She's a Fine Girl

With a bucket
on her head
Full of water
from the well
She could run a mile.
-FZ





Well at least she can hold down the fort, rake the leaves, entertain K, and whip up a great batch of chili while Tom and I slaved away in the mud pit.

This used to be the best part of the lawn until we had a new septic system installed, followed by rain and snow. We did the best we could to pick out the big rocks, scape the mud off the grass, and grade the excavated parts. It looks pretty good considering the amount of precipitation. We will see in the spring. Here is a post clean up picture.

I didn't want this guy for a neighbor

Living in the country sometimes requires a certain vigilance against unwanted guests. from pulling out bird nests, to mixing safe but toxic insecticides for the box elder bugs, to trapping mice outside, just in case they have thoughts about coming in. This
weekend required a rather complicated eviction of a skunk who tried to move into a hole intended for a concrete support pillar for the deck.

As I walked past the hole, I glanced in as usual to see if any critters found their way in. Several mice have fallen in and drown, and I rescued a frog that couldn't jump high enough to escape. This time a much larger and much smellier critter was down the hole. I suspect he was enlarging it to suit his needs for a home, or maybe he was trapped and figured to dig his way out. In any case I figure differently. It was a gamble, but I decided that a dead skunk was better than a resident skunk and all of the hassle it would be to trap it.


So I popped it with a .22 rifle, then struggled to get him out of the hole with an improvised broom handle snare. A short walk to a shallow grave left only the intense stink to linger for the rest of the day.

The Straight River

The Straight River is a designated canoe route through the hilly farm country of south central Minnesota. Lucky for me it runs through the property about a 10 minute walk away. It is fairly shallow and usually less than about 20 yards wide. In my stretch, it runs over a layer of shale from the Ordovician period, deposited about 450 million years ago. This sedimentary layer holds some interesting fossils and provides a paved like river bed that makes for easy wading while fishing for carp or hunting ducks.

The river allows you to feel like you are a world away from the farm fields that border its tree lined banks. In a few areas bluffs rise 50 feet or more and make for dramatic ice encrusted winter scenes.

A few less yellow-jackets

I noticed this hole next to the pole barn and figured something had moved in. On closer inspection the gray crumbly bits to the left and above the hole are the remnants of a hive. Some critter dug up the home of some very aggressive yellow jackets that have attacked me more than once. I hope they tasted good.


Earlier this fall on chilly sun filled morning, as I was admiring our cabin rock collection with a cup of coffee in my right hand, one of these buggers landed on the back of my left hand. It proceeded to embed its stinger while I watched helplessly, shaking with anxiety, trying not to spill my coffee. Not the way to start a vacation. Witness my swollen hand. All of the cabin yellow jackets are now dead.

As described in a latter post we had a skunk in the neighborhood, it was probably the critter that dug up the hive.

On the dock

E and I really enjoy sitting on the dock during cocktail hour. We tend to do this throughout the season, even in the winter with a foot of snow under our feet.
August is probably the best time of the year. It is still warm and the sun sets during cocktail hour on most nights. If we are really lucky the mosquitoes are mostly dead too.

This is a September shot. It was dark and the view could not be photographed so I played around with what I could shoot. I have a red/green/white headlamp. I like this photo, it is a blue polka dot glass of Reyka with red light illumination.

Anthropomorphic eggplant

Just a couple of pics of a unique vegetable. The vertical smile and smiley face (with an evil eye) allows this eggplant to show off its personality.

Beef-O-Rama

This annual festival in Minocqua, Wisconsin is quite the spectacle, As Spike has said, "Beef-a-Rama is probably the closest thing one can get to being inside a Monty Python skit...the pinnacle of absurdity is the parade...". So here are a few pics: At one point the "Hawiian" team's meat carrying cart tipped over and their meat rolled across the pavement, sorry no pictures of that.

The Garden is Dead

This past weekend most of the garden has been harvested and fairly well cleaned up. I shot my first goose on Saturday, so E and I had to celebrate with a braised goose dinner. I browned a leg, a wing and a breast after marinating in EVOO, Balsamic, thyme (from the garden) and garlic. A red onion, some red bell peppers, and sage also came from the harvest. We served it with brown rice and a Loire Valley Cabernet Franc. Really delicious.

We also had a few egg plant and some swiss chard, so on Saturday afternoon while waiting for ducks to fly by, I created the following for Sunday's dinner: Roasted egg plant, rubbed with lemon and EVOO; sauteed swiss chard, red onion, garlic, two very small fennel bulbs, roasted red peppers, black pepper, and a good pile of fresh mint. The sauteed veggies were cooled and then we folded in ricotta cheese, and piled it high on the egg plant slices then baked some more to warm it. We topped it with grated Parmesan. Maybe even more delicious than the goose? The wine was from Italy, Langhe Dolcetto, very aromatic, very different from our average wines.

My camera has a "cuisine" setting, food usually looks unappetizing at best, but I think these pics are pretty good.

Background on Rue Obscure

E and I visited the south of France in June of 2009. We had the pleasure to visit my friend and collegue Lilian and his wife Sylvie at Sylvie's family's country house near Auvillar on the Garonne river. It is a bucolic farming region in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. Fortunalty the house was close enough to the plant that the tree line along the river obscured the view of the cooling towers! Also there where a few dozen cherry trees in the neighborhood and we gorged ourselves on perfectly ripe, but, "not as sweet as other years", free cherries.

According to Sylvie, Auvillar is "the most beatiful village in all of France". We were lucky to visit during the annual celebration of the Benediction of the Vineyards. It is a unique festival characterized by the villagers dancing in a street parade wearing traditional clothes, including for the men: white, wine-stained puffy shirts, vests, hats, and wooden shoes. The woman wore long white cotton (wine stained) dresses and I think wooden shoes.

There was a market in the town square, a church service and dinner at a local restaurant. The town itself was not so old, the interesting landmarks, market square, clock tower and church date from the early 1800s. The view overlooking the river is spectacular. And to our surprise this town is one of the stops along the road to Santiago de Compostela. We saw several travelers with the scallop shell that identifies them as pilgrims.

Anyway, Rue Obscure is a street off the center of town. It is only about 50 yards long, narrow and sort of off the beaten path, well one street off, it is a small town. I am intrigued by the name, who would name a street "Obscure"? Why? Wouldn't it be great to have this address? Well this blog is my first example of my attempt to "live" on Rue Obscure.

Blazer

After 5 years of rest Ken's Blazer is finally moving into a period of use. After an oil change, radiator flush and tire balancing it should be good to go. It is a difficult vehicle to drive because of the poor visibility, big tires, broken mirror and a spare tire that more less completely blocks the rear view.

The manual transmission work fairy well, shifts easy and relatively smooth. This is not an vehicle to drive offensively, (usually the best defence is a good offense). It is better to take it easy and plan ahead.