Chaga

Today I went on a phenology walk with the MN Master Naturalists and also the Mycological Society members. We split into two groups. The leaders of one group were older and I had hiked with them before. The leaders of the other group were younger so I hiked with the millennials. Someone in the other group found this and they called it coral. It's a plant, not a mushroom, and it looks like the coral I have seen on coral reefs. I have never heard of such a plant before. We walked for an hour in the woods in Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center. An hour long walk in the woods was perfect for a hot afternoon.

Someone in the other group also found Indian pipes which was cool.

When we got back to the meeting place on time the other group was still missing. One of my leaders took out his drone to see if he could see them in the woods. He got this very nice drone for only $600. I mentioned the drone footage I viewed of the Glensheen mansion. He knew the guy who did that footage and also the footage of a drone flying through the Bryant Lake Bowl. You can see the drone footage of the Glensheen mansion or the Bryant Lake Bowl on YouTube. This guy uses his drone on his farm. He farms nearby. He has pigs and goats. He uses the goats to fight invasive species. He hopes to start a business turning buck thorn into goat meat. He also has chickens and pigs. He calls his pigs his rototillers. He said pigs can dig up stones and tree stumps better and faster than any machinery. He said he made a proposal to the city of Duluth to use goats and pigs to clean up the invasive species in parks but the city didn't go for it which is too bad because I think it sounds like a great idea. Also, he named his pigs Bacon and Ham.  LOL

Our group found quite a few lobster mushrooms. See that patch of orange to the left of center in this picture? That is a lobster mushroom.The drought is negatively impacting mushrooms too. The lobster mushrooms are bright orange and they have smooth undersides.

Here is the lobster mushroom sautéed in butter for my supper with onion and a vegie burger. Delicious! I haven't eaten lobster in over 3 decades but I didn't think it tasted like lobster. In fact it didn't have much taste at all. I prefer bella mushrooms to lobster mushrooms.

The best find of the day was this hunk of chaga on a dying birch tree. Chaga is actually a fungus. The fungus attacks a birch tree and, once infected, the tree will die within 8 years.  I had heard of chaga before and I wanted some. He asked, "Does anybody want some?" I said I did and asked if it was hard to get off. He said it might be hard to get off and I might need a knife or a hatchet. Another millennial in the group said she might have a hatchet on her. Who says they might have a hatchet on them? In my opinion you know or you don't know if you have a hatchet on your person. Before she could look for her hatchet he pulled the chagas off the tree and gave me it me. It came off easy. The outside was black and the inside was light brown and looked like cork. Chaga smelled like soil. He kept a small piece for himself. Now I have chaga! If my chaga was liquid I would have about a cup of it. This fungus is worth between $200 and $2000 per pound! I put my chaga in a paper bag and I am going to dry it in my hottest room for a few days. After it is dried chaga is stored in a paper bag in a place with a consistent temperature. I think my refrigerator would be a good place. Chaga, once dried properly, lasts for years without loosing any of it's minerals or healing properties. I told a lady from Ely that the next time she saw me I would look twenty years younger. I was joking. I know chaga is supposed to fight cancer and inflammation so I think I will brew myself some chaga tea some day. I consider myself very lucky to be out in the woods today with this group of very fine mushroom pickers!

 

Sculpture Art

I have been off the grid traveling from Duluth to Vining, MN and back again. Note to self, taking Highway 2 out of Duluth will NOT take you to Highway 210. I didn't figure that out until I got way too far north in Grand Rapids. So then I angled south west. I stopped to buy gas is Remer, MN which is where the attendant offered to take a picture of me holding hands with Sasquatch. From that moment on I decided to get a picture of any and all roadside art on my week long journey.

I stopped to buy lunch in Menagha, MN, home of the Finns. Here is a picture of Saint Urho who drove the grass hoppers out of Finland. His legs seem short for  his body but he is a handsome Saint. 

This statue of my favorite Minnesota tall tale, Paul Bunyan, is in Akeley outside the Paul Bunyan museum. Is it just me or is his left arm a little bit long? I have a friend who lives in NE Minneapolis with the SAME beard, the SAME jeans, the SAME plaid shirt, and the SAME blue eyes. Paul Bunyan looks like he lives in NE Minneapolis. Paul Bunyan dresses like a millennial.

Vining is famous for their sculptures. Here is a cockroach in a pair of pliers.

Here is Ole the Viking standing tall in Alexandria, MN. Thirty years ago I used this statue in giving directions to a friend of mine who grew up in Afghanistan. I laughed out loud when he said he found Ole and pronounced Ole like a bullfighter would.

This statue of a grain bin with a face is in Foley, MN.

Last, but not least, this well used pencil is outside the Paramount Theater on West Saint Germain in Saint Cloud, MN

 

Someday, Someday, Maybe

 Did you ever watch the Gilmore Girls on television? You know that show with the fast talking mother/daughter duo? The couple of women with hyperlogia? One of the stars of that show, Lauren Graham, wrote Someday, Someday, Maybe. And she reads it in the audiobook version which is what I listened to on my phone. She is a fast talking woman and she talks fast in this book. The dialogue totally reminded me of that show. Once I shoved my phone in my pocket without closing the cover. The phone rubbed against my pocket and changed the audio play speed from normal to 1.5 and although I thought she was talking faster right away I really wasn't sure for a few minutes until I finally took my phone out of my pocket to look. The story is about a young actress living in Brooklyn trying to make a go of it. The story line is funny just like the Gilmore Girls. Lauren Graham is a talented writer and actress and producer but she does talk way too fast.

