Off The Beaten Path

Only Three Weeks? Really?

Mary — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:46:52 +0000

Oh my. Looking at this picture, it’s hard to believe that Starburst celebrated her 3 week birthday yesterday and the little pipsqueak behind her celebrated her 4 week birthday. Pipsqueak looks like she should be half of Stars age. Yikes. BTW, we haven’t heard from Abby Prom yet as to what the little one’s name is going to be so right now she’s known as Squirt, Pipsqueak, or anything else we think is cute. We’re hoping that she’ll start growing soon and to help her along we’re supplementing the Zena nutrition plan (mother’s milk, or in this case grandmothers) with soaked 10 Squared Racing dog food. The only problem is Star likes the smell of the food and as you can tell, she doesn’t need any supplementing yet! She is only three weeks old…

Nothing But…BUTT!

Mary — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:00:20 +0000

Ok, we have to quit moving the Mini Excavator (Devil) around the dog yard. Wherever she goes, she teaches the dog or dogs near her how to dig realllllllllllllly deep holes. I just happened to have my phone on me from taking a couple pictures of our new puppy to upload to Facebook and saw this site:

It appears Rose has graduated from the Devil’s “Excavating 101″ course as the hole is deep enough where all we see is nothing but…well, BUTT! We’ll know she’s moved on to Excavating 201 when all we see is nothing but dirt flying (right Devil?).

A GIANT Star?

Mary — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:46:04 +0000

Oh my. We knew our little Star was big for her age, being an only puppy and all, but last night Mark brought home one of her cousins who is a week older and OH MY…she’s a GIANT compared to the other little girl who is a week OLDER than Star!

The little one on the right is actually Zena’s granddaughter. Her mother, Daisy is our Rose and Lily’s sister. Daisy was accidentally bred by Star’s father, so they are cousins/half-sisters. (Kinda sounds kinda Hillbilly-ish, huh?). Anyway, Mark didn’t want Star to be our only puppy and Daisy was having a hard time keeping up with her 10 puppies (yep, the accidental breeding produced 10 puppies, our planned breeding, one), so when Mark brought our new little girl home when he picked up dog food yesterday at 10 Squared Racing. When we put the new little one next to Star, it made her look like a GIANT Star. I think she can use the competition for food. A little diet might be good for her.

Just A Few More Days

Mary — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:48:59 +0000

It’s less than a week away when the dragons will be coming to Grand Marais. Dragons as is Dragon Boats that is. Next weekend is the annual North Shore Dragon Boat Festival and for the third year in a row, Mark and I will be paddling with Team Gunflint. The past two years we have taken second in our division…just a few more days and we’re going to paddle are a#*es off and go for first! PADDLES UP!

Let The Harvest Begin!

Mary — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 13:45:01 +0000

It started with broccoli last night and tonight it looks like it’s going to be cauliflower. It seems like it has taken forever for our garden to take of as friends have been eating vegys out of their gardens for a couple of weeks. I have to keep reminding myself that I played it safe when the temperatures in May were garden-friendly, and waited until the end of the month to plant mine “just in case”.

I just took a quick look back on the blog archives to see what the garden was doing last year. On July 29th, almost anothe week away, this iis what the garden looked like:

Except for the peas, this years garden is MUCH further along:

I’ve also been whining that the cucumber plants weren’t blooming but when I went out to take this picture, there were yellow blossoms everywhere. While my nutrition plan doesn’t allow for much sodium, I am looking forward to a homemade pickle once a week or so as a treat. I can’t wait to harvest more!

The Babysitter

Mary — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:00:43 +0000

Takum has grown up, he’s gone from the one who was being babysat to the one doing the babysitting. He’s pretty protective or maybe it’s just curious about that little thing we call Starburst. Whenever she makes a squeak, whines or makes any loud noise, he comes over to check her out. It’s kinda cute but we’ll see if it keeps up once she gets bigger and starts bugging him like he likes to bug his uncle Ophir. Maybe he won’t be such a good babysitter afterall.

Two Weeks Old!

Mary — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:00:02 +0000

Our little baby is getting BIG. Partially because that’s just what puppies do and partially because she’s an only child and has a smorgasbord to chose from every time she wants to eat! She’s not hurting in the weight department, which is fine, puppies are suppose to be fat. Also, now that her eyes are completely open, do you think she’d KEEP them open long enough for me to get a picture? She of course had just eaten so I guess it was time for an after-dinner nap. Oh to be two weeks old again…all you have to worry about is eating and sleeping.

Summer Almost Over?

Mary — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:00:42 +0000

A year or so ago,WTIP’s Gunflint Notebook writer/commentator Steve Ramberg featured the Summer flower, Fireweed. Fireweed, which blooms from top to bottom and has the lore that when the top of the flower blooms, the first frost isn’t far. With everything else around here seeming to come a month early, does that mean I’m going to have frost in a couple weeks? The last two summers we’ve had frost warnings in late-August and lost part of our garden when we were a little too cocky and didn’t cover the garden because we thought, no way. After that incident, we have been heeding the forecasters warnings and covering the garden when there is a warning. I just looked back and last year’s August 30th post mentions “it’s a good thing I covered the garden”. At least this year we are getting a summer. I’ll enjoy it while I can and hope that the Fireweed takes it’s dear old sweet time blooming at the top.

3-Hour Drive For Fun

Mary — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:00:18 +0000

With our remote location and the roads around here being so rough, just about anywhere we go it’s usually at least an hour to “go out”. Saturday morning we decided that since we haven’t been “out” all summer that we would take advantage of the beautiful weather and head to Trail Center for dinner and to listen to the live music on the back patio. Since Mark’s truck is making a strange noise in the front end (and it can’t get into the shop until Thursday), we couldn’t take the backroads up the trail, we had to take the long way around and first head all the way into Grand Marais before heading up the Trail. This route makes the drive 1-1/2 hours, one way. It is Trail Center food and fun so it’s worth it, and we were happy that Mike and Sue Prom and Shari Baker could get away from their resorts for a couple of hours and join us for dinner. With this being July and the busies time of year for resort owners, they had to head back to the end of The Trail after dinner. We on the other hand had decided to make it a full night when thankfully Sarah had an open room so we didn’t have to drive home after having a few cocktails. Mark took full advantage and hung out after closing at a bonfire with the TC staff, while I hit the hay waaaaaaaaaaaaay past my normal bedtime. Thanks to Sarah and the gang at Trail Center and our good friends for making our night out a night of fun!

Weekends

Mary — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:33:58 +0000

Mark’s right. When he was talking with someone recently he said “we’ve got it backwards, we should work two days a week and have five-day weekends”. Wouldn’t that be something. We should do a study and see if we’d be more productive at work if we only had two days to get it done. Oh well, until there is a major change in society, I guess we’ll be doing the 5/2 ratio.

Since there is only two days to get all the work around here done, I won’t be sitting on the computer for long. There’s a yard to be mowed, gardens to be weeded, etc. etc. etc. We have to get caught up on things this weekend and next because the weekend after that it’s Dragon Boat time (we’re still looking for a couple paddlers…) and the weekend after that is Fisherman’s Picnic.

After that, it will be time to start thinking about hooking up dogs for fall training, depending upon the temperatures in mid-August. It seems like summer just got here and we’re already talking about fall training. Yep, we need 5-day weekends to make the summer go by slower.