The Annual Mistakes - Part 2... and Salad

Here's a mistake I've made twice now. Although I tried to make it not be a mistake this year. I started a whole tray of marigold seeds in April. I will confess that I tend to be not very good at dealing with seeds started indoors. I forget about them just long enough so they die. But this year I did it all right. At the beginning of June, I had 49 healthy little plants.

The idea is that after the daffodils die back that are along the curve of the front bed, there will be something colorful to fill in. Yeah. How much color do you see here? There are a few spots of orange. I showed you the best looking one yesterday, but it's not a raging success for the amount of work.

Today, I counted 19 plants that I could still find alive. About 6 are blooming. Of course, more of them probably will, but it's getting late in the season. One conclusion is that if I want marigolds to look nice by August, I need to start them in March. Another conclusion might be that I should forget marigolds and try something else.

Coleus would look good there, in a variety of colors, but I need to NOT spend money on annuals. Coleus can be re-started over the winter, but see problem mentioned above with my care of indoor plants that need fussing over.

I'll have to think more about this space for next year.

Meanwhile, I spent a whole hour cutting up veggies this morning so I can try this cabbage salad. The recipe picture has it all packed in glass jars so it's pretty, but I only had a couple of empty wide mouth jars, so a lot of it went in refrigerator plastic. That keeps it just as well, and there are two jars that look nice to show you.

Had a huge serving for my supper. It is yummy. Very yummy. Yummy enough to spend an hour making it? Maybe. This should last me most of the week, so it's good meal investment.

I did most of the usual things, although I did start on a fairly significant sorting and cleaning job that I want to get done in the next 10 days.

See Annual Mistakes - Part 1

A Little Treat

  In keeping with my resolution to pile drive through my TO DO list, I'm not getting out and finding fun things to picture. So you'll have to settle for a little treat. It was definitely a quality addition to my day. I can't remember when I last had French toast. In fact, I've apparently NEVER put any on the blog. Yummers!

In other news: It's all other news. I edited, I turned in my NCT volunteer hours for the past year, I got the October sticker hikes for Spirit of the Woods set up, made some phone callls (yuck), and I worked on the trailer. Made some progress, but not ready to show you yet. Up to 63 items on my Big List. I have crossed off 15. TO DO- 48 things, 61 days.

See Treats from Yesterday and Today

Best of 2019- Best Recipe Finds

 
I try not to cook very much. I succeeded in cooking even less than usual in 2019, because I've typically eaten a big salad for dinner. I've managed to lose all the weight I gained while I was working at the newspaper. I feel a lot better.

That said, there are still a couple of new recipes I tried this year that are worth keeping.

One of them was way back after Christmas a year ago. These are sweet potato chips. I should make these again and tweak the recipe a little. They were very good.



The other one I like so much I've now made it several times. That is the soda pop bread. It's moist and even-textured. It's so moist I have to keep it in the refrigerator or it molds. But that's ok.



The other food find I want to talk about is a fast food item. Yes, you heard me right. And I think I discovered it before 2019, but I know I haven't told you about it. There are times when one needs a low-cost, healthy eat out option. Believe it or not, this is from McDonalds, and so far, I haven't found anything to beat it. This is the Southwest Chicken Salad with grilled chicken (you can get crispy, but the grilled is better). It is made with mixed greens- not just days-old iceberg lettuce. It has a little puddle of corn and bean relish, a lime wedge, cheese, a sauce, and some tortilla strips. Cost is about $7. Calories 320.

I've ordered SW Chicken salads at quite a few restaurants in my price range, and this one is by far the best, at the lowest price. If you are at a McDonalds that looks a little seedy it may not be put together as carefully, with one of the extras missing, or a dry piece of chicken. If salad greens have been recalled, McD's won't be serving any salads; they just pull all their bags of greens. But, overall, this is a huge win for my budget and food preferences. Not to mention it's something I'm willing to eat if a group I'm with insists on fast food.



I usually take myself out for dinner and have this salad between bell choir practice and writer's group. There you have it.

In other news: Now that I've told you how little I cook, I did make split pea soup today. I needed to take care of the ham bone from Christmas. Should be ready to eat tomorrow. Yum, yum.

Apparently, being out for 6 hours yesterday was a bit too much. I never woke up till 11 am today! Managed to get busy writing though, and I've finished the main portion of North Country Quest! This is huge.

	See Best Recipe Finds of 2018
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Bread and a Bunny

 
It was bread day today, and I made a kind that always seems to turn out well for me, with a slight change. The recipe is for Onion Bread, which is yummy, but not so much in peanut butter sandwiches. Since I always have my pb with dill pickles, I decided to chop up a couple of pickles instead of the onions. The bread turned out great, but the pickle flavor disappears when baked. The dill doesn't come through at all. If I want to do that I'll need to add some actual dill. But the texture is good. No clue why this one is always good, and some recipes don't seem to work for me. Anyway, I like having bread with only about 5 ingredients in it, and I can slice it really thin.



