Vegetables

Usually by this time of the summer we are grazing through the vegetable garden.  I expected to have lots of vegetables ready for the dinner table when we returned from Canada, but that was not the case. I picked a few green beans three days ago, and when we needed an onion yesterday, I pulled one out.

Before we left, we had drought and while we were gone, there was excessive rain which may have harmed the blossoms, but I also wonder about the shortage of honeybees.  I haven't seen many this summer. If our honeybees are disappearing, as they are in many places, we may not have as many vegetables in the future.

The zucchini that was just beginning to form seems to have been eaten, but there are more blossoms so perhaps by the end of the summer I'll have enough to make some breads and cakes to freeze.

Today I went to the farmers market and bought tomatoes and okra.

We do have some rabbits that might have been munching my squash but there may be another culprit. Just before we left for Canada, I glanced over to Elaine's house at dusk and saw a woodchuck, or groundhog.  It quickly slipped under her deck.  She was in Connecticut visiting family but I sent her an e-mail telling her about her new pet and suggested she call the city.

When we got back Elaine had a police department trap next to her deck with watermelon in it.  Gary said it was the wrong kind of melon. When he lived in Dixon, Illinois, he had lots of critters in and out of his house.  There were pet owls, skunks, and more.  Gary thought the best thing to put in the trap would be muskmelon.  We bought some and he cut up one of the pieces which is now in the trap.

Now it is just a matter of waiting.  As I told Elaine, if we don't catch the ground hog, at least we'll have our own spring weather forecast.

While he was at it, Gary checked out her deck and found wasp nests. He waited until dark.  Just now he came back from releasing a wasp bomb.  I hope the ground hog doesn't get sick from it.

Photo selection

In some ways, getting photos printed was easier prior to digital cameras.  We mailed the entire roll of film to a processor, waited for the postal carrier a week or two and then selected the photos out of the results, throwing out the blurry ones.  Because of the expense we took fewer photos.

These days, we can record hundreds of photos, slip the memory card into PC and go about picking the very best of the lot.  That, however, is so time consuming.

Tonight, because of a good print offer at Walgreens, I set out to make my selections from photos I've taken since May.  (I ordered January through April when Walgreens last had a good deal)  I'm going into Appleton tomorrow for a meeting, so I can pick up the prints on the way.  Sounds  easy, but it took me over two hours to select, edit and order.

Son Chris always wonders why I just don't save the photos on a CD or memory card so I can look at them on my computer.  There are a couple of problems with this.

First,  technology changes.  I've gone through large floppy disks to smaller disks to CDs to memory cards.  Who can say where the technology will go?  I no longer can look at photos I saved on disks.  Printed out photos will still be useful a hundred years from now.

Second, I could and do look at photos on my computers, there is something charming about browsing through the 39 photo albums on my shelf.

I carefully label all the  photos and add some of my columns, the ones I think my grandson might find interesting. Pieces of memorabilia go in there, too.  The entire year's album will be finished on New Year's Eve.

I began putting these together decades ago and will continue to do them this way until I die.  What Chris does with them then is up to him. I expect most of my archive will be thrown out.  It is his right and I won't be around to care.  

While We Were Gone

It takes a day or two to recover from a trip.

The first problem is sleeping.  Oddly enough, I couldn't get used to the quiet.  I live in a quiet town in on a quiet street in a well insulated house.  There were no sounds at night.

While we were on the trip around Lake Superior, we were mostly on the main highways, including the Trans Canadian Highway 17.   With two exceptions (Laura Lake and Crescent Lake) our campgrounds were near those roads and we had to get used to the noise of trucks and trains. Odd that we had to come home to find silence.

When we left, northeast Wisconsin was in a drought.  Lawns were brown and I was worried that my potted plants weren't long for the world.

As we were leaving Seymour, I noticed several people outside a neighbor's house.  I knew he had cancer and was very sick and wondered if he were worse.   When we came back, I found out he had died that day.  His wife told me that just before he died, she told him to tell God we needed rain.  It started to rain right away and Seymour had as much rain in two weeks as it had in the three prior months.  The whole garden is now a jungle I must fight through.  Weeding begins tomorrow.

While we were gone, a California physicist who was the last scientist who held out against the idea that global warming was occurring and said if there was climate change, it wasn't caused by humans, finished a study commissioned by the Koch Brother.  They, no doubt, figured they were paying him to agree with their anti-science stance.  Instead, after looking at all the data, he now agrees with all reputable scientists.  

