Tomato Cage Update

In case you missed it or need to get caught up, you can read previous posts about my homemade tomato cages Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

These homemade tomato cages were an unbridled success, fully supporting the two plants (an Early Girl and a Polish Heirloom) with minimal training of the plants and effort on my part.  Both tomato plants are spilling out the tops of the cages, 6 feet plus in height and have produced an average crop with almost no fertilizing or attention from me.

The cages do make it slightly more difficult to harvest the tomatoes because you have to reach in between the small squares of the re-mash grid, but that's really the only downside. 

This is the other half of the tomato box, the Roma and Amish paste tomatoes, pretty much a complete mess.  I did stake these with the regular tomato cages (the only thing I had left) and the weight of the plants collapsed them in about a month.  This is the "do as I say, not as I do" mea culpa of our blog post today.

The lesson from the tomato caging this summer has been that I need to make a dozen or more re-mesh cages for all my tomatoes for next year.  They worked so well that I want to stake all of my tomatoes (eating, heirloom, Roma/paste, and cherry tomatoes) with this method next year.  Making new tomato cages will be a good fall/winter project for when the weather turns nasty and cold since I can work on this in the relative comfort of the garage.

A Weekend In Portland

Alycia and I spent the past weekend in Portland, Oregon, attending the wedding of our good friends Emma and Geoff.  It's always a great joy for me to reconnect with good friends who I haven't seen in a while and whose only downfall is a lack of proximity to North Dakota (which includes just about everyone).  We spent a lot of time chatting, recounting past glories, retelling the same old but still very funny anecdotes, and reveling in each others company. 

The weather was unseasonably warm for September, with mid to upper 80's until the last day when it returned to more Portland-esque breezy and showery.  We had great food and fantastic beverages the whole trip.  I also got to play some basketball with old friends, with kudos to the groom Geoff who actually organized a game the morning of his wedding, that's some dedication to the game.   

Instead of a wedding cake, they had tiny pies from a local bakery.  They were delicious.  And no one seemed to notice or mind that I snuck one into Alycia's purse in case I needed a midnight snack (I did). 

Our friends Geoff and Emma, who were very dashing and very lovely (respectively).

Your intrepid blogger and his piece of gluten free arm candy. 

Local San Diego Legend Passes

Outside of San Diego, few people have heard of him, but Jerry Schad was a San Diego institution.  Though I've never even met him, I feel like I know him through his writing.  I've got a dirty, dog-eared copy of his guide book "Afoot & Afield in San Diego County" somewhere, and I've thumbed through others copies a handful of times, in the library, from friends bookshelves, and even the house copy at the local coffee shop. 

Jerry wrote a column in the San Diego Reader (a local independent weekly magazine) that I'd read on occasion.  I was always struck by the power of his words to enthuse me to put on some walking shoes and explore the outdoors.  He was one small component that made the community a little bit cooler. 

You can read the article about Jerry in the San Diego Union Tribune.

Pickles on Parade!!!

OK I lied, the pickles aren't really on parade.  But my How to Make Bread and Butter Pickles post did get picked up by Associated Content/Yahoo media.  You can read it here:

Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles

Yay for pickles!!

Frost Warning

The locally respected Farmers Almanac says that the average first frost date for our neck of the woods - Grand Forks, North Dakota is September 27.  That isn't stopping Mother Nature from trying to send us freezing weather two weeks earlier than the average first frost date.  The weather forecast is for freezing weather tonight/Wednesday morning and possibly Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

We'll tuck in the tomatoes and peppers in a nice warm blanket overnight to make sure they stay warm and cozy.  It seems like it's too early in the season to be worrying about frost, heck it's not even officially autumn yet, but you can't argue with Mother Nature, she's gonna do what she's gonna do. 

Super Cuke

This is what happens when you're not super vigilant about harvesting your cucumbers every single day.  They can get unruly....

That's one big ass cucumber.

This particular variety of cucumber is the Armenian cucumber, and has a milder cucumber flavor with edible skin that doesn't need to be peeled. 

And The Tomato Spoke

I was returning with Shaak Ti from a squirrel chasing stroll through the park when I heard a barely audible voice from the garden, that said "Johnnnnnnn", it's barely audible voice trailing off.  It took me a minute of investigation but I found the source.  It was this little guy.

I got closer and heard the tomato say "John - make meeee into a Beeeee L Teeeeee".  Seeing as I had some bacon leftover in the fridge from our out of town visitor the previous weekend, I saw no impediment in obliging this little tomato's last wish.  And lo, it was delicious.  Thanks little tomato for the great idea.

Warm and Dry Weather

After a protracted Spring of cool and wet weather, summer returned to more normal weather in North Dakota, hot and humid.  Maybe even more humid than normal.  The precipitation was also perfectly spaced throughout the summer growing season, and didn't come all at once.  Just a nice quarter to half an inch of rain every two or three days.  It's been a pretty good gardening season for sure.

