Minnesota Floods

Well, it's official....August 2007 has become the wettest August on record for our area. So far, this month the Rochester International Airport (our "official" weather data station) has recorded over 10-1/2 inches of rain....and there's still 13 days left in the month. Yesterday was the record breaker for amount of rain on that date: 5.16 inches.

Here's a picture of a little creek in a nearby farm field that has become a large flooded area. The water was running pretty fast. Fortunately no crops were planted in this field and there were no livestock or homes nearby that suffered damage.

Many areas farther south and east of us here in Minnesota were devastated by flooding overnight. Six people lost their lives due to the flooding--four of them in motor vehicles. Two were washed away in their car and drowned and two others died because the road they were traveling on had washed away and in the dark they were not able to see this and ended driving into the large crater where the road had been.

I'm glad I live on top of the hill. I have a fear of water and don't even like to walk in it--especially if I think it's going to go up past my ankles. I wouldn't even dream of driving on a road that had water running across it. "Turn Around - Don't Drown" is the motto the National Weather Service has been trying to drill into our heads this year. I saw pictures on the Nightly News this evening of major flooding going on in Oklahoma and some people who were stranded in their vehicle on a flooded road. It was a dangerous mission for rescuers in a helicopter, but they did get those folks out of there.

So, I guess I'm rambling here...this crazy weather's got my brain in a fog. And as a former Red Cross volunteer, please try to remember your local chapter with a donation if you can. The one thing I learned when I was on our Red Cross Board is that each chapter is also responsible for providing support to other disasters, in the U.S. and beyond (earthquake in Peru, Hurricane Dean, flooding in Oklahoma and Minnesota, and the cooling centers now open in the eastern U.S., to name a few). All of these efforts will require funds over and above what many local chapters have budgeted for. Please check with your local chapter for ways you can help.

Too Much Rain!

Less than a month ago, we were classified in severe drought conditions. The month of August has just changed all that. According to the "official" National Weather Service Climate Report, we have received 7.36 inches of rain since August 1st!

(if you look closely at the evergreen in the center of this picture, you can see how hard it's raining)

Here's my rain gauge at 6:00 pm this evening....it has been raining since about 5:30 this morning.

Also here's my outside thermometer this afternoon.

Here's the most popular birdfeeder at my place today. (For those of you who are Wild Birds Unlimited shoppers, this fly-through feeder is made by Holscher and designed to fit their pole system. It's all metal and one of the best birdfeeder investments I've ever made.)The tray part is adjustable, so I moved it up more under the shelter of the roof and the little birdies can eat and get out of the rain for a little bit. They have also been sitting on the branch perches underneath it in an effort to get out of the heavy rain for a few minutes.

I put the rain guard over the hummingbird feeder yesterday when I filled it. There's not too much wind, so the feeder and hummers get a little bit of protection from the downpour.

Look at this poor little bedraggled goldfinch. I wanted to take the feeders down today so I wouldn't have to spend hours trying to clean out all the wet seed, but there's been so much activity with birds eating all day to try and keep their energy up in this cool and wet weather, that I'm glad I left those feeders hanging out. I guess I can deal with a little inconvenience....helping the birds is why I have those feeders out there, right?

It's only 7:45 right now and it's almost dark outside.....my big thistle feeder is covered with little goldfinches trying to get enough food to hold them overnight. The rain has stopped for now, but forecasters are saying there may be redevelopment overnight. We're in a flash flood watch till early tomorrow morning. Some towns and counties south and east of us are already experiencing flooding.

OK, I'm going to stop complaining now and be thankful I live on high ground. I will pray again tonight for rain and cooler temperatures for all of my dear blogging friends burning up in Canada, and the eastern and southeastern U.S. If there was any way I could send this to you, I sure would.

Happy 50th Mom & Dad

On August 17th, 1957, Mom & Dad entered the world of wedded bliss at St. James Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois. And what an event that was! As little kids, we never tired of looking through their wedding photo album.

