Visitors and garage sales

A few days ago I was looking out at our bird feeder at our various grosbeaks and sparrows when something I had never seen landed. It was blue. Bluebird? Indigo bunting? I get to see those rarely, but this was different. Stitch got out the nearest bird book and found it right away. It was a blue grosbeak.

Normally they would stay about a thousand miles south of us by St. Louis, but they do nest in South Dakota which is only about half that distance as the grosbeak flies. Like our former beloved wrestling governor, Jesse "The Body" Ventura said when asked if he was worried that Minnesota businesses might move to South Dakota because of lower business taxes, "Nah, 'cause then they'd have to live in South Dakota." He was right, but apparently it's okay for the grosbeaks.

Another sure sign of spring was the opening of our local Garage Sale Season on Saturday. While many of us were observing Syttende Mai (Norwegian Constitution Day) here in the Midwest we were also celebrating the fact that it is now warm enough to venture out to the neighbors in only a couple of layers of protective clothing. Also, as of Saturday, most of the inland lakes were declared ice free so people could go fishing without an ice chisel or auger! I noticed today when I was repairing fences that there is still a bit of snow in the woods, but I digress. Our community garage sale was at our community center in town where anyone could have a table or two and display whatever stuff they had that someone else might want. I suspect that a lot of the same stuff gets passed around every year or two as people decide they really didn't need that thing they picked up for a song at the previous sale. I usually play it pretty conservatively and don't buy much unless I really need it or think I can flip it for a little profit. This year's opening pièce de résistance was a WW2 cold weather flight suit pants in leather and fleece.

The really cool thing is, it fits! I was tempted to show the girls by wearing only these pants, but I am sure the screams would have frightened the neighbors. I could have left the full-length side zippers open for a real show, but then I would have to charge admission. I have since listed these on eBay to try and turn a small profit to "invest" in my partscaster. Since the wife and I split the original price of $20 and after eBay fees I might get lucky enough to buy a few strings for my half of the investment. Don't worry, I won't quit my day job. As Professor Batty mentioned last week, I have GAS. Gear Acquisition  Syndrome. It applies to photography equipment and guitar related things, but I have yet to admit I have a problem. Yes, I know there is a twelve step program to help, but I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM! Okay?   

Finally

As long as we don't slip in to a nuclear winter or have some major planetary volcanic event it looks like spring is finally here! I have been holed-up long enough and needed to get out and seriously try the bionic knee I got last November. And it really works! I went out for a walk and sneeked up on this doe.

Even though I didn't mean her any harm she didn't want to be disturbed while nibbling at the fresh green stubble starting to show itself. Once she realized someone was looking at her she decided to leave. In a hurry.

I guess it's for the best. There were a couple of them in the front yard when I went out this morning to look at the sunrise. They weren't too alarmed, but after a few moments they decided to mosey on. I could take some time and get them to relax around me and maybe hand feed them. Unfortunately, come fall, they would probably walk up to the first hunter they saw and ask for a handout. The results would be fatal and I would feel bad having caused it. On the other hand they are tasty.

Yesterday was the opening of the spring fishing season in Minnesota. Down in central Minnesota, places like Duluth and Grand Rapids, had open water on their lakes just in time. Up here they are still ice covered. Even our upper pond still had ice on it and it usually goes out about a week before the lakes.

Woke up this mornin'
Grabbed myself a cup
Brewed up some coffee
Went outside and looked up

And this is what I saw:

It was just before sunrise and the clouds were rolling in. After I fed the horses and let the chickens out it rained just a little. It cleared off now to mostly blue sky, but there is always something to do around here and it's not always chores or maintenance related. Sometimes I have fun projects. I am putting together a "partscaster" to replace the Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster I sold last year. I still need to raise some more funds for the electronics parts, but here is what I have put together so far.

A 2003 body, a 1993 neck, and various hardware. As soon as people buy some of the stuff I have for sale I should have enough to finish it. Wish me luck!

Da blooz

Woke up this mornin'
Took a look outside
Was that frost I saw?
Thought I'd stay in and hide

The dog is tellin' me
She has to go
We went out the door and found
We'd been dusted with snow!

Got those late springtime blues again, mama 
Nothin' I can do
I'll just dream of summer
And have a beer or two

Of course the other way to start a blues tune is "I've got a woman," but since the Cooker sometimes reads this I'm not going to go there. Mama didn't raise no fool!

This was taken last weekend. The good news is most of the snow in the open areas is gone, but there is still plenty in the woods. Minnesota fishing opener is next weekend and the fear is that most of the lakes in the Arrowhead region (where we live) will still be ice covered. I don't fish much anymore, but in this part of the country it is considered to be one of the higher intellectual pursuits.

Migratory birds are starting to look for nesting material and they find it here on the farm. You might remember the ravens grabbing beaks full of horse hair from Vedas. Now the smaller birds are at it. I think these are cowbirds that don't know the difference between a cow and a horse.

