Today’s post is by Linda.
There are two full moons on the March calendar this year – the 1st and the 31st are our two lunar displays. A full moon is March is thought to encourage worms to begin to move around underground, so it’s knows as the Worm Moon.
Here’s a musical suggestion for making the most of the moonlight.
What do you do when the moon is full?
Most of the people I know are thrilled to get a few days of above freezing temperatures at this time of year. Not me. I chose this climate. My family visited relatives in northern Wisconsin quite often when I was a child and I always knew I wanted to live here. I chose a college because it was in Minnesota and after wasband finished grad school in Milwaukee, we headed to Minneapolis even though neither of us had jobs yet.
I don’t mind the cold – until I lose my winter attitude. Once we have some warmer weather, my body decides that it’s ready for spring, a return to shorter sleeves and flip flops. Then the cold weather DOES get to me. So even if it’s 35 degrees out, I’m still wearing my gloves and big knitted scarf and pretending Mother Nature is still bringing on the chill. Once my body has made that transition, there is no going back!
How do you handle the last weeks of winter?
Today’s post comes from Ben.
Down by the barn is a small, 75 gallon water tank with a tank heater in it. And by ‘Tank Heater’ I mean it keeps the water just warm enough to keep it from freezing. I’ve never tested it, but it might be 34 degree’s for all I know.
I’m doing my chores one morning. And while I’m doing my chores, I put the chickens water buckets that have frozen, in that tank and leave them for a few minutes.
Then usually the ice around the edges has melted just enough that I can knock it out of the buckets.
This one particular morning while working I notice a smell from the tank. Kind of stinky, like sewage. And I thought to myself, “Huh! That’s odd” and I go about my chores. A few minutes later I’m back with another bucket of ice that I put in the tank and then I go around back to the pole barn and get a bucket of straw for the egg boxes. And when I get back, this bucket of ice has melted about half an inch all the way around and I thought “Huh! that’s interesting.”
And I dump out the ice and refill the bucket and continue my chores.
A little bit later, I’m in the tractor working down there and I notice the tank is steaming more than usual.
And I think “Huh! That’s weird.” And I go about my way.
Ah– but then I come back and take a second look. And I put my hand in the water and it’s like a hot tub! A dirty, stinky, hot tub but still; way hotter than it should be.
Evidently there is something wrong with this tank heater.
Got a new one and all is well. And I thought to myself, “Took ya long enough to pick up on those hints.”
What’s the last thing that made you say “HUH!”?
New seed catalog time has come, and Husband and I chose and ordered our selections for this year’s garden. Husband always researches the varieties carefully and chooses based on length of growing season, disease resistance, past successes, and past failures. I don’t think he ever chooses based on the name of the variety. It seems like a lot of effort goes into finding catchy names to entice us to buy one variety over another.
I wonder how they arrive at the names? I like it when a plant is named for a person-Big Jim Peppers or Queen Elizabeth Hybrid Tea Roses. Some names speak to productivity, such as Mortgage Lifter tomatoes or Lazy Housewife pole beans. Why, though, would you name a variety of celeriac Mars? There isn’t anything particularly warlike about that humble root vegetable. Flower names get pretty fanciful, such as Double Scoop Bubble Gum Echinacea.
I wondered what names Baboons could come up with if they were to name some plants, so that is today’s challenge.
Come up with some clever names for varieties of flowers, trees, vegetables, shrubs, or even weeds I will get us started with my choice of Dead Man Walking American Elm.
I just saw an ad for the new movie Peter Rabbit, opening in a couple of weeks. It looks really mean and violent. Beatrix Potter must be turning over in her grave.
What cinematic travesty has set your teeth on edge?
I’ve written here before about my fond memory of ice skating on the Iowa River north of town, early in the winter before it became completely snow-covered. My dad would tell of following “their” creek for miles as a kid. Once you’ve skated a distance like that, a rink no longer seems very romantic.
Enter Minnesota’s first Ice Skating Trail, in the Northwest Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove. From the December 2017 AAA Living magazine: “Lampposts offer a warm glow, and the surrounding trees’ white twinkle-lights brighten both trail and mood.” I imagine skating there at dusk, as the sun goes down.
One of only a few in North America (see also Chicago and Toronto), it’s an 810-foot loop that feels “more like a stroll in the park” than the laps you skate at a traditional ice rink, according to Minneapolis Northwest, a regional newsletter. (For reference, a regular hockey rink has a 570’ lap.)
You can skate earlier in the season (and later) than most outdoor rinks, as the trail is refrigerated and maintained by a Zamboni. There is skate rental (and concessions like hot chocolate and popcorn) during Central Park’s warming pavilion open hours, but park benches are available anytime for putting on your own skates.
I would have loved to have this nearby when I was still skating.
What will get you out of doors this winter?
Would you like to try driving a Zamboni, or some other heavy machinery?
My company closed early today so I got home about 2. I barreled up the snowy driveway to discover that YA wasn’t home. When I called her, she said she was at her boyfriend’s house. I told her she shouldn’t wait too long to come home as the roads were terrible. She said “his house is only 5 minutes from ours”. Well, there’s no arguing with THAT, is there?
Fast forward 2½ hours and the phone rings. It’s YA saying she’s stuck at the bottom of the driveway and asking what to do. I told her to get a shovel, clear out all around the tires and up the driveway a bit. Despite thinking it was her bed and she should lie in it, it didn’t take long before I coated up and went out to help. At about that time our neighbor came and helped as well. YA didn’t really know how to rock the car so I took over, but to no avail.