Of course, I knew this all along, and my okra is proving it.  I've planted okra for the past few years because I like it in soups but it has been almost impossible to find in Wisconsin because it needs a longer growing season, like that in Kentucky.  Mostly, the okra experiment has been a failure, but each year, the plants have gotten a bit bigger.  Last year, I managed to harvest two small pods.

When we came back, the first thing I checked was the vegetable bed.  The okra is in flower which means the pods will form soon.  By the end of August, I should be able to harvest them.  

Tonight, we drove to the Manzke farm where Gary keeps his camper.  When we left, their lawn was stubble.  Now it is a lush green.   Their crops, which were near to failing, are now growing and should be fine if the rains continue through August.  They came just in a nick of time.

So starting tomorrow, it's back to the usual routine:  gardening, writing, blogging, exercising, walking, seeing friends and family.  Everything is as it was.

Until the next trip.

Another milestone

Some time tomorrow, after writing 718 posts on this blog I will pass another milestone with my 20,000th "hit".  I wonder what country will produce that reader.  The statistics for the past week show:

United States                                                    198
Russia                                                                23
Canada                                                               15
France                                                                  5
Germany                                                              4
Poland                                                                  3
Australia                                                               1
China                                                                    1
India                                                                      1
Japan                                                                    1

Once in a while, I get a response from my readers but that is so rare.

Meanwhile, I have another blog I share with Wade Peterson and now Bettyann Moore.  Wade has just posted his latest story at Black Coffee Fiction http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  There, too, we have regular readers from all over the world, yet we get few comments.

Because I know how much bloggers like to get feedback, I make it a point to leave messages at all the websites I regularly visit.

Tell me who you are!  After almost two years, my curiosity is getting the better of me.    

Wheels

For two weeks, Gary drove his van on our Circle Tour around Lake Superior.  He would deny this, but I had no real choice in where we went.  He was in command.

Is there a woman who never had the experience of planning on seeing some road side attraction only to have her man drive past it and then say, oops, we missed it, and go on?  In my mother's box of photos, I found many blurred trip pictures and thought, why keep them?  Now I see she had to shoot pictures of places while the car was moving.  

There are places I might liked to have seen on our trip:  waterfalls, a lighthouse, a cove.  One day I wanted to go to someplace and Gary asked me what I would do there.  "I don't know," I said, and he thought that wasn't a good answer, but isn't serendipity the heart of a trip?  I like the unusual, the complete surprise but you don't find that until you go off route.

My last performance of the tour was at a retirement home in Sault Ste Marie.  I asked the women about their experiences.  They were the same.  One after another had a story to tell about her husband driving past places she would never get to visit. 

Today, I got into my own car and took off to do errands around Seymour.  I didn't come home for two hours.  I found more and more places I wanted to go, even if they were local.  That car was freedom.

Now, I think about my old age.  At some point, I will have to surrender my driver's license and depend on others to take me where I want to go.  What will that be like? Could I live without my freedom?  As long as I could keep walking I would be fine.  As long as I could take a wheelchair for a spin, I would be fine.  But when that is gone?

Every nursing home has an alarm system for residents who try to escape.  That would be me. The idea of being locked away is abhorrent to me, even if those in charge have the best intentions.

I think I will start investigating how to disable alarms.

Circle Tour – Day 14 – End of the Road

The last performance on the tour was last night. Most of the performances went well, but last night's was exceptional, with an audience that was with me every step of the way, laughing and applauding. I've received an invitation from all the venues to come back and I may just do that in another year or two.

Gary packed up this morning and we were on our way home. Before we left Ontario we had to stop to get our Canadian money exchanged for American. At one stop, I heard an American talking to a cashier about Canada's “funny money” a slur he took as great comedy. He was taken aback when the cashier calmly informed him that the Canadian dollar is now worth more than the American greenback. So who's got the funny money now?

All I had left was some Canadian change because I'd already swapped bills with Gary. I had $6.25 in change for which I received six American bills. The odd pennies and nickles left went into a box for charity. It's much easier than trying to use it in the USA.

Then it was across the bridge to the American side. As usual, we sat on the bridge in traffic for a long, long time, watching the ships go through the Sault locks.

We finally reached customs where horror of horrors, we were detained and our van searched. It was only a spot check but just the same, as we sat in a waiting area, I reviewed all my past sins from hiding a candy cane I'd snitched behind my grandmother's couch when I was six or seven through six decade to the present day. Gary says we weren't there long enough to review all of his sins. We were soon released and sent on our way.

