In*door* stuff.

After messing around for three days with no real instruction, I finally stumbled on a process for stained glass painting that is so easy!

Here's what you need:

Here's what you get!

Just draw your design on with a sharpie, then attach the faux lead adhesive strips to the glass. The rocket science breakthrough came when I poured the stained glass paint on a flat piece of glass to cure over night. I was then able to cut it into pieces and press it into the spaces I needed filled. Overlapping and smashing the pieces into place actually works to make it look like real stained glass. 

I hope to get all my windows done this winter, then wait for it to snow! I think the white background will really make the red *Pop*!

The Birth of a Violin

This has little to do with living in a bog, unless you count the the fiddle tunes played here.  I've had this video on my old laptop for a couple years, and fear the soon demise of my beloved Mac.  Thus, I will post it here for perpetuity.

Arnie Anderson was gracious enough to share his workshop and expertise and help me turn a $59 ebay "violin in the white" kit into "Pumpkin", the very orange violin that I keep going back to no matter how many violins I accumulate!

After working on it for the better part of 5 months and 15 coats of varnish, we videoed the final moments of string application and tuning so we could record the first "cries" of this new baby.  Enjoy.

(Well, such is blogging. The video will not load.😕)

Berries of Blue, Rasp and Straw

This past spring, my neighbor, Ellen, died of pancreatic cancer. She was about my age, and was the first neighbor to stop over. She handed me an invitation to her Christmas open house.  I truly felt I had arrived!  She invited me to the knitting group and introduced me to many other neighbors. The following summer she let me come down at milking time and milk one of her 40 cows. That was a bucket list thing! She also gave me an open invitation to pick raspberries in her amazing patch. 

This spring, her husband Dan said to come pick the berries. He would not be picking and they'll go to waste. I stopped today. The berry bushes are covered with an invasive vine, but there were a few berries to be had.

 Their dog came down from the house to investigate.

Finke's Strawberry Farm has 8 days left in their season. It goes by so fast, but as I lay here in bed swatting Mosquitos until I'm blue in the face I have to say I am happier than usual that tomorrow is August 1st. I am thankful for the wonderfully lush and vibrant July we've had, complete with adequate rain for the garden, the orchard and to put the meadow in bloom. But, this year I will look forward to the dry, hot, dusty days, and a break from the worst mosquito season ever.

The Workshop

There has never been a time when I could lay my hands on everything I needed to do a project. It has always involved a trip to the store, always. Sometimes a couple trips.  This past weekend I spent a considerable amount of time unpacking boxes and putting things away in the newly finished workshop. The payoff came this morning when I was able to pull together the 2x2's, screen, staple gun, tiny nails, saw, hammer, drill, drill bit, hinges and a tape measure and turn it into a screen door without ever leaving home! 

Scrawny Irene loves having her *own* residence and me all to herself!

Uncle Wiljo's Barn Wood

Three years ago Jimmy and I were able to retrieve, with permission, some of the wood from the Kalenius Barn at the end of Aho Road. Uncle "Bill" and Auntie Ailie lived there, and built the barn sometime around 1910.  I loved that farm, and have very fond memories of many childhood visits there.

Long story short, the wood has been waiting for a purpose. It's quite deteriorated, and there really isn't much to work with. The idea came to me to make a gate for the Apple Orchard. It is the first official project to come out of the workshop!  I was very lucky to have a supervisor too.

Real Life Drama

The sound of an unfamiliar chirping caught my ear this morning. Then I spotted baby chicks, one after the other leaving the tall grass and crossing the driveway and dodging under the truck. At first I wondered if Heta and Mayme...naw. Remembering that I had two cats outside, I ran out and collected them, each with an empty mouth!  That is when the mother quail showed herself. Her tail was all fanned out and she was squaring off with the Chickens.

Once back inside, I am watching the slow pace of the morning return out my kitchen window when a large shadow crossed over the yard. All chirping ceased and even my high octane, industrial strength Amazon Chicken Women went into hunker mode. It turned out to be a raven. My next google. "Do Ravens eat baby chicks?"

All of this drama brought to me by my almost free oversized windows on the world.

Mosquitos

On a tour of the Mille Lacs Anishanabi Museum, I asked how the Native Americans dealt with Mosquitos. Apparently they would grease up their skin with bear grease and then rub ash into the grease. I probably would not sacrifice a bear just for this purpose, but I'm game for other DEET alternatives.

Facebook has yielded some home remedies made from various essential oils. I thought, "Great! I'll go that route!" A trip to the Cloquet Health Food store revealed this to be incredibly expensive, as the essential oils are about $10 a bottle. However, they did have a ready made insect repellant for the bargain price of $8 for a 4 ounce bottle! 

