Wright County Swappers Meet

Also referred to as a flea market.  There is a HUGE fenced in area for vender upon vender to set up their wares. Some people that you would find at the area farmers market, some people that owned stored on the past and are selling of inventory, some people that buy those junk boxes at auctions in hopes to find a treasure that you will buy.  I think perodically horders that turn a leaf and clean out their house rent a spot.

About every other path there is a food vendor.  Cheese curds, kettle corn, braats, pork chops, hamburgers, and even cotten candy. Hmmm it was almost like a minature state fair.  Come to think of it the crowd felt like state fair per capita too.

We ran into friends and relatives as we "window shopped". My big purchases were cheese curds and two daisies in large pots. My mother always said a daisy was like a smiling face. Dale's big purchases were various foods and two bones for the dogs.

Mmm good



Supper last night was so delicious. Garden fresh onions sauteed in butter as a base.



Defeating the Purpose?



 

Green beans, zucchini, egg plant, and broccoli were added.  I seasoned it with a bit of teriyaki marinade then put on the cover to let it steam the rest of the way. 



Fresh Veggies






Mouth Watering

 

The grilled steak was the perfect rounding off to the meal.



Steak Dinner with Garden Fresh Vegetables



Fresh Veggies!

I have been waiting for these for so long! There isn't anything better than fresh grown vegetables.  I picked an egg plant, frying size zucchini, onion, broccoli, and green beans. 

I can't wait to cook supper tonight.  I will probably add a medium potato and a bit of seasoning. Last month the grocery store had meat for sale. We will have steaks and garden fresh veggies.  And for dessert...fresh raspberry pie with real whipped cream. 

Are you drooling yet?

Slick

Slick is my 3-4 year old Koi. It has no scales on the sides. So touching it or petting it is no harm to the fish.  Slick has out grown his 28 gallon tank.

My friend Tim and his wife have just moved to a new place in Iowa with beautiful gardens in the back yard.  He told me he was starting to look for koi to go in the pond he was going to install.  It didn't take long to figure out that He and Slick needed each other.

I found out that I needed to go to Iowa on business and I was going straight passed Tim's place. It was Slick's time to move.  Date and time was set... then the drama began.  Saturday just before 9AM I walked into the porch to maka a call. (Phone company - more cell towers please!) On the way back in, the bottom of the tank was surrounded in water! YIKES!

*did Slick jump and splash?
*was the tank leaking?

Only one way to tell. Slick went into a 5 gallon pale.  I emptied, cleaned out the tank, dried it well and put it in the tub with a few inches of water. In between that time, I went to the chiropractor and had to figure out how to keep Slick alive for 36 hours.  My boyfriend borrowed me his cooler he takes when fishing for northerns. Then I bought a minnow aeriator for inside the cooler. I got home and Slick was upside down in the pale! It wasn't that long.  I quickly dumped him into the cooler and started the air.  I was VERY worried. 

Slick has been in Iowa for 4 days now and is still alive and splashing plenty.  Tim was hoping to pick up a bigger aquarium tonight for winters andto give slick more room until the pond is ready.

Bouquet Garden

I've mentioned before that I enjoy mixing various textures and colors together in the garden.  Sometimes I actually cut bouquets and put them in the house but many times I leave the bouquet in the garden for everyone that walks by.  My grandmother also taught me to make sure that you plant things that bloom at various times of the year. 

It is fun, every couple weeks it is like having a new garden.

Garden Texture



Garden Bouquet



Garden Bouquet of Bachelor Buttons



Hollyhocks.  Love this color!



Two Cute

No matter how tired they are, they need to lay down so close that you will trip over them if you get up.  Partly because they are a bungee butt breed that needs to be close to you at all times.  The other part is that they are guarding and if a stranger were to enter, they would be awake and you'd never know they had been sleeping.


Tired and underfoot

Most of the time, these two can't touch when they sleep.  For some reason, they are snuggled closely together.  I had to walk carefully to get a couple of quick pictures before they woke up from the movement.  

Snuggling together

 Oh they are so cute.  Don't they just steal your heart. 

Raspberry, Rhubarb & Cream Cheese Kolachi

A memory from my hometown area was Kolache.  A bread baked on the sweeter side with a sweet filling in the center.  It has been a great many years since I've eaten this so I decided to research it on the Internet.  I count not find any pictures or recipes that were indicative of what I remembered.  I found once reference to folding like a scarf.  But no examples.  The one I tried like what I remembered.... totally failed!  So I tried the other styles that I read about and they worked fine. 
Pick 3-4 cups raspberries, wash and set aside to drain


Fresh picked Raspberries

Prepare the yeast: Place 1/2 Cup warm water, 1 Tablespoon Sugar and 2 packets of yeast, stir until the yeast dissolves.

