Water

 I read an article this morning on the 'Today' website.  The author suggested that being around water and even watching videos of water and waves can improve a person's mental health.

Click here for the full article.

"Just being near water can help boost mental health — even virtually

There are science-backed reasons why water helps you unwind."

"Water is dynamic. It has different colors. It's moving. And so your attention is on that rather than all the noise out there," Azar said.

Today I wanted to set up a trail cam at our Sandcastle cabin and decided that when I was done I would head for my favorite place with water, Wisconsin Point.

Wisconsin Point Lighthouse & the Erie Trader
The Erie Trader must be waiting to enter the harbor to load ore or grains.

 
The Lake Superior water was quite warm.  It was hot on the beach and the waves were very small.
I was hoping for some crashing wave action, but it was peaceful and relaxing.
I was alone for about 30 minutes and then some families starting showing up.  It was a hot day in Superior and once school & work was over for the day, the beach was filling up.
I left at about 5:30pm as the activity level was increasing.

I parked my lawn chair here and watched the water. 

A couple of Sandpipers strolled by.

A float plane did a fly over.

It was a good visit to the big lake, I can't wait to go back, maybe when the waves are crashing.

Wisdom

 I always knew my Dad was a wise man, but something he said during a very hard time in his life has stuck with me and helped me in many ways.   

After his wife, and best friend, Ev had a terrible stroke and was in the hospital receiving palliative care,  he told me "I have realized what has happened, I accept that I cannot do anything about it and now, I just need to get my mind right about it".  

54 days later when I was with Dad, in ICU, as his heart took its last beats, these words resonated with me.  Thankfully, those words helped me move past my anger and get to a better place in my own mind.

Today, several of my dearest friends are facing unimaginable grief and sorrow, and perhaps anger, in their lives.  I hope that they also can find a way to get to a place in their minds that is better.

Peace

Barrel chair

 Sitting on the 'amish' recliner in the corner of the living room,  playing bridge all through covid, has finally convinced me that that chair had to go. I bought that recliner at an Amish shop in Clarion Iowa. Just guessing I would say about 12 years ago. 

The attraction for me was the swivel oak tray that could be used for a laptop. I did use it to hold my laptop for a long time. I even had Kris make me a larger tray to give myself more room for the mouse next to the laptop. 

I don't remember exactly what I paid for it  but of course I had to haul it home from Clarion  Iowa. I almost think Lois and I were down there together but then I'll have to check with her on that.  

The chair is certainly still usable and I'll be putting it out with a FREE sign on it this weekend. The tricky thing about that chair is that to drop the foot rest down, you have to catch your heel on the bottom of the foot rest and pull your knees up towards yourself. It takes a little practice so I will have to be sure whoever takes it understands the mechanism. 

Another thing that attracted me to that chair was the the way it was constructed so that you could easily have it re upholstered as most of the chair is square tube, that part will never wear out.

But the butt needs better padding.   

I was ready for a different look in the living room anyway, plus my sore butt.  So,  a new bucket style chair. Red vinyl. And a new glass lamp, a good refresh to the living room. 

Barley is not too pleased, but I already have a cushion to leave on the chair for 'her highness'  to curl up on.

👑

 A few weeks ago my nephew Ryan shared some photos with me that he had from a trail cam located out in his woods. The trail cam is connected to a cell phone tower and sends the photos directly to an app on his phone.

 I love this idea for our Sandcastle cabin. So for about a $150 I purchased the camera, SD card, & antenna extension.   The subscription to the cellphone tower is $5 per month. 

Not only are we curious about any 2 legged creatures that might be might be checking out our cabin, but we would really love to see photos of the 4 legged variety.

 I had some difficulty activating the camera, which I'm sure made Ryan chuckle because he has activated about 8 of these cameras and said it was so easy. But it turns out the SIM card that I was using was not activated and it took some magic by the technical people to resolve that problem. 

For now it's set up in my backyard.

I will probably take a drive up to the Sandcastle tomorrow and install (strap it to a tree) the camera up there.  I'm excited to see what we see wandering by our little cabin in the woods.

🌲🛖🌲

Puzzle

 I was not puzzled by this clue in the NYT puzzle today. 

