Animals of Glacier National Park

We went to Glacier National Park in early June and it was our first opportunity to use our brand new camera (more on this in another post). It took some fabulous photos, and allowed us to capture some wildlife that we wouldn't have been able to photograph with our old camera.

The highlight of the trip for me was to watch 2 adolescent Bighorn Sheep duke it out over something in a picnic area fire pit. They truly reminded me of Tito and Shaak Ti. The smaller, darker one appeared to be the dominant one (Shaak Ti) while the bigger, whiter one lurked about and waited for his chance to dart in and grab something to eat (Tito). 

We came across these two while waiting in our car (in the cold rain) for our boat trip around Two Medicine Lake (a good tour). We had seen one sheep wandering around the campground when we went in to talk to the rangers and so when we came out, I made John drive around the campground. And sure enough, we came across these two.

We got to park the car pretty much directly in front of them, approximately 30 yards away, and then watched them for 1/2 hour (John here - it was much longer than that). I think John had his fill after a few minutes, but he stuck it out to make me happy. And in the end, we were rewarded with a pretty good close-up of one of them as he sauntered away.

And while it was somewhat cheating, here's a picture of me with a stuffed Bighorn Sheep at the Many Glacier Lodge.

(John here - please note Alycias' awesome t-shirt that I got her for her birthday.  It says "I like to party, and by party I mean take naps".  Truer words hath nigh been spoken by a t-shirt)

And here's a photo of a stuffed mountain goat at the East Glacier Lodge. 

Another highlight of the trip was our walk around the Trail of the Cedars trail. It was a very easy walk (most of it on boardwalk), so I can't really call it a hike. But as we were wandering around, we saw this family looking excitedly through their binoculars. After experiences in Yellowstone and Yosemite, I've learned that you pay attention to anyone who's focused on something with their spotting scope. So we go over and see that they're excited about a duck - a Harlequin Duck. Initially, he was about 50 yards down river and the family was super excited about that (they were doing a bird count for their trip and this duck was #202). But then, he flew up right in front of us and landed in the river to continue floating downstream. I was able to get a picture up pretty close, and he was indeed a handsome duck.

While waiting for our boat tour around Lake McDonald, we also spotted a few other birds in the trees. First, a Yellowbellied Sapsucker was working over a tree pretty well. I tried to get a good picture, but he wasn't so great at holding his head still.

And then a Western Tanager. He's hard to see in the photo, but a close-up zoom shows his distinct orange head and bright yellow body.

We also saw a bald eagle on our Lake McDonald boat tour, but honestly, those are fairly commonplace to us. We see them regularly flying over the Red River of the North by our house.

One animal we did not see on our trip was a bear - grizzly or black. While it would have been exciting to see one while driving around, we were definitely glad to have not come across one while hiking around in the woods.

Finally, one last animal we encountered were hand-carved merry-go-round horses in Missoula, MT. John wasn't super excited to go on the carousel, but it lived up to its name as one of the world's fastest carousels. 

I could feel the wind whipping through my hair as we whirled around and around. For $2.25, it was well worth the trip.

Goodbye Huge Elm Tree

We had some fierce winds for several days over the last week, with gusts over 50 mph on more than one occasion.  The wind brought down a large tree branch of our neighors across the street, which led to a tree maintenance crew coming out to clean up the debris.

While they were out here the arborists with the local Parks and Recreation District (they're responsible for maintaining the trees on the berms) noticed that the huge old elm tree on the Northwest corner of our lot had a pretty large hollow cavity at the base, seen above.  They left a note in our mail slot on a Wednesday morning that said the tree would have to be removed.  The time frame for the tree removal was pretty vague though, it said "crews would be on site either later that day or within the next couple of weeks". 

My expectation of the speed of local government entities is till stuck on California time though and I fully expected them to come take down the tree at the end of that two week period (or longer).  I forget that I live in North Dakota now, city services are pretty awesome, damn responsive, and actually can get things done quickly (when they want to).  A work crew was on site by 1:00 that afternoon, there was barely enough time for us to say goodbye and mourn the loss of our tree. 

It's always sad to lose a large tree in the garden and Alycia was pretty bummed out.  It has drastically changed the complexion of the garden though, and not just the big empty space where the tree used to be.  The whole area underneath and sections of the front garden that were full to part shade are now full to part sun.  It's a substantial change in the amount of sunlight that a large of swath of the garden receives.  Suddenly plants that were unthinkable in various front yard locations have become feasible.

The work crews that arrived at 1:00 had reduced that elm tree to the stump you see below by 4:30 that afternoon.  They cut it down and hauled away all the debris, leaving only a stump and a layer of sawdust coating part of the front yard.  The additional sunshine that comes through this space and allows us more "full sun" plantings will make up for the loss of this elm tree, and we've been promised that the stump will be ground down in the Fall and a new tree will be planted in the space next Spring, but it's still sad to lose a tree.

Paprika Yarrow and Awesome Customer Service from BloomingBulb.com

I wrote about some new plants that we added to the garden last summer in this post and this post last year.  These plants were root divisions that were on (huge) markdown from BloomingBulb.com.  Sadly the Arizona Sun Gallairdia didn't survive the winter, at all.  The Summer Sun Heliopsis, Paprika Yarrow, and Caradonna Salvia are mostly all thriving whilst very few of the Zing Rose Maiden Pink Dianthus made it through the winter.

Here's a photo of the Paprika Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), planted between tomatoes in the raised bed on the left and the apple trees (out of frame) on the right.  Please ignore those weeds.

A few weeks back I e-mailed the customer service department of BloomingBulb.com to tell them that some of the plants didn't live and requested a replacement.  They claim to have a "no questions asked replacement/refund" guarantee.  And do they ever.  I got a credit for the plants they no longer had in stock and a box of Zing Rose Maiden Pink Dianthus was shipped out to my house.

Their customer service was so fast and efficient though that unfortunately the box arrived when we were on vacation and the root divisions looked pretty dicey by the time we got home, so I'm in the unfortunate position of having to request a second replacement.  But BloomingBulbs' customer service was so outstanding, I don't think it'll be an issue.  For that reason they get a full Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes two thumbs up seal of approval.  I'll certainly be buying from them again. 

An Honorary Deaf Dog?

Today we went to our first fair of the season - the Grand Forks County Fair. Similar to last year, we opted to attend the 4-H Horse Show (which occurs during the morning hours when the fair actually is not open). It was pretty hot and humid so we didn't stay too long, just enough to see the Halter Horsemanship and English Dressage competitions. However, we did notice a horse that looked very similar to our own Shaak Ti and Shadowfax...

What do you think? Should this lady be an honorary deaf dog?

Irises in Bloom

Our irises just finished blooming. The picture below is from a week and a half ago when they were at their height of bloom. They're a pretty awesome deep blue/violet color.

Here's that same picture from a week later (just a few days ago).  The irises are almost finished blooming, but also blooming are wild geraniums and daises (of unknown variety).

This area is a small mound that was created from dirt from another project.  Just a few years ago this was nothing more than some scraggly and overgrown lilac shrubs, now look at it.  All of these plants were free divisions from Alycias' colleague who was dividing her irises and thinning some things out in her yard a few years ago.  I probably wouldn't have purchased these plants on my own accord, but since they were free?  I'll take 'em. 

Too Much Sunbeam

Shadowfax spent too much time in the hot summer sunshine today.  It was a lovely warm Summer day today in Grand Forks, North Dakota and she enjoyed every minute of it. 

After baking her brain out on the back steps, Shadowfax can barely make it in the back door before staggering inside and collapsing on the kitchen floor.  Maybe we'll get her one of these sweet cooling coats, or just fill up her swimming pool. 

Spirea - Flowering Hedges

One of the things that we inherited from the previous homeowners was a hedge of spirea that runs North/South along the Western side of the property.  Spirea are fairly popular as hedges around here and not terribly noteworthy.  We kept the hedgerow and actually added to it in a couple of places to make a consistent hedge.