Then the all day ride through the Upper Peninsula and into Wisconsin. We began to see flags on lawns, something you don't see in Canada where patriotism has nothing to do with a piece of cloth. We had never seen big religious billboards there either. Now all is revealed: Jesus died for our sins and abortion and homosexuality are evil. Life is much simpler in Canada. And more fun, Gary says.

I will have to write up my thoughts about this trip, but that will have to wait until tomorrow when I've rested up.

Circle Tour - Day 13 - Sault Ste Marie

Yesterday, I finally saw a moose at the Big Moose Ice Cream Shoppe here in Sault Ste Marie

It was the best we could do.   Later on  another thing I wanted to do in Ontario, eat a whopping big plate of greasy fish and chips. Not good for our cholesterol, but I suppose with national health care, Canadians can afford a coronary once in a while.

We're staying at the Glenview RV Park in Sault Ste Marie.  Usually, I avoid RV parks which seem to be row after row of RVs squashed together without benefit of shade.   This one is different.  There are RVs, but not close together.  The tent sites are shady and pleasant, but we opted for one of the park's little cabins because of the rain.  Tomorrow we leave Canada and we didn't want to pack up wet. Instead, we enjoy a real bed. 

The park offers a swimming pool, a sauna, a laundromat, and wonder of wonders, a great hiking trail.  Before the rain set in this morning, I took off on it, finding myself in a dense forest away from traffic noises.  There were deer prints and bear scat here and there.  Too soon, I had to return when it began to sprinkle. 

Now we are in the park administration building in the lounge using the wi fi to catch up on our e-mail.  In a few minutes, we will be off exploring Sault Ste Marie, perhaps looking at the locks and finding a St. Vincent de Paul re-sale store.  I am wearing my last clean shirt.  

Gary went to Walmart three times yesterday, since it is so close.  He came away with a fourth folding chair, this one with the Canadian maple leaf. 

Tomorrow, it's back home so he can put the chair on the deck for all to see.  

Circle Tour – Day 12 – Crescent Lake to Sault Ste Marie

Crescent Lake Campground used to have forty-two campsites but last year, the provincial park service reduced the number to twenty, which was probably a great improvement. After we left Lake Wanoka in Wisconsin, all our campsites were surrounded by others, all filled with other campers.

Because Crescent Lake is considered “rough camping” with no showers, flush toilets, or laundromats, plus no view of Lake Superior, it is not used all that much. At most, only six sites were filled and last night, that was down to three. It is away from the Trans Canadian Highway, so it is much quieter than the much bigger and more used Agawa Bay campground. Since Rossport, we had become used to noise. Even at Pukaskwa, we were next to the trail leading to the beach, so there were always voices of swimmers going to and fro.

Crescent Lake boasts an easy trail, only a two kilometer loop. Yesterday I took it faster than I needed to but rain threatened all day so I moved right along and did it in about half an hour. It went around Mudhole Lake and skirted three others. Most of the time it was on an old logging road. I didn't need my aluminum hiking stick so I folded it up and attached it to my fanny pack. Not exciting really, I didn't get lost, fall down, or meet anyone or anything, but a pleasant walk nonetheless.

While I was walking, Gary was exploring by canoe.

In the evening, he took me for a ride around the lake, though it might be described as along the lake. Crescent Lake stretches out, which makes it possible for the loon to live there. Loons have solid bones unlike other birds with hollow bones. This means that loons sink well, so that they can fish underwater but they don't fly as well as other birds. They need a large enough space to take off. At some of our Wisconsin lakes, they must take about three laps around before they can attain enough height to get over the trees.

Crescent Lake is narrow but so long it serves as a runway for the loon. So yes, we had our resident loon. The six juvenile mergansers were there, as well as a flock of geese and the sandpipers.

But what we were really after was a moose. There are “moose” signs all along the the highway warning motorists to watch for the big beasts, but I have yet to see one. The visitors centre at Agawa Bay has a  sightings book for visitors to note what they have seen. “Moose” shows up on every page yet I remain mooseless. That is why Gary took me out on to quietly circle the lake hoping moose would be coming down to drink. No such luck. Then we drove to Agawa Bay to return the canoe equipment and to come back at dusk to seek the elusive moose. No such luck.

This morning, mists rose from the lake, worth a photo:

Today we are at Sault Ste Marie and still we haven't seen a moose and this is my sixth visit to Ontario.  Last time I saw one, I took five year old Chris to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and that was thirty years ago.

Maybe the seventh visit will be the ticket.

