'Wining' about the Weather

Summer arrived in grand style this past weekend with 90 degree temps.  Have you ever ridden in a convertible with the top down and the AC on?

Well, we did as our Miata trip didn't start until mid afternoon and it was 'HOT' so we headed for a river ride north to Alma, a small river town, with great scenic views, quaint galleries and bars filled with lots of bikers. In fact the bikers were out in force on Saturday. Lots of leather, skin and of course tattoos. Harley Davidsons appeared to be the ride of choice.

Our favorite Alma eatery had closed at 2. Uh oh, now I was both hungry and hot, not a good combo.  The town's Legion's chicken-que wasn't ready until 4 so we had a good half hour to kill.  Plant shopping was done, a stroll up and down the 3 downtown blocks took just enough time for us to be the first in line for the take out dinners to head up for a picnic at the scenic bluff overlook.

We parked in the only bit of shade as the  bikers had left just enough room for us. Once I woofed down the chicken dinner, we sauntered to the overlook for a scenic view of and I quote "the 240,000 acre Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge System of public lands and waters set aside to conserve wildlife for future generations."

Boats awaiting their turn at the locks

It was hazy albeit spectacular. Alma is an important town as the energy companies want to bring the power line through here as well as frac mining companies want mining rights. The city has voted on a ordinance to prevent the mining. But the power lines will be crossing the River here as the courts ruled that too many investors would be hurt if the line is stopped.  TS is what we respond since our state doesn't need nor will receive power from these massive CAPX 2020 lines.

That would be Dairy Land Power on the left 

There was a breeze on the ridge...

After admiring the view, we continued on to visit Danzinger Vineyards which is included on the Great River Wine Trail and where the owner 'kibbutzed' with us about how he as a dairy farmer for 50 years in the area (500 cows) decided to grow grapes and now has 20 acres for his vineyard.  His boys take care of the dairy operation and family take turns helping out in the vineyard business. ( In winter, he like many other smart senior Wisconsinites heads to Florida, Ft Myers.)

http://greatriverroadwinetrail.org/wineries/danzinger.html

The site is impressive as you see the River and it's a great setting with a beautiful stone building for tasting/ shopping, a party room and an impressive large deck for weddings/ whatever the occasion.  

There's even a building on site for fermenting the wine where you can peer in the windows.

AND... if you time it right, you can also enjoy musical evenings with your wine.

It's definitely worth the drive... you should check it out.

Our grapes are looking good this year in the End of the Rainbow Valley but I'll be glad to let somebody else like Danzinger's take care of making the wine ...

Fresh... Are you getting fresh?

The garden has started producing and nothing is better than summer dinners straight from the garden. Tonight's stir fry featured sugar snap peas picked this morning. They were so crisp and beautiful green.

Thursday's garden salad dinner consisted of the garden lettuces, swiss chard, beet greens, onion, baby carrots and squash, snap peas, sun kissed strawberries, all topped with sliced hard boiled egg and dill. And yes, the egg came from one of the girls in the coop which is part of the garden plot.

Natureman  also concocted one his infamous homemade salad dressings. YUMMY!

 Of course it was even fresher as we enjoyed our meal on the screened porch.  We can't get any more local nor fresh than eating from right here in the End of the Rainbow Valley...

Four Letter Word ... Spelled with More Letters. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I need to start this entry with the comment - Natureman loves his campfires.  SO it came as no surprise that he would want to have a weenie roast to celebrate the Fourth of July.  He doesn't understand that not everybody loves a weenie roast as much as he does. In fact, his partner, namely me, starts dreading them as soon as he mentions his intentions.  We will get to why...

When the rain finally subsided its remains didn't just evaporate as we found out on our Miata excursions last week.  Farmers's fields still had water standing and Mother Nature's handiwork  was pretty apparent in some of the campgrounds with river frontage. Wouldn't you say?

We won't be picnicking here anytime soon unless we wear our rain boots/ bring our canoe.

It also would have been difficult to use the facilities but at least I would know what speed I needed to maintain to get there.

BTW that's the port 'o potty on the right!

Humor is always important at times like this/ else you'd be terribly upset if this was your vacation place.
When I saw these sights, I did feel sorry for those vacationers and all I could think think of was all that standing water. Standing water means breeding grounds for thousands of mosquitoes.

Some of you might be old enough to remember that Off commercial where the guy sticks his arm in the aquarium filled with swarming mosquitoes and they all avoid his arm because he has sprayed with the insect repellant.  Well, let me just say that wouldn't have been my arm.

Mosquitoes love me.  They are my 4 letter word spelled with more than four letters. It has to be the plural too because more than one will find me.  I can rub, spray/ douse/ heck bathe in any repellant and they will find me and bite. Some people are blessed to not be bothered by them, I am not one of those. The bite immediately starts swelling and oh I start itching.

AND when you have a summertime weenie roast and want to eat before dark, translated 9pm, you have to gather when the mosquitoes are out in force : DUSK. (There's a 4-letter word.) Last night was no exception.

We live in the woods, there are going to be mosquitoes.  All I can is they are going to be well fed this year in the End of the Rainbow Valley...

Cracked?

If you lived anywhere near the End of the Rainbow Valley you would have noticed something  is going on...

It has to do with turtles on the road/ roadside in June and July. They are everywhere and it doesn't have anything to do with the full moon but rather the temps.

What I didn't realize is that there are many types of 'mud' turtles.  The ones crossing by our pond are flatter.


