Birds at the Refuge

Well there is more than just blooming Lady’s Slippers at the refuge.

Chance and I saw our first Trumpeter Swan Cygnets!!  I have always hoped to see some…Sunday was the day.

We rounded the bend and on this little pothole that I think is somehow joined with Tamarac Lake and hit the jack pot.

Trumpeter Swan and three cygnets.

Chance watched silently as I snapped photos.  I told him if you bark at the birds next time I will leave you home…so be a good boy…and he was.

There was a road kill deer near the headquarters and this Turkey Vulture was having a meal.  He flew into the tree…we told him to come back down and eat some more but he ignored us.

Then we spotted a family of Canada Geese, three adults possibly one is a yearling goose, they stick around to help care for the goslings.

They must be used to vehicles…as we watched them for quite some time.

It was a fun morning at the refuge… several times we stopped to just listen to the Red Winged Blackbirds.  We don’t have them back here in the Oaks so it is always a treat to hear them sing.

I know several of you thought it was strange that we didn’t meet one other vehicle…I was thankful we didn’t …some people drive way to fast and raise too much dust on the gravel roads…and they scare the wildlife.  We drove slowly to look for flowers and wildlife…and left nothing behind but our tracks in the gravel.

In search of Slippers

Chance and I took off early Sunday morning.  I ordered some blueberries off the fruit truck and they needed to be picked up at 8AM.  Far Guy loves blueberries…me not so much. 

On the way to the big town…in the middle of the road we saw; a Deer, a Turkey Vulture and a Snapping Turtle.  No photos because I was driving!

After the blueberry pickup my reward was being the captain of my own ship so I took off through Tamarac Wildlife Refuge in search of Lady’s Slippers.

The Yellow Lady’s Slippers are just about done.

An insect or animal ate away the front part of the slipper. SO…you can see the runway that starts at the top of the slipper and travels down…this must show up like neon lights to pollinating insects.

These are very small Yellow Lady’s Slippers. A different variety…I have only seen these on the Refuge.

The Minnesota State Flower The Showy Lady’s Slipper.  Cypripedium reginae.

Yes they are Orchids.  The Showy Lady’s Slippers will be in peak in about a week…Father’s Day right on target. Right now I saw about four clumps in bloom on the 18 mile stretch…but then I was driving…but slow and I stopped and got out of the vehicle to take photos.  I didn’t meet one car the entire 18 miles…it was a perfect morning! Chance hung his head out the window almost the entire drive. 

There are getting to be a few skeeters in the deep woods.  We did see some wildlife…more on that tomorrow.

Saturday Night Ride

Last evening on our ride around the neighborhood we saw the Prairie Smoke shimmering in the evening light.

Prairie Smoke a Native Wildflower…the old timers call it Old Man’s Whiskers or Grandfather’s Whiskers/Beard. It is really Geum triflorum.

Vi’s Iris along the fence row…and Ashley’s horses.

As I am hanging my head out the window wondering if I can get the horses to look up if I whistle a pickup pulls up so we have ladies aid in the middle of the road.  We got all caught up with my cousin Dale. Always good to see him…he is all recovered from the open heart surgery he had last winter.

A barn in the neighborhood….always a scenic spot.  Sometimes we see deer here but not last night.  The green of that hay field almost hurts my eyes.

Then we mosey on down the road…Chance wants to stop and see his friends..so we do. Jo  is watering her flower garden and Steve is watching TV….we visit on the deck. When Chance and Putzer have chased the ball until their tongues are hanging out and Odda has got a really good back scratch…we head for home.

That’s the way it is in the boonies on a Saturday night in the summertime.

Ladies Aid in the middle of the road =  Two vehicles meet, turn off their engines and visit until another vehicle comes along or you are all caught up with the news.

120 years ago

Far Guy’s Paternal Grandmother was born June 13, 1895.   That was 120 years ago.  When I was transcribing her diaries and Grandpa’s Farm Diaries I would watch for those entries.

June 13 1912:  Fred went fishing.  Emma and I down to Aleck’s.  Hazel and Leslie came home with us.  My birthday the kids tried to have a surprise party on me.  It rained.  There were sixteen here had a fine time. Got some nice presents. To bed at 8??or 3??

( Grandma always looked forward to her birthday and having a house full at the farm on the Sunday nearest her birthday! )  In 1912 Grandma was 17.

 

June 13 1913: Ironed in the morn.  Eva went home.  My birthday got a watch and a centerpiece.  To bed at 8.      This was her 18th Birthday.

June 13 1916 Tuesday Helped Dow log Japs Glens here in eve ( Grandpa shorthand= He helped Glen Dow log, Jasper and family and Glen Dow and family came over in the evening.

