Day 4: Mergansers

 Day 4, Wednesday, August 11

The morning began with a brief and most-welcomed rain shower. It was not enough to reverse the fire ban, but it did get the ground under the car wet.

We had the second batch of blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We had bacon this time to change it up.

Blueberry pancakes with peaches and bacon

We lounged around the cabin most of the morning. I was catching up my notes while Jane read her book. At 11:00, we packed up some lunch things in the cooler and headed to Lima Mountain Road. It is recommended for wildlife viewing, but probably not in the middle of the day. We saw zero wildlife except for numerous butterflies who were giddy over the recently-formed mud puddles in the dirt road. I worried that we were running over a lot of them. I hope they moved away fast enough.

We stopped at the Kindall Lake campground for lunch. There is a nice view of the lake from the boat landing. We saw an osprey there once years ago. Alas, there were already people at the boat landing. We settled for an empty campsite with no lake view. Some poor schmuck had gone around and put pin flags in every fire grate that said, “NO FIRES.” I wonder if the Forest Service workers drew straws for that job. Maybe they had summer interns for that sort of thing.

NO FIRES pin flag in every fire grate

We ended up in Grand Marais. We walked through Superior Trading Post for old times’ sake. In our days of canoe tripping, we always had to stop in for one thing or another that we remembered that we’d forgotten to pack. I can’t recall the last time we went in. They have expanded their inventory well beyond camping gear. They now stock clothing and décor for the cabin, none of which we needed.

We went to Sydney’s to spend $5.95 each for a single frozen custard cone. It’s good custard and a long-standing tradition with us, but we’ve cut our number of visits to one now that it’s so outrageously expensive.

Our traditional stop at Sydney's

Jane found seats on the beach while I waited 6 feet behind the person in front of me. I had to move fast to get to Jane before her cone started dripping all over. It was a hot day. There were loon-sized birds on the water. I tried to get a picture with my little camera, but was not successful. When I finished my cone, I went back to the car for the big camera and telephoto lens. At that magnification, I could see the punked-out hairdo of mergansers. I had forgotten they were so large.

A pair of mergansers

We watched a sailboat by Artists Point. It was a good day for sailing, blue sky and steady wind, and they looked like they were having fun.

Sailboat and Artists Point

I stopped in the restroom before we headed up the Gunflint. The soap disperser followed the motto, “necessity is the mother of invention,” but violated the principle of “never put chemicals in food containers.”

Interesting soap dispenser in Sydney's bathroom

For supper I cooked two brats in a skillet, since we still couldn’t use the grill. We also had fried corn and potatoes, one of Jane’s favorite sides, and cucumbers in sour cream.

Brats, fried corn and potatoes, and cucumbers in sour cream

We caught Dave on one of his trips back and forth between home and office. He said the morning rain had totaled “38 hundredths.” And I thought Terry was the only one who talked like that.

We spent the evening down on the dock. It was relaxing to be by the water, but there wasn’t anything to photograph. Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy some downtime.

Day 3: Loons

Tuesday, August 10

Our day began with eggs’n’stuff (green pepper, cherry tomatoes, onions, cheese) and bacon.

Eggs'n'stuff

We were on the deck contemplating our plan for the day when three loons appeared on the lake right in front of the dock. There were two adults and a juvenile. The juvenile was the same size as the adults, but did not have black and white plumage yet.

Loon family

The juvenile reared back and flapped its wings to dry them off. I got a picture before and after the full extension. So it goes.

Juvenile stretches its wings

Jane was eager to see if she could get in the rowboat this year. We collected out fishing gear and went to the dock. She got in without much difficulty. Since she had her right shoulder replaced in early June, I had to row. Rowboats are stupid. Whose idea was it to go backwards? I did the best I could, but we zig-zagged all over the lake. The fish were not biting at all. As it turned out, the only thing caught that morning was the sponge from the bottom of the boat, which I snagged as I tried to stow my pole so I could start rowing again.

“It’s SpongeBob!” Jane said.

SpongeBob

There is a new product on the market called “P3” for three proteins. The three proteins are various kinds of cheeses, ham or turkey cubes, and nuts. Jane gets them on sale at Meijer, and we often have 3P salads for lunch when I visit her. For lunch on Tuesday, I made 3P salads with leftover steak, cheese curds, and mixed nuts with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots from my garden. Jane declared it better than our usual 3P salads.

