How Do I Play This Game?

 

This picture shows a hand made game of some sort that I found in a house in Vining in a cupboard high above the kitchen counter. Chances are one of my ancestors made this! When I pulled it out I found a quarter inch of dust on it. I took a damp cloth, removed all the pegs, dusted both sides, and put the pegs back in. This has to be a game of some sort. But how do I play it? The pegs were old and brittle but I got them all back in. My first thought was the game reminded me of Chinese checkers. But Chinese checkers involves moving various colors from one side to the other and this game has no colors. Maybe this is a 3D version of the game dots and boxes? But how would you keep track of how many boxes you closed? I don't know the answer yet but I am determined to solve this mystery game. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please comment on this post. I will reward you if you come up with a plausible solution.

Chickadee On Alert

Last night I walked up to Chester Creek Bowl for a concert.

The sun was low on the horizon and I like how the sunlight lit up pasts of the tree trunks. As it turns out the band tonight is a country band. It's not that I don't like country music. I just haven't heard any contemporary country music that I like. Of course if I don't listen to country music I won't hear any contemporary country music I do like.

I stayed to listen to the music for awhile but I got distracted by the plants along Chester Creek. Other people were playing down there too.

And then I saw this pollinator hanging around upside down.

Here is a view from the bottom of the insect. The wings on this pollinator remind me of a see-through coat. Didn't Lady Gage wear something similar?

I wonder if pollinators ever get the "twisties" like Simone Biles got at the Olympics.

This is a beech fern. I learned this fern the other day. Beech ferns are common in Canada and around Lake Superior. See how their lower leaflets stick out at a different angle from the other leaflets? You can imagine this fern is a beach chair to help you remember it's a beech fern.

After walking home I sat on my front steps to look at the images on my phone. I got distracted. I saw a Momma House finch feed seeds off the sidewalk to her baby finch. Oh, fer cute! Also four of "my" baby chickadees were frolicking on the electric wire, our garbage can, and in the Siberian pea shrubs. Just for kicks I opened my Audubon app and played the sound of a black capped chickadee just to see how they would react. Upon hearing a foreign chickadee in the East Hillside part of Duluth, the chickadees got agitated. See the fear in this chickadee's face?

Chickadee on alert. I apologized and made my phone go silent.

 

City Hall

 

Today I visited City Hall to vote. We have a primary coming up on Aug. 10. Since I am going to be an election judge in the Morgan Park neighborhood that day I wanted to get my vote in early. I didn't know anybody on the ballot but I made my choices after a long talk with the receptionist about the long lines they had for absentee ballots last fall. He said he used to be an election judge in Morgan Park too but now he is a judge in Gary, New Duluth instead. On my way out I took a picture of all the mayors in town. I like our current mayor, Emily Larson. She lives near me. Looks like they are going to have to buy a new picture frame in the next decade or less. I don't know very much about any of these mayors. Some of them look a bit sanctimonious, don't you think?  Look at the guy in the middle row posing with a pipe. Seriously dude? You posed with a pipe? You were a mayor, not Sherlock Holmes. Some of the mayors are attractive. The one thing they have in common is that they are all white men (except for Emily).

On this picture I have heard of two mayors because there is a Magney-Snively park near Spirit Mountain and there is a Snively road on the east side of town. In this group of earlier mayors they have two things in common. They are all white men and they all have facial hair. I am a fan of facial hair. Just look at the different styles of facial hair. Which one is your favorite? My favorite is Andreas Miller, the first one on the left in the second row. He was mayor for only 2 years. He must have used wax on that mustache to get those curls on the ends. Vespian, in the top row, was mayor for only one year. I wonder what the story was with Vespian? Plus, have you ever met anyone named Vespian? My former neighbor had a dog named Vesper but that is as close as I have come to meeting a Vespian. Whoa, just think of the teasing Vespian would get in junior high with a name like that!

Mission Creek

Last night I went on a hike with a newly formed group called Arrowhead Native Plants. I might join this group. We started our nature hike in Fond du Lac at the Superior Hiking Trail trailhead. I found this location easily because I have hiked this section of the trail last year. An ecologist from the DNR was our expert. He took us into this board walk area with a monoculture of ostrich ferns. This area is like a fairy land. I could expect to see fairies or leprechauns or gnomes in here.

He told us the history of the area. Mission Creek is named after a mission that was here once. The area along the Saint Louis River was a highway for native people traveling to or from the Lake Superior area to the Mississippi River area. He said in the 1920's this area had a huge ski jumping contest. He saw a photo of hundreds of cars parked in this area to attend the contest. Now all signs of the ski jump are gone but Spirit Mountain is about 10 miles away. The floods of 2011 washed all this area out. The flow of Mission Creek was changed. The city has restored the creek by adding boulders and creating a meandering flow. The plant in the foreground is Canada tick trefoil. He also said when Highway 23 was constructed the state transportation department moved Native remains to the top of the ridge. He said MN DOT did not learn the lesson. The MN DOT project to restore the bridge over Mission Creek is put on hold due to another disturbance of Native burial grounds.

This is false sunflower. One petal is missing. Did someone start to play "Love me, love me not?"

This is vervain.

This is not a plant. A young mother brought her two preschool aged boys along. One of the boys showed me this monarch caterpillar he found so I asked if I could take a picture. We had about 20 people in our group. The native plant group looked to be made up of millennials but the visitors were older like me except for the mom and her two boys. 