This week has been warm (mid 80's) and dry, great for the farmers to harvest everything from grain to sugar beets (sugar beet pre-piling started this week).  The warm weather is expected through the weekend and has a "last gasp of summer so you better get your ass out and enjoy it" quality to it.  So enjoy it I have been with meanderings through the garden and wanderings through the shady park with the pups. 

We have a big pumpkin, two watermelons, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, and a bumper crop of cucumbers still coming in.  Alycia has been running the food dehydrator almost non-stop making zucchini chips with the bounty from our garden and donated stuff from her parents garden.

This is a pretty typical daily haul from the garden, lots of various kinds of cucumbers, some eggplant, some tomatoes and a few peas.  Good stuff.

Wordless Wednesday

Bread and Butter Pickles

We've got three different kinds of cucumbers going right now (regular, pickling, Armenian) and they're all kicking into high production.  What better to do with cucumbers than make delicious sweet pickles, also known as bread and butter pickles.  Special thanks to Mama Bear since this is her recipe.

These are refrigerator pickles, they live in your refrigerator, so you don't even need to know how to can to make them.  It's super duper easy.  Just boil up some stuff, chop the cukes (and a few other things), and combine it all in a big glass jar. 

You will need:

• 10 to 14 medium sized cucumbers
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 pepper chopped
• 2 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 2 1/2 tsp dill seed

In a large pot, bring to a boil the following (stirring occasionally):

• 1 pint water
• 1 quart vinegar
• 4 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup pickling salt (regular salt will work too)

In a large glass 5 quart jar add the mustard seed and dill seed and a few of the onion slices.  Then add the cucumbers, pepper, and remaining onions.  Pour the boiling liquid into the jar (please do this carefully) and allow to set in the refrigerator for 7 days. 

My first jar of pickles.  Though when I made this batch I didn't have enough cucumbers to fill the jar, but no worries.  A few days later there were more ripe cucumbers in the garden and I just sliced them up and added them to the jar, and kept going until the jar was properly packed with pickles.

Stella the Stegosaurus

I usually make many promises here on the old Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes blog, but I feel I only occasionally follow through on them.  Promises of fabulous posts go unwritten and great ideas shrivel on the vine of John's brain. But in keeping with the previous promise to review many of my favorite items I present the Stella the giant purple Stegosaurus dinosaur review. 

Many of you probably can't imagine paying $31 for a dog toy, but a) this toy is huge - 19 x 6 x 15, b) it really is tough.  I've had a few of these allegedly "tough" toys before and been pretty disappointed, even going so far as writing an angry letter to the toy maker (to no avail).  Sure they last longer than other toys, but never long enough to warrant the price you pay.  This toy?  It's probably worth every penny, but since we got it as a Christmas gift from my sister, I can't really say it's worth every penny since we didn't pay for it.

This toy has withstood 8 months of daily use from the puppy.  And not just use, but at least an hour a day of destruction, thrashing, tug-of-war, chewing, and deliberate disemboweling attempts.  Stella the Stegosaurus has stood firm, despite losing a bit of purple fur on her undercarriage (there's still at least one more layer of fabric between Stella's innards and the puppy's gnashing teeth), she carries on. 

More Troubling Signs

First the trouble with the law (see the aptly named Trouble With The Law post), now this.  My nephew has started wearing....sigh...floppy hats.

Just about any psychologist, psychiatrist, or criminal expert can tell you that the wearing of a floppy hat is a sure sign of societal deviance and a determining factor for the potential for criminal behavior.  You start wearing a floppy hat or two, and end up like this...

 Never trust a fellow in a floppy hat, no matter how harmless they may look.

The Corner on First - Update

A little update on the marigolds that we planted along the corner of our lot around a power pole.  You can see the original post - The Corner on First. 

The area went from this:

To this:

And now it looks like this:

A very successful experiment, one that we'll probably repeat again next year.  The bummer is that the marigolds are annuals and we'll have to replant them every year, but it's not a whole lot of effort, and well worth the splash of color all summer.  

Remain Calm, All is Well

We're toying around with some format changes here at Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes, but don't be frightened, we're not going anywhere.  The blog may look a bit different (I decided recently that a format update was LONG overdue), and we may try a few things before we settle one one new format, so don't be scared. 

And please feel free to chime in with particular things you like or don't like, we'll do our best to accommodate our loyal readers.  

Summertime Iced Coffee

Anyone who knows me is aware of my love for coffee.  Actually to be honest, it's more than a love for coffee, it's a combination of obsession, addiction, and morning routine.  In the summer though, with the heat and humidity, drinking hot coffee can leave my in a tacky, sweaty mess, thus sort-of ruining my coffee experience.  

