And the Winner Is...

I'm sorry that more people didn't participate in this contest. I would like to offer a free ad every month, so please tell me what would make you more willing to play.

Here are the answers:
1. Trout Lily, Adder's Tongue, Dog-tooth Violet, Erythronium americanum
2. Dutchman's Breeches, Dicentra cucullaria
3. Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis
4. Common Toothwort on left, Cut-leaf Toothwort on right, Dentaria diphylla and Dentaria laciniata. The flowers are white, four-petaled bells on a stalk above the plants.
5. Pone can be made with any kind of flour or meal, it is a bread with no egg or milk, and baked, historically baked in the ashes of a fire, but when the option exists, on a stone or griddle.
6. The quipo is an Inca counting devise made of knotted cords. (A quoit is a riding whip, the Kikapoo Indians lived in Ohio and Indiana, and the word that fits with puns and repartee is quips.)
7. Socks and buskiners refers to the two types of vaudeville- comedians wore socks and tragedians wore buskins, a type of gaiter. (Puritan discipline devices were stocks and pillory, horses might be described as having socks, but not the buskiners, and a wind sock shows direction and approximate speed, but buskiners doesn't fit.)
8. A catamite is a boy kept by an adult man for sexual reasons. (Cardamine is a genus in the mustard family, Finnish bread might be seasoned with cardamon, and cat-mint is the common name of a mint.)

Let me say that the words I'm putting in the contests are ones that I really have come across in the past week. Pone was used in Growing Up in Mississippi by Anne Moody, I heard quipo on television, socks and buskiners was in a book of comedy sketches by O.Henry called Strictly Business, and catamite was in a mystery by Dick Francis called 10-Pound Penalty

OK, ta-da! I think the prize has to go to WiseAcre this month. He got Dicentra on question 4, and implied that he understood catamite. Julia and betchai each got one flower exactly, and Julia was close on some others, but since she had last month's ad, I'll give it to WiseAcre this time.



This picture was about 3 pm today when we were doing the "big sort" to divide everything into the three piles: carry right away, first cache, second cache. It's now all done and ready to go in the car in the morning. I just have a bunch of computer stuff to do. I'll be up till it's done and Marie will drive first in the morning. We have to be out the door at 8 am so that we can meet the other vehicle at 9 am.

This is it! Thank you for visiting, all my blog friends. I've got the posts all set to show up while I'm gone. Enjoy!

See Contest Day- Win an Ad for a Month

The Food is DONE -77 pounds

 



Here it is... all the food for this hike. The total is 77 pounds and a few ounces. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? But I am really pleased. Remember, this is for four people for two weeks!

This came out really close to my target weight. It's actually 2 pounds light, but I think that's well within tolerances.

Here's how I figured it. Marie and I know from lots of experience that we should carry 1.2 pounds of food per person per day (ppppd). (That's the dehydrated weight, don't forget). But on this hike there are two other men going. I talked with them about how much they thought they would eat. One of them thinks he will be satisfied with the same amount as we are, and the other thought he would eat a little more. I agree with their decisions. So we now have 3 people eating 1.2 ppppd, and 1 person at 1.5 ppppd. We need to pack 15.5 days worth of food. So (1.2 x 3) + 1.5 = 5.1 pounds per day x 15.5 days = 79.05 total pounds of food.

The trick with backpacking is to carry enough food that you are not hungry, but not more than you will eat, because that is dead weight. You might as well carry rocks.

Marie arrived this evening. We are too tired to be very excited right at this moment, but tomorrow is another day! The remaining food task is to divide the stash into three piles: the one we carry first, the first supply box, and the second supply box. It's imperative to get the correct quantities in each one! I have at least a dozen other small to medium tasks to do as well.

That's all for tonight, folks! I'll do a post tomorrow with the contest winner and an "adieu." Hey, on the contest, don't forget to guess on the word part. A little online dictionary sleuthing should get you 4 easy points.

	See Hot Meals Are Packed See Hot Meals Menu- Expanded View
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Contest Day! - Win an Ad for a Month

This contest has a total of 10 possible points. The highest scoring entry (in the comment field) before 9 pm (EST) Monday, May 4, will win a free 125x125 ad for a month.

One of the few things I will regret about being gone for most of May this year is that I will miss many of the flowers that I thought I would share here. And WiseAcre has beaten me to the punch with most of the spring wildflowers, but I suppose I can't blame him just because northern New York decided to have spring before lower Michigan this year, although that seems pretty weird to me. His pictures are quite fantastic!

But I will test what you learned from him! That will cheer me up. So everyone should get the first 3 points.

1 - identify this flower - 1 pt (common name ok)


2 - identify this flower - 1 pt (common name ok)


3 - identify the flower that these leaves go with - 1 pt (common name ok)


4 - 3 possible points - This question is harder... it might determine the winner! These two leaf pictures are different species of the same genus of spring wildflower, but they will bloom in May after I leave. The flowers will be almost identical, but as you can see the leaves are quite different. One point for the common name of the genus. The plant on the left is the common ____________. But there is another point for the descriptive name of the one on the right. The third point can be earned for the Latin name of the genus which can help you remember the common name of the genus, or vice-versa.



The next four questions are the new words I encountered this week

5 - choose the correct use of the word - 1 pt
The first word is one that I've often heard, as in cornpone, but I discovered that I needed to refine my understanding of it.
PONE
    a. Cornpone is a gruel eaten with a spoon
    b. The cook baked the corn in a cast iron pone.
    c. Pone bread has no egg or milk and was traditionally baked in the ashes of a fire
    d. A pone of corn is one pint.

