Kelly's Slough - Grand Forks, North Dakota

Even though John and I have been in Grand Forks for over 5 years, we had not visited Kelly's Slough (approximately 10 miles west of town) until his dad and special lady friend came to visit in September. It was a lovely day, bordering on hot, when we headed out.

The slough is actually a series of water holes, and there were a couple of lookout towers and several walking paths for visitors.  We walked down one path bordering the largest section of water.  Apparently the water levels vary on the time of year and whether it's a wet or dry year, and the types of birds vary depending on the season.  Spring and Fall migration times were the best for seeing quantity and variety of birds. 

We brought Shaak Ti and Shadowfax and they had a great time smelling all of the smells.

We saw a variety of flora, none of which I know. Here are some interesting red berries.  As you can tell we went all out for this blog post.

Yellow flowers.

Purple Flowers.

We also saw a variety of big birds. Possibly juvenile bald eagles or golden eagles, herons, ducks, sea gulls, etc. We were a bit unprepared with no binoculars or good camera, but we'll definitely be heading back to check things out again.

Deaf Dog Awareness Week - Video of Deaf Dog Play Time

Hey!  Did you know it's Deaf Dog Awareness Week.  Heck yeah.  And we're going to celebrate all week.  We'll post some new videos of our awesome deaf dogs as tribute to Deaf Dog Awareness Week, September 23 - 29.  If nothing else you can see what terrific pets they make.  Their deafness never slows them down.  Go out and celebrate a deaf dog this week!! 

Tito may be getting old but he still manages to scamper around and play with the other dogs, well he plays with Shaak Ti anyways.

Shaak Ti doesn't throw any big punches, just a bunch of soft jabs at old man Tito.  Tito can take it, he's the cagey old veteran who can still hang with the youngsters for a little while.

HellStrip Wildflowers

They call them "hellstrips" in some parts of the country.  Here we call them "berms".  They're the utilitarian space 3 to 6 feet wide between the sidewalk and the street.  Here in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the city owns the berms but the homeowner is required to maintain them.  Snow gets piled on them in winter (lots of snow!) by the plows, and brush and leaves are left there for the city to pick up during Fall clean up (see 2010 post with pictures of the leaf machine).  Don't worry we don't give away our leaves, they're far too precious to us, though we do make sure to not rake leaves on windy days.

The standard default is a grass berm that the homeowner is required to mow and maintain.  Our neighbor Bob across the block though is smart and has a better idea for his berm...wildflowers.

I'd like to try something like this in the coming years. For most of Spring and Summer it just looks like weeds growing on an untended patch, but for a month or so in late Summer and Fall it looks magnificent with explosions of color. 

Wildflowers mixes are pretty inexpensive (you can buy them by the pound) and cover a huge area, so a big bag of seeds can last for several years.  What do you do with your hellstrip/berm? 

Oregon Tours - End of the Oregon Trail Museum

Over the Labor Day weekend John and I went to Portland, OR to visit a large number of our friends who live in the area or were up visiting. One of the highlights of the weekend was our trip to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum (not to be confused with OTHER Oregon Trail museums). This museum was located in Oregon City, OR about 45 minutes from the middle of Portland and operated by the Historical Society of Oregon City.

John and my good friend Sue accompanied me on this visit. As you can see, the architecture was true to the ideals of the American West.

As soon as we got into the visitor's center, Sue found us some classic (and classy) bonnets that we bought and then wore throughout our museum tour.

We started with a historical re-enactment movie that "followed" a variety of different people on their trips on the Oregon Trail. We also liked that there was a hologram of a guy who interpreted the movie for us periodically.

There were three different sections to the museum: a pre-trail "general store" that showcased all of the things the people left behind and what they took with them, a section that discussed some of the interesting people's stories from the trail, and a post-trail area that contained a land claims section. The Oregon Trail ended in Oregon City, as this was where they could file land claims.

After the movie and our tour through the museum, one of the docents, Missy (who by all accounts appeared to be bored to tears), offered to let me make candles. Sue and I think she was entertained by our enthusiasm and our bonnets. I did not appear to be a very good candle maker as Missy kept telling me to move faster between the wax container and the cold water container. But I did end up with a nice little candle.

While I have not traveled the entire Oregon Trail in life. I did play the game for many years as a child. In addition, I have seen some of the other stops on the trail - notably Fort Laramie and Independence Rock (which is now a rest area in Wyoming).

Perhaps we're not the quintessential frontier couple, but we're modern day Oregonian travelers.

