Book Club and other stuff

 Grocery Day wasn't much of an adventure...everything was as ordered.   At Wally World I am usually the only car there, yesterday there were three other vehicles.  Some people must be cooking for Easter!

Yesterday afternoon was Book Club...not much of a Club...there are just three of us...a few others may or may not join in from time to time. 

I chose the book for April.  A few of my blog readers can guess which book I chose. 

The gals enjoyed it!   It was a good Spring read.

One of the gals said she has already mailed the book to her brother.   

So my pick was a success.  Next month we discuss Something in the Water by Steadman...along with a side discussion about the book Anne of Green Gables vs the Netflix Anne with an E.  Neither of the gals have read the book or watched the series.  So that should be interesting.  Book Club is an online meeting.

I ordered the next couple of books...I use Thrift Books.

I am almost done with the car seat cover....the last fitting happened yesterday.  

The bit of yarn in the photo with my favorite book is cashmere...and ever so nice to work with.

Far Side

Spring Snow

My cousin Chuckie was telling us yesterday that his Tuesday morning fishing  time was interrupted by two hours of snow…it melted as it hit the ground.

It turned cold enough to snow.  One morning on the way into town there were chunks of snow on the roadway.  Far Guy and I looked at each other to confirm that we weren’t both crazy seeing things.  It was SNOW. Dropped off by trucks or cars passing through from North Dakota or South Dakota.

Then we had this…

Don’t get too excited.  These are flower petals.

Malus X ‘Spring Snow’  A sterile flowering Crabapple.  It only has flowers no fruit.  It has a real strong fragrance…Far Guy noticed it right away.

Then there is this kinda fluff.

Aspen/Populus species/ Piss Popple/Cottonwood fluff.  The fluff carries the tiny seeds all over.  Chance carts them all over and into the house.  The fluff lays in snow drifts over the lawn…and we only have a few trees.  When the wind comes from the North it looks like it is snowing.

Our grass is turning green…finally!  It rained all day yesterday…not enough but it is a start to help out with the drought.

“To me an ancient Cottonwood is the greatest of trees because in his youth he shaded the buffalo and wore a halo of pigeons, and I like a young cottonwood because he may some day become ancient. But the farmer’s wife (and hence the farmer) despises all cottonwoods because in June the female tree clogs the screens with cotton. The modern dogma is comfort at any cost” Aldo Leopold

Wild Flowers Birds and Sales

The last few days have been kinda wild around here getting ready for the garage sale.  Getting everything unpacked…and more corners cleaned out.  It is all set.  The sale begins at 7AM and I suppose I will have people waiting at the gate by 6:45.  The weather is supposed to be  68 F or 20 C eh!  We might have rain showers in the afternoon.  There are two other large sales out in this area so we will probably get a good turn out.

The Hoary Puccoons are in full bloom.  I first saw them peeking out on Sunday June 1 2014.  I can tell you from the note in my Wildflower book that I first noticed it blooming on May 16, 2010…so was that an unusual year?  Maybe.  I think Aldo Leopold kept records on the Hoary Puccoon for nine years.

“Tell me of what plant-birthday a man takes notice, and I shall tell you a good deal about his vocation, his hobbies, his hay fever, and the general level of his ecological education.” Aldo Leopold

Of course the Hoary Puccoons are hard to miss, they grow wild in the ditches before the grass has a chance to grow real tall.

Puccoon is a Native American name for any plant that can be used for dye.  The root will make a reddish dye.  All the wool people would love it as a natural dye.

I stalked this American Goldfinch for awhile one day.  They sure can sing.

The Oaks are filling out finally and with all the rain we have had in the last week the grass is growing like mad.   I mowed on Monday and I will try to mow again tomorrow or I will have to make hay instead of cutting the grass.

I am feeling better.  I am cautiously optimistic that I am on the road to recovery.  Far Guy says “You are not that much better”  My optimism sometimes gets a reality check by his pessimism.  Time will tell.  My head no longer throbs and my fingernails and teeth no longer hurt..so that means I am better!

Tall Grass Prairie

Chance and I went for a drive to see how a few of the remaining Tall Grass Prairies are doing.   We were glad to see that no one had plowed them up.  It has been a wet year..so it would be tickling the bellies of Buffalo if there were any.

Photographs were hard to take because it was very windy. The light purple flower in front is Spotted Knapweed.  This healthy prairie keeps it at bay along the roadsides. I wonder what caused the darker green strip in the field..might have been where someone emptied a manure spreader.

Purple Prairie Clover dots the entire field.  It was nice to have some time to just mosey along.  The Deer Flies have joined the mosquitoes.  They follow the car and wait for you to get out.  I had to limit Chance’s hanging his head out the window time.  He doesn’t like the Deer Flies either.

We went by Joe’s old  pasture..the pasture where the horses used to entertain us. It has been planted.   

This field was a horse pasture for a long time. No more Joe to take care of a bunch of old horses anymore.  I am not sure where the horses went and I haven’t asked.  You know the old saying “If you won’t like the answer, don’t ask the question.”

