Pride

Last night an old friend of my brothers came over for the night with his wife and 2 kids. Within 5 minutes he reminded me of the time in college he came to my dorm and I helped him with his English paper. Every time he's seen me since he gives me credit for his success today because of that one silly English paper. Of course I wasn't really responsible, but it's become a running joke between us.

He went on to finish school and work for a major airline in the finance department. After a few years he quit and became an entrepeneur, buying up land in our home town. Now he owns a service station (with his brothers), and a hotel complete with water park, restaurant, day care, bar, and fitness center out on the prairie outside of town.

Great things to be proud of. Not so many of our schoolmates went on to be so successful.

But do you know what he seemed most proud of? The fact that his two boys write well. His youngest dug through their packed mini-van looking for his schoolwork. When his mother asked why he was looking for schoolwork on a Saturday night, he blushed and said that he was looking for a sample of his writing to show Sandy.

I am so proud.

What You Can See in 30 Minutes

I took a 30-minute walk during lunch. It's amazing what I saw in just that short period of time. In the woods, the violets are blooming.

There is also a Bleeding Heart on the hill next to a bluebird house.

And in the bluebird house there lives a baby bluebird.

Walking a little further, I ran into a mama duck and 8 or 10 or her chicks parading around the campers. The chick at the end of the line had a hard time with gravel, and did more tumbling than walking I'm afraid. Up another hill and down again to the slough, where some firepits are still underwater.

Red Letter Day for Birds

Today is a cold, blustery day in Minnesota. But my day was brightened considerably when I spotted not only my first hummingbird of the season, but a Scarlet Tanager, which are rarely seen around here. Over the weekend the first chipmunk showed up to feast on the cobs of corn I put out for him.

And the lilacs are starting to bloom just down the road. I can't wait to go cut lilac blossoms in purple and white so that I can have a heavenly smelling camper for a week or so.

By the way, the term "red letter day" refers to the old custom of marking special church days in the calendar in red. Betcha you didn't know that!

32 Degrees

I woke to the Detroit Lakes radio station KRCQ telling me it was 32 degrees. This radio station is a hoot. It plays old style country music with lots of breaks for local news and weather. On Sundays at noon it's the Bob Becker Polka Party. My personal favorite is the John Deere Polka. The Galaxy Supper Club over in Barnesville usually has live polka bands on Sunday nights too.

After I got up to speed on the local news and weather, I staggered out into the living room and watched two geese casually strolling around my backyard. The geese have full run of the campground during the week - there's so little traffic that they can walk up and down the roads at will.

Before I started my work for the day, I browned some hamburger, cut up an onion and a green pepper, and started a batch of chili in the crockpot. Few people realize this, but chili is actually a good diet food. It's low in calories (mine has about 263 per serving), high in fiber (3 kinds of beans), and both fruit and vegetable servings (tomato is a fruit dontcha know). Plus, it freezes well.

Sandy's Chili

1 1/2 to 2 pounds of hamburger, ground chuck, or ground sirloin

29-32 oz. tomato sauce

1 onion, any type, diced

1 green or red pepper, diced

1 pkg chili seasoning (I used McCormick this time, but have used others before)

1 can regular Rotel (or hot if you like it extra spicy)

1 can (15 oz) pinto beans

1 can (15 oz) kidney beans

1 can (15 oz) ranch style beans

1 can (15 oz) stewed or diced tomatoes (I used diced just because I don't like the big chunks)

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the hamburger. Dump all ingredients into a crock pot and cook on low at least 4 hours.

Yes. The Answer is Yes.

Goose Goose Duck

It was a goose kind of day, with a couple of mallards thrown in the mix.

Last up, here's the local crocodile peeking his head up.  Really, it's just a log, but it looks like a crocodile head doesn't it?

Camper City

Wildlife of the Day

First Weekend 2009

I'm finally unpacked, and the Summer Palace is reasonably clean. The slough across the road from me flooded this spring, and some of the campers have lost golf carts, barbeque grills, and shed contents.

There is evidence that the beavers have been busy this year too. There is more than one tree stump with that "sharpened pencil" look, indicating that a beaver or two got to it. There's also a fairly large tree near the edge of the swamp that is half-eaten. I think a good strong wind will blow it down.

Speaking of beavers, I was sitting here tonight enjoying the silence once most of the campers have gone home when I noticed movement out the corner of my eye. A beaver crept out from under my camper and waddled across the way to the next camper. Something startled him, because he ran back under my camper twice. I keep trying to get a picture of him, but so far no luck.

My next door neighbor is continuing his practice of burning garbage - last year I saw him burning plastic chairs in his firepit! I don't know what he threw on the fire this afternoon, but it sure is producing black smoke. Good thing the wind is going in the opposite direction.

The bluebirds have found the neighbor's bird house. They're so picky, they'll only nest in a specific type of house, but once they do they come back every year.

It got up to about 62 degrees this afternoon, so everywhere you saw shorts...and sweatshirts. It hovers just above freezing at night.

I enlarged my garden just a little bit today, and planted green onion seeds. The dirt here is so soft, and deep black in color. Even the grass is lovely - it doesn't spread underground like the nasty Bermuda grass I keep trying to get out of my garden in Texas.

The trees are bare, but they have buds. Within a week or so there will be green everywhere. The ice is off the lake, and a large flock of Pelicans enjoyed the day near the shore. Docks and boat lifts are being put out in preparation for the fishing season opener next weekend.

Last night we had the first campfire of the year. We huddled around the blazing fire in the rain passing chicken wings cooked on the grill. It felt like I had never left.