Salad with three proteins

We drove down to the Chik-Wauk nature center in the afternoon. One of the new displays this year was on a dendrologist who spent his career building maps of historic forest fires by coring trees and counting rings. He must have been a very patient man.

At Trail’s End campground, Campsite 20 was unoccupied for the first time during our visit for many years. I followed the trail behind the campsite over rocks and roots to the cascade between Seagull and Saganaga. I have many happy memories of this place from back in the day, but this year, there was barely any water.

Dry cascade by Campsite 20

As we were out and about, we saw a legume with small purple flowers. I did not recognize it. Imagine my surprise when I looked it up and discovered it was alfalfa. I can only assume that farmers cut it before it flowers. If I’d seen a whole field filled with purple flowers, I think I’d remember.

Alfalfa--who knew?

I made peach and blueberry cobbler when we got back to the cabin. 

Peach and blueberry cobbler

We sat on the deck drinking wine until it was time for supper. I got a picture of a white admiral in the flower box that lines the deck rail.

White admiral on the impatiens

We had tortellini with baked tomato pasta sauce and green beans for supper.

Supper

The sunset was not colorful, and the brightness of the sun on the water got to be too much for us. We went up to the cabin, ate cobbler, and went to bed.

Day 2: Greenwood Lake Tour

Monday, August 9

We began our day with leftover pancakes, or “handcakes.” as Jane calls them because that’s how we eat them, straight from the refrigerator without plates, forks, or syrup. The blueberries give a pleasing burst of cold juice in your mouth. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

Our plan for the day was to look for charismatic megafauna along the Greenwood Lake loop. Our tour definitely peaked too soon. Shortly after we turned on the Gunflint Trail from the road the cabin is on, a deer ran across the road in front of us to join another deer already in the trees. Almost immediately, Jane said, “A bear cub!”

I looked just in time to see its behind disappear into the brush. We slowed way down in case Mama Bear was following. Seeing nothing, we figured she must have been in the lead.

We drove down Greenwood Lake Rd. to Shoe Lake Rd. No wildlife. Not even small birds. The leaves on small poplars, dogbane, and bracken were already starting to turn. So dry. Eventually, we saw a crow take off from the shoulder and land in a tree. Our only photo opportunity was this grouse sauntering across the road.

Ruffed grouse sauntering across the road

It was a beautiful day. I took this picture of one of the lakes we passed with the trees reflected in the calm water.

Lovely lake scene

In spite of the drought, there were many late season flowers in bloom, goldenrod, evening primrose, fireweed, asters, pearly everlasting, and Joe Pye-weed. I recently learned that Joe Pye was a real person, a Native American well known for his knowledge of herbal medicines.

Goldenrod and Joe Pye-weed

I doubted if there would be any blueberries at Otter Lake with the drought. Indeed, the vegetation looked very dry.

Drought-stricken poplar

But behold! A blueberry. They were widely scattered, and I only bothered to pick two.

One of a few blueberries

The distance between the head of the portage trail to Otter Lake and the actual lake was longer than it used to be, but not at all dry. Someone had put branches down to keep canoers from sinking in the muck.

Branches extend the portage trail to Otter Lake

Our day turned out to have more excitement than we expected when we got back to Esther Lake. A woman camping alone with her little long-haired dachshund had a dead battery. She had cables, however, which was good because Jane didn’t. We learned many things about Jane’s car before we got the other car started. For example, the battery is in the back. Quite an adventure.

We stopped in town to get tortilla chips and black beans at the grocery, followed by ice cream at the DQ.

I made black bean salsa by adding half the can of black beans to the leftover salsa from the day before. This we ate with chips on the deck while we finished the bottle of margaritas.

Supper

We went down to see the sunset from the dock. The picture never quite captures the true colors. Trust me, this looked better in person.

Imagine this with more vivid pink

I’d been wondering if frogs existed this far north. I couldn’t remember ever seeing any. As Jane walked off the dock, however, one hopped right in front of her. It was a leopard frog. Question answered.

Leopard frog

 

 

 

Boundary Waters '21, Day 1

Jane and I got back from vacation last Saturday. I am up to my eyeballs in tomatoes here at home, but I wanted to get a quick post up since it has been so long since the last one. I wasn't going to obsess so much about the food, but one of my readers told me she could not wait to hear about what we ate. So here we go.

Sunday, August 8: We kicked off our yearly trip to northern Minnesota with blueberry pancakes with peaches.

