's conversations. She had a favorite spot to sit in the kitchen between the fridge and the counter on a tall chair that had feet that could fold out and be used as a step stool. She wore dressed with an apron on top. She went to church regularly even though her husband didn't. She had deep sorrows in her life. Her fourth child, George, died as a baby when his baby buggy got bumped and rolled into the stove while she and her husband were milking the cows. Her fifth child, Lorraine, died at age 11 when she caught a cold walking home from school.  She also had good times. She traveled to Seattle to visit her daughters. She told me once that her girlfriend dated Lawrence Welk. She loved to talk and I loved to listen to her talk. I sat by her side while she told stories. Sometimes she told the same stories over and over again. She had a HUGE fear of wolves. She could hear wolves howling on her way walking to or from school in Urbank and it scared the living daylights out of her. She was never attacked by a wolf but she sure didn't like them. If only I paid more attention to her stories when I was younger I would be able to remember more of them now. For a time she was in the hospital in Parker's Prairie. She was there when we moved Grandpa out of their house to come and live with us. Grandpa was a little confused at the time and it was cold out. I remember because I was wearing my very beautiful reversible winter coat. One side was green and the other side was green and blue plaid. As my Dad, my Grandpa and I were walking from the car into the hospital, Grandpa slipped me his bottle of brandy and told me to hide it in my pocket. I put the bottle of brandy into the pocket on the inside of my winter coat. I felt so COOL carrying a secret bottle of brandy! Once she recovered in Parkers Prairie she moved into our house. In the morning she would tell me how poorly she slept. She said, "I heard the cuckoo at midnight. I hear the cuckoo at 1. I heard the cuckoo at 2. I heard the cuckoo at 3. I heard the cuckoo at 4." She must have had insomnia. She couldn't hear well or see well. I feel bad about this but sometimes we would crawl under the braided rug to see how close we could get to her chair before she saw us. That wasn't very nice. My job was to make her lunch. She loved head cheese. Golly, gag me with a spoon. I hated the smell of that head cheese. It's no wonder I am a vegetarian. She and Grandpa slept in a tiny bedroom. She was there when he passed away. Toward the end of his life he was confined to bed. My Mom had to use a suction tube to aspirate his lungs. I knew something was up when he died. My Dad opened the stairwell door and hollered, "Kids, stay upstairs!" I looked out the window and saw the hearse parked in the driveway. Such a sad day it was. After that Grandma moved to a nursing home. I'm not sure if she didn't move back to the nursing home in Parkers Prairie or to the one on Lexington and Hwy. 94 in Saint Paul but she died of colon cancer at the one in Saint Paul. I really miss her. Happy 132nd birthday! I am grateful we had so much time together.

Shamrock Anomaly

 

I acquired a few shamrock roots from my parent's garden a few years ago and they are really doing well. Each year I have more roots. This year I grew some indoors and I planted some outdoors where there is a pot attached to my front steps. The pot is adorned with rock cemented to it and it's super cute. The outdoor shamrocks haven't come up yet. We had  frost last week for 3 nights and I put a blanket around the pot. The begonia in the center didn't freeze so I think the shamrocks will come up in time. But look at the weird growth off of one of the shamrock flower heads on this one. I put a piece of white paper behind it so you can see it better. I think a, um, I don't know the word to use here, deformed or beautiful leaf has sprung out of the flower head and decided to keep on growing up towards the sun. Go figure!

Walking The Trail

Today was another perfect day in Duluth. After cleaning house all morning I monitored by streams and took a walk on a snowmobile trail between the Us Kab Wan Ka river and the Cloquet River. One advantage to this hike is the complete safety from wood ticks. A few flies buzzed my head and I almost got t-boned by a Canada Yellow Swallowtail butterfly but insects were not a problem today. This is the view of my walk after an hour and I am about to turn around.

This is my view head back toward my car. I am on a gradually declining hill. The sun in shining and the birds are singing and a light breeze feels wonderful. I didn't see a single person using this road today.

Now closer to my car I go over the snowmobile bridge over the  Cloquet river. We're looking upstream here and the water is flowing toward me. The rust color in the lower left is the bridge railing where I set my phone to take a still picture. This water looks too shallow to canoe here but maybe a kayak would work.

And this is the view from the other side of the bridge. The water is flowing away. I just love the cotton ball clouds of summer. And look at all those different shades or green! I am trying to be good to my skin. I am wearing a hat and a long sleeved shirt with SPF protection. The tops of my hands and feet are getting pretty tan. Last week after this trip I washed and waxed my car at a new car wash in town called Tommy's Express. Today I went back to clean the inside. As a home owner I washed my car in my driveway with rain out of my rain barrel. Going to this car wash is SO MUCH EASIER I can't hardly believe it. They have a mat washer for free. They have powerful vacuums for free. I brought my own paper towels, some Rain-X spray, a rag, and a container of soapy water and cleaned out the inside in half the time it used to take me at home. Plus I didn't have to lug my vacuum out to the garage. Today was their grand opening celebration and I won a free tree shaped scent labeled "New Car Smell." This is where I am coming for all future car washes.

