Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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I meant to open this column with some light-hearted joking about taking weather forecasts from rodents and fell down a rabbit hole. (And rabbits aren’t rodents.) Prepare yourself for a lot of useless information. It might come in handy next time you compete in Trivial Pursuit. It is true that the groundhog is a rodent. Sometimes known as a woodchuck of tongue-twister fame, these rodents belong to the group of large ground squirrels (family Sciuridae) known as marmots. Gophers are also ground squirrels, but are rather puny in size next to ground...
Mary Honrud For the Courier Usually our minds will turn to soups as fall arrives with the cooler weather and more gloomy skies. For me, that season of soups is now. Well, really, I think soup is always good. We’ve had some really nice weather recently, but the fog and no sun is here right now. That has me wanting comfort food. Soup fills that want. First up is a hearty soup featuring wild rice and mushrooms. I combed through several variations on this theme, and settled on one that didn’t call for cream or milk. Those of you who don’t do well...
Mary Honrud / For the Courier What a difference a week or so makes, huh? We've gone from bitter cold with frigid winds, to ice fog and freezing rain, to balmy spring temps in a short amount of time. And don't we enjoy northeastern Montana through all of it? But we've had enough with the icy fogs and freezing rains, don't you agree? Mother Nature could get her act together at any time. There was enough weight on the trees after that rain last Saturday night and most of the day Sunday that I know...
Either being out in the cold (be it outdoors or inside the ice rinks) OR being in crowds of people didn't agree with me. In any case, I started feeling punk on the second day of our drive home from Minneapolis. We'd split the trip into two days, both going and coming. We stayed overnight in Fargo both ways. I'm still really glad we went, it was a great weekend of hockey. Our grandson's team ended up with bronze medals. And he and our daughter survived a cold afternoon of outdoor sledding at...
I think those words are in a song…Willie is a genius. This week, instead of heading to sunny Florida, we’re going to cold, snowy, blowy Minnesota. The youngest grandson, 11, has a hockey tournament in Minneapolis this long weekend. The Florida teams always seem to have tourneys scheduled in far locales every time there’s an extra day off school. (It’s not just Florida, of course.) These tourneys require the kids missing school on both sides of the long weekend as they have to travel to and from said locales. This particular tourney has 10 team...
We made it safely home from Florida, but we aren't staying here long. Our youngest grandson (11) has a hockey tournament in the Minneapolis area this weekend. The team is taking advantage of the long MLK weekend, as are lots of other youth hockey teams. I believe there are 10 teams at just the 12UAA level in this one. And of course it will be such nice weather for a jaunt across North Dakota into Minnesota - NOT! Those poor deluded Florida boys think it will be "fun" to experience snow and...
Our sojourn in Florida continues, as does the hockey watching. And it’s not just the grandsons we’re watching. Tonight (I’m writing this on Wednesday, Dec. 27 - early deadline due to the holiday) we are heading into Tampa proper to watch the two Florida NHL teams compete against each other. I’m speaking of the Tampa Bay Lightning versus the Sunrise City Florida Panthers. Sunrise City is near Fort Lauderdale and Miami. We expect to see some fine hockey played. (And even as I write this, we’re watching the televised World Juniors Hockey Ch...
We’re again in Florida to spend the holidays with our grandsons. Seeing our daughter and her husband as well is a nice bonus. Avoiding the Montana winter is also very much appreciated, although so far the Montana winter hasn’t been bad. However, Florida is currently cooler than we’re used to, with grey skies and winds reminiscent of home. They received a paltry 2.65” of rain yesterday. Recently, in one of my columns, I mentioned how two of our three daughters have vastly outdone me in plant acquisitions. I believe this Florida girl of ours ha...
I’ve just noticed that two of my bakers’ dozen amaryllis bulbs are sending up flower stalks. Of course they are: we’re getting ready to leave on our annual Christmas trip to Florida. We do love spending the holidays with our grandsons. The beautiful non-wintery weather (and seeing our daughter and her husband) are benefits we also enjoy. Back to the amaryllis: the bulbs sold each winter because of their willingness to bloom indoors are actually cultivars of Hippeastrum, a genus with about 90 species. There are also tons of hybrids. These are n...
As I'd predicted, I have not resorted to making daily notes of my accomplishments this past week. I do know myself a little. So, as usual, I'm winging it with this column. It is Sunday afternoon, after all. I have managed to repot a few plants since I last wrote. The flamingo plant (anthurium andraeanum), which is very similar to the peace lily, but with red rather than white spathes, as the "flowers" are known. The spathes are red, waxy, and heart-shaped, with yellow upright spadices. They...
For the second week in a row, I was asked what I'd be writing about in my next column. And for the second week in a row my answer was, "I don't know." This speaks to my mastery of the art of procrastination. I should start jotting daily notes: "What did I do today? Is it something that might remotely relate to gardening?" But I probably won't do that, either. I'll stick with my bad habits. I'll suddenly realize it's Sunday afternoon/evening, and the column still hasn't been written, and I'll...
I’m enjoying the indoor greenery, but I’m not talking about bringing a tree into the house. I know many people are putting up their Christmas trees at this time, or have already done so. I’m not one of those. Since we’ve been spending the holiday season with our daughter and family in Florida, my artificial tree hasn’t been out of storage for years. My shooting star Hoya has been trying to bloom for the past six weeks, but kept dropping the buds before they opened. I decided the cause was lack of proper drainage. I purchased clay beads (re...