The raccoon was on the deck again. He scurried off before I could get a picture, but there was a rabbit in the grass.



In other news: I wrote all morning, then started the next step in the trailer this afternoon. I'll show you more about that, probably tomorrow. Did some odds and ends and made the bread. Another day with no need to talk at all. I like it.

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Orange and Blue, All Right, All Right

 
The colors for my highschool were orange and blue. We yelled Orange and Blue, Fight, Fight! But no fighting is required for this selection of orange and blue. They were both winners with no competition.

Yesterday, a pair of bluebirds were hanging around my yard. I'm always amazed to see them in the winter, but I often do. One liked to stay above the ground.



The other one stayed low until they both flew away.



Actually, you get orange and blue with just the bluebirds. But I do have more orange for you.

There was a recipe for sweet potato chips on the bag that I bought for Christmas. Thought I'd try them. First change: I used about a quarter of the butter they said was needed, and they were still plenty buttery. I think I could cut that back even more. Second change: the recipe called for finely crushed honey roasted peanuts to be sprinkled on them before baking. That might be good, but I didn't have any. And I didn't much care.

The verdict: pretty good. Probably a fairly healthy snack with the butter (margarine... whatever) cut back even more.



In other news: I got three hours worth of hike tapes transferred to digital and enough background noise removed that they are much easier to listen to. This is huge! I studied the maps and other notes for chapter 3, and wrote 631 words. I'll see if I think they are words worth keeping tomorrow. Cleaned the bathroom!

	See Autumn Birds
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True Confessions - I Shopped

 
Shocking, isn't it? But I swear it was an accident that I darkened a store entry on Black Friday.

I just had to stop at Aldis and buy more of this juice. It's only available at Christmas.

This post also comes under the heading of shopping coups. Every couple of years I mention the shopping find of the year. Consider this one of the 2017 winners.



I had purchased a bottle last week to try. The ingredients are black currant juice, apple juice, clove, cinnamon, orange juice, lemon juice, cardamom, and ginger. It's supposedly based on the historic drink "wassail," as in "Here we come a wassailing," or "and to you your wassail too," in the Christmas songs.

Yup, it's good. Really good. The flavor is a bit dark and dusky. Sort of a cranberry/black cherry flavor. And spiced. It's labeled - best served hot. I like it chilled.

The big thing is, the day I was sick with that whopper of a cold, it was the only thing that tasted good. Since I was leaking liquid from my nose like a hydrant, it was a good way to help stay hydrated. Had to get more before they run out. So, it just happened to be Friday, and I stopped on my way home from work. There you have it.

The sunset today was intense with deep colors.



And it threw light across to the grain elevator in the east. The metal structure often catches the reflected light, and I liked the effect today. It was a little out of the ordinary. I don't really think the "space station" is beautiful, but it's part of my world, so I just take whatever beauty it wants to present.



In other news, I finished the layout for the back cover of the print edition of Dead Mule Swamp Druggist, and I started writing chapter one of the first mystery for young readers. Tentative title of the book is Dubois Files: The Secret Cellar. Tentative title of the chapter is "JIMMIE AND LASZLO."

	See Bar Keeper's Friend
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A Fast Overview of the 2017 NCTA Celebration

 
Marie and I got back to my house last night, but I was just too tired to do a blog post. And you know none happened while I was at the Celebration. It's probably my favorite weekend of the year, but it's pretty much non-stop from 6 am to 11 pm every day, and I'm pooped.

This will give you a fast overview of what the weekend is like. I shared some good pictures from several hikes on Facebook, so I won't repeat those here.

For starters, we had to get a real UP pastie, so we stopped on the way to Marquette, MI, at a place I know that makes good ones. We split one, since they are always big.



Thursday, we chose the Iron Ore Heritage Trail hike. It's a multi-use trail (lots in the woods, although this picture is beside a road), and we had good interpreters who told us the history of the area as we walked. Iron mining was the primary industry.



This sculpture commemorates the very early miners who used "double-jacking" to drill holes in the rock for the dynamite. That means there were two men with sledge hammers and they took turns hitting the drill to drive it. Usually a young boy was chosen to hold the drill because his hands were less valuable than the men's.



That night, the National Park Service gave out the volunteer hour awards. This trail would never be built without volunteers. We are up to an impressive list of people who have donated over 1000 hours to the trail. Quite a few have made it to the 4000 hour level (I'm one of those), and now there are actually five people who have each volunteered 10,000 hours for the trail! Tracking and reporting the hours is important, because the value is calculated and can impact how many federal dollars we receive.