Neighbor and I decided I should back out onto the street, go around the block and approach the driveway from the north so I could get up some speed. Of course in the crush of traffic, this maneuver took almost 20 minutes, but it did the trick.
When we got back in the house I said “you know I will never be able to resist saying I told you so?” She kinda grinned and said “I know.”
Anybody gotten to say “I told you so” lately in your life?
I have stacks of unread books on various horizontal surfaces in several rooms. Every once in a while I stop and pick one up and start reading. This weekend I did just that. I picked up “Sacred Sea” by Peter Thomson. I was checking it out before handing it on to a young friend. It is a fascinating account of Thomson (who is an environmental journalist, formerly of NPR’s Living on Earth) journey to Lake Baikal with his younger brother. Then, of course, I needed to listen to a Russian male chorus singing “Holy Sea, Lake Baikal.” It wasn’t the same recording as Dale and Jim Ed used to play, but it was beautiful. That led me to wondering what the lyrics were, so I googled and found a translation. I was very surprised to learn it is a poem written in 1848 devoted to fugitives from prisons, “Thoughts of a Fugitive on Baikal” by Dmitri Pavlovich Davydov. The music was composed by unknown prisoners working in the Nerchinsk mines.
| Славное море – священный Байкал! Славный корабль – омулёвая бочка! Эй, баргузин, пошевеливай вал, – Молодцу плыть недалечко. Долго я тяжкие цепи носил, Долго бродил я в горах Акатуя. Старый товарищ бежать подсобил, Ожил я, волю почуя.Шилка и Нерчинск не страшны теперь, Горная стража меня не поймала, В дебрях не тронул прожорливый зверь, Пуля стрелка миновала. Шел я и вночь, и средь белого дня, Славное море – священный Байкал! |
Glorious sea the sacred Baikal! Glorious ship – the omul fish barrel! Hey, the Baikal wind, stir the billowing waves – The lad doesn’t have far left to sail.I’ve been wearing heavy chains for a long time I’ve been wandering in the mountains of Akatuy An old pal helped me to escape, And I returned to life, feeling the newly found freedom!I’m not afraid of Shilka and Nerchinsk anymore – The mountain guards didn’t manage to catch me, The wild beasts didn’t touch me in the thickets, And the shooter’s bullet passed me by… I was going at night time and in the day time Glorious sea the sacred Baikal! |
From http://www.lkharitonov.com/critical/glorious-sea-sacred-baikal-expanded-history/
Then the first comment below the lyrics:
Justus Naumann says:
Thank you, thank you. Finally the lyrics and a translation to this beautiful song I have listened to for nearly 30 years. A public radio program in Minneapolis, KSJN, had a “roots” and folk music show for many years. Every once in a while they would play Beautiful Lake Baikal by the Pyatnitsky chorus, and even without knowing the words it always brings tears to my eyes. Thank you.
Have you had any pleasant (or otherwise) surprises recently?
This was so dumb. Here I was with a long weekend and I was laid up for three days on the sofa with a cough, fatigue, and a low-grade fever. I didn’t have real grand plans, but it would have been nice to have some productive time at home. It was too cold to go anywhere. All I was good for was as a heating pad for cats.
The enforced idleness wasn’t so bad. I rarely get sick, and when I do it is a sign to slow down and rest. One of my favorite ending lines to a Lawrence Durrell novel is “I felt as if the universe had given me a nudge”. This viral thing I had was a nudge, and I paid attention.
How do you take care of yourself when you are sick? Does the universe nudge you or wallop you?
Today’s post comes to us from Ben.
I received this hat as a Christmas present a few years ago. I thought it was the dumbest hat ever. The earflaps? Man, what a dork. I put those down and immediately make the “L” on my forehead.
And the lights on the bill? What’s up with that. And camo?? I don’t do camo. I don’t own anything camo.
But ya know…. It’s come in handy. Cold as it’s been, those ear flaps are invaluable.
And the lights, well, that saves me from holding the flashlight in my mouth. Because sometimes I drop it in the chicken pen and then I do actually hesitate for a couple seconds before I put It back in my mouth figuring a little dirt never hurt anyone. But that hat. I groan everytime I put it on and I’m thankful that it keeps my ears warm.
In his book, “Semi True”, Russ Ringsak says, “I couldn’t blame nature for trying to murder me but I wished she wasn’t in such a hurry.” Yeah, really. Does it have to be this cold?
You know it’s cold when I get this many water bucket stumps piled up.
I’ve got a small outside water tank with a tank heater in it. I put the frozen water buckets in there while I put out corn (which is supposed to be for the chickens and ducks, but seems in the winter, only the turkeys and deer find it.) After doing the corn, I can just dump out the ice from the buckets, refill, and take back to the chickens. They don’t actually drink much. The 50 chickens drink maybe a gallon per day.
Meanwhile, my ducks that won’t come eat this corn, some of them, the ‘wild’ ones, are down in the pond.
I know it’s cold when the pond gets ice on the edges. The water comes from springs, through the pipe, under the ice at the top of the picture.
Although since the hawk got a duck in the pond last week, I don’t put corn out there anymore. And the ducks aren’t that interested in going over there anyway.
This is Humphrey being curious about the hawk. Humphrey is very curious about everything.
Ever gotten a gift you don’t like yet still find valuable?
Trail Baboon 