After the End of the Trail museum, we headed to the McLoughlin House near downtown Oregon City. I was most upset to discover that I had forgotten my National Parks Passport book. I had to stamp my stamps on paper for later taping into my book.

We didn't go on the McLoughlin House tour, but instead walked down to the 4th oldest elevator in the U.S. It was made out of an old water tower that gave us a view of the city. It was a bit unnerving that they had a full-time elevator operator who sat behind a plexi-glass shield - we jumped when we first saw him.

The elevator took us to the Oregon City promenade that we walked down to Willamette Falls (in the top left corner of the below photo). Unfortunately in late-August, it appears that the falls are more of a dam than a waterfall. And, the old factories that lined the river did not add to the beauty of the scene. Possibly we'll revisit during the rainy season to see if it's more picturesque.

Clematis Blooms - Better Late Than Never

Our clematis have struggled this year, not sure why.  Most were planted in the last couple of years, so it's possible that they're still getting established.  They've finally started throwing off some blooms in the last week or two.  I'm not sure which variety these are...I think jackmanii clematis.

Hopefully next year will be better for clematis blooms. 

Northern Woolen Mills Tour

John's dad and special lady friend visited us in early September and as one of our outings, we headed to the Northern Woolen Mills in Fosston, MN. It was about 1.5 hours east of Grand Forks and is one of only a handful of operational woolen mills in the US. It was recommended to us from one of our fellow Pilates students, who is also a fantastic knitter.

The building was not impressive from the outside, but the young lady who came to help us offered to give us a tour of the facility - starting with the very beginning, when the wool is dropped off at the facility. They work with all sorts of wool, regular wool from sheep, merino wool, alpaca, llama, bison, and even elk. The bison wool was the softest.

The brown wool in the cardboard box below is actually from bison.  Unfortunately it comes from the slaughterhouse as (apparently) shearing a bison down is problematic. 

Mugo Pine Removal

These Mugo Pines (also loosely known as Mountain Pine, Scrub Mountain Pine, and Creeping Pine) flank the beginning of the path to our front door where it meets the sidewalk.  I have never liked these things.  They're messy, not terribly attractive, have really sharp needles, and require lots of yearly maintenance.  They also grow out instead of up (much like me really) and block the front sidewalk.

Usually once every winter the heavy snow weighs down the branches and they sag and block the front walk and the mail-lady refuses to deliver our mail.  Then I gotta trudge out in the snow and cold with my loppers and trim them so we can get our mail again.  This makes John angry. 

In my opinion they're not a great return on my investment of work hours. In short, they don't bring much to the table and they take a lot away, especially from me.  But they've stayed right where they are for 5 years now.  I've had other pressing matters to attend to in the garden and I hadn't really found something to replace them that I was really excited about.

That all changed when we were on a garden walk a few years ago and I saw the perfect shrub, the Centerglow Ninebark.  It's 5-6 feet tall and wide, has bright flowers in Spring and interesting maroon foliage.  It also has some interest in Winter as the bark starts to look peeled, much like a birch tree.  It may have taken a few years to find, but this was the perfect shrub for this spot.  

Next year I'll add some more landscaping blocks and trim the area around these new shrubs.  This will create some new planters for flowers and allow me to line the front sidewalk with bricks.  The bricks along the sidewalk should help tame the hostas a bit bring their leaves up off the ground, and give us some sidewalk back.  Goodbye terrible Mugo Pines, hello shrub I'm actually happy about.  

Is it a pig or a dog?

Shadowfax has become enamored with her Luna ball. We like how it makes her snort. The Luna ball has proven to be pretty durable so far, but we'll see if it's as tough as her Goughnuts stick or Jolly Ball (which has remained an outdoor only toy).

Deupty Kills Cow After it Twice Charges Him - Local News

We saw this item on the local news last night and laughed pretty heartily.  We felt really bad for the cow though, it possibly fell off a truck, definitely got hit by a car, then got shot...that qualifies as having a crappy day.

From the Grand Forks Herald:

CASSELTON – A Cass County deputy responding to a motorist that had crashed into a cow off Interstate 94 Monday morning had to go to the hospital himself after the injured cow charged him at the scene.

Cass County Sgt. Dean Haaland said the deputy was responding to the crash at about 3 a.m. at mile marker 332 west of Casselton when the cow, injured in the crash, charged him.

The deputy was knocked to the ground and suffered some bruising, Haaland said. When he got up, the cow charged again, and the deputy fired upon the animal to keep from being hit again, killing the cow.