Bioblitz

I attended the 9th annual bioblitz at the Sam Zim blog today and I had a banner day. I chose the spider group so I got to spend the whole day with a spider expert who teaches at Bethel University in Mankato. Around the Welcome Center we found a grass spider, a parasteatodam, a sheet web spider, a filmy dome spider and a wolf spider (see picture). I thought wolf spiders were huge but I guess they come in all sizes. This one was very small. We found dozens of wolf spiders today. I almost stepped on a toad and a wood frog.

We saw a dwarf spider, a ground spider and a lichen moth (see picture).

This is the carcass of a fishing spider stuck to the siding of the Welcome Center. I guess I didn't realize spiders shed like this when they grow larger but it makes perfect sense now.

We drove a few miles away to an agricultural area. We parked between a pasture and a hay field. Here we found a Bronze jumping spider, a flower crab spider (which was bright yellow), a cob web weaver spider, a daddy long legs (which is not actually a spider), and a four line plant bug. I learned that black widow spiders are found in Minnesota but only in Houston County and they are only found down inside gopher holes. Then we saw a female dicsissel fly by with food in her mouth. This dicsissel is a lifer bird for me so this was a banner day. There is a dicsissel irruption this year. We saw bobolinks and a sedge wren and a savannah sparrow, a warbling vireo and a sedge wren. Then I scooped up a spider using the spider net that he could not identify. He took it to preserve it. He planned to soak it in clove oil for a week for more and then surgically extract the reproductive organs and look at it under a microscope. If it turns out to be a new state record spider he said he would give ME partial credit because I scooped it in the net! OMG! Just think of the street cred this would give me! Fingers crossed this is a new state record. This guy already has 50 to 60 state records.

Then we found an assassin bug. That is my finger and also that yellow spot is assassin bug manure. Sh*t happens! We also found a dwarf singer orb weaver, a metaphoria spider, and a mesh weaver. We found a long jawed orb weaver and it was a male. He told me the long jawed orb weaver males hold their sperm in these protrusions from their mouth. The sperm is sucked from the abdomen by the negative pressure in the mouth protrusions which totally sounds like science fiction to me but he swore it was true! 

This is an arabesque bog weaver spider.

Back at the welcome center at the end of the day I found a phoebe nest with babies in it. The group had a recap of the day. The bee group found a frigid bee. The plant group found dog vomit slime mold. The name alone makes me wonder what it looks like. The gall group (not gull but gall) found 60 NEW species today. The bird group found golden winged warblers (which I have yet to see) which is excellent for a middle of the day birding group. They said because of the drought this is tough year for butterflies. Someone found a primrose moth which are a beautiful moth in bright pink and yellow. The primrose moth sleeps during the day inside the primrose flower which is where they found it. All together the 55 people in attendance found between 400 and 500 species.

I forgot to play bog bingo but I had a banner day today.

 

Alaska

 In preparation for an upcoming trip to Alaska, I read James Michener's book, Alaska. I thought I read it before a long time before, like 35 years ago. I wasn't sure I had read it before until I got to chapter ten which is the story about salmon. When I read the part about Nerka, the sockeye salmon whose life is described in detail from hatching to death, I KNEW I had read this before. So in my first reading I guess I identified with the salmon. In my second reading the animals were still important but I got a lot more out reading about characters such as the Danish explorer, Vitus Bering (after whom they named the Bering Sea) or Cidaq, a native who is sold and abused by Russians. I never realized how shabbily the people who lived in Alaska were treated by the politicians in Washington, D.C. and, just as bad, the business interests in Seattle who wanted to reap the benefits of the Alaskan natural resources but keep all the cash in Seattle. I loved rereading this book. Michener is a fine writer but he writes BIG  and thorough books. This one had 5, 424 pages and it took me 15 hours of reading to finish it.

Xylophones

 Today I visited my new favorite garden center which is not near my house but on my way back from my stream monitoring assignments. I think the people who named it didn't have much imagination because the name of the place is A + Garden Center. What this place lacks as far as a cute name is more than made up for in the beautiful displays and luscious plants they have for sale. Walking into one of their two greenhouses is like walking into paradise. They have trees and shrubs and annuals and perennials and house plants and herbs and succulents. They have garden ornaments and fairy garden supplies and mulch and soil and rocks and garden tools and grow lights. Even though this place is in Saginaw and not actually in Duluth, the drive is worth it. The service is also excellent. Today I was walking out and I saw peacocks. I have been here twice and never noticed the peacocks before. How is that possible? This is molting time for peacocks. I am so tempted to reach in and grab a few of those lovely tail feathers.

These peacocks and fancy chickens enjoy luxury accommodations which include xylophones!

McQuade Harbor

Today the weather was calm and the breeze slight so I thought I would be brave and attempt kayaking in Lake Superior. Starting in a safe place like McQuade harbor seemed like a prudent plan because, frankly, kayaking in Lake Superior scares me. The harbor was calm and safe and I got in without falling in the water.

I paddled past the piers made out of giant boulders and into Lake Superior (also known as Gitchi Gummie or the saltless sea). The water was choppier that I thought it would be. In the distance I could see Wisconsin but I can't see Wisconsin in this photo. I was bobbing up and down in the swells. My ride was fascinating and terrifying which are two of my favorite conflicting feelings to have.

Getting back alive was my main goal so after 25 minutes of paddling I headed back. In the distance is a big rocky pier on the right. The entrance to McQuade harbor is right before that big pile of rock.

Here is where I put in. You can see the Scenic route of Highway 61 above the boat landing.

A flock of Canadian geese also like this harbor.

I forgot my dry bag today so I stop at the dock to gently set my phone down just in case I get wet. I also put my water bottle and towel on the dock. The towel is to protect my bare legs from the sun shine. I wait for the anglers to leave before I get out of my kayak. The water is cold!  I make it out of my boat with relative grace for a change. What a nice ride! I could do this again. Or I could try the French River landing which is slightly closer to my house than this one.