When I visited Costa Rica several years ago there was delicious coffee everywhere, with every breakfast.  And even though it was 90 degrees with oppressive tropical humidity, I drank as much coffee as my nerves could withstand.  Sure this often led to minor heart palpitations by late morning but it was worth it.  But sweating through your humid summer morning caffeine fix is one thing when you're in a tropical paradise, with a breakfast of scrambled eggs, black beans, rice, and fried plantains and an entirely different thing when you're sitting at your dining room table at home, having breakfast, and wondering why the dog won't stop licking his butt, it's two different worlds. 

The solution?  Curbing coffee consumption was not an option, so how to ingest my coffee in a manner that does not cause perspiration?  Iced coffee?  Well the couple of times I tried to make iced coffee resulted in very poor tasting beverages.  Unfortunately my previous attempts at making iced coffee have consisted of: take regular brewed hot coffee, pour over ice, sip, wonder why this tastes like crap.

So here's how you really make iced coffee.

1) Grind fresh beans (use the same amount as you would for your normal brew) and place in glass container.
2) Fill with water.  About half as much as would fit in a normal pot/brewing session. 
3) Place in refrigerator at least overnight, preferably for 24 hours (I also shake it occasionally a few times to stir up all the goodness).

Sorry about the crappy picture.  The camera and I weren't getting along today. 

4) Filter.  I just pour it through my coffee machine and let it filter through.
5) Empty coffee grounds into the blueberry bushes (coffee grounds are not only great fertilizer, but they make the soil a bit acidic which blueberries love) and rinse glass container.
6) Pour back into glass container and keep refrigerated.  Not sure how long it's good for, but I'd use within a week.

I fill a glass half full with ice and pour two parts coffee and one part milk, or if I'm feeling particularly festive, two parts coffee and one part chocolate milk for a tasty iced mocha.  Delicious.  

Garden Update Pictures

Raised bed with peppers, marigolds, and onions (you have to look for them a bit), as well as the odd volunteer tomato that we allowed to grow.  The onions have done great, and we'll have to do some research to learn how to properly cure and store them.  The peppers always seem to start off very slowly but have come on strongly in the last week.  I think we're going to have a pepper roasting party pretty soon.  We may then freeze the peppers or store/can them in some olive oil and garlic, again more research is needed here. 

North Dakota, and the Red River Valley especially, is known for its potatoes, so it's no surprise that they've done well here.  Hopefully there are a bunch of happy little spuds under there when we go to unearth them.  We're also going to do a bit of research to see how to cure the potatoes so that they store longer.

One row of apple trees, with zucchini and cucumbers in between, and white and purple sweet alyssum flowers on the end to encourage visits from beneficial insects. 

A slightly wider angle shot showing both rows of apple trees with veggies between them.  The extremely unruly tomato (more on this later) raised bed box is off to the left.

I'm Watching You

I wasn't going to post this picture since it makes me feel self conscious about the cracked and peeling paint on the window trim.  This is the window on the south facing mud room and it takes a beating from the elements.  Our windows are old, single paned, and let in a lot of summer heat and winter cold, so replacing them with something super energy efficient is on the radar, but windows are expensive. 

Hiatus Over

Good morning loyal readers.  It's been a few weeks since my last post and I'm feeling guilty about not writing more frequently.  We've been super busy here at the old North Dakota homestead: canning, making bread and butter pickles (more to follow in another post), tending the garden, staying cool in the summer heat and humidity, pulling lots of weeds, making gluten free cookies (more to follow in another post also), tackling some big yard projects, taking puppy to more obedience classes, and traveling for work, so it's been wing dinger of a busy summer so far.

I'm hoping that a couple of cute puppy pictures will whet your appetite and tantalize your senses until I get some additional posts up.  

A sleepy Shaak Ti after a hard days work, which actually involved no work at all, just playing. 

Puppy using her new toy (from the sale bin at Petco where we get many of our toys) as a pillow during a recent sudden napping attack. 

Guest Posting

Here's part two of my guest posting at the From Blah To Ta-Daa blog.

Digging in the Dirt: Part 2

Special thanks to our good friend Sara for the invite to guest post on their lovely blog.

Tater Tot Casserole/Hot Dish

So this recipe is closer to the antithesis of the recipes that I normally prepare, but it is a local delicacy.  Local delicacy yes, local food, probably not.  OK, the only local ingredients are the spinach (it is quite a bit of spinach at least) and probably the Tater Tots.  You've got to assume with all the potatoes grown around here that some bits and pieces of these tots are local.

Someone with Minnesota or North Dakota roots can pipe in and vouch for the passion that local folks display for their Tater Tot Casserole.

Though there are many variations of Tater Tot Casserole, they usually involve some ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, (obviously) Tater Tots, and a heavy dose of cheese.  Since Alycia does not consume the meat we replace it with some mixed veggies and about a pound of spinach, so it's sort of not that bad for you. Sort of.