Warm Water, Sugar and Yeast

Working Yeast

In a heavy sauce pan, warm milk just long enough for the butter to melt.  2 Cups of Milk with 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening or butter

Milk and Butter in Heavy Sauce Pan

Melted Butter in Milk

Remove milk and butter mixture from heat.  Cool slightly then add to working yeast. 

2 egg yolk

Salt (yeah, I never really measure that out)

Mix Two Egg Yolks and two teaspoons of salt., then mix in 1/2 cup sugar stir into previously mixed ingredients.  Add 3 cups of flour for mixing purposed.  Then slowly add in the other 3 1/4 cups.  You will need to stop mixing and start kneading.  Sometimes you will need to add more flour to reach the right dough consistency. 

Let rise 45 minutes.
Punch down. then cut into 24 pieces.

Roll in a ball and make indentations in the center or roll out.  Fill
Let raise for 15 minutes then cook 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes,



Open Top Kolache



My attempt at a wrapped Kolache

The one in the upper right corner actually is the right one.  But I had a difficult time with my filling staying in.  It was too runny,  :^(  But the taste was excellent.


Next Time they'll look better

 For the center, I used 4 cups raspberry, 1 cup rhubarb and a cake of cream cheese.  I think I should have refrigerated it for a day before using it. 

Blending the filling

Sorry...I'm fighting connection problems

My postings for 2 days have failed. I'll try pictures tomorrow evening.

Posting the cucumbers

I saw on TV a segment about straw-bale gardening.  When he showed the cucumber, he had a fence sor it to grow up.  It reminded me of the year I planted the pumpkins too close to the lilac bushes.  In the fall they looked like pumpkin trees. 

We bought a sixteen foot Hog Panel Fencing and posted it beside the cucumbers.  Then carefully, started posting the cucumbers so that they would grow up the fencing.  I can't wait to see how this turns out.



Posting Cucumbers



121

What is it about trains that makes us stop and count the cars?  We have a confirmed 121 in this train.  Both of us came up with the same number.

Everyone I've ever ridden with when stopped by a train or passing a train when the trains path is in clear view has counted the cars. Conversation stops dead.  Some people's lips move, others bob the head for each car that passes.  Then there are the out loud counters.  That is me.  I'm a bit A.D.D. and I count out loud so I don't distract myself with anything else.

Bird!

Despite my mind going in different directions at times...I counted the right number of cars, turned the phone camera on and took two pictures.

I had to laugh

I drive people crazy when I take pictures. I take a LOT of pictures! I rarely hold the camera straight.  I am particularily fond of angles.  I stopped by the park on the way home. Dale was there with the dogs.


Dobie's Playing in the Park



I didn't even realize the camera function on the phone was active.  This evening I looked at my album and saw these pictures.  I had to laugh because they were accidents but looked like something I would take.

 

Ooops Camera was on



Just to keep you guessing (another oops)



Fresh Raspberries!

A hand full of raspberries, broccoli florets, fresh picked mint for my flavored water.  It is so nice to have the garden fresh food!  Everything is growing well. The rains this week have the ground so saturated that I can't step inside.  Luckily, no standing puddles. But I will need to get "my" beans and peas weeded this weekend.  Why mine? Because I insisted they get planted.  Oh, hopefully it dries out enough to setup a couple of hog panels.  (My secret for now.  If it works, you will understand.)
I didn't have any ice cream in the house but I had a small amount of cool whip.  Sure real cream whipped up would have been better...but it was raspberries not peaches. And it was good!



Fresh Raspberries



Raspberry Time



How does your garden grow?



God's Color Painting

I was driving home and saw the pink to the East, it was fabulous. Then as I turned from the Southerly direction to the West I was flabergasted.  In the Western sky the storm clouds from the day were breaking up.  It looked to me like a water color painted painted on the sky.  Then I realized I was looking through a fresh layer of nose prints from the dog. WAIT!  Despite that fact, the sunset was absolutely beautiful.  I pulled over several times to take pictures.



Sunset



Sunset



God's water color



Memory tag...

Playing at the p.a.r.k. on a sunny, hot day wears even the most energetic puppy out.  My Jenny found a perfect shady spot to lay in.  I snuck around the corner. I was going to surprise her.  Instead, she surprised me. What do these pictures make you think of? 
Fernando, the bull who loved to lay in the grass under the tree and smell the flowers. I haven't thought of that story in years. Now I want to find it and read it again. 