6 - choose the correct use of the word - 1 pt
QUIPA or QUIPO (KEY-puh or KEY-poo)
    a. The jockey urged his horse on with a quipo made of braided thongs.
    b. The Quipo Indians originally lived in Ohio and southern Michigan before migrating to Texas.
    c. She was a master at puns, repartee, and quipas.
    d. The Inca quipo of knotted cords was used for counting.

7 - choose the correct use of the phrase - 1 pt
SOCKS and BUSKINERS (SAHKS and BUS-kin-ers)
    a. Socks and buskiners refers to the two types of vaudeville- comedians wore socks and tragedians wore buskins, a type of gaiter.
    b. Puritan disciple was administered by the socks and buskiners
    c. Socks and buskiners are two color patterns on the legs of horses.
    d. Before electronic instruments, wind speed at small airports was measured by socks and buskiners.

8 - choose the correct use of the word - 1 pt
CATAMITE (CAT-uh-mite)
    a. Catamite is a genus of the mustard family.
    b. The Emperor kept the boy as his catamite.
    c. The Finnish bread was seasoned with catamite.
    d. Catamite is the common name of a member of the mint family.

See Words of the Week

The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

I wanted to post this the day that I leave, but I need to get the link to this post for the subsequent scheduled posts, so I will need to do it now, making a double post for today.

I'm so tickled that many of you, my blogging friends, want to "come along" on this hike with us. So I have scheduled a post for each day that I'm gone. There is only one place along the way where I may be able to do a live post, otherwise this will all be things I know in advance. However, I have previously scouted this area in a car, and in 2003 took a Volunteer Vacation on the Kek to see what it was like. With that information and pictures, I've created something to show you each day. Here is our itinerary, just for the hiking days. There is a fair amount of travel time and two days to get a car spotted at the west end and our supply boxes placed.

Date	Start	End	Hiking miles
Sat, May 9	Judge Magney State Park	Hazel Campsite	8.8
Sun, May 10	Hazel Campsite	Woodland Caribou Campsite	9.3
Mon, May 11	Woodland Caribou Campsite	Swamp River	9.1
Tue, May 12	Swamp River	Pigeon River	7.8
Wed, May 13	Pigeon River	Pine Lake	12.5
Thu, May 14	Pine Lake	Pine Lake (day off)	0.0
Fri, May 15	Pine Lake	Clearwater	8.2
Sat, May 16	Clearwater	Rose Cliffs	9.8
Sun, May 17	Rose Cliffs	Topper Lake	10.6
Mon, May 18	Topper Lake	Gunflint Lodge	9.1
Tue, May 19	Gunflint Lodge	Gunflint Lodge (day off)	0.0
Wed, May 20	Gunflint Lodge	Bingschick Lake	10.1
Thu, May 21	Bingschick Lake	Agamok	8.5
Fri, May 22	Agamok	Strup Lake	8.5
Sat, May 23	Strup Lake	Drumstick Lake	9.0
Sun, May 24	Drumstick Lake	Fernberg Road	8.5

Don't the words themselves just send a thrill through your bones? Clearwater? Rose Cliffs? Agamok? I've been planning this hike since 2004, and now, in just a few days it's going to happen!

There are four of us going. Marie and I, longtime hiking buddies, and two other veteran hikers, Ed and Lyle. This gives us a nice safety margin in case of trouble. There is currently a thru-hiker on the NCT, and he just came from the west. He found the snow still so deep that the trail was impassible, and he bailed out, to come back later. We are hopeful that the 10-day time lag between his attempt and ours will clear the snow. But you can read about his experiences at Nimblewill's Journal, scroll down to April 22.

This is a wild and dangerous area for hikers, and we are not taking this expedition lightly! Today I am also thinking more about this issue since the man who is currently missing on the Appalachian Trail Ken Knight is one step away from a personal acquaintance. I have emailed him, and I do know some of the people who have gone to help search for him. Even experienced hikers make mistakes. We are going to try NOT to make any serious ones.

So each day's scheduled post will link back to here in order for anyone who stumbles into the middle to be able to get oriented, if they so desire.

See Arrowhead 2009 Hike Route

No Bird in the Apple Tree

 


I've been chasing that silly Flicker around the back yard for days! Every time I see it I have to run get the camera, and by the time I get ready it's gone! So here's a picture of where the Flicker was just a few minutes ago. Do you like it? I was quite surprised to discover that it really is quite a nice picture on its own merits. I like the softness of the colors and the lack of depth. This was taken yesterday... remember, it was pouring rain?

But I can't leave well enough alone. So first I adjusted the color to bring out more details, and got my next surprise. It almost looks like the tree is ready to bloom. Well, it's not, but this is a nice picture too!



Then I just wanted to play. Here's something a bit eerie, yet still realistic. This is the posterize effect.



Forget realistic, let's just go for interesting. This one is contours. I really like this!



And finally, my favorite. This one is the topography effect. I can't even really explain why I like it best. I like the contrast between the sections, I like the colors. I like the hints of lines and motion.



So, there's no bird in the tree, but there is a link to a scavenger hunt. Canucklehead is hosting a scavenger hunt, and this is one click in the path to the prize.

And finally, tomorrow will be a contest right here for a free 125x125 ad for the next month. Last month, Julia won and got a link for Our Simple Life. It will only be open till Monday night because I'll have to wrap it up and post the link before we leave for the hike. So check back to play.

Hike Planning Report

Filled the dehydrator, packaged a lot of food. Full report tomorrow. Hiked 1.5 miles with 45 pounds. It doesn't feel good, but it feels less awful than a couple of days ago.

	See (Late) Winter Rainbows II for another color exercise See Philadelphia Flower Show 2009 - 1 for lots of color
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