Slowly the landscape around us is changing..not all for the good but changing none the less. 

Farm land is being bought up by big corporate farms.  More and more acreage every year.  I watch a couple of sections of Tall Grass Prairie every year..and hope they don’t get gobbled up. I will return in the Fall when the grasses turn golden/red:)

“There are idle spots on every farm, and every highway is bordered by an idle strip as long as it is; keep cow, plow, and mower out of these idle spots, and the full native flora, plus dozens of interesting stowaways from foreign parts, could be part of the normal environment of every citizen.” Aldo Leopold

Tall Grass Prairie

The evening sun casts a glow across the tall grass prairie.

The Big Bluestem is beautiful.  It is just beginning to get it’s purple cast.  I love this little bit of untouched prairie.  Can you imagine buffalo and wild horses running along with this grass tickling their bellies?   It must have been quite a sight long ago.

The early settlers must have waded through this field.  The native tall grass prairies were not always friendly..a lightening strike could turn this beautiful prairie into a prairie fire that would have to burn itself out.

There are only a few of these untouched fields in our area.  I enjoy them while I can, I am sure in a few years they will all be gone:(

Aldo Leopold wrote:
“Man always kills the thing he loves. And so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in.”

Blooming Wildflowers

If you live in Minnesota the Showy Lady’s Slippers are in full bloom.

This is the bunch that Far Guy saved years ago at our old resort. He found them one day in June years ago coming up on both sides of a log. The group has gotten larger and larger.  We stopped by for a few photos! 

 

The Blue Flag Iris is in bloom near the Dead Beaver area.

The Smooth Solomon’s Seal is just finishing up.

The little blooms are hidden under the foliage..I practically had to lay on the ground for this photo.  This plant is on the edge of our driveway.  It is special..because it is the only one I know of in our area.  They may be more deep in the woods..but I stay out of there because of the Poison Ivy.

Aldo Leopold wrote “ During every week from April to September there are, on the average, ten wild plants coming into first bloom.  In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds in a single day.”

I enjoy watching the native plants… waiting for the first blooms.  After years and years of watching native plants they do not disappoint they always bloom with a week or ten days of when they did last year..Leopold calls them Prairie Birthdays. I guess that works for me:)

More Progress ??

The air was full of dust, our usually quiet corner of the world was interrupted by dust and a high pitched whine.

We drove out a half a mile.. to find that these trees in the tree line were being ground into mulch.

The tall grass prairie is changing before our eyes.  This one is closer to home.

The bothersome trees between the former CRP land and a bean field  are being removed one by one.  Limb by limb. There are piles of mulch.

Soon this view will be devoid of trees.   I remember when this field had many rows of trees going north and south.  I used to find a shady spot to rest and wait for my Mother to stop her tractor. My parents owned this piece of land a long time ago, back when the many windbreaks went North and South and met up with the trees that are being removed.

Progress?  I am not convinced that it is progress.  However it is a change.  One that I am noting for future generations..they are the ones that will decide if it is progress or not.

Two days ago they sprayed the hazardous chemicals on the the field across from our front driveway..the Peligro ( Danger) signs are still out in the field.  I noticed that both mail boxes at the end of the driveway have some funny looking splotches on them.

Well I guess I am done wallering around in pity for the Tall Grass Prairies…for now.

Congratulations to the winner of the drawing!

 

DJan has a blog called DJan-ity and she is from the great State of Washington..she sky dives..and hikes..and reads!  I know that she will love this book as much as I do.  I have a hardcover version that was a gift from my daughter a long time ago:)

Progress?

Times are a changing..times are getting tougher.

People that enrolled their land in CRP ( Conservation Reserve Program) or before that it was a similar program called Soil Bank of the 1950’s are selling out.  Traitors.

Fields that reverted to Natural Prairie, saving the soil and the water from the pesticides and over use by the Corporate Farmer are falling by the wayside one by one.

First they come in and put in a well for a center pivot irrigator.

This field has not been farmed for years..I am sixty ..sigh..and I have never seen a crop planted in this field.  It has always been a natural prairie home to the tall grasses, flowers, birds, rabbits and mice.

A spark burned this section of land on Friday when we had the wind from hell.

This piece of land is two miles south of us.   Everyone was concerned where the wildfire would go..Far Guy said the flames were awesome.  His Uncle lives to the west, the wind was from the south..the fire travelled north.  If it would have jumped the road..it would have been an out of control fire in the mainly pine forest along the lake.  The helicopters couldn’t fly and the water dumpers were grounded due to the wind.

 

This photo is history.  History of the Tall Grass Prairie that soon will become a home for potatoes that make Extra Long French Fries that stand up in a box..pinto beans and small grains.

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
- Aldo Leopold

I have more to say about this subject..but for now I will be quiet. 

I found an old copy of my favorite book at a garage sale the other day.  A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold..if you would like to be entered into a drawing for it then leave me a comment.  Please tell me how close do you live to a Tall Grass Prairie?  I live a mile from one..so far it has escaped the clutches of the  corporate farmer. I will draw a name on Monday night.  The book cost a whole quarter, I buy them when ever I see them at garage sales..and I pass them on to people who I know will appreciate them:)

Noisy Birds

The Sandhill Cranes are in the grain fields..so are the Canada Geese.  Everyone must be bulking up for the trek south.