Fast forward 50 years to August 17th, 2007, and I'm sure they're still thinking, "where has that time gone?" Today they have 4 grown (one almost middle-aged) children, three grandchildren, and a great grandchild due to arrive sometime before the end of August.


They've been through the same tragedies and triumphs that most married couples encounter over the years and through it all they have been sustained by their love for each other and their strong faith in God.

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Mom & Dad. I Love You!

Monarchs Tagged

Well, today was the day. Two monarchs hatched this morning while I was at work. I planned to leave an hour early to come home and mow the lawn, so I worked straight through from 5:30 to 12:30. When I got home I retrieved the monarchs from their cat-proof, safe room (aka the bathroom) and they were ready for release.

I got my tags and instruction sheet and grabbed the first monarch from the ranch. The instructions warned that the tags were very sticky and they were right! I had to fumble with the first tag a little bit but finally got the tag unstuck from my fingertip and attached to her wing. Here she is.....my first tagged monarch.

I stuck her back in the ranch for a few minutes while I tagged the second monarch. Here you can see how the tag appears when her wings are open.

The second monarch went much easier, after practicing on my first one. This second monarch was a male.

Then I released both of them outside on this beautiful, sunny afternoon and they flew happily away. I saw a couple of monarchs flying around while I was mowing lawn, but didn't notice any white dots on their wings. I also saw an eastern tiger swallowtail and a black swallowtail.

I trimmed some low-hanging branches from the maple trees after I was done mowing and found an insect I had never seen before. "Oh, this is cool," I said to myself, "now I'll be able to look in my new insect book and find out what this is." And I did--a female Two-Spotted Tree Cricket.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot....4 baby bluebirds hatched in the nest box! They are so cute!

Special Deliveries

Yesterday and today were special days because some things I had ordered last week finally arrived.

Last evening while I was making supper the doorbell rang. Of course, the dogs always go ballistic. By the time the Spousal Unit pushed the hounds out of the way and got to the door to answer, he saw the FedEx guy running back to his truck. I imagine it must be a FedEx or UPS guy's worst nightmare to ring a doorbell and hear multiple dogs barking up a storm.

Anyway, there was a small cardboard box setting by the front step. "Is it my order from Bird Watcher's Digest?" I asked excitedly. My spousal unit confirmed that it was. I knew what was in there, but waited until after supper before opening it.

I have been wanting this Kaufman insect guide ever since it first came out earlier this spring and after reading everyone else's reviews of this book recently, I decided to go to the BWD website and just order it already. Well, wouldn't you know while I was there I found out there was free shipping on orders over $50. Such a deal, so to make it worthwhile, I also ordered the Kaufman butterfly guide, and a really nice little Pajaro field bag to carry around all the books and other assorted birding paraphernalia on my bird hikes. (Another bonus: both books included the autographed Kenn Kaufman bookplate--that's the little white card between the 2 books.)

Today in the mail my monarch butterfly tagging kit arrived. Twenty-five little number-coded dots to apply to monarch wings and the data sheet to record how many butterflies I tag with which number.

I will have two more monarch butterflies emerging in the ranch tomorrow morning, so they will be tagged as JLA 050 and JLA 051.

I checked on the internet this morning and found out that Rochester, Minnesota is at 43.55 latitude. The chart indicated that the peak monarch migration for my latitude occurs approximately the first 2 weeks in September....can it be? only 2 weeks away?

Zucchini Tuesday

As in every other year, the zucchini is becoming plentiful (I'm glad I only have 1 plant this year). I had 9 sitting on the kitchen counter tonight and decided I'd better get busy and do something with it before it gets spoiled. Marilyn, who works down the hall from me brought in some zucchini bread last week and she willingly shared her recipe, so 2 of my zucchini went into this bread. The recipe calls for 2 cups of zucchini, but the 2 zucchini I shredded came out to 3 cups, so I increased the recipe by one-half and ended up with three loaves. (especially delicious when still warm from the oven)

When I was checking the garden last evening and removing the jumbo zucchini I had missed picking a week ago, I came across this zucchini pretending to be a duck. Pretty cool, eh?