This is a non-native plant called milk vetch. No one knows how it got here. Maybe it was on the tires of some construction equipment when the creek was restored. Only native species were planted here on purpose after the flood in 2011.

Exposed sandstone such as this is rare in this area. Sandstone was once mined. The dark brown stone of the old Central High School in Duluth came from this area.

Here is some round leaf dog wood. Also, the dog in the picture is a mixture of Australian sheep dog and other animals. She is a rescued farm dog and her name is Tilly. Tilly is a good dog.

We found six different ferns on the walk. This one is oak fern.

Beech fern. We found a couple ripe thimble berries. He said thimble berries are found around lake Superior, on the west coast in the state of Washington, and in Alaska. I asked why thimble berries grow in isolated pockets. He said one theory is thimble berries grew only around the edges of glaciers. That makes sense to me.

This is white lettuce. It does not look edible. All these plants are growing in clay soil which are common below Lake Superior. The clay was once the bottom of Lake Superior when Lake Superior was formed by the melting of a glacier and was a much larger lake. The clay has pockets of sand and gravel mixed in. When the creeks cut into the clay mudslides are formed. Mudslides are a natural feature in this area but they are made worse by climate change.

This is foul manna grass plus Tilly the dog and the feet of Tilly's owners. Tilly is a good dog.

This is jewel weed which is also known as touch me not.

We hiked higher on the ridge and we're now into a mesic forest. Here is some false Solomon seal.

This turkey tail fungus is trying to hard to fruit. The green leaves of this plant are in the way but the fungus is determined!

Indian pipe fungus! Cool. We started this hike at 6 and how it is 7:30 and the sun is low on the horizon. Everybody turns around to walk back to the parking lot. I really wish I had brought my walking sticks with me. The walking sticks are right there in my car!

This is nanny berry shrub. Dang, this was a fun night. I should really join this group.

 

The Sisters Of Glass Ferry

 Kim Michele Richardson wrote The Sisters Of Glass Ferry. This book was mentioned by Barack Obama as one of his favorites this year. Isn't it cool that we have a literate former President? I liked it too. The voices of Flannery and her twin sister, Patsy, are very real. Patsy is older by eight minutes and those eight minutes become very important in their lives growing up in Glass Ferry, Kentucky. The twins are about my age. Their father, Honey Bee, legally distills good Kentucky bourbon. His bourbon is popular far and wide. Some of the classmates of Patsy and Flannery look down on them because of Honey Bee's occupation. This book reminds me of how mean some people can be and how much words can hurt. What I liked best about the book is that the author carefully examines both the positive and negative aspects of the twins, the parents, and all of the other colorful characters in Glass Ferry, Kentucky.

To The Bright Edge Of The World

 Eowyn Ivey wrote To The Bright Edge Of The World. The book consists of journal entries, letters, reports and newspaper articles. The story starts out in Oregon about 1900. Newly married Sophie and Colonel John Forrestor are living in the barracks when he is assigned to an exploratory expedition up the Wolverine River in Alaska. Sophie just found out she is pregnant when she learns her husband will be away for a year. The letters between Sophie and her husband are so poignant that I was disappointed to learn that they are both fictional characters. I guess I should have realized that because real people could not possible write such moving letters. Of course the expedition runs into trouble. The native people are wary after being abused and made into slaves by Russian explorers. If it wasn't for native people the American crew would never have survived the cold, the darkness, the lack of food, and the lack of shelter. Sophie was my favorite character. She is a bird watcher. She decided to start photographing birds with one of those big cameras that uses glass slides. Sophie is constantly tramping out into the woods with her camera and her nature notebook. She converts her pantry into a darkroom. The other military wives come over for tea without being invited and are appalled to see what she has done to her house. They berate Sophie for not having cookies or biscuits available. Sophie tells them she would have had cookies if she had known they were coming. Now the military wives are even more upset with her because she told the truth about their rude behavior. Sophie tells them she has to get back to her work and sends them on their way. I liked this book so much I was sad to come to the end of it.

Day At The Fair

Today I monitored my streams. Look at that orange banded bee on the Joe Pye weed. I thought, just for kicks, I would attend the 100th anniversary Southern Saint Louis County fair in Proctor on my way home. I heard about it on the news because the truck delivering the carnival rides tipped over on the way to Proctor. The organizers had to scramble and ended up renting a boat load of bouncy houses.

I got there around 11 a.m. and things were pretty quiet. The children's farmland was just opening up. I like their apple tree because it has real apples on it.

This fair is much calmer than the state fair. I liked the relaxed atmosphere. Plus the Canadian smoke that has been plaguing us for the past 3 weeks cleared today.

Here are the blue ribbon jam and jelly winners.

See that washcloth in the right with the scalloped edges that won first prize? I have made dozens and dozens of them. I could have won first prize too if only I entered the contest.

Woah, some interesting skulls are in the art contest. The gold cow skull on the right won a blue ribbon. The upside down horse skull with gold teeth won a red ribbon.

I like this windmill painting.

Kids enjoyed petting the baby chicks.

The pupils in the eyes of goats tend to creep me out. Is it just me or do these two goats appear to have sinister intentions?

This handsome (and loud) rooster won a blue ribbon. I can tell it's an Americauna because he has green legs.

This prize bunny has a prominent double chin.

This goat had an attractive coat. I bought some cheese curds and sat down to wait for the talent contest to start when I got a call from Offspring #1 who was at the Newport Kite Festival with his family. I told them about the fair and they told me about the kite festival. Today was a fun day at the fair.