Continental Airlines was another answer. I had forgotten about those guys. They went the way of Western & NorthCentral.  I flew those airlines frequently between Denver & Minneapolis back in the day. 

🛫

I had another shot of cortisone in my left knee today. The next one is scheduled for November 29th.  Hoping for a good & lasting result.  

🦵

Purrfection

 Sunday morning purrfection.

I'm still getting used to Barley's personality without Hops.  This morning she sat with her butt on my lap, resting her body on the arm of the recliner.  She doesn't want to be pet when she's sitting on me.  Silly cat.

🐾

I checked out The Obedient plant. Each cone is movable, as if it is hinged.  I wonder why?  What purpose does a movable bloom have in nature? 

The flowers were covered in ants.

My gardener friends warn that these Obedient plants will spread and not be Obedient, but I'm okay with that. My yard is not very disciplined.

🐜🐜🐜

 

These Cardinal Plants are so stunning.  

The camera has trouble capturing all that brilliant red.

I saw this on line, someone is taking the time to past 'EE' on these signs.  

I just love it.

Yay for Tomatoes!

 On Thursday afternoon I drove out in the country about 15 miles to find a sweet corn stand that I had heard about.  I forgot to take a photo.  This farmer has a small greenhouse called The Country Petaler & also sells Mums & sweet corn.  The corn was great, not too ripe, $5 / dozen.  I'll go back.

On the way home, I noticed a Fresh Veg sign on the side of Hwy 8 in Barron.  There was a trailer parked with shelves of fresh tomatoes.  $3 / basket.  The basket tomatoes were small but beautiful.  I didn't really have a good supply of cash, only $5, so I picked up one basket.  Then I saw that there were larger tomatoes on a shelf for $1 each.  I rounded out my $5 expenditure with 2 large tomatoes.  Well, after supper and lunch, the tomatoes were about gone, so today I went back to the truck.  This time, I decided the better bang for my buck, was to buy the larger $1 tomatoes.

I spent $15, and I have a bounty of fresh tomatoes to eat.  

Yummy.

I took a stroll around the back yard.

The Verbena is having a good year.  It is such a hardy plant and blooms continuously well into the fall.  It is my go-to bedding plant for my hanging baskets.

Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) is an herbaceous perennial plant in the sunflower family that is native to the central plains of North America.

I transplanted these from friend Kim's yard about 5 years ago.  It took a long time for them to reproduce, finally this year, there are several.  I had expected them to spread faster, but at least they lived.  The cups formed by the adjoining leaves collect water and insects make use of those watering holes.

One of the first years that I lived here, I planted Cardinal Flowers from the green house in the flower bed that I made around the septic vent.  They were supposed to be perennial, but they didn't come back.

But, every since then, I see the Cardinal Plants growing here and there at the edges of the yard, random and volunteer.  They are so flashy.

Last year I transplanted a bunch of plants from my bridge friend, Carol's yard.  She didn't know what they were called, but these plants were growing in every crevice, the crack along the garage door and all over her flower beds.  I didn't think that any of them had lived, but low & behold, there are a few in bloom in the backyard.

Update: Obedient plant.
Thanks to Suzi's cousin for the identification!

My backyard petunias are looking good too.

I don't always remember to haul water to them, but they are survivors.

But, my Blue Spruce is not surviving.

I checked in with my county agent and Blue Spruce is very susceptible to diseases, something I should have checked into before I had the 10 footer planted about 9 years ago.

Rhizosphaera needle cast, a fungus disease caused by Rhizosphaera kalkhoffii, is primarily a disease of blue spruce (Picea pungens) trees in New Mexico, though it can affect other conifers, such as ponderosa pine, Japanese black pine, and Douglas fir. The disease occurs statewide, but is more common in the northern part of the state. The disease is problematic in landscape settings, particularly when trees are planted too close together. It can also occur in nurseries where trees are pruned to maintain their shape and are often subject to overhead irrigation.

Symptoms

Symptoms of the disease are discoloration of the needles (Figure 1), needle drop, and eventual defoliation (Figure 2). Infected needles turn yellow in July and then reddish-purple in August. The needles eventually turn brown and fall off one or more branches. A severely affected tree will have many bare branches. Premature needle drop is the primary damage, causing the tree to become unsightly. Branches that defoliate for four or five years may die. The disease usually attacks the oldest needles on branches in the lower portion of the tree canopy first and progresses upward, giving the appearance of death from the bottom up and inside out. If left uncontrolled, the disease can eventually kill the tree.