June 14 1916  Wednesday Made garden fence planted pumpkins  ??

This would have been her 21st birthday…since Grandpa didn’t even mention her birthday perhaps the garden fence and planting pumpkins ( or whatever) was part of his gift to her.

June 13 1918  Thursday To PR Ronald to DR. ( To Park Rapids Ronald to Doctor.)

June 13 1919  Friday  Took cream Esessor? here cultivated corn  (Assessor??)

June 14  1919 Saturday  Plowed spuds

June 15 1919   Sunday  Aunt Amelias folks McLaughlin Frank Wilsons and Da and Ma here

Later in the month he dug her some moccasin flowers.  June 22  Sunday  Home rained got Mocisins

June 13 1920   Sunday  Home Thresa went to church ( A few days prior to this Marvin age 6 came down with measles.)

June 13 1921  Monday  To PR took veal Thresa and kids went

I still have 8 years of Grandpa’s Farm Diaries to decipher…it is a work in progress.  Pretty soon I will have to put it on my bucket list…you know things you want to do before you kick the bucket.

Grandma at the farm with her Dahlias in the 1940’s.

Those Moccasin flowers that they dug back in 1919 eventually ended up on the north side of the house near the back door…sometime a flower or two made it to the kitchen table displayed in a bud vase.  They would have had many places there on the farm near the river where the Moccasin flowers grew naturally.

Grandma died in 1983, she was 87 years 10 months and 13 days old…she escaped the home…and went straight to a big old party in heaven…and if birthdays are celebrated there today must be one big celebration!

Far Guy: One down the rest of your life to go

Far Guy finally had his first infusion yesterday. 

It was a real journey getting this far…from May 18 to June 11th…24 days for people to get their poop in a pile.  May 18 was the official diagnosis day.  Alpha 1-Antitrypsin Deficiency.   For the record he is a SZ…if that matters, one gene comes from his Mother and one from his Father.  We were referred to advocates from Alpha 1 and from drug companies.…the phone began to ring.  I insisted on a special blood test (IgA deficiency or antibodies)that would give an indication of a possible allergy…that test came  back negative.  I read what I could and researched.  Our insurance was notified and infusions were approved for one year.  Home Heath Nurses were notified…they called us and since Far Guy is not homebound our insurance and Medicare would not cover a Nurse coming into our home…they would send a nurse but charge $55 an hour from the time they left a town an hour away…until they returned…BUT they refused to do the first two infusions because of a possible allergic reaction. Medicare and our insurance would cover the cost of administering the infusions in an infusion center.  Then the paperwork or whatever sat on someone's desk for five days…whilst we waited…Far Guy was fit to be tied. 

As soon as the gals in the infusion center got the orders within two days we had an appointment.

Far Guy is the first person our local infusion center has ever treated with this “stuff”…as far as I know it is mainly plasma from someone many donors who don’t have Alpha 1 deficiency.  The “stuff” can carry viruses and other infectious agents, even though supposedly all donations are tested and treated.

He is all hooked up, ready for the “stuff.”

He did great…the anticipation was worse than the actual procedure.

$5,000 hanging from an IV pole.

Lynn  is holding the tubing up to get all of the expensive “stuff” out.  Lynn is my cousins daughter, she is one of two Nurses that we will be seeing weekly for awhile.

Next week I will learn how to swirl the diluent into the powdered form of the “stuff.”  Swirled gently and not shaken.  Once the mixing process is complete and in an IV bag it must be used within three hours.

If next week’s infusion goes well, by the end of week we hope to have an appointment for a minor surgery to place a port in Far Guys chest.  A port just makes sense to both of us.  After I am trained…I can give him the infusions at home, possibly he can even give them to himself. He will have weekly infusions for the rest of his life.

This “stuff” is NOT a cure…but hopefully it will help to protect his lungs from more damage.  If you or anyone you know is struggling with recurrent lung infections or emphysema they should be tested…early detection is the key.  At least the lung part of the destruction can be halted…if it affects your liver there is nothing that can be done.  To date all of Far Guy’s Liver Function tests are normal…and he has blood work done every six months because of his Trigeminal Neuralgia.

 

One down and the rest of your life to go.

 

I wrote about Gene’s gene previously on May 19 2015

Solar Lights

I had a glut of solar lights.  I kept buying them…I even forgot I had a few. Must be my advancing age. On two different occasions I bought the stained glass lights…and managed to buy the same color!

I took down the falling over solar lights, I think the squirrels use them as spring boards.  I added new ones to the garden in front of the house where the bird feeders are.  I like to have lots of solar lights out there, it looks pretty at night and discourages animals from coming too close to the house.