Click on the pic for a better look.

Imminent signs happen every day. Raccoons have been caught at the bird feeder during the dark hours and now the striped rats (chipmunks) have come out of hibernation.

Even the Big Lake has lost its ice in these parts. Down by Duluth, however, it has been piling up and the cargo ships and ore freighters have been going with a coast guard escort in order to make it to the locks at Sault Ste. Marie. Usually they are just referred to as the Soo Locks, but they have been a real bottleneck since the shipping season started this "spring". 

Yesterday I stopped by the harbor on my way to work. Yes, I have to work an occasional Saturday. I missed the more colorful part, but managed to get a few shots of the rainbow (not a snowbow this time) over Grand Marais and its harbor. There is still a chunk of ice in the foreground, but you can see that the rest is actual water! I'll bet the folks in the U.S. southwest would love to see this much fresh water. Their drought is getting pretty severe.

We are well into mud season and soon things will be greening up. At least by next month, anyway. Time to go outside and watch the spring slowly creep in. The sound of rushing water from the snow melt is like music, especially when the birds add their songs. A natural cacophony of orchestral proportions. It even makes this grumpy old fart smile a little.

Hogzilla!

Our horses have a pretty easy and stress free existence. The mares have the largest pasture, but about a quarter mile of it runs along the county road. I have seen all kinds of things go up and down that road from noisy teenage vehicles to Jake-braking trucks, moose, wolves, bears, coyotes, foxes, dogs,  deer, children, etc. The mares have had most of those things in the pasture as well (except for the vehicles) so they are pretty used to most of them. They are desensitized to most everyday sights, sounds, and smells.

When I got home after work on Thursday I was met at the door by the Cooker who said K from across the street called and thought their pig was heading toward our pasture. I said, "Okay," and walked over to the window to see what I could see. Casually coming down one of the hills toward the horse's lean-to was a large 400 pound pink low-to-the-ground pig. So I went back out and headed toward the barn to see if I could help capture this hogzilla. As I rounded the corner by the lean-to I saw the fence wires were broken and the horses tracks leading away from their hangout toward the "old boy" pasture to be near the geldings for some moral support and any comfort food (hay) that may be within their reach. 

I lead the girls into the barn and put them in their stalls while I went to help capture this wily and dangerous killer that had scared the mares half to death. What I found was an easy going, curious creature about the size of a short legged pony. The Cooker was there with a bucket of grain as K came along with a bucket of some more pig food. The ladies coaxed the pig out of the pasture and she (the pig) walked side by side with K down the driveway like they were old friends. K's husband J joined in and the three of them walked back down the county road to their little farm across the street. It was pretty cute the three of them out for a stroll down the road.

J is a big strong guy, about 6'3" and about 265 lbs. ( he helps me when the hay loads come), but if he wants to move hogzilla and she doesn't want to move, she wins. Hogzilla (her real name is Bacon something-or-other) is also somebody's mother. She gave birth at 18 below zero and here is one of her offspring.

I think maybe I should take the mares across the street and let them meet the pigs close up and personal in order to alleviate their fears. The younger mares were the most distressed by this pink interloper so I should probably take them for a visit first. I really have to stretch my imagination to understand the fear caused by the big, pink, horse-eating hogzilla, but I have to take it seriously without laughing out loud. I really want to hear the mares explanation for their reaction.

We just had two more inches of snow this morning, but winter is losing its grip. On the way to work yesterday I stopped to see if there was an water flowing in an erosion problem we call "New Falls". It was dripping, but mostly frozen.

And in a nearby tree was someone taking a break from cleaning up the winter's roadkill.

 Click on the pic and you might see the eagle didn't wipe its beak before leaving the table.

Women and Spring

Their are those who think women should stay at home, make babies, keep a nice house, and serve their husbands because that is their "traditional" role. If it actually had been, our species would have died out long ago. That tradition only existed for a short time during the middle of the last century and idealized by the likes of Ozzie and Harriet or Leave it to Beaver. There is nothing wrong with that way of living if all parties are agreed and the breadwinner can win enough bread to support a whole family above the poverty level. These days it's not so easy.


        

  

  It has been called to my attention recently that the Heritage Foundation, that bastion of Right Thinking, had a little get together of conservative women celebrating the last day of Women's History Month  by stating, "If we truly want women to thrive," (Mona)Charen concurred, "we have to revive the marriage norm."

 What interests Charen and the other women on the stage is their belief, as Charen put it, that "feminism has done so much damage to happiness." And the solution to this damage, it turns out, is matrimony — the same thing that will solve problems such as income inequality and the Republican Party's standing among women."

  I am not sure how many conservative women were at this conference, but I would think that it was most of them.

