North shore trip

While family friends from PA came to visit, we met them up at Grand Marais for an overnight/sightseeing trip. Grand Marais is beautiful and they have amazing donuts (great way to start out the day!).

We started off by heading even further north to High Falls on the Pigeon River, immediately south of the Canadian border. The water at each site we stopped at was high, making each set of falls that much more impressive.

Next it was back to Grand Marais for a bit. I ventured out to Artists Point.


We then started our way back south with several stops along the way. The first was Temperance River. It was dizzying watching the water swirl. The way the water has carved the rock is incredible!

You could have seen where Temperance spilled out into Lake Superior, but Chris got in the way.

Next it was Caribou Falls off the Superior Hiking Trail. The falls are really high up, but I couldn't stop laughing at the stairway down. You will notice how it just stops.

Then onto Palisade Head. Chris showed me some of the routes he's climbed before and it got me itching to climb High Voltage.

The final sightseeing stop was the Split Rock Lighthouse. I clearly haven't been there for a long time because there is now a huge visitors center. I thought I remembered basically walking up to the lighthouse. It's kind of like what happened to Gooseberry Falls.

It was a fun trip, and I went further north and saw many beautiful sights I've never seen before. I would love to go back and do some hiking and climbing up there.

Teddy Roosevelt National Park

We went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a long weekend in the middle of June. This is one of the least visited national parks and looked amazing (plus it has lots of prairie dogs!). We camped in one of the total of 14 sites available - there are more, but they hadn't finished clearing the silt/mud from them yet! It was incredibly beautiful and we've already listed all the hikes we have yet on a future trip.

Here was the entrance to our campsite in the North Unit - the water had been about a quarter way up the sandbags.

After setting up our tent, we headed out.

I of course immediately found the trails where all the prairie dog towns were and we hiked that one first :)

On the way back to the trailhead, we ran into a buffalo. Luckily there was another couple there already watching it. Had they not been there, we would have turned the corner and potentially startled it. That may not have been the best start to the vacation.

That night, it rained about 3/4" in an hour. We had a moat around our tent! That next morning, we put on our gaiters and headed out on the trails. We were warned about the wet clay soil (it expands to about 3 times, and all that additional water makes it extremely slippery). I loved it! I have to admit I was a bit worried when we initially headed out for fear it would rain again while we were on the trail, making conditions even worse, but I'm glad we stuck with it.

Not long after starting the trail, Chris slipped. I wish it had been funny to see, but it just looked painful! It was comically slow though and you'll notice the slip marks all the way down. The amazing part about it (besides Chris not getting hurt) was that the face appeared to be rock, but turned out to essentially be soil. Fascinating stuff!



We also drove up to some of the scenic areas of the park (ones we couldn't hike to).

It was a beautiful park and I highly recommend it! If you're interested in seeing fewer people and more prairie dogs, go to the North Unit. The South Unit is the one right off of I94 and was more touristy. We did get to see the wild horses out there though.

As a final thought, here are the prairie dogs doing their bark. I couldn't help feeling like I was seeing miniature Banjos when I was out there (although these guys were much quieter!):

Garden pictures

Here are some pictures from the garden - enjoy!

The herb garden is exploding! I've had to cut it back several times already and it's due again:
The coneflowers are starting to open up. They should turn a purple color soon:
The potatoes have also exploded! I'm very encouraged by the experiment so far.
The stellas that replaced the grape vine are now all in bloom and looking beautiful:
The day lilies are close to blooming for that one fleeting day:
The succulents I've replanted are growing lots of new plants too:

Happy (belated) anniversary

Our one-year anniversary came and went. It's fun to think about how much fun it was to celebrate our Anniversary 0 with many of you last year. One of the fun parts of Anniversary 1 was opening the note cards from the wedding. Thank you for all the wonderful (and sometimes completely silly) notes!

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity - Chris and I went camping and hiking at Teddy Roosevelt National Park over a long weekend (pictures coming soon). This past weekend, we drove up to Grand Marais to meet up with family friends in town from PA. And almost every night in between has been filled with friends and/or family. It has been a lot of fun!

I'm very much looking forward to the three-day weekend. Lots to do around the house (everything that's been piling up over the past few weeks) and lots of relaxing to catch up on. I will post photos of all the plants soonish. My potatoes-in-a-trash-can experiment is going much better than I ever imagined: the plants are about a foot above the top of the can already and growing strong!

Stuff's a growin'

I can't believe it, but the potatoes are already sprouting leaves! Plus the strawberry plants are already throwing off runners. It's been less than a week! Guess we all love a little sunshine :)

Adding to the garden

I've been doing lots of stuff in the yard the past few weeks. This past weekend, we went up North to get some ticks, but mostly to see my parents. It was a very relaxing time and I got more plants from my mom to add to the garden. I went on a planting spree on Monday, even though it was incredibly humid. I was too excited about the plants to wait!

The columbine is doing excellent against the garage (it's one of the kinds of plants I planted last May).

Between the columbine and the day lilies, I planted the clump of tiger lilies I got from my mom. I can't wait until they bloom!

My parents also got us a planter for the deck. Chris got another one right away. The planter from my parents is now filled with strawberry plants, and Chris wants more! He's a strawberry addict. It will be fun to see the berries develop and see if/how much they spread. It was amazing that the bees found the flowers almost right after we put it out on the deck.

In the other planter, I planted the two herb plants I've had going for quite a while and the other herbs I got from Mom. We have oregano, cilantro, chives, rosemary and parsley. Chris used the parsley almost right away in a dish he made for supper. I'm really excited about seeing the chives bloom too.


And finally, my experiment. A year or so ago, I got the book Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Places by Gayla Trail. She is great at explaining how easy it is to grow lots of different types of fruits and vegetables. The one I'm trying out is growing potatoes in a garbage can. Just so happens I had a garbage can with holes in it lying around the garage recently (it was used as a compost bin before and we recently got one of the big bins). And then I was reading through Grow Great Grub this spring looking for more information and there it was: Trashy Potatoes.

You fill the can with about 6" of dirt, then plant the seed potatoes. Mom gave me seed potatoes too! They were pretty far along as you can see from the pictures. After the sprouts get 8" tall, you are supposed to cover them up about 2/3 of the way, and keep repeating the process, hilling the potatoes as they come up. At some point, there will be lots of greenery and flowers and when those die, the potatoes should be ready.

One thing that could happen since I'm using a metal can is that the potatoes could get cooked. We'll see though. I think it will be ok because the metal can will not be exposed in the hot afternoon sun, but the greenery will.

I will keep you updated!

Beautiful days = yard work

In celebration of nice weather, I got to spend the bulk of the day outside. It has been so perfect out today! I finally dug out all of the red lava rock from the back of the house, which I'll be replacing with mulch; I cleaned and organized the garage; I completed the border around the bed against the garage; and mowed the yard. Busy day, and very rewarding.

I put out the freshly painted rain barrel the other day. It looks so much better! I'm really looking forward to seeing how well the new compost bin works too. I basically have it full already.

All the plants are doing really well, except for those in the native bed I planted next to the deck. They started coming up before the frost, then died and are now barely starting to come back up again. I'm excited for the bee balm again and I'm anxious to see if the butterfly weed and coneflower have any flowers this year.

Here are some of the latest pictures, including one of Banjo playing with Duckie (that damn duck!):