I bought a few plants and actually planted them. The garden now has red Salvia and a few yellow Marigolds which will bloom eventually.  Red and yellow..I love those two colors together.  Now IF the squirrels will leave everything alone…and I remember they need water and a little care.  I should have clipped off all the red flowers, but they were blooming so nicely…they make roots faster without blooms…

I added a few glass flowers and my ant. It is a work in progress.  I have the wrong copper pipe for my pink glass flower…I need one that is bent.

I thought long and hard about what to do with the old solar lights… the tops and clear parts were still working.  So…

I made a little wire harness for the lights and attached them to one of my wagon wheels leaning against the old grain bin.   I have more to add.  It is a work in progress too.

I am done at the Dentist ( a cavity) and the Eye Doctor ( extra testing for glaucoma…which I do not have.)  Yeah for me!  WE are both starting to dread days that we have to leave the house or yard… we are becoming hermits I guess.

 

Wistful Wednesday : Old Newspaper Photos

“She who sees robins first” clipped a photo out of a local paper.  I figured it was a bit of family history so I scanned it.  It is still on my desk but it will make it’s way to Cousin Chuckie.

 

The original photo was most likely taken in 1949.   My cousins would know.  I have two first cousins ( Uncle Jalmer’s  and Aunt Jenny’s sons) on the left hand side of the photo…Chuckie (Melvin) in the back in the white jacket and Gerald in front of him in the plain coat holding his hat in his hand. See those two boys in the front row with the matching jackets they are my second cousins…brothers Richard and David sons of my Great Uncle Levi ( My paternal Grandfather’s brother) and Great Aunt Ida.

We go to woodcarving with Chuckie…in this photo he looks very much like his only grandson Aiden who just turned ten years old.

I imagine these nine little boys gentlemen were a handful for the teacher.

Lilac

We have one of those Mid to Late Lilac varieties.

It blooms early to mid June.  It is dark in bud and when it blooms it is more of a pink than purple.

Syringa x prestoniae ‘Donald Wyman’

I used to order bareroot trees and shrubs from a Nursery in Montana…often they would throw in a few extras that may or may not live.  This one lived.  Trees and shrubs in pots are labor intensive…we phased them out after about five years.  They also had to be stored just so over the winter….basically a pain in the butt.

I hate to see former customers this time of year.  “I bet you miss the greenhouse business?”   NO.  “ How many plants do you have now?”  In pots …none.  “REALLY.”

Really…you should never make a business out of your favorite hobby…you will burn out. 

First of the Lady’s Slippers

The small Yellow Lady’s Slippers are blooming in the Wild Gardens.

Cypripedium parviflorum

This is the first orchid to bloom in our area.  The ones in the wild gardens always bloom before the ones in the woods. These particular orchids were grown from tissue culture in a laboratory in Bovey Minnesota.  Far Guy planted them in the wild gardens many years ago.

This is one of my favorite plants.  So far there are six buds…but I think there are more to come.

It rained really hard on Saturday we got 1 1/2 inches of rain so we are officially out of the drought we were in.  I have to mow the lawn every five days…seems like I barely get done and it needs mowing again.

Summer Jobs

If you drive through our nearby town you see Help Wanted signs all over.  Main Street businesses have signs in their windows, Burger King, Wallyworld and the motels are all looking for help.  My cousin owns one of the local golf courses she didn’t get any applications for the four positions she was hoping to fill.

During the summer time when I was growing up my first job was peeling cedar fence posts with a draw knife.  I think my Dad paid 5 cents a post.  My brother and I also picked up pop bottles out of the ditch…they were worth a penny or two at the grocery store.

Later years I was part of a Christmas Tree Trimming Crew.  I went up and down the rows with a clipper shaping the trees into their Christmas Tree form…and lopping off the central leader.   It was a buggy hot job…at the end of a row…some rows were a half mile long you got a drink of water.  On really hot days they handed out salt tablets.  We sat in the shade of the truck to eat our lunch.  We usually worked from 8 to 2 or 7 to 1 if it was going to be a really warm day.  There was a crew boss who had a machete and he would come along and whack what you missed…if the trees were quite tall he would do the central leader for you. I can still hear that machete whirring through the air…oh and the blisters you would get on your hands!  Eventually the blisters would turn to callouses but until then they were painful.  Gloves were not much help…other than to get brown fuzz in your blisters after they popped.

I did some babysitting, my younger brothers and sister prepared me well for those occasional jobs.

For a few weeks I was the cook and waitress at a local restaurant…talk about scary I was not much of a cook…and my waitress skills were lacking. It was a nightmare job.  I cannot quite remember what happened…I think they found a better cook. 