Following this line of thought would lead one to believe that women not following this idea might turn out to be be progressives or worse, even Democrats! The Heritage Foundation wants more women to vote Republican. If all of them did they might get a big enough majority to repeal the 19th Amendment and then women wouldn't have to bother their pretty little heads at all about voting!



Helping in this agenda would be the Mormon Church. They are all frightened (well at least the Mormon men are) because women want to wear pants in church! Jesus didn't wear pants in church so these women shouldn't either. Some of these Mormon women want to enter the priesthood! Joseph Smith would turn on the wrong axis of the planet he is God on if this would happen and his girlfriends wives would be looking to him for guidance.



Yes, it would seem the Mormon Cult Church has drawn a lot of attention to itself by making the national news on these issues as well. It seems they want to keep these protesting women and pesky media people as far away from the proceedings as they can.




Want to know more about the Mormons? Donna Banta can fill you in on her blog Ward Gossip. She is one of those uppity women (I mean that in the best way) that used to be a Mormon. Now she is simply awesome.



Spring is finally starting to, you know, spring. My coworker has a boyfriend that brings her lots of flowers on a regular basis. It certainly brightens up the atmosphere.





On a bright, sunny day the glare from the continuing snow is nearly blinding, but it does brighten attitudes and reminds us of what is to come. Here is our frozen harbor showing hints that here is something not white underneath.











Then there are the cloudy, but above freezing days and the wind that help to break up the frozen ice sheet that has covered Lake Superior for the last two months. Who knows, there may be icebergs all summer.





 

Just Fooling!

Today, the first of April, is April Fool's Day. It is usually a day of pranking. I have seen relatively benign pranks such as Iceland Review's lead story of Google relocating to Iceland because of its cheap electricity, cool climate (for all those servers), always Greenwich Mean Time, its location between Europe and North America, and Iceland's strict laws on information sharing (raspberries to the NSA). I have also seen or heard of pranks that caused great embarrassment, having an eye nearly put out, or having someone in the ER with inexplicable injuries. I think April fool jokes are fine as long as no one is physically hurt or is caused untreatable mental anguish.

We are currently well below freezing and experiencing a blizzard (no foolin') so mother nature is ROFLOL at us. We appreciate the humor, but you can stop now. In the spirit of jocularity, here are a few things to ponder. Hopefully there aren't too many repeats as I find I sometimes repeat myself as I age, repeat myself as I age. Starting and ending with the most interesting man in the world.

  Have a happy April first and don't get fooled!

False Prophet

Remember way last week when I told you about fellow blogger Donna Banta's book The Girls of Fourth Ward? Well I had already started the sequel, False Prophet. By the end of Sunday afternoon I had finished it and guess what? It was even better than the first! The fast paced action scenes, the strange rituals, and a few LOL moments made it difficult to put down. Not to say that I didn't have to put it down, because I still had to take bathroom breaks, do a few farm chores, and take a few minutes to be sociable, but other than that I just kept reading.

The book starts again in Abbotsville about a year and a half after The Girls From Fourth Ward ends. There has been another murder. Detective Ryan is called to the scene where he sees a body, face down, in a pool of blood. "His other hand was wedged beneath his chest, forcing an unnatural bulge. I pulled out a pair of latex gloves from my coat pocket. "Would you guys pick him up? I want to see what's underneath."
    Gatz and Mosely lifted in tandem. I squatted down and turned over a blood soaked leather volume. Gold embossed letters spelled The Book of Mormon.
    I shut my eyes and whispered, " Jesus Christ. Not again."
Later, sister Zimmerman who is at least nine months pregnant (glad I am not a woman) and questioning her Mormon ways, helps Detective Ryan go into the temple (he has already been loaned the special temple wardrobe in a suitcase from a gay ex-Mormon) to find more evidence for his investigation. His presence at the secret ceremony is awkward to say the least, as he has never gone through the wardrobe changes required and he ends up running, in his 'sacred outfit' like a halfback over "a low wall that overlooked what appeared to be a gentle slope of ivy. It was my best hope. I took the wall in a flying leap.
   Turned out the gentle slope was more like an ivy-covered cliff. I latched onto a sturdy vine, but it unraveled from the clump like the hem of a cheap sweater and then broke free, leaving me to tumble downhill like a dislodged stone. I landed in a gully, came to my knees, spit out a mouthful of ivy, swiped more leaves off my arms and shook like a wet dog to get to the rest."
There is a wedding scene later on that Ryan crashes in order to do some more questioning and put some more pieces together. The young woman getting married is one of the girls from the first book. Ryan thinks, "I craned my neck to get a look at the poor bastard she'd tricked into marrying her. The kid resembled a young George W. Bush, only sober."

I won't give away any more. Suffice it to say if you want a good mystery with familiar and unfamiliar scenes (unless you are knowledgeable about Mormons),  great plot twists and wonderful characters (some likeable and some not), you will like this book.