My Jenny



My Jenny



Country Evening

We started out going to the p.a.r.k. We have to spell that word out or the dogs go crazy.  So we headed doen the road. With each corner the dogs get more excited. They nearly knocked Dale over getting out of the car.  They ran until they ran for shade. 

In the distance, we heard an odd noise. So instead of going home, we followed the noise. Off in the distance, the farmers were out in the field chopping alfalfa.  The distance became closer and suddenly we were parked on the field watching that enourmous machine chop the alfalfa/hay combination and fill up truck after truck. 

Six rows were rolled into one in th process before this one.  It took just over two trucks to complete one row.  There were five trucks working this field but they could have used a couple more to keep up. It was an interesting process to watch.  We have watched it before but this time was more close up.

When we pulled away, we headed over to a friends on the lake to visit. Not much more to do on a hot, humid day.  It was relaxing but at the same time, I had so much to get done at home tonight.

Train or Tornado?

It is bad weather time here.  So last night, after dark, the storm started to roll through.  I normal LOVE a good storm.  I was listening to the thunder and the rain - something peaceful about that when I'm in the house.  While I talked to my boyfriend on the phone, the scanner went off and said there was a tornado warning in the South half of our county.  So WOW was I surprised when minutes later the sirens started to sound. 

My house does not have a really safe place to hide.  Windows in every room of the house.  So I grabbed a blanket and sat in a spot nearest to the center with the least access to potential flying glass and listened to the weather outside.  I had already lost TV, radio and all outside connections (the problem with modern technology.)  I had a DVR'd movie running quietly in the background. 

Just then, a TRAIN went by so I sat there, diagnosing the sounds...."train or tornado?"  After hearing all of the various sounds the siren - maybe, the deep rolling sound, and a periodic clanking of the metal on metal as it goes down the track.  I decided it was most likely a train.  We get a train about every 40 minutes through town.  I don't hear most of them but this one I did.

When I was young, my town used to have a noon whistle.  I was in afternoon Kindergarten and mom usually sent me out to the bus stop when the noon whistle blew.  One day, just before noon, the whistle blew.  Parents all over town, sent their children out to the bus stop.  The buses never came.  It was a tornado warning.  Shortly after that day, the noon whistle stopped blowing.  I don't think I was sent out because it was raining.  If I remember right, we watched from the door.  We often watched bad weather from the door.

Happy Father's Day! "on da range" in Northern Minnesota

King of the Lode was the name of one of the two trucks at the mine lookout in Virginia, Minnesota.  From the lookout view you can see the active taconite mine.  They are slowly moving across the land.  Eventually the roadway between the mine and the lookout as well as the lookout itself will be moved as the mine will take over that area.  

Mine View (Look Out) Virginia, MN
(Current trucks being used are at least twice this size.)

They have old truck tires and an old scoop on display for people to get an idea of the size.  We counted and the new scoop is big enough to use only 5 scoops to fill the newer bigger truck.

Samples of old wheels and buckets. 

They have a fenced and safe spot for people to watch the actively working mine.  We got here before the rain and stayed until it started sprinkling.

The View of the Mine

The BIG Backhoe/ excavator - I call it a digger is actually digging through an area that will create all tailings to get down to the taconite. 

Virginia Taconite Mine

 This is the same view but not zoomed in.  You can see the truck moves the product up and around to another area to dump it as they slowly move processing across the mine.

Virginia Taconite Mine (distant view)

After the rains stopped we went to a second lookout, one that was much less known.  It was a view from the other side of the mine.  I zoomed in on the two large trucks.  You can see yellow dots highlighted by the sun on a distant ridge.  Those were the large trucks that we saw at Mine View.

Mine View from the Other side

Dad brought his telescope with for a better view of the equipment.  Telescopes are awesome for looking at the moon, the stars and what is beyond.  But as we looked at the operation in progress, everyone was upside down.  Good thing I'm dyslexic.  My mind though, cool. 

Dad lining up the Telescope

 The clouds were breaking up and the sun was attempting to come out after torrential rains.  At supper, my camera was in the car.  I wish I'd brought in in with me because as the cars and trucks raced through the nearby intersection they looked more like speedboats racing across the lake.  The water was up to the bottom and spraying at least as high as the vehicles themselves.  It was very entertaining....

Someone looking like an Angel

 On a random occurrence, Pat's daughter and family stopped by the same lookout we were at.  So everyone took their turns looking through the telescope. 

Boys looking at the "Toys"

This is what they were watching through the telescope.  Except they could almost see the driver.  The big debate became, why would they grate over and over and over this one section?  The guys decided it must be a new employee practicing so that he didn't ruin the job when it was important.

Tailings from the mine

Pat wanted me to also share a view of the lake created by the mining process.


Man-made Lake by Taconite Mine