You Should be Careful When It's Hot Outside

If you spend too long napping in the hot summer sun, your face might start to melt...

Guest Posting

Our very good friend and fellow awesome blogger Sara, and the other kind folks, from the From Blah to Ta-Daa blog have kindly allowed me to guest post again. 

Digging in the Dirt: Part 1

Strawberry Jam Insanity

Since my burgeoning strawberry fields are still in their first full year, they aren't quite up to the significant production I demand of them.  And since I was gone during a critical stretch where the berry box needed to be shielded from marauding birds (with some bird netting), my own personal strawberry production was decidedly sub par this year.  How oh how was I going to make strawberry jam this year?  Well, Alycia and I were going to have to be proactive (not one of my stronger characteristics) go and fetch some berries. 

Alycia's Mom had been trying to engineer a trip from Cavalier, ND up to Altona, CA (the CA here means Canada, not California) where they've been strawberry picking before, but I adamantly said "NO!!!"  I always buy American when I can, especially my berries and my bicycles.  As luck would have it that very day, an ad was posted in the City section of the Grand Forks Herald that said "U-Pick Strawberries" and had a phone number for a local farm just West of town where we could go pick berries.

And pick berries we did.  We picked three full flats of berries, with each of us filling a five quart bucket about three times, probably around 20 to 25 pounds of strawberries. 

The third flat of berries and my trusty cauldron.  I'm pretty sure that I was a warlock or shaman or stirrer of giant industrial soups in a previous life, I really like my giant pots/cauldrons/vats.  Strange....

To say that the strawberry picking was mosquito-intensive would be the understatement of the year.  We hung in there and picked despite the swarms of skeeters and now have some delicious strawberry jam-esque substance to show for it.  I say "jam-esque" because I got a little too loosey goosey with the jam recipe and it didn't set like it should have.  (hanging head in canning failure shame)

Note to self - Jam isn't like canned applesauce, pears, or pasta sauce.  You can't just mix up a big vat/cauldron of it, you need to follow the recipe.

Nephew at the Fire Station

My not-so-little-anymore nephew got to visit the Fire Station recently and hang out with the station Engineer (aka his Momma). 

Homemade Tomato Cages - Follow Up

Just a follow up to my previous post - Homemade Tomato Cages.  I'd be remiss if I didn't offer more information on whether this project was a success or failure.  The tomatoes are both heirlooms and are about four feet high so they still have some growing to do, but the cages are supporting the plants very well.

I'm not ready to call this an unbridled success right now since that's a sure way to anger the Gods, but I will say that so far these tomato cages are performing excellently.  We also have yet to harvest a tomato from these two plants, so it may dampen my enthusiasm if the T-maters are hard to get to or the cages somehow impede the gathering process. 

In another few weeks, we'll start harvesting fruit and see if the plants start excessively spilling out of the cages (in which case I have no problem pruning them).  I'm pretty excited about how these cages have done so far and am planning on building more for next year.  I'll probably need to build another 8 to 10 of them for all of our Roma/paste tomatoes and our cherry tomatoes as well. 

And as you can see I'm a big fan of surrounding the bottom of the tomato plants with marigolds.  These are the "Lemon Gem" marigold, a small, compact marigold with a lovely lemon scent to the foliage, so every time you brush them you get a wonderful lemony smell that permeates the air. 

Squirrel Patrol

Non Potis Ad Audio, Semper Vigilant

The Corner on First Street

I could go on a very long tirade on why I hate lawns.  We'll save it for another day, but suffice to say that I just don't get it.  Maybe it's because I don't have kids who need to safe place to play under my watchful parent eye, maybe it's because I don't see my lawn as a status symbol that I need to maintain to impress my neighbors, or maybe because I see nothing therapeutic or beneficial in the time, energy, and money it takes to maintain that lawn.  I really think people are just stuck in the status quo, this is how we've always done it, this is how I'll keep doing it.  Bleh. 

Due to all these lawnophobic tendencies I'm slowly engaging in getting rid of my lawn, either turning it into garden space, fruit tree orchard, or annual/perennial shrubs and flowers.  I have to do this slowly so as not to alarm the locals (any more than they're already alarmed by my very odd ways).  A few dozen square feet every couple of months (during the warm planting months that is) get reclaimed from boring green crew cut grass into something more interesting. 

So when Alycia wanted to plant some flowers in the corner of the yard I was enthusiastic to help.  OK, maybe not super enthusiastic since the project would involve me doing all the heavy lifting. shoveling, moving dirt, etc. while she got to plant pretty flowers.  It's an acceptable bargain, I know my role in life and that's to move heavy things and provide the manual labor. I actually stalled her for a bit by convincing her that we couldn't dig the ground around the power pole because the power pole might fall down.  I convinced her that the poles are actually not very well supported (why else do they always fall down in windy weather or tornadoes???) and we'd be flirting with disaster if we dug around it.  This only worked for a few minutes, but was a fun exercise in messing with Alycia. 