Only the top 1/3 is without disease.

I'm relatively sure the tree is doomed.  I could mess around with fungicides this fall, but the dead branches will always be dead and the tree is quite unsightly.

Likely, the tree will have to go.

Since you should not plant another pine where this disease has been a problem, I am already thinking about a bush I saw, Dwarf Lilac.  

Next Spring we might make some changes.

🌲

A couple of years ago, I bought some trees from the Arbor Society, Mountain Ash.

They are doing really great, and this year, full of berries.  The Cedar Waxwings love these berries.  I can't see these trees from the house, I will have to be on the lookout for those beauties once migration starts going strong.

The white arrow points to Ye Olde Stoklasa Ladder.  My friend Ruby sold me that ladder for $3 at her garage sale about 5 years ago.  I planted a hop vine at the base and it does grow and climb the ladder, but is not as robust as I had hoped.  I might have to do something different next year. 

👀

I drove by the Cameron Splash Pad today and saw that it was a free day sponsored by our Senior Citizens Group.  It has been a hard summer for the splash pad, with many days of closure, but I'm glad to see we are getting the recognition for our sponsorship.

Barley had a quiet day.  She assumed her position on my bedroom quilt as soon as I made the bed and spent the entire day snoozing and watching out the back window.  

                                                                Whatta life.

Love

 A daily email inspirational I receive from Clint Hurdle, former Colorado Rockies coach, often refers to John Wooden's coaching style and thoughts on  living an 

I want to save and share this segment from today.

"In addition to Joshua Wooden’s two sets of three (Never Lie, Never Cheat, Never Steal, Don’t Whine, Don’t Complain, Don’t Make Excuses) the core of John Wooden’s character was built on the simple fact that: The most important word in our language is love."

🤔

The last Day Lily for this summer, Autumn is here.

I love the DayLilies and I'm always sad to see the end of their summer show.

🌻

The freewill sunflower is so tall I had to reach high overhead to get a capture of its abundance of soon-to-be-seeds.

I expected to see more bee activity, but it might be a little early in the development of the little flowers that are covering the seeds.

I love sunflowers,  I'm thankful that the squirrels & chipmunks plant them here and there to surprise me.

♥️

School is starting, soon I'll be sitting on bleachers watching volleyball & basketball.  I'm lucky to be able to enjoy this life and this family.   Even when the world is in turmoil and evil, I am lucky to be able to find peace in my little corner of the world. 

☮

Real Estate

 I bought a little real estate at the West Denmark cemetery.  The plot adjacent to Dad & Ev's was available.  I have had this on my mind over the past years and finally decided to just get it purchased.  One less thing for the kids to worry about down the road and now it is off my mind as well.  

Peace of mind.

Hydrangeas are so amazing

 In between showers today, I went out to get the mail and stopped to admire these Hydrangeas.  Such detail and complexity in a very pretty flower.

I have taken on the responsibility of secretary for our Marathon Bridge group.  It's not a big job, a few emails over the course of the fall & winter.   The biggest chore was to set up the matches and after several attempts, I finally got some help from the Internet and found a matchup created that was exactly what I needed.  So, the documents have been emailed, only one snag, I called Linda the name Pat, but once I got told about that correct, I think the rest might be okay.  Ugh, why do I do these things.

The next thing on my list was to kick off Fantasy Football.  I have been the commissioner of our group for about 14 years or more.  It's not hard work, a few clicks and a few emails and then watch the NFL games and see how it goes. 

Random thoughts from Dad & other miscellaneous

Random comments from Valdemar.  I must have been sitting with Dad and decided to write down some of what he was saying, I don’t remember when or where, and this is how Dad remembered it, so there’s that. I ran across these few notes in 2022. Wanda

Talking about our house on County Trunk N:

Using horses to farm, grew sweet corn for the cannery, field corn, oats and alfalfa, finally, poor soil.  Planted a nurse crop of alfalfa on top of the oats.  He says ‘by hand’ in this part.

Gulley:  Balsam Lake helped plant the pines for nothing.  Dad borrowed a single pass plow and county guy used an eye piece to keep a level line.