And they are willing to risk life/ limb to find a good place to lay their eggs.  It must be true that the grass/ sand is always greener on the other side as evidenced by the number of turtles that have been hit trying to cross the road.

My friends that do bird rehabilitation (and that's not for drinking problems either) also use fiberglass glue to fix the shells of these car accident victims.      

The other tidbits I learned were that these turtles generally have sex in the water but lay their 1-6 eggs on land. They dig a hole and then lay their eggs. The newborns's gender will be determined by the temperature of the nest. The warmer it is, the more females there will be. Mom also doesn't need to sit on the nest. Who knew?

Guess we won't be seeing those babies for a while (between 45-90) days as it all depends on humidity and the heat.

Meanwhile peeps watch out for turtles crossing... There won't be any signs like the ones for deer.

Something's Fishy/ NOT?

Driving home from 'town' today I looked out on the Mississippi backwaters and thought how NO fish are biting.  I am the daughter of a fisherman and I just know these things.

There was one lonely boat out on the water as far as the eye could see.  I can pretty much bet you that they got skunked as I had predicted Natureman would the day before even though he was further downstream near the dam in Genoa.

Upon returning home I found a note Natureman had left me  as he had decided to go kayaking for his day's outing.

It was no news to hear the report upon his return that the water level was still quite high and moving very quickly.

Big fish had even surfaced near the kayak.  Isn't that always the way when you don't have a fishing pole with you?

Being told the lilies are blooming is supposed to be an enticement for me to go canoeing and fishing. Thanks, but no thanks, I 'll be patient and wait until that water level decreases.

In the meanwhile I'm into my book club book so I'll  enjoy it out on our screened porch as the occassional breeze wafts my way.

It's 'Summertime and the living is easy... the fish are jumpin'-' just not into the boat...

                                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bigf337aU

Sleeping Around?

You know I have always been concerned with my  reputation  but I have a confession to make...

I now sleep around.  I spend nights with guys I find on the internet... I did it again last weekend while I was in Lake Geneva.  But truth be known it's through a program called Couchsurfing.  Anyone can join that would like to experience first hand meeting new people, sharing life stories, city/ country.  Participants can choose to be ambassadors to their home cities by meeting for coffee, offering tourist advice, lodging whether it would be floor space, beds /even camping on their property.

In order to belong, you create a profile which includes info like age, languages you speak, regarding how / why you are a member/ types of people you enjoy/ what you can teach, learn/share, amazing things you've done and places you've travelled.  You also leave references that others can read.  Travelers can surf the membership for locales they will be visiting.  If you are not a people person, it's definitely not the organization for you.

Last weekend a friend who is a dental hygienist and I travelled to volunteer with 1000 other people at the Mission of Mercy Wisconsin's Free Dental Clinic. I had prearranged lodging through Couchsurfing before I knew if she was attending.  I knew hotels would be packed besides expensive and I'd rather stay in a home to have that 'people' experience.  Fortunately, my Couchsurfing hosts agreed to host both of us and my friend concurred, understandably a bit leery. The host I found shared interests ie : gardening, travel, chickens, tasty healthy food and I could sense creativity with interests in sewing and knitting.

Little did I know how much we would click . Take a look at this Chicago transplant's 4-H entries in knitting .  Are we kindred spirits or what?

 Although we were fed by the Dental Clinic sponsors we were blessed to experience our hostess's  out of the oven homemade biscuits and farm fresh eggs for breakfast.  In addition to some other yummy baked goods. Food is not a given as it is up to the host. (I always feed my guests if they're around at meal times)

We couldn't have asked for anything more from this Couchsurfing visit... except for time. This experience was with filled with lots of good conversation about numerous topics. There just wasn't enough time to visit since we were there to spend the majority of our stay at the clinic. But we had wonderful Couchsurfing hosts.

Ceramic Mosaic Ball
And there's whimsy everywhere you turn...

How could one not feel welcomed with the numerous seating arrangements sprinkled  throughout the property? Our hostess, yes a Master Gardener even teaches about Prairie Restoration so I was in heaven walking their 4 + acre grounds and viewing all the native prairie plants.

On top of their lovely lodge home accommodations, we even got to go sailing with our hosts on Sunday . Let's just say my once apprehensive friend is now hooked on Couchsurfing whether she admits it or not... I think I have created another loose woman.

Check it out: Couchsurfing.org   

You won't be sorry.  It makes the world a lot smaller and you just might meet a kindred spirit...

The Unexpected...

Sometimes it's the unexpected along a car trip that makes it special.  The GPS and Mapquest instructions just couldn't see eye to eye this trip but it was just this discrepancy that brought the car upon this peculiar scene.

It was one of those  "Wait, did I just see an ....?  So I had to turn the car around and check it out.

                                                           Yep, it was...

Yessiree Bob,  it was an ostrich and emu farm.  The ostriches were  prancing and stretching their wings. And boy can they move!  These birds are so prehistoric looking. The emus were molting and well, no animal is very attractive when it molts. I have no clue why you'd raise them so I looked it up.  Well, I discovered that they are known for their low-fat meat, oil or leather. Hmmm. Have you ever eaten emu?

 If you look at the picture on the right and you'll see something on the ground and no, it's not a stone.

It's an EGG.

 So I climbed through the fence and ran as fast as I could to grab it before the Momma noticed so I could have it for breakfast.

Who am I kidding?

                                      How could I could take her egg? Have a great week.