The area in question is right on the corner, outside the sidewalks, against the street and has the electric power pole right in the middle of it.  It's never a good looking space, and in order to even make it decent looking, you need to weed whack all the tall grass down, and even then I still think it looks unsightly.  Here's what it looks like on a good day. 

Here's a closer view..

We actually got the idea to fill the area with flowers (a couple of different kinds of marigolds) from a neighbor down the street who does the same thing.  I need to let him know that we copied his idea, hopefully it's not copyrighted or anything.

It looks so much better like this, and it's that much less lawn for me to mow every time.

It looks a lot better huh?  It'll look even better in a few weeks once the marigolds really get to blooming.  I really enjoy projects like this, taking one small space at a time and changing it, rather than being immobilized at the overwhelming task of the big picture.  I can't get rid of all my lawn at once, and the task of transforming large swaths of grass is a lot easier to envision if you carve it up into small chunks. 

Do you have any lawnophobic tendencies?  What would your ideal yard/landscape look like?  Would it have lots of lawn?

New Amazon.com Feature

As I have previously mentioned in other posts (see Selling Out), I got into blogging for the money.  Big money, no whammies (someone should get this reference).  I've had Amazon.com product stuff on my blog for a while but as of yet have not received enough money to comfortably retire or quit my sort-of job.  This is all your fault.  If you would all just stop being so selfish and each spend a few thousand dollars every month buying Amazon.com items through my blog I'd be able to accomplish all of my monetary goals in blogging. 

As such I've created a new widget on the lower left hand side of the blog page of Amazon.com products that I genuinely use every day and really, really like.  The widget itself is a carousel that spins around and hopefully makes you clap your hands and gleefully exclaim "Yayyy!! Make it spin again!!"  This widget is in addition to the deals widget at the top of the page, and the "Search Amazon.com" box on the left side of each blog page.

Hopefully I'll get around to writing a few testimonials for the products in this new widget since I do think they're pretty darn great.  Like the Mario Batali spatula.  It's awesome, it withstands high temps, and I really like it and use it almost every day.  In my years of cooking, canning, and kitchening, I've had some crappy spatulas that always left me yearning for more.  No longer.  This spatula kicks ass and is the first spatula EVER to be recommended by the honorable folks at Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes.  If you're currently in the market for a new spatula and don't have a Spatula City (serious mad props to anyone who gets this movie reference, you tube clip here) location near you, I would highly recommend this particular spatula. 

Remember that a portion of all Amazon.com products you purchase through the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes blog goes to help deaf dogs in North Dakota, a very worthy cause.

Fireworks Accident Decapitates Fargo Man

Today's story comes to you from the Grand Forks Herald, story by Heidi Shaffer.

I was going to make some snarky comments, but it's not nice to poke fun at the tragedies of others, even if they were playing with illegal, military grade pyrotechnics/explosives and literally blew their own heads off.  I've highlighted the super relevant portions for those who need to skim or have poor reading comprehension skills.


Fireworks Accident Decapitates Fargo Man
 
A 41-year-old father of two was killed when he lit a commercial-grade firework, an explosive that is federally regulated.

FARGO — An eyewitness here says a Fourth of July fireworks accident decapitated a Fargo man Monday night.

Police identified the victim as Jesse William Burley, a 41-year-old father of two, who enjoyed life to its fullest, said Burley’s stepfather Chuck Asplin of Fargo.

Chris Hanson, Burley’s neighbor who saw the accident, was packing up his car to leave north Fargo’s Riviera Heights mobile home park as tornado sirens sounded just before 9:30 p.m.

Burley was getting ready to set off a second round of what Hanson said he believed was either a homemade or illegal artillery shell firework.

Fourth of July

My nephew took his first dip in the pool yesterday on the Fourth of July.  He's a robust kid, and every day his hair gets redder and redder, and Jacob's Dad (my brother in law) hangs his head a bit further in despair.  He loves the kid regardless, but I think all things considered he'd prefer that his kid not have red hair just like his Uncle John.

A Return Home

Don't worry loyal readers, I'm still here.  I got sidelined with a trip to San Diego for a whole lot of work and didn't have much time to post during the last few weeks.  I've come home to a tired puppy (she spent a lot of time at Puppy Camp - though she doesn't appear to have any new knot tying or kite making skills that we're aware of), summertime-in-North-Dakota weather in the mid-80's, and a garden desperately in need of tending. 