We stopped to watch these one evening.  They have fluff on their behinds that reminds me of a fancy ladies bustle.

They are reasonably elegant with their long legs and long necks..and then they shriek..nothing ladylike about that karr.o..o.o..a..a..a. ( Their call may be reminiscent of something prehistoric.)

A whole “construction", "dance", "sedge", "siege", or "swoop" of cranes calling is enough to make you say “What in the world is that noise?”  Chance looked at them as if to say “What kind of weird bird is that?”

Aldo Leopold conservationist and writer called Sandhill Cranes  “ wilderness incarnate.”

A new day has begun on the crane marsh. A sense of time lies thick and heavy in such a place. ... The cranes stand, as it were, upon the sodden pages of their own history.
Aldo Leopold,“Marshland Elegy,” A Sand County Almanac

These birds were almost extinct in the early 1900’s.   They were very slow to recover. They are large birds with a wing span of up to seven feet and they can weigh 5 to  8 pounds.

I had not seen a Sandhill Crane until a few years ago.  Now it is common to see them in the fields in the spring and in the fall.  I heard today that several swoops spent the summer about 10 miles south of us. 

They are making progress:)

Wildflowers: June 08, 2010

We were lucky enough the other day, to find a Bluebead Lily or Clintonia borealis in bloom, a native plant that blooms in June. I rooted around in my archives,  last summer I had photographed the blue berries that are formed. The berries are poisonus.

Indian Paintbrush or Castilleja coccinea is another native plant that we enjoy catching in bloom. There seems to be more areas of this plant blooming this year..last year we had to go twenty miles north to find any at all. People that live in the western part of the US of A are blessed with many different varieties of paintbrush. We are happy to have two varieties. There is supposed to be a yellow flowered paintbrush in Minnesota..I have not seen that one yet.

How about sowing some Wild Oats or Uvularia sessilifolia another native wildflower. This one was single stemmed with only one flower. An elegant little flower easily missed on the forest floor.

Large Flowered Bellwort or Uvularia grandiflora, a native wildflower, only two species of this plant are found in Minnesota. The flower looks a bit droopy naturally.

The Wild Geranium or Geranium maculatum is a native plant, it has just begun blooming in our area. Most references say it just blooms in the spring. I am almost positive it blooms throughout the summer, so that is one plant I will have to keep an eye on all summer.

As most of you know, I love the Conservationist writings of Aldo Leopold..today I will share with you his thoughts on Land Ethic..it was true in the 1940's when he wrote it, and it is just as true today as I share it with you.

Aldo Leopold and Land Ethic

"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.
This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state."

Yeah, I know, I am in love with this guy from long ago, he died before I was born...I wonder what he was like in person.  Did his friends and relatives think he was off the wall, weird, quirky??  Whatever..he words inspire me to look around and pause..and perhaps you will pause sometime today to appreciate something in nature before it escapes us all.  And No, I do not intend to have you read Leopold's entire book on this blog..but if I keep quoting from it and you keep reading my blog you may want to read it yourself.  I am always on the lookout for paperback copies of A Sand County Almanac...to share with others:)

My Favorite Book

"To plant a pine, one need be neither God or a poet: one need only a shovel" Aldo Leopold


My Favorite book is A Sand County Almanac And Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold. I discovered this book in my "later the average college years." I was taking a Forestry Class, and it was required reading. I also had to write a paper on it, I might even have a copy of it around here someplace, probably "upstairs"... as everything I haven't used in awhile ends up upstairs. My book, sits in a basket on my Scrap-booking desk, my hard cover version was a thoughtful gift from Jen a number of years ago. I had an old used paperback copy, that was dog eared and highlighted, with notes in the margin, I must have given that copy to someone else to read. I did have several copies floating around here at one time, then when I would get a customer at the greenhouse that was a "Reader" I would send them off with my favorite book. But not my hard covered copy, I lend it to no one...a bit selfish perhaps..I guess it must be so. Somethings I just need near me..just in case..and this book is one of those things.

Leopold was a conservationist. a naturalist and a writer. His book is written in such a way that you don't need to read it from start to finish.although I suggest you do. You can pick up this book and just read a small sketch here and there. Possibly it could be read aloud, around a campfire, or to a grandchild. I enjoy reading it bits and pieces here and there. I look at this book, like a visit from an old friend, a wise old friend.

Maybe a book written in the late 1940's isn't for you...maybe your carrots have always come in a plastic bag instead of out of the garden covered with a little bit of dirt to make them taste better. Maybe your heat only comes from a furnace, instead of stored up in a woodpile ready to warm your very soul. Maybe you don't weep for the wildflowers being annihilated by the four wheeler tracks in the ditches. Leopold says " Maybe you can't grieve for something you never knew." If you never noticed the wildflowers ..you will never miss them:)