Haaland said the deputy was checked out at an area hospital and is doing OK.

Cass County deputies are now investigating the area to find out who’s responsible for the cow.

So far, none of the farmers recognize the cow, he said.

At this point, they think it’s possible the animal fell off a truck that was transporting it through the area. 

Monarch Butterflies

While out mowing the lawn the other day I spotted a Monarch in the garden and stopped to snap some photos.  I've started to see a few more Monarchs around the homestead, though not the profusion that we usually have in late Summer.

He/she wasn't scared of me one bit and I got within an arms' length, snapping photo after photo.  After resettling on the flower (Summer Sun Heliopsis) below, I got this fantastic picture.

Butterflies, and especially Monarchs are one of my favorite summertime creatures to see in the garden.  We're going to continue to plant more flowers that they utilize for nectaring or laying eggs.  Summer just wouldn't be the same without Monarchs flitting about.  What critters do you most enjoy seeing in the garden?

Poweful Pitiful Pittie Pleading

The well known "pleeeeeease stop working and pay attention to meeeee" face.

I know I have like seven hundred toys, but I wanna play with you!

Hairy Woodpecker Photos & Crazy Toes

I was outside most of the day Sunday removing two large Mugo Pines (aka Scrub Pine or Mountain Pine) from the front yard.  More on that in another post!  While I was out there a hairy woodpecker stopped in to visit.

He was not afraid of me one bit, even though I looked mighty and wielded a shovel/pick axe/pry bar.  The hairy and downy woodpeckers that frequent the homestead are quite bold and not skittish around people.  The large Pileated Woodpeckers?  They're another story.  This one allowed me to get pretty close and snap some nice photos. 

If you look closely in this photo you can see the unusual toes of the woodpecker.  Woodpecker toes and feet have evolved specifically for arboreal life scampering around in and clinging to trees.  Woodpeckers have two toes facing forward and two toes facing backwards, this is known as having zygodactyl feet. 

This hairy woodpecker stuck around for a while and likely decided that my grunting and swearing while digging out the mugo pine stumps was oft-putting, and after a few minutes, flew off.  Sorry my friend, I apologize for the colorful language. 

What kind of feeders to we use to feed our feathered friends? We learned about the Droll Yankees brand of bird feeders from an Audubon Society presentation a few years ago and are hooked on their bird feeders now.  They're much sturdier than others we've had and come with a lifetime warranty.  I've heard numerous unsolicited testimonials from people who've shipped 10 or 15 year old feeders to them and gotten new back ones in the mail, no questions asked. We use the Droll Yankee Nyjer Seed Feeder and the Tube Feeder for sunflower seeds and love them (but probably not as much as the birds). 

The Ladies of the House

All the ladies posed together for a picture. This is a pretty typical scene around the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes household.  Shakk Ti likes to sit behind your legs against the couch and Shadowfax prefers to be on your feet. 

Where are the dudes?  Well John and Tito are solitary creatures, content to hang out and do their own thing. 

The Stanley Cup in Grand Forks, North Dakota

We're having a slight departure from our normal postings of deaf dogs, canning, and gardening topics and pivot to some local news of interest.  The Stanley Cup wass in Grand Forks, North Dakota today - August, 12, 2014.  The team that wins the Stanley Cup is allowed to have it for 100 days and in 1994 the tradition was started to allow each player on the team to do (pretty much) whatever they want wherever they want with it.

Los Angeles Kings player Matt Greene attended the University of North Dakota and was bringing the cup to the Ralph Englestad Arena for ordinary everyday fans to view and take pictures of it.  I met Alycia for lunch nearby and we had full intended to go see the Stanley Cup (it was open for viewing between 12 and 3), but we were confronted by this scene:

This was a big ass line, you can't see the end of it.  And it didn't get any shorter.  By the time we got done with lunch around 1:15, the line was actually longer than when we started.  Alycia had to be back at school by 2:15, I hadn't brought any sunscreen, and I had a whole bunch of work to do back at home.  So we opted to skip it.  Instead we looked at pictures of the Stanley Cup and associated chaos thanks to The Ralph Englestad Arena. 

 

If the Stanley Cup isn't making a tour stop in your town, that's OK.  The Wikipedia entry for the Stanley Cup is a pretty interesting read, full of lots of fun facts and stories.  And there are obviously  Stanley Cup merchandise opportunities galore (it's kind of crazy). 

Final Jam Tally for 2014

Jamming season is officially done for the year.  I spent a few hours yesterday making blueberry-currant jam, which marks the end of jam making, but not canning for the year.  We'll be making our special pickled beets in another few weeks, once the beets are ready. 