Today it also became my fabric softener in my laundry and final rinse in my bath water!  There is Oil of Cedar in the repellant. That, together with my Finnish Birch (Koivu) shampoo and the lovely home made Pine soap from Janet and Sara, I feel like I have real forest cred! Now I am going out to work on my fence.

Adopting a stray cat

At first there were two strays. I named them "Skinny" and "Scrawny". Skinny was caught by the neighbor and given to his brother. That left little Scrawny out on her own and obviously lonesome. She resists being captured. She has done her best to befriend Booggaard, however, he can be a bit of a jerk.

For several days she has hung around, gratefully eating the scrawny nibbles I've left out for her. She has been plagued by these awful mosquitoes. They sit on her little ears and just feast away. I sprayed the herbal bug repellant on a towel in the cat carrier, which has been her home. Today she let me pat her head with one finger. I didn't waste the opportunity. I wiped the herbal bug repellent on her ears. Today she has a nice, full tummy, new friends, and a few hours of relief from the bugs! Peace out, little Scrawny! Let me know if you'd like a better name.

Life in the Bog means living in peace

Enough said.

*The* Smoothie Recipe!

The ingredients are:

1 cup chopped up fresh spinach and kale. Cut away the stems, use only the tender leaves.

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 banana

5-6 slices of unpeeled cucumber

1/4-1/2 an apple, unpeeled

1/4 cup frozen or fresh blueberries

2 heaping tablespoons pineapple

1/4 cup of "Simply Lemonade with Blueberries" 

Blend in your circa 1978 Montgomery Ward blender on the liquefy setting.

Once the raspberries are ripe, I will be experimenting! I can't wait till august when I can gather most of this from my own garden!

The Three Sisters.

Thus, referring to a Native American planting system which is suppose to be mutually beneficial to the three crops of Corn, Beans and Squash as well as to the soil.  Legend tells that it is time to plant corn when the leaves of the Dogwood are as big as squirrels' ears. I love measuring things that way! The corn provides a pole for the beans, the beans fix nitrogen to their roots and the squash provides ground cover. There are many more subtleties to it, as well as the whole nutritional thing. It is a centuries old technique and I am excited to see how it goes! 

Trying to live simply on an easier time scale is hardly congruent with one of the best $189 purchases ever, my electric tiller! I purchased it from L&M in Cloquet when I was still working. I had the garden tilled in 10 minutes. Let's face it, it's nice to be able to straighten up at the end of the day!

After it cools down this evening I hope to get my seeds into the ground. Stop by in July to see how it's doing!

How to Build an Apple Orchard in One Day!

Step one, get a man who really knows the business end of the shovel.

Step two, dig 2 dozen post holes.  Using the available piles of logs, trim them down and plant one in each hole.   Then run some "Swedish" style rails from one post to the other. This is to keep the deer out! We'll also put some rabbit fencing around each tree.

The "Apple Tree Guy" said to get 2 different types of Apple tree that bloom around the same time for pollination reasons.

 I am standing next to my new Zestar. The other one is a Statefair.  I also have 2 Honeycrisp that might make it.  We learned the hard way about how much deer love apple trees!  By now it's 3:00. Time to pick off ticks and soak feet.

Everything I need

Chaise lounge, check. Fire in the fire pit, check. Spring peepers and evening birds, check. Big red dog, check.  Mom's old wool blanket, check. 

Luxuries

Automatic Dishwashers are great! I used to have one. There was nothing better after a long day at work than to be able to throw all the crusted egg plates in and turn on the power. 

Without the time pressure anymore, I have rediscovered the true joy of washing dishes. The luxury part of this endeavor is doing them outside, with water I have pumped and heated myself. It is especially pleasant if the dishes being washed were used to entertain truly enjoyable people. It gives a second chance to reflect on an evening of good conversation, music and some fairly good soup and bread! 

The last bit of luxury-added is the "doing them outside" part. It's still the earliest part of spring with nary a bud or green shoot, but the birds are back and the fickle spring clouds compete with sparse sunshine. All in all, I do realize the value of time with each passing day.  May you have time for everything that moves and shakes you!

Haiku

Green Booted Trees
Rod Steger would be so proud
MukLuks of the Bog.

Spring 2014

Considering most things *start* in the Spring, so too, shall this blog.

Spring 2014 begins my second full season here in Mahtowa, MN.  If you want to cut lose from the grind and the grid, maybe you'll find some ideas here to get you started.  I certainly live in the rough.  It's a matter of being intentionally poor.  I just don't do well with too much money and find I am happier shopping at thrift stores and Habitat for Humanity.  There is something very vital and rewarding about reusing and recycling.  There is something even better about not buying anything in the first place!

My home: