Nordic Waffles!

Today I stopped on the way home from work to have my teeth cleaned.  I am lying on the dental chair with the blue paper clipped around my neck. Sharp instruments are probing the gum tissue around my teeth.  I look up at the big television screen. Channel Five is showing scenes from the state fair. Some people are eating Nordic waffles. I say, "Hey, hook. Hi hollege hoomhate eh ah cv."  It is hard to enunciate clearly when people have fingers in my mouth. One the screen was the smiling face of my college room mate. She was eating a Nordic waffle. What are the chances of me happening to catch the moment she was on television? Pretty slim because I never watch Channel 5 between 4 and 5 otherwise unless I happen to glance up from the elliptical at the gym. Not only was it very pleasant to see my former room mate on television, she took my mind off the scraping and probing that was going on in my mouth.  When I lived on Fifth Avenue in Saint Cloud I slept on the bottom bunk and she slept in the top bunk.  She says I ground my teeth at night. I don't grind my teeth at night anymore.  Now I snore.  I am sure I snore softly and elegantly though, don't you think?

The Invention of Nature

My neighbors gave me this book.  I must have watered their plants when they were on vacation so this book was a thank you gift.  I think I got The Invention of Nature; Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf about a year ago and I just finished it now. In the past year two of my master naturalist friends read it and liked it.  I read the first few chapters before loaning it out.  The book really starts taking off after the first few chapters. This is a non-fiction scientific book about not only Alexander Von Humboldt but also Charles Darwin, Aldo Leopold, John Muir and Henry David Thoreau. Female scientists and scientists of color are pretty much absent in this thick book. The story is mostly about Humboldt and the people he inspired. Although the subject matter is not light reading I managed to finish the book without too much difficulty.  I enjoy the stories about traveling and making observations about nature that change your perception of your own back yard.

Summer Vegetables

This week was week 11 of getting a box of fresh vegetables from my farmer on Monday nights.  Actually this week I got a box AND a bag.  In the bag was a delicious watermelon that would have been too heavy for the box.  The box already had two acorn squash, a zucchini, a yellow squash, a bag of Hungarian hot wax peppers, a good amount of red potatoes, a half dozen roma tomatoes and two extra large slicing tomatoes. So far this year I have made use of all the vegetables. I have sauerkraut going.  I made 4 jars of refrigerator pickles.  I used or dried all the herbs. I try to supplement by buying fewer vegetables at the store.  I cannot live without onion and garlic.  If I buy an onion at the store chances are I will get onions in the box. Last weekend I bought garlic at the store and sure enough, now I have garlic in my CSA box. So if you run into me and are surprised by the astounding smell or garlic emanating from my pores, you now know why.

Driveway Puddles

On my way home from work today the clouds opened up and rain fell and rain fell hard. I pulled the car into the garage.  I shut the windows and wiped up the rain that came in the house. Then I went out to the street to get the mail and the garbage bin. Rain had collected in my driveway. A couple spots were so keep my ankles were submerged. That brought back a memory of Offspring #2 asking, during rain storms, if she could swim in the driveway. I always said yes so she would don her bathing suit and swim in the driveway puddles. She enjoyed the puddles. I enjoy the puddles too.  I have lived her more than 25 years. Several times I have paid to have class five gravel added to the driveway. I could have had the driveway improved with cement or asphalt or brick but I never did. I prefer the gravel.  Sometimes I have to mow the center strip because grass and plantain grow between the tire tracks. Shoveling the snow on a gravel driveway can be difficult.  But I still like the gravel.  I like the fact that when the rain falls on my property it soaks into the ground instead of running off down the street and into the Rum River.  I like the fact that the rain on my driveway soaks down into the aquifer eventually. Owning property means making a series of choices.  Some of the choices I have made turned out well and others didn't.  I am glad I chose to keep the gravel driveway.

Riverway Camp Site #3

 This weekend my  master naturalist group organized a camping trip to William O'Brien state park. We had three camping sites on the Riverway campground. I was in camp site #3.  Even though the weather reports predicted storms I left on Friday after work. Many people stayed home on Friday and came on Saturday instead. I arrived about 6:30 p.m. No rain fell on me that night but rain had poured down earlier in the day. The air was thick with moisture.  Campfires had a hard time getting enough oxygen to stay alight.  I brought my kayak but forgot the paddle.  I made arrangements for a friend to bring me my paddle. During the evening we heard rapid repeating gun fire.  Was this a machine gun nearby?  An AK47 perhaps? This was not a sound I was used to at this state park. I put up my tent and went to bed listening to a pair of barred owls calling.  One of them was so close one time I think the owl must have been right above my tent. I woke up early and went for a walk along the river.  Oh, the Saint Croix is such a beautiful river. All summer it has been running a high volume and only in August is the river down to it's normal level. After a big breakfast at camp site #2 I took a another hike along the river to look around and breath in the fresh scent of white pine.  By the time I got back other people had arrived including my camping partner at camp site #3. Earlier this year the two of us camped in 12 state parks in 9 days so we knew each other.  We had a big lunch and headed over to the beach area to do some volunteering.  We set up tables. One person had a table on wolves. Another couple people had tables on reptiles. A couple people gave away master Naturalist bling and explained the program.  There was a table on blue birds and another table on monarch butterflies. I was at a table with invasive species and dead animals. I was near the table with the pelts of a wolf, a bear, a beaver, a muskrat, a river otter, a badger, a possum, a red fox, a gray fox, a white tail deer, a snowshoe hare, and a bobcat. To the left of me were 12 animal skulls. As kids walked by with (or without) their parents I would wave and yell, "Come see the dead animals."  Funny how dead animals can bring kids over. Between 1 p.m. and 4:30 we had 148 people come and see the dead animals and invasive species.  We cleaned up and had dinner at camp site #2. Taco bars are my favorite! At 7 in the evening one of our members gave a talk at the visitor center on wolves so we all went to that.  When we returned we found a huge campfire going in camp site #3. We made s'mores in several ways.  Instead of graham crackers some people used ice cream cones.  Instead of white marshmallows some people used pink marshmallows flavored like strawberries. A ranger came by and we asked about the gun fire the previous evening. She said the park officials are looking into that. She said it appears a local farmer is hosting shooting events which may or may not be legal so close to a state park.  All the kids at the event had glow sticks.  I had a yellow glow stick around my wrist. I was told I needed it so I would not get lost. While the youngest kids left to go frog hunting I crawled into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. I did not sleep well. Things kept falling around me.  Acorns were coming down but was I also hearing rain fall? Lightening was flashing and I could hear thunder in the distance.  I got up and went for a hike with a friend. As we walked along the river we walked through pockets of hot air and pockets of cold air. When we got back to our campsite we quickly took down our tents and put them in our cars because we were sure it was going to rain hard any second. As we finished up the sky got lighter.  I guess the storm moved into Wisconsin and we weren't going to get wet.  After that we had another huge breakfast. Soon my friend arrived with my paddle so I went kayaking.  I kayaked up river the length of the state park which about a mile and then kayaked back again. The park naturalist was going to give us a talk on how to engage students in nature. I knew I would be a little late but I just had to get a kayak ride in now that I had my paddle.  As I paddled up I saw families standing on the sandstone boulders. Some were exploring. Some were fishing. Some were cooling off their feet in the river. Seeing the parents with their children brought back many memories for me bringing children to this park and hanging out at the same huge boulder, the climbing pine tree by the group camp, and the picnic shelter with a fireplace in it. I was about an hour late to the talk by the park ranger but the group included me anyway. After that we had another huge lunch.  Rain was expected by 2 p.m. so everyone was packing up. I left about 1:30. Oh, what a fun weekend to spend along the Saint  Croix River!

Making the Most of Summer

I dread to admit it but I am seeing signs of fall. I see red leaves on the woodbine. I see scads of cucumber vines draping trees and fences like garland on a holiday tree.  I see fewer swallows in the air. The crickets are chirping.  I have fewer ants in my house.  Acorns are falling from the trees and hitting me in the head. Some of my favorite paths have so many acorns it is painful and loud to walk on them. The pumpkins are changing to orange. A few leaves have fallen from the trees.  No matter!  I am bound and determined to make the most of this summer.  I am going to put more miles on the motorcycle and more nights in the tent and more hours in the kayak!

Half-Pint

This morning I checked on my chickens and they were fine. I have been locking them in the house at night just to be safe from the predator. I let them out and gave them a snack of some corn cobs. I refilled the water bowl. When I came home at 6 tonight I saw Half-Pint, one of the Americauna chickens, lying on the ground next to the water bowl. Her sisters were stepping on her in their excitement at my presence.  Half-Pint was dead; poor little chicken. I was sad as I got fresh bedding and food and water for the other girls.  As they ate in the chicken house I removed her stiff little body from the coop. Her eyes were closed on her bald little red head.  She had alopecia and now she is dead.  None of the other chickens are bald; only her.  I laid her body in the prairie at the crest of the hill.  Other animals will benefit from her now. She was a good little hen. One day you have six chickens and the next day you have five.  All part of the circle of life.  As I paid my last respects I thought of my younger cousin who is dying from lung issues.  RIP Half-Pint.