It’s definitely not gardening weather. I don’t even want to mess with my houseplants, really. Oh, I’ll water them, but there’s no repotting going to happen anytime soon. I just don’t want to deal with the mess potting soil and water makes. The indoor greenery is really loved, though, and I am able to harvest fresh basil, parsley, and rosemary. The catmint and two small dill weeds I’d added to the window box with the other herbs elected not to live. When I brush up against the surviving herbs, the scent they release is heavenly. And that makes...
Lately my column has only been printed every other week. I could get used to only writing (blathering?) twice a month. Is that considered bi-weekly or bi-monthly? I didn't know, so I looked it up. It seems either term would work. Both mean "every other" or "twice each" month or week. That can be very confusing. The English language is messed up. Either way, I only get a check once a month (and that goes into the bank for the grands). So there's my nugget of good information for you this week....
Editor's Note: This column was submitted on Oct. 22. We took a trip out to Crescent Bar, which is just past Quincy, Wash., on the far side of Spokane. Dennis's baby sister lives there. Although we didn't do much beyond visit and golf, we enjoyed the vacation. Next trip there, I'll insist they take us to at least one of the many local wineries. One of the golf courses is watered by a center pivot irrigation system. There were semi-paved grooves where the wheels of the pivot roll through. At the...
Editor's Note: This column was submitted on Oct. 18. The hard freeze last week has finished off my gardening for this year. I’m sure it finished off everyone’s gardening as well. We saw it drop to 19°, which was a good 7° colder than predicted. I’d spent Wednesday pulling squash, pumpkins, a few late cucumbers, a lot of green peppers, and what I knew would be the last harvest of husk cherries, as well as moving the remaining houseplants back inside for the winter. The tomatoes got covered...
Editor's Note: This column was submitted Sept. 24. Fall arrived with some measurable amounts of rain last week. That doesn't always happen. We'd finished our wheat harvest before this last wetting, plus there's some winter wheat planted, so the rain is making us happy. I have not yet finished harvesting good things from the garden. There are still potatoes and carrots to dig, as well as tomatoes and husk cherries (aka prairie gooseberries) to pick and enjoy. I've pulled all the moon flower plant...
A big part of ending a gardening season is clearing out those items that are done for this summer. All my cornstalks have been dug up and hauled away. While doing that, I found enough small ears to make another half-batch of frozen corn. (I'll correct my mis-info from last week: the recipe is from Helen Blankers, who was a cousin of my mother-in-law. I discussed this with Aunt Nina this past week, and have made a note on my recipe card.) Also, while clearing the corn, I found evidence that there...
The wheat harvest has been on hold for the past week. We'd had rain on the Monday of Labor Day weekend, which prevented our continued laboring. (We slept most of that day, catching up.) It rained again the next weekend, further delaying our returning to labor with a combine. The rain delays did not stop the harvesting in my garden. It did cause several of my cherry tomatoes to burst open upon picking, such that they had to be discarded. The ones that hadn't burst open were taken to the banquet...
Editor's Note: This column was submitted for the week of Aug. 30. I’d mentioned a while ago that my multiple summer trips had left my lawn rather parched, with multiple brownish patches. I’ve now stayed home long enough to have kept the sprinkler going. Combine that with those few cooler days, with some natural rain and even fog up here, and the lawn is again green and fairly lush. Granted, it’s not springtime lush, when the snow is newly melted and we’ve enjoyed the spring rains. But for this time of year, I’m pretty happy with it. Dennis got...
Whose bright idea was it to schedule the holiday to honor the laborer right during farmers’ (our local laborers) busiest time of year? While everyone else gets a long weekend to celebrate, us farmers are laboring over our harvest. If you haven’t thought about it (or listened to farmers’ conversations), let me point out that this is our yearly paycheck time! We don’t get bi-weekly or monthly paychecks, this is all or nothing for the entire year until next harvest. We aren’t about to let the crops set in the fields an extra day (or three) in...
It seems to me as though once the kids are heading back to school Mother Nature decides it’s time for cooler weather. I guess that makes the kids appreciate their new warm school clothing. That cooler weather only lasts a few days, though. The early mornings will be cool, but afternoons still get quite warm. This results in lots of jackets and sweatshirts being left behind, to the dismay of moms everywhere. This change in the weather has me thinking about all the houseplants I have parked outside and how I’m really going to cut down on the num...
Or maybe it's more of a rut? I guess that depends on your perspective (or in how you choose to regard your life). In any case, I'm home and the garden is progressing into the over-productive phase. There aren't so many weeds to pull since what I've planted is now big enough to edge out any weeds that have the temerity to attempt to eke out their own little space in the sun. It's raining as I write this (Saturday evening - we don't do demolition derbies as all three daughters managed to demolish...
Lollygag: to spend time aimlessly, idle; to dawdle I’m not sure this most recent very short vacation counts as lollygagging, but that’s what I’m going with. I did spend some slow-moving time (dawdling) in the sun, enough that I came home a bit sunburnt. The purpose of this trip was to accompany the grandchildren home. Our granddaughter peeled off in Denver to return to Chicagoland, while the boys and I went on to Tampa. Naturally, after a trip of that distance, I wasn’t going to return home immediately. We packed a lot into those few days. F...
I’ve discovered that growing a vegetable garden and taking summer vacations doesn’t work out too well. There’s always something that needs harvesting at the same time a fun trip could be had. I may decide to not plant so many veggies next summer. I hope I’ll still be able to have the fun trips next summer. Naturally the raspberries decided to come on a bit earlier than usual this summer, so they were going strong during the time I was away. I enjoyed watching the grandsons competing in a roller hockey tournament in Fort Wayne, Ind., much mo...