The final jam/jelly making tally for the year was as follows (all numbers are half-pint or pint containers):
 - 3 Currant Jelly (this is an experimental jelly this year)
 - 7 Raspberry Currant Jam (recipe here)
 - 19 Strawberry Jam
 - 26 Blueberry Currant Jam

Your initial reaction might be "Holy Buckets!!  What do you need that much jam for?"  And verily 'tis a fair question.  55 jars of jam and jelly may seem like a lot, but we'll probably give away 15 to 20 as gifts or in exchange to friends who make other homemade things. My volleyball friend Matt and I have a regular homemade beer for homemade jam exchange.  The rest of the jam is used as an inoculation to ward off or cure the winter blues, and kept on hand in case of scurvy.

There are few other things quite as inspiring as a pantry full of homemade goods.  Also in this shot are the dozen quarts of peaches we canned this year, and some applesauce from last year.  We may not can applesauce this year, we'll have to see.

Next to those peaches, on the bottom right of the photo, are the boxes of Bob's Red Mill Hearty Whole Grain Bread Mix.  It's the best gluten free flour mix we've tried, and when we get it through the Amazon Subscribe and Save Program, it winds up being much cheaper than we can ever find in the store.  And even though it's gluten free, fresh out of the oven on a chilly winter day with some homemade blueberry jam on it, it is excellent.    

How about you awesome readers?  Any canning or food preservation victories so far this summer?

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Shaak Ti - Upside Down Again

Here's yet another picture of Shaak Ti lounging around upside down in her bed and looking groggily at me. It looks uncomfortable, but who am I to argue.

She spends more time upside down; awake, asleep, playing, you name it, than any other dog I've ever met or even heard of.  What a goofball.  As I write this she's upside down laying against the couch, passed out from baking her brain out on the back steps. 

Monarchs and Flowers

I spotted our first Monarch Butterfly of the season yesterday and was able to snap this photo before it flew off (it's middle bottom of the picture).  It was briefly resting on the Summer Sun Heliopsis (heliopsis scabra) before it took off for parts unknown.  Like many other gardeners across the country, it's taken a long time to spot the first Monarch of the season, and sadly it may be the only one we see all year.

Next to the Summer Sun Heliopsis and underneath the currants (now relieved of their fruit) are the coneflowers, which are just starting to bloom in numbers.  These purple beauties are the PowWow Wild Berry Coneflower (echinacea) and they attract butterflies, bees, and other pollinators.  Both of these photos are from the same mounded area in the front yard.

The last picture below is the vegetable garden.  The pink and purple petunias line the front, just behind the landscaping blocks.  Since it's in the front yard, this helps give the illusion to a passerby that the whole area is flowers and fun plants, not a working vegetable garden. The area between the landscaping blocks and apple trees was turf last year.  We used the lasagna mulching technique to cover over the grass earlier this year, and the quality of soil will continue to improve as we add mulch, manure, and compost. 

Behind the petunias are apple trees, watermelon, potatoes, and beets (between the apple trees).  In the last week the watermelon have finally gotten the consecutive days of heat that they need and they've taken off.

This is just a snapshot of what's blooming and growing on the homestead in this first week of August.  Berry season and intensive jamming are almost behind us. After my blueberry currant jam making tomorrow or Wednesday, we should be chock full of jam for the year and also have plenty to give away as Holiday presents.  As jamming season ends, tomato season begins!!

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The Current Currant Harvest

This week we stripped all the currants from the red currant and black currant bushes and processed them for jam making.  It was a pretty good year for the currants and we got enough of them to make +/- 6 batches of Raspberry-Currant and Blueberry Currant jam.

Lovely bowl of red currants.  Don't worry, we washed them thoroughly and removed those leaves.   While we removed the leaves, we left the currants on their stems.  We harvested about 8 quarts total of currants.

Stunningly colored black currants.  Currants are full of pectin and with them added to a jam recipe, we don't have to use any additional pectin, it all comes from the currants and the jam sets up great.  The currants give the Raspberry-Currant and Blueberry Currant jams a nice tannin-y tart bite. 

Afternoon Sunbeam Slumber

Shadowfax spent much of Sunday afternoon reluctant to emerge from her slumberball. The humans spent the day working in the yard and canning peaches, industrious and productive.  The opposite of a lazy, solar-powered pooch. 

The summer sunbeam was powerful indeed. 

