Harvest update

 It was certainly good to see the sun today! We had 7 days of rain last week. Fortunately, it was not enough of a deluge to flood the creek, but day after day of pissing drizzle can really get you down. The six tom turkeys hung around, looking damp and miserable. We don’t know what they were finding to eat in the lawn but they stayed busy.

Cruising the orchard fence

What are YOU looking at?

The turkeys have been inspecting the high tunnel. I found these tracks in the sand that Terry is putting around the edge of the high tunnel.

Turkey tracks in the high tunnel

I got a few weeks behind while I was doing the vacation posts. Prior to this last week of cold and wet, it was hot and dry. One day the turkeys seemed to think that we put in the solar panels specifically to make a shade shelter for them.

Hanging out in the shade of the solar panels

The meat chickens and 2-year-old hens went to freezer heaven on September 2. We moved the pullets into the orchard with the 1-year-old hens. They are still squabbling about position on the perch at night and mostly hang out in separate groups during the day. The pullets seem to have grown to full size just in the last week. Please admire the beauty of the silver-laced Wyandottes.

Silver-laced Wyandotte

I braved the mosquitoes to walk to my wetland restoration. It’s not going well. Reed canary grass has seriously taken over. I actually put herbicide on it in the spring. It was all for naught. The first year it bloomed, there was cardinal flower everywhere. This year I found this clump of three and one other plant. So sad. I love the bright red of cardinal flower.

The lovely red cardinal flower

My pollinator garden by the shed did quite well. For whatever reason, we did not see the diversity of butterflies we saw last year. We had an abundance of skippers.

Pollinator garden

Can you find the spider in this picture?

The spider's abdomen is the light yellow spot to the right

Great blue lobelia spontaneously appeared by the garden shed. It grows on the north side of the property, and I was excited to see it here. The stripes on the underside of the flower are a diagnostic characteristic.

Great blue lobelia

We dug the potatoes. They were larger this year than in previous years. These are the Norkota Russets, large enough for baking at last!

Norkota russetts. The one by the ruler is 6" long

The tomato harvest from the garden is done. This was our champion plum tomato this year.

Our champion plum tomato

The tomato plants look awful. We’ll be taking them out soon.

Scraggly tomatoes in the garden

But look at the tomatoes in the high tunnel!

Lush green tomatoes in the high tunnel

The tomatoes we are getting from those plants are beautiful. We hope to have tomatoes for another month, if we’re lucky.

Lovely juicy perfect tomatoes from the high tunnel

I planted some strawberry runners in the high tunnel raised beds. I forgot to water them the next day, and all the leaves wilted. I kept them moist, though, and was rewarded with new growth. Sometimes it takes awhile for the roots to establish.

New leaves on my strawberry runners

I was out grilling peppers in the mist one day this year and I noticed that I did not see any male hummingbirds. I put Jane on the research, and she discovered that the males do leave first, leaving the females and juveniles (which look like females) to bulk up for migration. I refilled my feeder when I learned that this is a critical time for these birds. Sometimes they eat.

Bulking up for migration

It seems like they spend more time guarding the feeder, like this one is. There is plenty of sugar water for everyone, if they would share. But they don’t. They’d rather spend energy chasing each other. Kids.

Perched above the feeder, watching for rivals

Terry discovered this hornworm on a jalapeno pepper plant. It is covered with cocoons of a parasitic wasp. The prognosis of the hornworm is not good. The adult wasps emerge through an escape hatch at the end of the cocoon. You can see it if you look closely.

A hornworm infested with parasitic wasps

We made sauerkraut on Friday. Last year, I harvested all the cabbage and ended up with 20 pounds of sauerkraut, most of which is still in the root cellar. This year, I weighed the cabbage as I picked it. Nancy went home with 10 pounds, and we had about 7. Much more reasonable.

Bubbling sauerkraut in the crock

We lost about half the grape harvest in the cold rain. We picked what was left today. We ended up with three trays full.

The grape harvest

I used my new steam juicer. The juice is not as concentrated, but boy, is it a lot less work! Looks like we’ll have four quarts.

Steam juicer

We had margarita pizza for supper tonight. We won’t have fresh tomatoes and basil much longer.

I

Margarita pizza (cheese, tomatoes, and basil)

t’s okay. I’m ready to be done with the frantic late summer harvest.