Once or twice per Summer I get out the hedge trimmers and actually make the row of Spirea look more hedge-like.  It's one of the few elements of "structure" in a garden whose character could best be described as wild or random or natural, depending on your level of snarkiness at the time.  In early Summer the Spirea put out profusions of white flowers and smell quite lovely, but other than that they're quite unremarkable.

It's quite a show of tiny white flowers, but only for a few weeks, then it's back to being ordinary hedge plants.  We probably wouldn't have created this hedgerow look on our own, but since it's already here, we might as well embrace it. 

I'm not sure of the exact variety of Spirea, so sorry if I can't give you a more precise name or a Latin name for this plant. 

Free Mulch and Pics of the Mulch Yard

Here in Grand Forks, North Dakota the local Parks and Recreation District operates a multi-purpose yard for cultivating trees and shrubs, storing equipment, and maintaining huge piles of compost, mulch, and other yard materials (it's technically called Old Dutch Park - Map).  And the best part?  It's all completely free!!  Yeah, free mulch.  Sure you have to load it and haul it, but a little bit of elbow grease for free mulch is a small price to pay.

We're huge believers in mulch here on the homestead.  It helps keep roots nice and cool on hot summer days, retains water in the soil and limits the amount of irrigation needed, and breaks down into nice organic matter that creates a healthy soil system.  I've extolled the virtues of mulch before and we've had larger amounts delivered when we had big projects, but for the most part the trips to the mulch yard provide an adequate amount.  Look at that mountain of free mulch!

Here's the mulch yard.  Those are 20 foot high piles of mulch that go on for 100 yards or so.  It's good stuff.  There's also compost, sand, even some small aggregate. As long as you're not a professional landscaper, you can drive in and load up your car for free.  I can fit three full size trash cans into the Subaru Outback, it takes me a half hour total to get there, scoop up mulch to fill the trash cans, and get back home.  Easy peasy. 

The only stuff that's off limits is one pile of shredded wood chips that the Parks and Rec folks use for playground ground covering.

I get mulch from here on a regular basis.  I have procured compost from here before, but after one too many stories of "killer compost", there's just no way to be sure that there isn't some kind of herbicide lurking in that compost.  For the most part the mulch is less likely to contain some surprise. 

Mountains of mulch, it's truly a beautiful sight to behold, especially for a mulch junkie like me.

Birthday Week Celebration

Alycia here. When I was in college, my friends were nice enough to indulge me with an entire birthday week, which for anyone who loves their birthday is much more fun than celebrating on just a single day. I have tried as much as I can to introduce this concept and get John on board with continuing the tradition of birthday weeks, and he is really starting to come around. This makes for an exciting end of May/beginning of June, as John's birthday is just one week before mine, and our Anniversary is smack dab in the middle of the week between our birthdays (I planned this as such).

The birthday week allows the birthday celebrant to be in charge of all sorts of daily household decisions, such as what we will watch on TV at night, and what we will eat for our meals. So while it may not seem like a big deal, I feel that it allows for the feeling of a little extra specialness for an entire week, which is always nice.

For John's actual birthday day, we planned a day trip out to visit some small towns in Minnesota. The first stop was a cafe in Winger, MN that had been recently reviewed by world-renowned local food critic, Marilyn Haggarty of the Grand Forks Herald. The Depot Cafe and Bakery was appropriately located in an old train depot that had been moved and renovated.

There were some nice touches that reminded the customers about the building's history.

The interior was nicely finished with lovely wood paneling and lighting. The food was actually pretty good. John had a very large burger on a homemade bun. I had some of the best egg salad I'd had in a while.

In Marilyn's review, she mentioned a bakery. She made it seem as though it was right next to the cafe, but when we queried the waitress, she said that it was actually in McIntosh, MN, about 10 miles up the road. So after lunch, we headed to the next stop. McIntosh was actually a very lovely town that we will visit again. The bakery had a very large kitchen and appeared to specialize primarily in bread products (duh, it's a bakery), but it had a respectable amount of doughnuts as well.

John was able to pick up a package of sandwich rolls, as well as a couple doughnuts and an apple fritter, which made him happy.

