Primary Today

Today I am an election judge in Precinct 33. Some Canadians are residents of this precinct but they don't have paper proof that they live here.

A neighbor could vouch for them so they could vote today. (Also that goose appears to have two heads).

But it would be a fowl idea.

 

Where Is The Beef?

Here is the beef walking up to the water tank with her baby beef at her side. Such a good Momma beef. I am not a beefeater. I am not a ceremonial guard at the Tower of London. I don't even drink Beefeater Gin. But I do appreciate the beef cattle visually. Oddly enough, I even enjoy the smell of beef cattle once in a while. If I see a cow while I am driving on a road, I automatically say, "Cow," even if I am alone in the car.

Little black bull and big black bull.

Why so curious? You saw me yesterday.

Drought is affecting these cattle. Grass is hard to come by. These cattle have the luxury of roaming not one farm, not two farms, but three farms to find enough to eat. I hope for an inch of slow rain once a week for the next eight weeks so these cattle won't suffer anymore than they already have.

 

Quadruple Scoby

 I got a new scoby from Offspring #2 so I am brewing kombucha again. A scoby is a pancake of bacteria and yeast. Kombucha is a pro-biotic, naturally carbonated drink. Lately I have make grapefruit/ginger kombucha which is pretty tasty. The process is putsy but not really difficult. First you brew some black tea. I use three tea bags with 7 cups of water and a half cup of sugar mixed in. I let that cool to 110 degrees Farenheit. Then I add one cup of kombucha from the previous batch with the scoby. Just look at the thick scoby I got going there! I have a quadruple scoby! But the pancake layers haven't separated yet so I kept them all together. Once the scoby layers separate I can either give a scoby away, throw a scoby away, or start making two batches of kombucha at the same time. Anybody need a scoby? The next step is to transfer the scoby from the fermented kombucha into the fresh tea and sugar mixture. I use a wooden spoon to do that. The scoby is smooth and shiny and sort of reminds me of a very pale piece of liver. Then I cover the scoby in it's tea bath with cheese cloth or coffee filter tightened with a rubber band. I cover that with a cloth and set it on top of my fridge for about 3 weeks. Kombucha must be fermented in clean glass containers. Metal containers would not be good. In the brown, flip-top bottles I used a funnel to add grapefruit juice and grated ginger into each bottle. I put less than an ounce of juice in each bottle. Using the funnel again I pour the fermented kombucha into each bottle watching carefully because I can't really see through the brown glass and I hate to clean up an overflow. Once the bottle is full half way up the neck, I flip the top on and set it on the counter for four days for the second fermentation. Every day I burp the bottle to release some of the natural carbonation. I have heard stories about these brown bottles exploding from the pressure of the carbonation. Wouldn't that be a mess to clean up? After four days I put the bottles into the fridge. Every day I will have 3 to 4 ounces of kombucha to drink. The taste is different and takes some getting used to. Kombucha doesn't taste like black tea which is good because I don't like black tea. The bacteria and yeast eat up most of the sugars so it is low in calories. Kombucha does have some caffeine in and also a tiny bit of alcohol. Kombucha is supposed to be good for my gut and I like it for a tasty treat and an alternative to soda. I have found this website to be very helpful if you want to know more.

Eiger Dreams

 Jon Krakauer wrote Into The Wild and Missoula, both of which I liked very much. This time I read Eiger Dreams. This adventure tale is actually a series of articles he had written about his climbing adventures put together as a book. He writes about climbing Eiger, K2, Denali and other difficult peaks. He also writes about other climbers. There are some crazy people out there who would rather risk their lives climbing sheer rock cliffs or crumbling glacier ice than taking a long stroll down a flat path. I like adventure too but I am not willing to take the risks that these climbers take. Some of these climbers were stuck in a blizzard in a smelly cave and running out of food and water. That does not sound like fun to me. I am willing to sleep in a tent but I am not willing to be in a tent when it's snowing. No way, Jose. I did enjoy reading the book though while shaking my head at the crazy climbers.

Woodstock Bay

Today I joined the St. Louis River Alliance on a guided canoe trip. We met at Woodstock bay in Superior, Wisconsin.

The water was as warm as bath water!

A very helpful woman drove this VW. I, and many other people, loved her kayak rack because it brings the kayak down to where she can reach it. To protect the finish on her car she used two canoe cushions. She wisely attached two long magnets to the cushions so the cushions stayed in place. I love this kayak carrier.

Today was blustery. Winds were blowing at 19 mph. We decided to stay in a protected bay

 because the main channel of the St. Louis river had white caps. A woman from the Minnesota DNR talked about the restoration of Grassy Point boat landing. She said the DNR handles restoration. If the pollution problem is more significant, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency handles it. Sitting on the water listening to a lecture about restoring this beautiful river was so relaxing and pleasant. I need to explore the Grassy Point landing soon.

Sometimes the beauty of this area distracted me.

Here is Tilly!  Good dog Tilly. Tilly went for a wild flower walk with us earlier this week.

I think I will come again on a less windy day.

After 90 minutes we returned to the parking area. The helpful lady with the Volkswagen and the kayak carrier showed me this kayak device. I NEVER would have seen it because it was surrounded by cattails. She got out first. Then I got out. Then she helped me carry my kayak to my car with another guy while I followed behind like a gosh darn princess. What a fun group to spend a blustery Saturday morning together. In early September they are going to plant wild rice in the Saint Louis River. That sounds like fun too.