Boundary Waters vacation, Days 5 and 6

 

Thursday, August 13

As we were finishing our blueberry pancakes, I saw a head pop out of the water on the other side of the lake. We had been waiting all week to get pictures of loons. We grabbed our cameras and went down to the dock. We quickly realized that these were not loons. It was three river otters! We took dozens of pictures, but mine were all out of focus. With my bifocals, I can’t focus manually, and autofocus behaves badly when trying to get a small object in a large background. Jane had one good picture of many.

Two heads and the back of river otters

I took a picture of a waterlily blooming, just because I have to every year.

My annual waterlily picture

When we were back in the cabin sorting through the pictures and deleting the hopeless ones, Dave came to the door with the message that I had an urgent call. It was Nancy with the tragic news about Pat (see post from August 17). The rest of the day was a fog of shock, disbelief, and tears.

We eventually were able to rouse ourselves to carry on with our plans for the day. On our way to the Gunflint Trail, we saw the merlin again. This is a picture of the merlin’s tail as it flew out of the first picture.

A merlin leaving the picture (top)

It landed nearby, where I was finally able to get a decent, in-focus shot.

Finally, a good picture

Normally, the Chik Wauk Museum has a new display each summer featuring a different individual or event from the history of the Gunflint Trail. I’m not sure if it was because I was lost in grief or because COVID had impacted the museums usual schedule, but it didn’t seem like they had changed their displays since last year.

We went to the campground at the end of the trail. COVID has been good for camping. It seemed that every site was filled.

After a trip to town for wine, gin, and a stop at DQ, we went back to the cabin. We had spaghetti with chicken in a wine, mushroom, and garlic sauce for supper. I made peach and blueberry cobbler with cream scones. We put together the last of the 100-piece jigsaws.

Peach and blueberry cobbler; goldfinch jigsaw

Friday, August 14

As much as I hoped that Pat’s death was a bad dream, she was still dead when I woke up. I made eggs with stuff (peppers, onion, cheese), toast, and bacon for breakfast. The otters came back, and we took a bunch of bad pictures again. I had two that were almost focused. In this one, the otter on the right seems to have something in its mouth.

A not-too-bad picture of two otters

I’m not sure if these two otters are sharing or stealing food. Without knowing their motivation, it is impossible to tell.

Sharing or stealing food?

We went to Tofte to visit the North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum. I’d wanted to go there because I thought that Pat would enjoy reading about it in a letter, especially if she and Nancy had not been there before. It felt hollow now, but I have other readers.

North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum sign

The museum was small but filled with information and artifacts. It is difficult for the modern mind to imagine how hard those early fishermen and their families worked. This picture tries to capture the fisherman’s typical attire. The plaque next to the mannequin explains that the wives made the fishermen’s clothes beginning with sheep. Think of the skills they would have to have! Shearing, carding, spinning, weaving, sewing. No Asian sweatshops for them. I bet they never threw anything out before it had been repeatedly mended and patched. I wonder if they even had a second set so that one could dry before they had to go out on the lake the next day. Oh, and when they got in from the freezing cold water, they had to clean, salt, and pack their catch before they were done for the day. Oh, the family sometimes lived above the fish shack. There would be no escaping the smell.

Typical clothes of fishermen

Here is a picture of the pathetically small boats they fished in.

A small boat for a big lake

This is a herring shovel that was used for scooping herring out of the boat. The water went through the holes in the shovel, and the fish stayed in. One of my questions going in was about the herring. This particular fish was a different species than the herring that lives in salt water. It is more closely related to the lake whitefish than the ocean herring.

Herring shovel

We stopped at DQ on the way back to the cabin so Jane could have ice cream. I didn’t have much of an appetite. We had our final happy hour of gin and tonics on the deck.

Last happy hour on the deck

We packed our things and loaded as much as we could in the car. Time to go home.

 

Boundary Waters vacation, Day 4

 

Wednesday, August 12

I made an omelet with the leftover pico de gallo for breakfast. The morning was calm, perfect for fishing. We took the boat out for a couple of hours. Jane caught an almost-respectable-sized bass. When the number of fly bites on our ankles (numerous) exceeded the number of fish bites on our hooks (zero), we went in and had lunch.

Jane's bass--she has now paid $22/fish

We had a lazy afternoon. The photo themes for the day were bird nests and butterflies. Jane found this lovely little nest in a birch tree by the deck. It hung beneath the branch, carefully woven from birch bark and other materials. Imagine doing that with just your mouth! Nancy told us that it was the nest of a red-eyed vireo.