Blueberry pancake with peaches and maple syrup

The Boundary Waters area is in a severe drought this year. All fires, including the charcoal grill we had planned most of our evening meals around, were banned. We got our fishing licenses and went down to the dock. It soon began to drizzle. Terry would call this a “nuisance rain.” It prevents any outside work without making any real progress toward getting the soil wet. We continued fishing until we were cold and damp, catching nothing.

Morning drizzle on Hungry Jack Lake

After lunch, the drizzle stopped. I started on my trip notes while Jane took a walk. Sunday is usually a lazy day so we can recover from the long drive. We sat on the dock watching water striders and admiring the water lilies.

Water lilies

We saw a herring gull.

Herring gull

And a bald eagle! This picture is the only one in which you can sort of see that the head is white. It has the characteristic profile of our national bird, anyway.

Bald eagle

I cut the porterhouse steak that we intended to grill into strips and made fajitas with onion and peppers from the garden. I made pico de gallo with garden-fresh onion, pepper, jalapeno, tomato, and sweet corn. We ate on the deck and drank margaritas.

Steak fajita with pico de gallo

When Jane finished the dishes, we played Mexican train until bedtime. Vacation was off to a restful start.

Harvesting chickens

 Summer is winding down. I haven’t seen an oriole for awhile. Here are two of the last ones to leave.

Female orchard oriole

Baltimore oriole fledgling

The onions that were not taken over by purslane did very well in our hot dry weather. 

The onion harvest drying in the shade

The Walla Walla are particularly enormous. Too bad my dad is gone. He liked sweet onion and butter sandwiches. I’d be afraid of the time-release flavor capsules for the rest of the day.

A Walla Walla onion bigger than my hand

July 30 was butchering day for the meat hens. We could not get a date with the only butcher we know that does small-batch processing. “We’ll do it ourselves,” Terry said. “It will be easy.” He estimated 4 hours.

The night before, we rearranged the chickens. (I’ve mentioned this before, but chickens have no night vision and are easier to catch in the dark.) The chickens going to freezer heaven have to be without food for 8 to 12 hours so their crop will be empty. We took the 2-year-old hens out of the flock and put the pullets with the one-year-old hens, disrupting the pecking order only once. The pullets, having been with the non-roosting meat chickens their whole life, have not gotten the hang of going up to the perch at bedtime. No doubt they are also intimidated by the hens. They cowered in the corner when I put them in the coop and were still there in the morning. 

The pullets in the corner of Coop 2

I tossed them out of the coop. One of the Dominiques took of by herself, having an apparent abundance of adventurousness.

The boldest of the pullets walks by herself along the fence

Three of the pullets followed a couple of the Wyandotts around. For the most part, though, the pullets hang out with each other. We are still waiting for the integration.

Three pullets following two of the hens

Early Friday morning, Terry set up the stations on the patio, where we hoped to have our work done before the sun came around. I ordered the small Cone of Death (“restraining cone” in the catalog, “killing cone” on the sticker on the side), which Terry put in the large hole of the fileting table.

In theory, the chicken goes head first into the Cone of Death 

We put the meat chickens in the cages and moved them to the patio at 7:30 a.m.

The meat chickens "before"

I was not able to get an official poultry scalder because they were sold out. Who knew there would be a pandemic run on poultry processing equipment? After much wracking my brain, I remembered that Hilda had an electric canner that, praise be, had a thermostat. Eventually, I got the water stabilized at 165°F. Dipping the chickens in hot water loosens the feathers.

The scalding/plucking station

We learned right off the bat that our broilers were larger than the broilers for which the catalog recommended the small cone. Terry got a traffic cone he had on hand, which was also too long for the job, but easier to cut off than the metal Cone of Death.

Terry improvises a new Cone of Death

I will spare you the details, but here is a brief list of things I now know about harvesting chickens.

1. Don’t wear clothes you care about.

2. Four hours was an underestimate.

3. Grandpa was wrong about cutting off the head. This causes a total body neurological response that makes it harder to get the feathers out. Piercing the carotid artery is the recommended method. This was Terry’s job.

4. Chickens have a lot of feathers.

5. So many feathers!

6. The lungs of chickens are surprisingly small and an astonishing shade of hot pink.

As the day wore on, we got less picky about getting every single feather off the chicken. Even so, we put the last chicken in the heat-shrink freezer back at 8:00 p.m. It was a long day, but once we got started, it felt like just another job to me. I’m proud of myself for being honest about it. Chicken does not grow on a Styrofoam tray.

Meat chickens "after"