Record Rain, Big Winds, Tornado Warning

It was a hot and steamy day yesterday.  A cold front was forecast to drop through the area in the late afternoon and evening triggering strong storms, and that forecast was spot on.  We got 69 mile per hour wind gusts, 2.71 inches of rain, two plus hours of thunder/lightening/torrential downpours, and a tornado warning. 

A tornado warning was issued at about 8:30pm and the warning sirens in town went off.  We hunkered down in the basement and listened to the hand cranked weather radio.  Funnel cloud(s) had been spotted west of town, so call me a weather-wuss, but I was happy to hang out in the basement for 45 minutes or so until the warning passed.  The dogs?  Those deaf pups slept right through the whole thing.

There are a bunch of small branches and twigs strewn all about, but two much larger branches are hanging down in the backyard. I'm going to have to break out my telescoping tree pruner (one of those tools that you don't use very often, but are damn glad to have it when you do need it) and clean those up this afternoon. 

The only real casualty was an apple tree that got blown over.  It got bent over to the ground at its base and when I righted it, I could hear some roots snapping.  I set it upright, stomped the dirt back down and gave it some support stakes.  I'll go out this afternoon and give it some more detailed attention. Hopefully it can make it back from the brink...apple trees are remarkably resilient. 

From the National Weather Service:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA/GRAND FORKS
143 AM CDT JULY 22 2014

...RECORD DAILY MAXIMUM RAINFALL SET AT GRAND FORKS UNIVERSITY
(NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE)...

 A RECORD RAINFALL OF 2.71 INCHES WAS SET AT GRAND FORKS UNIVERSITY
(NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE) YESTERDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF
2.03 SET IN 1966.

"H" Plants are Blooming - Heliopsis, Hollyhock, Hosta

Lots of H plants are blooming in the garden, specifically the Heliopsis, Hollyhocks, and Hostas.  We've finally gotten some warm/hot weather and the heat loving plants are finally starting to thrive. 

The Summer Sun Heliopsis (heliopsis scarbra) is in full bloom, and I'm glad I planted them together in masses in the front yard.  As you can see below, they look great planted in a mass together, and they're in the bird feeder area, so any stray sunflowers that the birds drop that sprout will look right at home and blend in nicely.  Heliopsis are also known as "false sunflower".

These were root divisions that we got from BloomingBulb.com. I've proclaimed the awesomeness of them before in a previous post - Paprika Yarrow and Awesome Customer Service from BloomingBulb.com.  I'm not getting paid to shill for them, I'm just a super satisfied customer. 

 Hidden amongst the field of heliopsis are the first hollyhock (alcea rosea) flowers of the year.

The first pink blooms of the year, back-lit by the morning sun.  I'm not sure of the variety.  We got these as free seeds on a garden tour a few year back, so other than "Pretty!!", I don't know much about them.  Hollyhocks are a bit unusual in that they're a biennial plant, they grow the first year (occasionally throwing up a flower), then die back and grow significantly larger and bloom magnificently in the second year before dying off completely.

Blueberries and Currants Covered with Bird Netting

I often chat with people about the berries I grow here on the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes homestead.  They're usually impressed at the red currants, black currants, blueberries, and strawberries we grow, but almost always have some tale of woe at trying their hand at raising berries but not having success. 

After proper site selection, good soil, and watering, the single most important factor in whether or not you get a lot of (any kind) of berries is whether or not you install bird netting. Bird netting is a simple netting (like a fishing net) made of plastic that you drape over the bushes and keeps the birds from landing on and devouring all your berries.

Just about every bird in our area, except for maybe the bald eagles, love nothing more than ripe berries, grapes, or cherries.  Actually just about any ripe fruit is a magnet for birds, and given the chance they'll get all your fruit before you do.  I've seen Ceder Waxwings strip a large cherry tree in half a day, and given the chance birds will take all your fruit from you as well, unless you take some steps to prevent them. 

Above is the bird netting on our red currants.  Bird netting isn't installed year round, it really only has to be on the bushes for a few weeks when the fruit is ripening, then it can be removed.  It usually comes in green or black and is fairly inconspicuous, so it won't look too unsightly in the garden.  

This is the netting on our blueberry area.  The netting is held up by miscellaneous sticks that I've accumulated for just such purpose and I'll remove this all by the end of the month.

Bird netting is fairly inexpensive and lasts for several years, depending on your patience level and how neatly you store it at the end of the season.  It's definitely something that's worth every penny if you want to protect your crop.  You can check out some bird netting options here and here from eBay, or you can see what Amazon has to offer.