 Field lay out.

 

N                                                                                    S                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding buying the house:  An old bachelor lived there, Jens ?  Dad bought it from Christ Petersen for $3500, 80 acres & the house.  Dad borrowed the money from Dagmar.

Dad cut fence posts out of the swamp trees.  Some areas, steam would come up.  Dad cut a small tree and poked it into a hole and it disappeared.

Les Johansen had a saw mill.  Cut the trees in to fence posts.  Some was firewood but it was bad pitch.

The double barrel wood stove in the basement of the house was made by Dad.

When Ansgar had no job and Dad had no job, they cut fence posts for 50C each.  Voights owned Pomerleau’s, they were German.

****

Yesterday I visited Luck for a couple of reasons.  I was meeting my cousin Sonja's husband Tom for lunch to discuss the philanthropic fund that he has established.  

Then I stopped by the cemetery.  The Sweet Woodruff that I planted near Grandpa & Grandma's grave is thriving.  The Red Verbena in the pot at Dad & Ev's bench is recovering from drought.

I stopped at the 'sitting place' near the church to fertilize the honeysuckle that was planted last year, pull a few weeds and took a minute to enjoy the peaceful grove on the church grounds.

Next I visited cousins Paul & Maggie who live on my Grandparent's old place. 

The long driveway into their house is a beautiful little rustic road, 

a favorite memory of the Johansen kids.

 We had a lovely afternoon of chatting, for hours, and since Paul is the cemetery sexton, I bought 2 cemetery plots, adjacent to the East of Dad & Ev.  

I ended the day with a beer or two with friend Bruce, sitting on lawn chairs just inside the garage doors, watching the neighborhood.

After an uneventful ride home, many deer sighted, none on the road, I noticed that the volunteer / squirrel planted giant sunflower had opened.  It's a beauty.

Nice gardening squirrels & chipmunks.

And this will no doubt be a popular stopping place for bees and eventually birds to eat the seeds.

Life is good.

Barley does not do travel very well

 I started my day having breakfast with friend Mary, her husband and his brother, in Trego, WI.  It is a halfway spot with good food and we meet there with some frequency.  Mary is very generous and brings both her brother-in-law, and me, a dozen home grown eggs.  They are so pretty and wonderfully delicious to eat.

Next on my agenda was to take Barley to the Vet for a well-cat check up.  She has been puking a little more often and she is going to be 14 in the fall.  I've been watching so many episodes of Dr. Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet on the Animal Channel, that I thought I better take her in to be looked at.

Other than howling the entire time like I was torturing her, she did fine. The new duffle bag style carrier is wonderful.  There was some confusion, I made the appointment at one vet clinic and then I went to the other clinic. Good thing I was a little early so I could shuttle over to the one where the appointment really was. I thought I had made the appointment at the clinic where I took Hops, but in my contacts, I had the name screwed up so when I called, I called the new clinic. Duh!  Both Vets were very understanding, they tell me this happens quite often.

As it turned out, I really liked the Vet at the smaller clinic.  He reminded me of Dr. B on Rocky Mountain Vet.  He did a full exam and gave us a very good report.

The vet said she's in really excellent shape for her age.  He said that her teeth and gums look fine, dance of joy! He also said she's starting to get just on the high end of her weight range so he just wants me to be cautious about how much food & treats I'm giving her.  She weighs 10.5 lbs now and 11lbs would be on the high end.  But he also said, when an older cat is this healthy, he does not want to rock the boat.  He suggested making some minor changes to food volume and see how it goes.  He was amazed that she has gained about 2 lbs since Hops died.  Evidently getting older cats to gain weight is not always easy.  He remarked that her coat looks great, her kidneys are symmetrical in size so no reason to do any testing of any kind.  There is some cloudiness in her eyes, but he said that is very normal as well for a 14 year old.

 She got a rabies shot, did not even flinch when they gave her the needle, and we were on our way. 

I am quite pleased with this update.  Barley was pleased to get home and get the hell out of that cat carrier.  I guess she's just a home body, travel is not her bag.

She gave quite a vocal report to the bridge group about the whole experience and then, to top it off, she puked up some dry food for me to clean up.

So it goes.

She assumed her post on top of the jewelry box for the rest of the afternoon.