I was happy to get home before the storm so I could close my windows. This sneaky chipmunk lives below my deck.

 

Hartley

This morning I went for a walk at the Hartley Nature Center. This time I didn't park in the Nature Center parking lot. I parked on Hartley Lane where the Superior Hiking Trail enters the Hartley Nature Center after leaving Bagley Nature Center. Wow, they have a beautiful prairie here. I stayed on the snowmobile trail or what was formerly known as Old Hartley Farm Road.

This used to be a farm owned by a farmer by the name of Hartley. Look at all the yellow golden rod, Black eyed Susans plus the purple bergamot. Gorgeous yellow and purples.

Hartley had the biggest farm in Duluth. Here are the stairs to what used to be the root cellar to store root vegetables from 1910 to 1920. The lettuce here was great. Hartley introduced a new vegetable to this region - celery! I love celery. I can eat a bunch of celery every week. I remember by "wasbund's" grandmother, who was in her 90's and declining mentally a little bit, was eating a bunch of celery every day. Her family was worried that she was eating too much celery. I thought to myself, if you have to overeat on one food, what better food than celery? She was such a nice Finnish lady. I remember she told me once, on her 94th birthday, "It's embarrassing to be this old!" When Farmer Hartley passed away the farming ended. All employees were let go. The family donated the acreage to the city. I hope Farmer Hartley agreed with that decision.

Look at this plant! I have never seen this before. 

Here is the plant again.

When I get home I look it up in my trusty wild flower book, Wildflowers And Weeds: A Field Guide in Full Color by Booth Courtenay and James H. Zimmerman. This is a turtlehead! And it looks like a turtlehead too now that I know the name. Turtlehead is in the snapdragon family.

What is this one/ I have no idea.

According to my wildflower book this is red baneberry. The berries are poisonous to humans but grouse like them. Good thing I didn't taste one. As I walk along today I destroy the nasty invasive tansy that is everywhere. I rip off the yellow flower head and throw them on the path. Sometimes I rip out the whole plant which is as tall as my waist and throw it down and step on it. My hands turn yellow from all this work but they smell great. I only do this on public paths. I don't do it in private yards except my own. People have been passing me all day today. Some people are on fat tire bikes and some on foot. A handsome jogger goes by without a shirt on. He has a man bun and from the back he looks like a lanky Brad Pitt. I am not sure Brad Pitt has a man bun. I don't follow Brad Pitt that closely.  The Brad Pitt look-alike says, "Hello, neighbor."  My eyebrows go up. A light bulb turns on in my brain. He is the middle school science teacher next door.  "Oh, hi neighbor," I say hurriedly.. "Nice to see you. I thought I saw your car. Keep running though, don't slow down." He smiles and waves. I am not used to being recognized in Duluth. Only a few times have I been recognized unless I am on my own street. I am uncertain how I feel about loosing my anonymity.

 

Touching Spirit Bear

 Last night I was wasting time on YouTube.  Offspring #2 told me about this funny botanist from Chicago who has his own You Tube channel. Just look up "Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't" to see him in action. This guy is hilarious and extremely vulgar. To his credit, he seems kind and gentle and truly enthused about our planet and nature. I think he is funny but once I had to turn him off because his vulgarity went over the line. This botanist with the Chicago accent has a ruler tattooed on his finger which is a brilliant idea.  Anyway, another video popped up and it was this guy who is trying to introduce himself and say a few words to the camera but he can't because his pet bear is mauling him too hard. The man scolds his pet bear but then he cuddles up to the bear so the bear cuddles him back. I watched it for about two minutes before deciding this man was on the lunatic fringe. Imagine my surprise when I come to the end of a great book, Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. The very last page of the book has a picture of the author. Lo and behold, I see the lunatic with the pet bear!  The author owns a pet bear. In his defense, he rescued the bear after a previous owner declawed it. The bear couldn't return to the wild without claws to defend itself or to eat. Zoos wouldn't take a clawless bear. His bear would have been euthanized if he hadn't taken it. The author lives in Montana. The story he wrote starts out in Minneapolis. A juvenile delinquent named Cole is in trouble for beating up a classmate. Cole is not repentant and seems bound to be tried as an adult. His parole officer is a terrific man who connects with Cole because he was the same way when he was sixteen. The parole officer convinces Cole to go for the restorative justice route instead of jail. After reading this book I could tell that Ben Mikaelsen was also a juvenile delinquent and at the end of the book he admits this is true. He had a tough childhood just like Cole. I loved the story. For Cole to heal he has to get rid of his anger. One technique is to carry a large rock, a rock the size of a bowling ball, up a steep, rocky slope. As you carry the rock up you imagine carrying your ancestors up the hill. Once the rock is at the top of the slope, gently put the rock down on the ground while thanking your ancestors. Now imagine that rock is your anger and kick that baby down the hill and watch it roll. Another technique to get rid of anger is to exercise. I am very familiar with that technique. My dog, Ruby, knew I was angry when we went on fast walks. That poor dog, I walked her mile after mile but she never complained. A third technique to rid yourself of anger is to sit in a freezing cold lake first thing in the morning until you relax. No way am I doing that! I'd rather be angry than freeze myself in a cold lake. I am a bigger fan of restorative justice because of this book.