I'll charge up the digital camera and keep it in my pocket to record all the happenings around the garden as I do some watering, weeding, and various other tasks over the next couple of days.  It might not be the most restful Fourth of July weekend, but there is much to be done. 

You can look forward to updates about the vegetable garden, (especially the tomato cages), the proliferation of potatoes and pickles (they're cucumbers now, but they'll be pickles soon enough), and the crazy number of baby Grackles I've had to rescue so far this Spring and Summer. 

Homemade Tomato Cages

We had some serious trouble last year with our tomatoes.  Both the cherry tomatoes and heirloom/eating tomatoes got so large and heavy that they quickly wound up dragging on the ground and entangled in a huge mess.  Sure we used tomato cages, but quickly found that the small tomato cages are useless, the large "sturdy" ones are a bit better but they still collapse under the weight of all the delicious fruit by mid summer.

The solution?  Homemade tomato cages, with a large side dish of John overkill.

I read an article about homemade tomato cages using re-mesh (the stuff they use to lay on the ground to pour concrete over).  You can probably have it delivered if you have a Lowe's in your area. So I scampered over to the local hardware store and bought a roll of 5' by 50' 10 gauge re-mesh, some bailing wire, and large pair of bolt cutters to snip it with.  Construction actually went faster than I anticipated and I got two completed in about 45 minutes.  Subsequent ones will go much faster since I have a system now.*
*These are famous last words of mine.  "Having a system" always seems to work theoretically but usually loses some of its efficiency in practice.  I can't remember how many times I've "had a system" only to find that the system isn't as great as I thought.  It may even be that once I declare I "have a system" that I officially jinx myself and the universe must forcefully readjust the size of my britches since they have obviously grown too large for my own good.  Thanks universe. 

Follow Up - Escaped Prisoner Captured

Just to give you some closure on an earlier story I posted on the blog (Prisoner Escape In Cavalier, North Dakota), this story is from todays Grand Forks Herald. It's now safe for me and my people, folk of the red haired persuasion, to freely roam about Cavalier, North Dakota without fear of being mistaken for an escaped convict.

This article has one of the best quotes I've seen from a law enforcement official (I highlighted it below as well): “We weren’t treating him as someone who is a danger to the public, but we still have an obligation to the public that no one walks away from our jail,”. That's the new benchmark for public safety? That no one should be able to walk away from jail? Hmmmm.

Pembina County escapee captured in Fargo

Glenn Troy Stegman, the man who escaped from the Pembina County jail three weeks ago, was captured Wednesday at a home in Fargo.

Stegman, 34, fled from custody in Cavalier, N.D., on May 19 when he was returning to jail after a hearing.

Jeff Osvold, Chief Deputy Sheriff in Pembina County, said that Stegman was entering the jail through a series of doors known as a sally port. Somehow, Stegman was able to open the door that should have locked behind him and ran away, Osvold said.

Stegman was captured in Fargo on Wednesday afternoon by city police and agents from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Pembina County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.

Stegman faces no charges in Fargo and will be returned to Pembina County.
There, he faces a felony charge of escape, and he may also face felony charges of burglary and theft. After fleeing the jail, Stegman allegedly entered a building and stole an all-terrain vehicle.

Osvold said the department believes that after escaping, Stegman headed for Fargo, where he had lived before being sent to Cavalier for violating probation.

He is believed to have spent time in a treatment facility in Fargo, but left.

“We weren’t treating him as someone who is a danger to the public, but we still have an obligation to the public that no one walks away from our jail,” Osvold said. “…We’re just very fortunate that we were able to find him again and happy to have him back so he can face the additional charges for the poor decision that he made.”

Great Online Articles

Got a few minutes to read some very good online magazine articles?  These came up recently and I would highly reccomend them:

Just Deserts - From GQ Magazine, the compelling story of a modern day US Army deserter living in Canada. 

Madoff's Curveball - New Yorker article on New York Mets owner David Wilpon and his entanglement with the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. 

Flacking For Big Pharma - American Scholar website article on how Big Pharma has taken over scholarly medical journals. 

Deaf Dog In the Sun

How do you know when you're a spoiled dog?  When someone pulls your fluffy dog bed into the front porch so you can slumber in the sunbeam.  It's a rough life. 

The Adventures of Beaver-Dog

It's entirely possible that the puppy we adopted isn't a puppy after all.  She may well be some kind of puppy-beaver or dog-beaver hybrid.  This can't be proven yet, it's still in the hypothesis stage, somewhere between "existence of Sasquatch" and "climate change" on the continuum of settled science.  

Puppy is the first puppy I've ever had, as the other dogs we have (Tito and Shaak Ti) were all acquired after the initial spazzy pure puppy phase.  Being that my sister is more experienced with raising puppies, I'll occasionally call and ask her advice, or more often ask her "Uhhh I saw the puppy doing (blank) today, is this normal?"  So it didn't totally cause my sister any alarm when I called the other day to inquire of her "How much wood is it OK for a dog to eat?"