After the bakery stop, we crossed the street to check out the meat market. Why, you ask, would a gluten-free vegetarian support visiting a bakery and a specialty meat store? Well, it was John's birthday and I think it's important to check out all available options for interesting food. Being in the middle of nowhere, beggars can't be choosers when it comes to possible food delicacies. We didn't buy anything at the meat market since there's a pretty good one here in Grand Forks (L&M Meats), but for a town of a couple hundred, it was fairly impressive.

Our next stop in town was the McIntosh Country Store. John didn't think we should go in - he thought it would be a feed store for cattle, etc. But I argued with him and said that the sign said they had fresh eggs, of which we needed some. So in we went. It was actually more of a natural foods store, with some random farm animal necessities. They had a whole bunch of gluten free items and bulk foods, as well as vaccines for your animals. In addition, as I was walking through the store, I kept hearing the cheep-cheeps of baby chicks, but I couldn't find them. Eventually I located the chicks, they were in a box under a table. (John here - it's been a while since Alycia's gotten to play with chicks)

It appeared as though the chicks had been mailed to the store, and they were waiting for their owner to pick them up. While I thought it was somewhat inhumane to mail live animals, according to my mother, this is often how its done. The chicks really didn't seem the worse for wear, at least based on my quick peek inside the box.

I also liked that the store had this lovely metal chicken outside.

And across the street from the store, was a plant nursery that the store ran. We picked up some (hopefully) lovely heirloom cherry tomatoes. We've had heirloom regular sized tomatoes before, but the cherries are a new one and I'm looking forward to what they'll produce.

We then headed home for a birthday nap and later had a lovely dinner with my parents at the Brick and Barley here in town. It's a newer brew pub that has a decent selection of rotating beers on tap. John likes to try the different beers; I stick with the always gluten-free ciders. There are very few decent gluten-free beers and I've learned that the ciders are usually a better/safer bet.

Iron X Dandelion Killer - Follow Up

Alycia originally wrote about Iron X Dandelion Killer back in 2012 and we're overdue for some follow up.  As previously mentioned, I don't care how my "lawn" looks and we're one of the only (if not THE only) houses in the neighborhood that doesn't have a commercial lawn service slather our yard with weed-killer/fertilizer chemical cocktails every month throughout the growing season. But in Late Spring/Early Summer it really is apparent by all the dandelions that we have that we're different. 

To that end we found a product called Iron X (chelated iron) that kills dandelions, makes our yard look normal-ish and doesn't invoke the wrath of the neighborhood for having all these dandelions that are seeding weeds throughout the area.   We generally apply the Iron X once a year in late-Spring or early summer and while it doesn't keep all the dandelions away, it gets rid of most of them and keeps a damper on them reappearing for the rest of the year, which is my goal.  I actually think the field of bright yellow dandelions is quite pretty, but that sentiment gets shouted down by my urge to not invoke the ire of the neighbors. 

For whatever reason, Alycia carries a burning hatred for the dandelions.  I can't emphasize this point enough.  Other weeds she dislikes, dandelions she abhors.  She does the spraying of the Iron X and verily delights in the death and destruction that it brings to the hated dandelions. 

This is a before and after of the berm at the south-west corner of our yard.  The second picture was taken a week after application of Iron X, and right before I mowed it.  There were only one or two rogue dandelions in that section of grass.

Got more than just dandelions? You could try this propane weed torch or the weed dragon and kill those weeds with fire!!!  I've always thought these were pretty cool.  I'll never get one, but the idea of killing weeds with fire makes me pretty happy.

Backyard Pool is Open for the Summer

The Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes backyard pool is open for business!!  It's been warm and muggy the last week or so and Shadowfax has been nagging us non-stop to open the pool.  We obliged last weekend and today finally got a few pictures of her lounging in her pool.

It's more like a big refreshing water bowl that she can lay down in.  She really appreciates being able to cool off after a vigorous game of fetch in the backyard.

 I caught her just as she started to shake off, the result is a super derpy face!