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MARILYN'S ZUCCHINI BREAD

2 cups sugar

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup oil

3 eggs

1 tsp. each of baking soda, baking powder, salt

(I also added 1 tsp. each of nutmeg and ground cloves)

1 tbsp. each of cinnamon, vanilla

3 cups flour

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (if desired)

Mix all ingredients together in the order shown and pour into greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees (325 degrees if you're using glass pans) for 50-60 minutes.

This recipe makes 2 loaves.

Welcome to the World

The wrens nested in the little mailbox house under my deck. For the last several weeks, the busy wren parents have been in and out of that little house with a bug-filled beak from morning till night.

My clotheline runs to the deck railing right above this birdhouse, so I had lots of opportunities to watch these little birds while I was hanging up laundry. They didn't tolerate my presence very well and there was plenty of scolding--especially when I lingered to try and get pictures of them. They would disappear into the hostas under the deck (searching for insects, I suppose) and never come back out till I went in the house.

It was difficult to see inside the house and as I have observed in other wren nests where I could look inside, they situate the nest on the farthest back wall of the house. I think there were 3 babies in this brood.

The feeding activity had been quite frantic through the end of last week and I could hear the babies chirping loudly from inside the house. But every time I snuck over to look inside and see one of the little ones, they would duck down and disappear.

On Saturday morning, this little one appeared on the feeding tray on the deck right above the house. I know lots of people don't like wrens, but isn't this baby just the cutest little thing? I just love that little tail!

We had a bad thunderstorm on Saturday night, so I hope this little one survived.

The other babies didn't fledge until today. Wouldn't you want to get out of this house? I can't believe they can survive the heat we've had in a tiny little house like this that receives direct afternoon sunlight.

Anyway, it was very quiet out there this afternoon while I was hanging out laundry. I'll miss those little wrens in the backyard. The nesting season is slowly winding down, although I still have the baby goldfinches and cedar waxwings to look forward to. And, my biggest surprise.....while mowing the other day, I found 5 more eggs in one of the bluebird boxes! This will be a late hatch for them, but hopefully we'll have quite a few more weeks of summer weather to aid this bluebird pair in raising their third brood of this year.

Birth of a Monarch

Yesterday morning another monarch butterfly hatched in my monarch ranch. Since it was storming outside, I was indoors and able to get a few pictures shortly after she emerged from the cocoon.

Here she is, clinging to the shell of the cocoon. Look how enlarged her thorax is. It's still amazing to me how the butterfly can grow this large inside of that tiny chrysalis.

Her wings were all crinkled up.

She hung from the mesh roof of the monarch ranch for a couple of hours while she pumped fluid into the veins of her wings to help them expand and grow strong enough for flying.

I released her shortly after 2:00 yesterday afternoon, into Monarch Waystation #1515 (which now bears "official" signage).

(Here's what the sign says)

And lest you think I have become totally obsessed with monarchs or that the Monarch Waystation is only for monarch butterflies, here are some pictures of a few other butterflies visiting the Monarch Waystation this afternoon.

Eastern Tailed Blue (Male)

Pearl Crescents

Painted Lady

A Question

I have a question for you, my blogging friends: Does anyone subscribe to Mother Earth News? I was doing a Google search for recipes this morning and came across a highbush cranberry jelly recipe on their website. I've heard of the publication before, and the subscription wasn't very expensive, but I'm wondering if anyone who is a subscriber could give me some feedback.

1. Do you like the magazine? (anything about the magazine you especially like or dislike?)
2. Are there too many ads in there?
3. Does it contain valuable advice for all gardeners/cooks or is it really geared towards hard-core "back to nature" folks?
4. Does it focus on organic and/or natural gardening?