You see, chewing on and then consuming wood is one of the puppy's favorite activities.  Favorite Activities.  I can't highlight or special font this enough, she really, really loves chewing and eating wood.  On occasion there will be little piles of wet mulch where she has just enjoyed chewing the wood, but more often than not, the wood is going all the way through her system.  Trust me, I know, you don't want me to explain how I know, just accept that I know.     

Most days puppy spends hours outside, nosing through the woodpile, gnawing and stripping bark off the bigger pieces of wood, and dragging the manageable ones around the yard to a sunny spot on the grass, and eating them.  Like having a wood picnic.  Since she's not tall enough to reach the top of the woodpile, nor woodpile savvy enough to realize the potential for disaster, she occasionally causes woodpile avalanches.  I'm always afraid that one of her self inflicted woodpile avalanches is going to cause a serious bonk on the noggin and lead to an injury, but oh well, it's a risk we'll take. 

I'm not sure what to attribute this woodpile love too, and since honestly it's 1) a really cheap toy and 2) much better than chewing on furniture/shoes/other household goods/people, I can't complain. Still it is a bit odd.  Maybe it's just a phase...

Happy as a clam, or more accurately, happy as a beaver-dog.

Freeze Warning

It's almost Memorial Day weekend and we have a Freeze Warning tonight in North Dakota.  Ugh.  I went out and tucked in the sensitive peppers, basil, and oregano into a nice cozy blanket for the evening, hopefully they stay warm.  The other cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, and melons are already protected with buckets (to prevent the damn bunnies from chomping them), so they'll be fine.  The verbeena, sweet alyssum, and marigolds that I planted over the weekend will unfortunately have to survive on their own.  We'll see what the morning light brings.

Happy Spring Pictures

Sorry loyal blog readers.  Unfortunately I've had some actual work to do recently and this has seriously impeded my pro bono bogging activities.  Between work, the hustle of Spring gardening and planting, and pooch care, blogging has come in a distant fourth place on the priority list.  Here's a smattering of miscellaneous Spring pictures for y'all.

Our tulips are just finishing up blooming.  These are two really pretty varieties, yellow, and yellow with a striped red center.  The bunny banner was a Christmas gift from Alycia's Mom.  Just so everyone knows I'm not normally a purchaser of bunny banners, though as far as bunny banners go, this one ain't half bad.

My problem with bunny banners is that they're never an accurate depiction of bunnies.  Bunnies don't just stop in your garden and harmlessly sniff the tulips (as this banner depicts).  They maraud through the garden, wreaking havoc, chomping everything in sight and teasing my poor deaf dogs into a barking frenzy. 

Shaak Ti models next to the tulips in full bloom.

These are Cummins tulips (very close to Cummings).  They're really unique looking, purple with white frilly tips.  I've never seen tulips quite like these before, they're pretty cool.  These were purchased thanks to a generous housewarming gift from Alycia's friend Andy in San Diego.  Thanks Andy.

Prisoner Escape In Cavalier, North Dakota

Big news from Cavalier, North Dakota from the Grand Forks Herald. Hopefully I'm not mistaken for this guy just because I have red hair. Maybe we'll wait a while before our next visit.

Prisoner Escapes in Cavalier
Pembina County deputies searching for Glenn Troy Stegman
According to Pembina County’s Chief Deputy Sheriff Jeff Osvold, Stegman, 34, was being led back to jail from a bond-reduction hearing about 10:30 a.m. today when he took off running. Stegman still was at large at 3 p.m.

By: Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

A Walhalla, N.D., man escaped from custody this morning in Cavalier, spurring a search by law enforcement and the local school to lock-down.

My Spam Folder Thinks I'm Getting Old

I pay a good deal of attention to my spam folder.  I'm not the kind of guy who just blindly deletes the e-mails and moves on to other tasks or ignores my spam folder completely.  Because even though these e-mails are unsolicited and full of scams, lies, and false propaganda, I still think they have something to say to me.  And lately I think my spam folder thinks I'm getting old.

Sure I still get e-mails offering the newest and most advanced herbal reproductive organ supplements, but lately there have been more offers for generic Viagra, Cialis, and other ED medication - mailed discretely from a reputable "Canadian" pharmacy.  My spam folder thinks that I'm getting less concerned about the size of my God given endowment (a young man's issue) than I am about my ability to keep said God given endowment attentive and able to be utilized (more of a mature man's issue).

And yes there are still plenty of hot Russian and Ukrainian women offering themselves as candidates to be my next wife.  And yes they are still more than happy to offer graphic descriptions of their abilities and proclivities, but nowadays they seem more likely to be seeking "distinguished gentlemen" or state they are "good for a mature man" (yes these are both quotes from recent spam I've received).  What gives?  I'm neither distinguished or mature. 