 

Boulder Lake Reservoir

 

Today I dug my kayak out of the basement after I finished doing my laundry and loaded it up and drove back to Boulder Lake Reservoir where I spent the day on Sunday. To my surprise the parking lot was almost as busy as it was on Sunday. I had no problem unloading and getting in. This time I texted Offspring #2 to let her know what I was doing in case I ran into trouble. In hindsight I really wished I had taken a picture of the lake map on my phone before I left because you could easily get totally lost. I played it smart by hugging the right shoreline and exploring all the bays. Some were shallow and I could feel boulders beneath me. I was started by a great blue heron who seemed to appear out of no where. I guess it was standing so still I didn't notice it. I watched as it slowly marched away and hid behind a big boulder. Next I saw an otter's head appear close to shore and I watched with my binoculars as it scampered up a sandy beach in head into the woods. I saw a flock of 27 Canadian geese but they kept the goslings hidden from my sight. I saw some ducks but they were too far away to identify. I heard a veery and a pair of loons. I saw a goldfinch. Even though there were at least a dozen boats on this lake I was all by myself. Many times I would look around me and see no sign of human life. I saw no power lines, no houses, no roads, no planes, no signs, and no trash. I was surrounded by complete and utter wilderness. The silence was very enjoyable. Tree frogs were croaking and birds were singing and the water gently lapped at the shore and stones. My kayak makes a little groaning noise as I paddle but that is it. The day was perfect. Not too hot and not too cold and not too windy. Just perfect! As an added bonus, I'm not getting any wood ticks today! I was told that the water level is way down and I could see by the coloration on the rocks and the extra wide beaches that the water must be between 2 and 3 feet lower than usual. Does the rock in the picture look like an elephant standing in water with it's head down to you? Looks like an elephant to me.

On the right side of the water line you can barely make out the 16 foot Lund fishing boat. This boulder looks like an elephant and is as big as an elephant too; perhaps bigger.  I paddled over to it and splashed it with water so the elephant rock looked prettier. Sitting in my kayak is my happy place. Why don't I do this more often? Last year I had my kayak out only once. This summer I vow to go more often. I made my way back to the landing, packed the kayak in, tied the red scarf on the end sticking out of my trunk, texted Offspring #2, and drove home happy to be alive.

Happy Birthday!

 On this day in 1909, 112 years ago, my Grandmother was born. What do I remember about my Grandmother? Why do I miss her to this day? My Grandmother was a great listener. She got pretty hard of hearing at the end but before that she was a great listener. I could talk to her for hours. And I did talk to her for hours.. Physically she was short and stout with flat feet, long and strong fingers, and thick ankles. But she was flexible. I would often see her in the garden bent over at the waist. She was able to touch her toes without problem. She used to have a bump on the tip of her nose. It looked like a large skin colored pimple. She had the doctor remove it. I complained. I told her I liked it. I told her she didn't look like herself anymore without her bump on her nose. She said it would get caught in her clothing sometimes when she undressed and that was painful so I quit complaining about her decision to have it removed. One day she was at our house babysitting. She was sitting in the comfy chair next to the lamp with a baby on her lap. She loved holding babies. I was sitting cross legged on the floor next to her looking at the evening edition of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. A headline caught my eye. I don't remember the exact headline but I do remember it mentioned two businesses and it had the word intercourse in it. So I asked, "Grandma, what is intercourse?" Grandma replied, "You can ask you mother that question tomorrow." I forgot all about it until the next day. I got chewed out by my mother for asking Grandma about intercourse. In all that chewing out she didn't tell me what it meant either. I figured it must be a very powerful word to cause the grown ups to get bent out of shape about it. My Grandmother was a great cook. She foraged for dandelion greens in the spring. She made horseradish sauce with the horseradish plant she had outside her bedroom window. She would make so many Christmas cookie cut outs her entire full sized bed would be covered with prettily frosted cookies. She made sauerkraut in the cellar. She milked cows. She cooked up some strange foods such as cow tongue but I suppose she was just being thrifty. She liked to drink her root beer at room temperature. She told me many times that she never drank alcohol and she never wore rouge and I do not understand how those two things went together. She grew grapes in an arbor for jelly. She grew rows and rows of raspberries. Sometimes the nuns from Saint Bernard's church would come out to pick raspberries. Once I was helping a nun pick berries but I had to run home to the bathroom. When I came back I couldn't find my nun. They all looked the same to me I guess. She had chickens and would pluck them before cooking them. She never seemed to mind me hanging out with her in the kitchen or the yard. She worked hard and Grandpa worked hard too. She was good with money. She invested wisely once she became a widow and actually was able to save more than she spent. She wasn't a saint. No one is a saint. But I loved her. To me she was the center of the wheel for her side of the family. She kept in touch with people and shared stories so we all knew what was going on. Once she passed away the family sort of broke off into separate worlds. She knew a lot but she wasn't right all the time. I wish she was still here but she'd be 112 years old and that would not be good.

Here she is 1980 visiting my house. Her glasses are back in style now!