I could probably find a copy in the magazine aisle at Fleet Farm to peruse, but I'm not sure when I'll be going to Fleet Farm again since I stocked up on critter food just yesterday (and I need to limit my visits there because I can never seem to get out of the store without spending at least $30).

Thank You!

Gettin' Lucky Tonight

Hopefully someone will get lucky tonight....will it be me? Probably not, but it's always fun to imagine what you would do with $161 million, isn't it? (without even having to play for the NFL!)



About twice a year we splurge on some Powerball numbers and tonight's $161 million jackpot was incentive enough for us to drive 2 miles to the closest convenience store and purchase 7 chances (plus some gas for the lawnmower and a couple of chocolate malts). In the past we've gotten only 2 or 3 numbers out of all of them. I always let the machine pick the numbers and this ticket doesn't make me feel overly optimistic since 2 pairs of the powerball numbers are the same. Oh well, it might be worth staying up 'til 10:00 to see what the winning numbers are...

Are you ready.....

...for some football?

Can it be that football season has arrived already? Yes, I know it's only pre-season and these games really don't count, but August? Geez!

My Spousal Unit is a pretty big football fan, played football in high school and knows who plays for what team, call plays before the coaches, makes calls before the refs, etc. I, on the other hand, am not a football fan at all. Oh, I'll sit there when the game is on, but I'm usually knitting or something. I say I'm a Green Bay Packers fan, just to get his dander up.

To be perfectly honest, I think there's way too much adoration for professional athletes, especially by children. And I think it's truly obscene what those athletes get paid. The Minnesota Vikings signed a new player this year....I believe his contract was $50 million for 8 years with a $17 million signing bonus. Yes, that's right, I typed m-i-l-l-i-o-n. Give me a break--for playing football?? I'm heading towards a rant here and I think I'd better just take a few deep, slow breaths.....

There, that's better....

I just have to remember the things that make my life truly meaningful....

and give me great joy.....

Have a great weekend everyone!

Overnight Visitors

The other night a doe and her fawn visited my bird/wildlife feeding station but the trail camera was on a different tree. (I didn't see the deer, but saw their hoofprints the next morning.) On Tuesday afternoon I moved the camera to the tree by the feeder and here are a couple of different pictures of my overnight visitors.

I was hanging some bird feeders back out early this morning when I saw the camera flash. I didn't see anything over there in the dark, but when I downloaded these pictures, there was the deer, strolling over from behind the large evergreen tree. She must have seen me carrying out birdfeeders and ran away.

(The camera flash is very bright and I like the way it makes their eyes light up!)

Flash Flood Watch?

How can this be? We are in a flash flood watch from 7 PM tonight into tomorrow morning. This weather is just nuts! One week ago we were in severe drought conditions and this afternoon another weather system containing heavy rain is approaching us from southwest Iowa.



Believe me, if there was anything I could do to share some of this rain with those of you who are still bone dry, I would. This has got to be the craziest weather summer I can remember.

New Books

Have I mentioned in this blog that I love to read? I have been a bookworm ever since I learned how to read. I can still hear Mom's voice during summer vacation, "Ruthie, it's a nice day outside....go out and play!" Grumble, grumble, it was much more fun for me to just sit and read. Fortunately, books were portable and adapted well to outside use, if I could find a place to hide and read.

Today, I picked up two new books at the Public Library that had been recommended by other bloggers. The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I learned about last week at Ruth's blog.

The second is Prodigal Summer, which was recommended to me in a comment from Nina.

When I opened the cover of this book to read the description, here's what I saw.

Wow, how cool is that! Yeah, I think I'm going to like this book.

I read a variety of books but my favorites are mysteries by favorite authors Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman, Janet Evanovich, Dick Francis, and Mary Higgins Clark. I'm not much into the really graphic sex or violence....can't watch it in a movie and can't read about it either.