One final note:  I have used toilets around the world but the ones at the Ontario provincial parks are particularly odd.  The men's and women's pit toilets are in the same wooden structure, separated by a thin piece of plywood that doesn't reach entirely to the floor.  When I was comfortably seated in my half, a male camper showed up opposite and I could see his hiking boots. This dampened my mood.  

Circle Tour Day 11 - Crescent Lake

July 23, 2012

We're at Lake Superior Provincial Park but things never turn out exactly as you figured. 

We first stopped at Old Woman Bay to pay homage to Bill Mason, the canoeist film maker Gary admired so much. When he died his family held their memorial here at his favorite bay, one that he had filmed so many times with a 16 mm camera he affixed to the canoe.  Later he had even bigger cameras.  How he would have loved the new technology.  His daughter Becky is still filming canoe instruction videos.  We met her at Canoecopia in Madison this past winter. 

Next we went to our planned camping site Agawa Bay, but while there are sites next to Lake Superior they are all booked up this week.  Moreover, all the sites are so close to Highway 17 that the noise of traffic would keep us awake at night.  

The visitors center is magnificent with wonderful exhibits, tea, and wi fi, plus postcards, stamps, and a mailbox so I can get another postcard out to grandson Evan. 

We decided to camp at Crescent Lake instead.  Here we found solitude because it doesn't have all the amenities.  Of all our campgrounds we like it the best and when we thought about it, it was because it is almost exactly like one of our US National Forest campgrounds.  

Two problems immediately were apparent.  All the water in this area is under a boil order, meaning we have to boil water at least a minute to drink it.  We also have a filter on our water container which is supposed to take out at least 99 percent of any evil stuff, but we boiled anyhow.  That one percent could cause a lot of trouble.  

The other problem is rain, which came last night and drove us back to the visitor center this morning so I could have a cup of tea and write this blog. 

Still, the joys of camping.  There were six juvenile mergansers frolicking in the water directly in front of our tent.  The view is grand, a perfect 3-D image of our scene in this order:  reeds, lake, island, back shore, hills, very high hills, all in shades of green. 

Gary is renting a canoe as I type.  We will be out on the water all day between storms.   

Biggest problem:  I have no clean clothes left and I will start reeking as the days go on unless we find a laundromat.  

Tomorrow:  Sault Ste Marie.  

Circle Tour Day 10 - July 22

Lake Superior Provincial Park

It was with great regret that I left Pukaskwa, which had almost everything I like in a campground, with the exception of solitude. Even that I found when I went hiking on a trail yesterday and met only one couple in two hours. I always wonder what campers actually do when they go camping other than swimming. Hiking never seems to be on the agenda in Wisconsin and not in the provincial and national parks we've visited here in Canada.

I did enjoy talking to people as I walked around. There was the watercolorists at the visitors centre who showed me their lovely arts.

The young couple with the seven weeks old baby and fourteen year old dog across the way shared a watermelon with us. I told them that the best lullaby ever written is the theme from Rosemary's Baby. Mia Farrow sang it to her devil child. I used it on my son, my grandson and in a daycare where I used to put six pre-schoolers to sleep with it. I even used it to calm down hyperactive kids in China. But my impression is they will not try it on their baby.

At the beach I talked to a member of the Pic River First Nation who was trying to get his teenage children out of the water so he could take them home for supper. He used to work at the pulp mill in Marathon but it was purchased by a clone of Bain who took 40 percent of the workers pension fund, declared bankruptcy and laid off all the workers. The mill is now being re-opened by a firm from India but he is now unlikely to be re-hired because he's too old.

A local couple was having their yearly picnic in the park. He works in British Columbia and flies home when he can. He is working on a hydraulic system for a fracking mine. He doesn't like fracking but it's a job. He likes his First Nation neighbors, especially the Anishinaabe and has adopted some of their ways. When a neighbor died, the relatives needed sage for the traditional funeral so they came to his garage where plenty was hanging to keep out evil spirits. I told him Gary smudged our campsites with

sage and then with sweet grass to bring in the good spirits. The fellow immediately wanted to know where he could get sweet grass but I get it in Oneida so I couldn't help him there.

Gary claimed there are no tides on Lake Superior so I went to find the ranger and asked about it. Yes, there are tides, but there isn't much of a change, not like the oceans. Lake Superior is the largest fresh water body in the world as far as surface area. The Caspian Sea would be larger but it has some salt content. There is another lake in Russia that is much deeper than Lake Superior but a smaller surface area so it probably has more fresh water. All of this is important as non-polluted water sources become more and more important.

And so we leave Pukaswa..and I am still mooseless.