Golden Currant in Bloom

This is our golden currant (Ribes odoratum) in full bloom.  It's on the north face of a fence and really only gets some afternoon sunlight, so I'm not certain that we'll get fruit.  This is the third year for these shrubs, we got them back in 2012 from the Pembina County Soil Conservation District when they weren't more than 6 inch twigs, it's taken a full two years for them to get established. 

We have three different kinds of currants (Red Lake and Ben Sarek) on the homestead that we use almost exclusively for jamming.  Currants have a large amount of natural pectin and it enables me to make some very tasty blueberry/currant, red raspberry/currant (recipe and directions here), and raspberry/black currant jam with no added pectin.  The currants give the jam a bit of a nice tart bite as well. 

These flowers will hopefully be tiny currants in a couple of months.  We net our red (Red Lake) currants with bird netting but leave the black (Ben Sarek) without a net in case the birds want some.  Despite that fact that birds supposedly love currants, they don't take many of the black currants.  If you have small fruits - blueberries, raspberries, currants, strawberries, bird netting is a great investment.  It's unwieldy and takes a few minutes to cover your precious berries, but worth your time when you go to harvest them later.

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Baltimore Orioles and Spring Daffodils

We have too many photos and stories to share.  Fantastic birds have been visiting the homestead, Spring bulbs are popping, and the garden is just buzzing with life and activity.  Our friend the Baltimore Oriole stopped by for a visit, Alycia was quite excited to see him again.  We saw him a few times last year and were so stoked that he decided to return, especially since we'd prepared a meal of orange slices and grape jelly just for him. 

I actually didn't get a picture last year of the Oriole and had to resort to a stock image from the web. This caused me a little bit of shame.  But this year I got my own photo, though it doesn't do him justice.  That orange and black is so much more vibrant in person.

We also had a display of our mid-Spring bulbs, daffodils and Grape Hyacinth.  The Blue Scilla have long since gone, the lovely yellow tulips are almost spent, and the daffodils are on their way out.

These may be the last of the bulbs, expect for the Crocuses which are hiding in a shady, cool spot and will wait a bit longer to emerge.

There are a handfull of the these festive little Grape Hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum - yes this is a rare occasion where I actually know the Latin name), and they're all tangled up with some daisies that we were gifted from a colleague of Alycia's.  There sure are lots of things happening, we'll try to take more photos of all the action!

Yellow Tulips

I went away this last week to attend a conference down in Minnesota lakes country.  It's always astounding how quickly things change in Spring.  When I came back it was amazing how things have grown - seemingly exponentially, bulbs have flowered, trees have started to leaf out, it all leaves me filled with a sense of wonder. 

These tulips are in the back yard, behind the fence.  This part of the yard should theoretically remain bunny free, but these tulips were beheaded by bunnies last year right as they were about to bloom.  We're glad that the guard pooches were on the case this year and saved these pretty flowers from being chomped this year.

These tulips blooms will only be here for a week, we'll appreciate them every day that they're here. 

Day Trip to Fertile, Minnesota

Alycia here.  We took a day recently to head to Fertile, MN, which is home to Bergeson Nursery. This was our third trip there and we now know the ropes. The drive there takes you through the Glacial Ridge Wildlife Preserve and we saw a Northern Harrier gliding around the marshes looking for food.

When we got to Fertile, we first stopped at LaLa's Cafe, where much of the food is homemade. We were there in time for a late breakfast, so we were served a variety of homemade jams: strawberry and pear. I also wanted ketchup with my home fries so our waitress brought some out on a jar. Sure enough, that was homemade, too.

Below is John being quite satisfied with his breakfast sandwich.  Their specialty is actually homemade ice cream, they have a dozen varieties.  But since it was only 11:00 in the morning, and we had much to do, we didn't want too much ice cream slowing us down. 

After breakfast we headed to the nursery, which is about 8 miles outside of Fertile. We had a list of things to buy including: ninebark bushes, honey berries, and various flowers for new planters. We were more than successful, finding many interesting plants not on our list. Future posts will showcase some of those unique finds.

 

John's note - I'm only making this face because the sun is shining right in my eyes.  And because I know there's a lot of work now for me to do.