Fewer are the promises to find hot young singles in my area, and more frequent are the solicitations to locate that high school classmate before my upcoming reunion.  Have I crossed the imaginary spam line from likely to be seeking hot young singles to be more likely to be undergoing some midlife crisis by reuniting with a high school flame*?  I'm closer to my 10 year high school reunion (it was a while ago) than I am to my 25 year reunion (it's not for a while), so what gives?
*the joke's on them. I was not the most popular dude in high school and don't really have any long lost high school flames pining for me.  I know, I know this is hard for you to believe, but it's true. 

I get more offers for cruises, genuine Rolex watches, and tees times at the most exclusive golf courses than I used to receive.  These all seem like offers and possessions of an affluent older gentleman, not a young dashing gentleman such as myself.  Does my spam folder think I'm getting old?  Yeah, I do.

Local Music Video

I can't believe that I didn't discover this sooner, but better late than never.  A couple of Minnesotans released a music video in January.  It took my fellow blogger, lifeshighway of Along Life's Highway - The Yard Art Game, to alert me to its presence. 

I'm only posting this because I feel like it's now past the possible winter jinx period.  There's no way that this would anger the snow gods and cause them to drop more wintry precipitation, is there?  I sure hope not.  

North Dakota Snow in May

Apparently snow is not unheard of, but still pretty rare in May.  We celebrated the arrival of May with some snow last night and this morning, not a lot, an inch or two.  This makes seven consecutive months with measurable snowfall (Fargo has had eight months in a row since they received some snow in October that missed us) in Grand Forks.

How rare is snow in the month of May?  The last time (according to the Grand Forks Herald) Grand Forks received snow in May was May 11, 1946, quite a while ago.

These poor tulips were just getting ready to open, you can see the flower buds just ready to pop.  I'm sure they still will, they're pretty hardy flowers and acclimated to cold.  Maybe the color will look even more striking with the snow underneath. 

Along with snow there have been some impressive winds in the 25 to 35 mph range with gusts higher than that.  The western and central parts of the state have been under blizzard warnings and Bismarck (the state capital - this could help you in a trivia contest someday) and Dickinson have recorded of gusts of 60 to 70mph.  Crazy.

We're going to spend a cozy day inside.  The yard work that was planned for today has been put on administrative hold pending nicer weather.  Just in case you're wondering, the folks here at Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes helped spread the word about this nasty winter.  See the November post - Pig Spleen and Weather Predictions.  And maybe it's time for you doubters to recognize the power of the pig spleen.

Another Awesome Deaf Dog Video

Here's another deaf dogs video.  I think you'll find it's much better than the first one. I'm sensing a trend towards better and more frequent video sharing.

This video stars Shaak Ti and the Puppy, but also includes Tito the Wonder Puppy.  You'll notice that Tito only likes playing when Shaak Ti is upside down and vulnerable or otherwise defending herself against the massive puppy onslaught.  Tito plays dirty, no doubt about it, he just bides his time for Shaak Ti to be preoccupied, then darts in, CHOMPS, and off he goes.  Except for occasionally getting run over by the other two, Tito rarely gets any payback for all this deviousness. 

Beets and Borscht and Biscuits

There are a few veggies that we haven't planted in our first few years here in North Dakota like beets, corn, chard, and carrots. Why? Alycia's parents in Cavalier, North Dakota plant them in multitudes and always have extras, so there's no need for us to plant them in our garden.  At the end of the growing season we get a delivery of a couple dozen quart sized freezer bags full of cleaned, blanched, and ready to eat beets.  It's a pretty sweet set up.

What to do with all these beets?  Well we eat them occasionally in salads or as a side dish, but the best thing to do with beets is to turn them into a delicious borscht.  A big ol pot of borscht, with plenty leftover to freeze for Alycia to take for lunches. 

I'm not much of a close up food photographer, so I'm probably not doing this delicious dish justice.  Plus, I was good and hungry so there weren't multiple shots happening. 

A big dollop of sour cream is the perfect finishing touch for this hearty, earthy, savory soup.   I also made some tasty Parmesan cheese drop biscuits* to accompany the soup, it all worked out so well. 

*Sorry, there were no pictures of the biscuits, they were warm and crusty and begging to be eaten, so there was no time for photos.

What do you do with your beets?  Anyone have a favorite beet recipe they'd like to share?

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Deaf Dog Video

It took me like 3 years to realize that my digital camera also shoots videos.  Me and technology aren't always the closest of special friends.  This is my first foray into home videoing and as such, you get to suffer through my growing videographer pains.  Yes, this video is pretty bad, but I promise that my subsequent video taking efforts will be much better.

Here's Shaak Ti and Puppy playing. Turn on the sound for the full effect.