Nest of a red-eyed vireo

While the vireo nest was empty, the robin nest that was by our parking spot still had chicks in it. We discovered that on Tuesday when the side of the car had a streak of bird poo all the way down it. Today I saw that the chicks were about to fledge. One was standing on the side of the nest.

Robin fledgling on the nest

A second chick was on the end of the branch. This was good news. From my observations on robin nests under our deck at home, I knew that once the chicks fledged, they don’t return to the nest. The car would be safe.

A second fledgling at the end of the branch

In the late afternoon during happy hour, the butterflies were more inclined to pose for photos. This is a white admiral.

White admiral

This is a mourning cloak on the deck.

Mourning cloak

We had grilled brats and zucchini with a loaded baked potato (French onion dip, cheddar, and bacon). After supper, we put the pileated woodpecker puzzle together.

Pileated woodpecker

We seem to be doing less on vacation in this quarantine year, but the days still go by quickly. Maybe its our age. I’ve heard it said that life is like a roll of toilet paper—when you get near the end, it goes around faster.

Boundary Waters vacation, Day 3

 

Tuesday, August 11

It was chilly when we got up. We put on our sweats and turned on the little gas fireplace/heater.

Gathering round the fire on a chilly morning

After a breakfast of leftover blueberry pancakes, we got dressed, packed some food in the little cooler, and headed out for our annual trek around Greenwood Lake. With the recent rain, we hoped that the road would be somewhat less dusty.

We did not see any charismatic megafauna (moose, bear), but we saw a ruffed grouse on the shoulder of the road.

Ruffed grouse

Later on, there were three ruffed grouse together, but one ran into the woods before I could get a picture. I think all of the ruffed grouse were juveniles. They had that unkempt look that chicks get when they still have some downy feathers here and there among the adult ones.

Two of three grouse we saw farther along the road

Not only were the roads less dusty, the puddles attracted many butterflies. Photographing butterflies is as frustrating as photographing birds. I got this one, which I think is a silver-bordered fritillary, but I can’t be sure without seeing the underside of the wing.

A fritillary, possibly silver-bordered

We also saw a mouse run frantically in front of the car. It made safely to the other side.

Sydney’s was open! Hooray! It was too crowded, however, and too many people were not wearing masks and/or not leaving one moose between themselves and the next group. I’d had enough of Sydney’s for this trip. There’s always next summer.

Come on, people! One moose apart!

Back at the cabin, I made pico de gallo. There’s just nothing like a good, home grown, summer tomato. We had the pico with chips and margaritas.

Chips and pico de gallo for happy hour

We watched a neighbor sailboarding. That looked like an awful lot of work, especially pulling the sail out of the water after tipping over. It would sure be a good workout!

Sailboarding

We had steak fajitas for supper, using the rest of the steak from Monday along with onions, pablano, and green peppers.

Boundary Waters vacation, Day 2

 

Monday, August 10 was another low-key day for us. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, and fried corn and potatoes for breakfast. We went into town to get our calendars from Betsy Bowen’s studio. We loved the COVID safety slogan for Cook County, MN, shown here.

We got cheese and sausage from the IGA, since somehow that got left behind when Jane loaded the car. We drove down to the harbor for a picnic lunch. It was a slow day, no boats going in or out.

Our view during lunch by the Grand Marais harbor

Our favorite frozen custard stand, Sydney’s, was closed, so we went slumming at the Dairy Queen. Actually, it was a completely satisfying ice cream experience. It took me back to the days of taking trips with Girl Scouts. Back then, DQ was the only game in town. We stopped there for our last ice cream until we got off the water seven days later. Was it seven? I can’t recall. Under normal circumstances, going 7 days without ice cream is no big deal, but when you know you can’t have it, it seems like a very long time indeed!

Ice cream treat at the DQ

On our way back to the cabin, we saw the merlin again. I was able to get a good picture. We were getting more confident about our identification.

Merlin, bigger than a robin, smaller than a crow

Jane’s best photograph of the day was a red-breasted nuthatch that was poking around in the balsam fir by the deck.

Jane's picture of a red-breasted nuthatch

Jane grilled a steak and zucchini for supper. We also had sweet corn from my garden and a loaded baked potato. It was a hearty meal!

Supper

Our evening entertainment was another jigsaw puzzle, this time of a hummingbird.

Evening jigsaw puzzle