We also heard a presentation about the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park. The NCT goes through there, and as part of the program it was announced that our trail is being re-routed to now follow the Escarpment Trail and to see Lake of the Clouds. I've been rooting for this change for years, so I am happy!

Friday morning, we did a half-day hike to climb Sugarloaf Mountain.



The sun on Lake Superior was dazzling.



In the afternoon there was a large selection of seminars and talks, of which you could choose three. I went to one to learn about the current state of mapping the trail, and then one about Trail Towns. In the final slot, I led a panel discussion about planning a long hike on the NCT.

The evening program included the NCTA Volunteer awards, which are another important way volunteers are recognized. Here, John and Dove Day (where I went to the campfire two weekends ago) receive the Outreach Award for this year. The lady in the blue shirt is Ruth Dorrough, whom I've hiked with as often as possible. She's our current board president. She and husband, Dan, completed their End-to-end hike last year.



The program was about the history of how the Appalachian Trail was developed, followed by some music by the speaker and her husband.



Saturday we went on a long hike again, which included Hogback Mountain. The terrain was mostly easy, along Lake Superior, except for the one steep climb up Hogback, to 360-degree views.



The final program was about the Iron Belle Trail. After that we had a collective bittersweet moment. Our Executive Director for the past 10 years, Bruce Matthews, retired. He's the one in the blue shirt, and he's being given recognition by Mark Weaver, our Park Service Superintendent.



Our new ED will be Andrea Ketchmark, who will move up from the position of Director of Trail Management. We know she'll do a great job too!



These conferences/celebrations are so important to me. This is where I get to see and interact with bunches of people who all love this same trail I do, the North Country National Scenic Trail.

Bedtime now. I have to work in the morning, and Marie heads home.

	See Saturday Sheyenne (at last year's celebration)
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Season of Thankfulness - Peanut Butter

 

Laugh all you want. I am thankful for peanut butter. It's my primary protein source. I've been known to say that a day without peanut butter is a day without joy. I've eaten it almost every day of my life since I was at least four. I buy it in five pound jars. If I were told that I'd have to give up peanut butter in order to live a few more years... not sure. That would be a tough choice.



My favorite application is a peanut butter and dill pickle sandwich.



The ancient Incas may have ground peanuts to make peanut butter, but in modern times it was developed as a health food by several people around 1900. It was introduced to the public at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Peanuts are the USA's 12th largest cash crop, worth about $2 billion a year.

The average American eats six pounds a year. I'm WAY ahead of that curve.

Today, peanut butter fueled a hike at the Michigan Legacy Art Park at Crystal Mountain. The trail is about 2.5 hilly miles with close to 50 works of art installed.



They range from the abstract, like Communication Vine,



to the ultra-oversize, realistic Robins.



Many of the sculptures/constructions have some relation to Michigan history, like Sawpath 1. Easy to see how it looks like a large saw blade.



Nurture/Nature is supposed to make us think about caring for an egg, without which there is no bird, but neither is there an egg without the bird.



The trail traverses some steep hills overlooking the Betsie River valley. This is Barn Chair, constructed using typical 19th Century construction techniques.



I found a tiny kinetic work of art among the leaves, to contrast with the huge constructions.



Maybe more another day. Some were quite interesting.

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It's Almost Always about the Little Things

 
Today started a bit gray, but progressed to warm and clear. I got some minor work done on my car, and thought I was going to take a 3-mile walk while that was being done. But the work stretched to two hours, and the walk stretched to 4.5 miles. So... I just barely made it on time to the place where I could get my little trailer weighed, so I can get it a Michigan license. Talk about a fast refresher course in hooking it up! But I got 'er dun!

But that's not what this blog post is about. I'll show you trailer pictures, probably tomorrow. I'm working on curtains.

What seemed important today is that it's not "sometimes the little things," but rather the little things are simply huge. They can make or break whole time periods, projects, whatever.

My little goodies that made the day for me:

First violets of the year.



First picture of a 13-lined ground squirrel. I'd love to show you a picture of one doing something besides standing upright in the grass. But if they know you are watching, it's about all they do except move like greased lightning if they think you are approaching.


And... the first glass of iced tea. It was hot enough that I wanted it. Of course, I could drink this all winter. But I don't. It just doesn't work for me until the weather gets hot. Then I like it strong with lots of ice.



Cut my hair, ready for warm weather. Off to work in about an hour. Hopefully tomorrow won't be a total zombie Saturday, because I have lots to do.

	See Look Who Woke Up
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