The summer before I was a Senior in High School I went to work for Far Guys Parents…more about that exciting time in my life later.

Noah likes his summer job.  He says he likes to wear scrubs because they are comfortable.

By the way his mother tells me that he is 6’1” and still growing.

 

Columbine and a Hummer

The Columbine that is Native to Minnesota is Aquilegia canadensis.  The five upside down red tubes form the bell shape.  These plants show up at will on the edge of the woods and in the wildflower gardens.

Columbine in bud.

Right next door is a bloomer.

Red and yellow perfect together colors if you ask me.

Hummingbirds like this plant.

We had one lone Hummer it kept coming into the yard looking for food.  When I had the Oriole feeder up it helped itself to the orange.  Now that the Orioles are gone…I felt sorry for the poor little thing.

One day in the hardware store I saw this little feeder prefilled with hummer juice.  I figured it was worth a try.  I suppose I will have to boil up some sugar water now.

I will also try for a better photograph!

 

Minnesota Snowball

There is a shrub (word used loosely) here in Minnesota that all the natives call a Snowball Bush or a Minnesota Snowball.

This was a photo back on  May  23 2015.   It was in bud.

This towering shrub began as a little stick back around 2000 or maybe 2001. 

Viburnum opulus ‘Roseum’  or Minnesota Snowball.  A very old plant…the settlers must have carted it to Minnesota.  It is a Zone 3 plant/shrub.  It can withstand Minnesota winters and droughts…which is a good thing as I never water it.

This year was a good year for blooms.  Perhaps it was the dry winter…it figured it better bloom before it croaked.  Photos taken on June 4 2015.

As you can see it is quite tall…I will guess it is nine feet tall.  I should trim it back some after it is done blooming.  Sometimes the flowers are used as cut flowers but I will just enjoy them on the tree.

Often times this plant gets all confused with the Hydrangeas like ‘Annabelle’ who blooms in late July or early August here in Minnesota.

So now you have seen a Minnesota Snowball in June.

Ugliness

Daughter Jen said I was too cranky so I have been TRYING to look on the brighter side of life the past few days. IT ISN’T WORKING. I must have relapsed.

Seems to me that there is an awful lot of ugliness going on lately. 

People in Wally World up in Grand Forks North Dakota were shot by a madman, one died and one was wounded then he shot himself.

A sixty year old woman’s head and hair caught on fire…musta been mixing explosive combustible ingredients of some kind.  You think she would know better.  Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age.  She died.

A group of young men stole grocery carts full of meat from the Wally World in town, they were going to resell the meat for money to buy drugs.

People on probation for a felony are given credit for time served and released back into society.

School is out and for some children school lunch was their food for the whole day.

The way we treat our Veterans at Veterans Clinics is deplorable…I know this from first hand experience.  I was silent (it was really hard) and listened to their woes…money and budget cuts and they are just there to do Health Care not Health Insurance.   They cannot provide care to every medical need of the Veterans.  I had heard mixed reviews…now I know for certain that we as Americans should be ashamed of ourselves for not insisting our Veteran’s get the healthcare they need.

Discouraged…yes I am.

I think I will stop listening to the news for awhile, too bad there isn’t a good news only channel.

Thanks for listening…I feel a bit better now.

 

Tent Caterpillars  along the back roads.  Hopefully the birds will find them and have a feast.

Wistful Wednesday: Friend to all

A long time ago during the summer there was a fire in a house over west of Ponsford.  It was a hot day…first I was sent for sugary drinks and ice water, then I pumped water out of the pond for the tankers.  I never made it near the house but I heard that there were newspapers and magazines stacked up all over in the house and that made putting out the fire quite difficult.  We were there for the better part of a day.

The elderly fellow that lived there moved into the barn.  I have often wondered “Didn’t he have family?”   After that we would see him on his tractor going to church.  Church must have been at least ten miles from his barn.  Even in the winter with the cold wind blowing he would be all bundled up and on his way to church.

He attended church faithfully.

Last week at the cemetery I saw his headstone.

Someone put a tractor on his headstone.  “Friend to all.”

Golden Yellow

The Hoary Puccoons are blooming.  The roots of this plant make a red dye.  I took this photo in the late evening with it's golden glow just about sunset.  For us that happens about 9:10 PM..

As you travel the roads in our area the Hoary Puccoon is easy to see in just about every ditch.   It is a Native Wildflower.

We have had frost and freeze warnings.  The days have been downright cool.
I should buy some flowers for under the bird feeders...perhaps after the weekend.

I saw this pretty sunflower in the hardware store and couldn't resist it.   No watering or weeding needed. Just perfect.
Far Side