I occasionally throw in a romance novel (Debbie Macomber or Danielle Steel) just for variety. I also enjoy most fiction and also biographies. However, I have never been able to get into science fiction, the Harry Potter series, or books with mythical themes (like JR Tolkien). Yeah, I'm just kinda weird that way.

When I was a kid, I really loved the Nancy Drew mysteries and all of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

One summer (between my sophomore and junior year in high school) I had a job working at the high school. One of the best parts of the job was that we got to help unpack all the new shipments of library books for the next year. I'll never forget how much I enjoyed those afternoons sitting in the hot, dimly-lit library, breathing the smell of all those books, and picking out the books I wanted to read when school started in the fall.

MONARCH BUTTERFLY UPDATE

Today, two butterflies emerged! I knew when I went to work this morning that it was going to happen while I was gone, so took the precaution of locking the monarch ranch in the bathroom (away from the kitty monitor).

Although this isn't a very good picture, I hope you can see both of them (one is holding onto the stick in the center of the picture). This time there was a male and a female. They were released to their new home in Monarch Waystation 1515.

Sunday-August 5th

The rain had stopped by the time we got up this morning. Rain total for the last 24 hours was 2.09 inches. That was a good amount and just enough to turn my birdfeeders into a wet, stinky mess. I grabbed a pair of rubber gloves, a big spatula, a screwdriver, and a garbage bag and spent approximately 90 minutes cleaning all of the wet, yucky seed out of 13 seed feeders. I also mixed up a new batch of nectar for my hummingbird feeders. Now everything is nice and clean again and the birds are happy.

The monarch butterfly emerged this morning just as I had hoped. Unfortunately, I missed the moments immediately after coming out of the cocoon. Here's a picture probably about 30 minutes after emerging.

I allowed the butterfly a few hours in the ranch to strengthen its wings and get used to the big, new world, and then I took it outside and set it on one of my Joe Pye weed plants.

Side View

Full View (it's a male--you can tell because of the thin vein pigmentation and larger dots on the hindwings)

While I was searching for more caterpillar eggs, I happened upon this cute little guy.

A lot of personality in one little handful.....no, I didn't kiss him!

He got a safe release underneath the deck where hopefully he can find lots of slugs and other good stuff to eat.

Updates

We got our rain today and it was truly a Million Dollar Rainfall. It started raining around 7:30 this morning and it has continued to rain pretty steadily throughout the day (in fact, it's pouring as I'm typing this post).

The current radar image shows a little bit of redevelopment, and the weatherman on the 6:00 news said we may continue to have rain throughout the night.

Here's our rain gauge at shortly before 1:00 PM

And here's our rain gauge tonight after supper at 7:00 PM.

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And here's an update on the monarch ranch.

Yesterday, another monarch butterfly emerged from her cocoon. I released her when I got home from work. I also found out when I got home that one of the caterpillars (that had attached itself to the roof on Thursday) was the victim of a parasitic insect. The dead caterpillar was still hanging there when I got home with a long string of something hanging out of its side. Ick, Ick, Ick! I read in the Birdchick blog (look at her June 18 post) that this sometimes happens--especially when you find the larger caterpillars outside. I have been fortunate up to now because most of my caterpillars have hatched from eggs, but I have found a few larger cats on the milkweed outside and brought them in as an experiment to see if this would happen (and it did).

So on to a more pleasant subject. Tomorrow I will again have another new monarch butterfly to release outside in my Monarch Waystation.

Here's a photo of the chrysalis taken at about 7:45 this morning. Isn't it neat how you can see the butterfly wings through the chrysalis?

Here's the chrysalis tonight at shortly after 7:00 PM. See how dark it's become? I think it's neat that you can also see the butterfly developing in the chrysalis next to this one.

I'm so happy that I'll be home tomorrow morning to see the butterfly emerging. Hopefully I can get some good pictures to share with you. BTW, I ordered my butterfly tagging kit from MonarchWatch.org and it should arrive by next weekend.