Glimpses of Life – Page 29

What’s Going On

With cooler weather, low humidity and lots of sunshine having arrived in September, I have been spending a lot of time outdoors — weed pulling. Â (laughing)

Yes, the yard work never ends and the buckthorn weed continues to thrive. I have almost 1/2 of my property buckthorn-free — well, that is, until next year when the seeds in the ground start sprouting.

This week I found quite a few seedlings starting to grow — already. I’m ecstatic that I’ve made so much progress, even if it is on only half of the property.

Looking out at the remainder of the work I need to do, it will be a lot easier to pull the buckthorn when all the ferns die. The ferns are so tall and wide that it’s like walking through a jungle to try and find the buckthorn between and under them.

I have great news to share — I’ve signed my husband and I up for a landscape design class in late October. We’ll be taking pictures of our property to the class and will have a designer help us with landscaping ideas. I’m so excited! Of course, I’ll have to wait til spring to do my planting but that’s okay.

Next week the county will be meeting with me to give me a list of the Minnesota plants they feel would work well on our shaded wooded acre. I was approved for the $500 grant and am looking forward to planning which ones I’ll purchase.

My original goal was to work on the landscaping of the “back” yard over a period of 5 years starting next year but the buckthorn pulling work has made me realize that I could have started this a lot sooner — well, if my back holds out. Pulling gobs of weeds takes a toll on this aging over 50 body and working every day is not an option. This week I was able to work 3 days outside but I’ve done a lot of stretching to help with muscle soreness.

Because of the outdoor work I’ve been doing, I’ve had little time to post the new recipes I’ve tried so I have a backlog of them to share once I hunker down indoors. Soon. The colder weather will come soon enough.

Want to see the work I’ve done with the buckthorn pulling?

Here’s the “before” …

And … here’s the after …

It’s pretty much the same area but a little different view. I’m hoping to have paths through my yard so I can meander while deep in thought. Â (laughing)

But, now it’s time to rest for Sabbath. Much needed rest for this sore body can’t come soon enough.

Hiking Around Lutsen, Minnesota

On our recent getaway, we took two hikes while we were staying at the Lutsen Resort.

The first one, called the Oberg Loop, is said to be “easy” according to the brochure, but I think it should be listed under “intermediate.” Most of the trail is easy but there are areas where you have to walk on uneven rock to get to the other side of the trail. This was a little troublesome for me as the first time we came across one such area we didn’t even know we needed to walk across the rocks to get to the other side. We wound up looking at the view and taking another path.

There is a rest area at the parking lot.

Here are a few pictures of what we encountered on the trail.

Yes, this is part of the trail …

View on the Oberg Loop Trail, Lake Superior

Once you reach the “top” of the trail, the views of Lake Superior are quite breathtaking!

Here is one area where one could not see the other side of the trail without climbing over the rocks to the other side. Fortunately my husband was willing to do that as I would have turned around as parts of it were a bit steep.

And here’s a picnic table … a nice spot to enjoy the views.

It was a good hike on a beautiful late summer Minnesota day. And the views are worth the time.

The Lutsen Resort

Except for the condo reservation problem we had when we arrived at the Lutsen Resort (located in Lutsen, Minnesota), our stay here was quite peaceful.

There were two occupants in our condo building, us and the person living in the unit above us. The condos don’t have full size refrigerators which was a little odd to me. But then, they aren’t full condos as one might expect — more like a room. There is no stovetop or oven. A small refrigerator, a sink, a coffee pot and a microwave — just the basics.

I’m assuming most people don’t spend a lot of time in their units — we didn’t. We were able to hear the person above us walking and moving things around — quite odd — but it didn’t bother us much.

The main lodge has a swimming pool along with a hot tub — neither of which we used while we were there as time just went by too quickly.

The main lodge also has a dining room. Now — this is one place you should definitely go to eat. The food was scrumptious, service was quick and dessert, oh my, dessert was really good. No, it was not a paleo dessert — we veered off our diet a tad.

Because we arrived on a Sunday night, there were not very many people here.

You can walk from the condo buildings to the main lodge via this bridge but it is not handicapped accessible. It’s a beautiful walk but has many steps.

View of Lake Superior from Lutsen Resort

The resort offers activities that are included with the lodging such as kayaking, guided hikes, evening campfires, etc. Not all of the activities are provided all the time — a lot depends on the time of year that you visit.

We had scheduled ourselves for a kayak trip but thought it would be on Lake Superior which was quite choppy so we cancelled it. Later we found out that they took the kayaking group to a small lake, Caribou Lake, which would have worked quite well. Oh well …

Sitting looking out at Lake Superior on a beautiful sunny day … so peaceful.

I’m glad we went during their “slow” time — school had started and it was a tad early for the “fall colors” so gobs of people weren’t out in large numbers.

During our three days at Lutsen Resort, we also took a couple of hikes and visited the town of Grand Marais. More on those later.

An Autumn Getaway – First Day, Afternoon

Continuing to head north towards our destination of the town of Lutsen, Minnesota, we stopped at the Northshore Scenic Overlook.

This was our first real view of Lake Superior on this trip as the drive, up to this time, only gave us small glimpses. After parking our car, we took a small path down to the overlook.

The summer flowers were still blooming.

Finally — the overlook!

The road you see below is the one we were on and that will continue to take us to Lutsen.

View from the Northshore Scenic Overlook

Lake Superior, View from the Northshore Scenic Overlook

The large circular tanks you see below are called clarifying ponds and they are used to recycle water for the taconite (iron formation) processing plants.

Heading back to the car, we drove a little ways and stopped again at milepost 57 at theÂ Palisade Head which is a large rock formation on the north shore of Lake Superior. A couple of young men got our of their cars in the parking lot and jumped over the rocks to climb the cliff we were on. That was a little spooky for me as they weren’t traveling together — who will “spot” them?

Walking around the area, I spied an artist further below painting the scenery.

Here’s a closer look at the artist and her painting …

And here is a picture of what this artist is painting although she can see more of the lake and rocks from her viewpoint.

Pretty cool, eh?

The next stop we made was at a rest area at milepost 79 on Highway 61 at the Cross River. It was really pretty here also because there are waterfalls. (Oh — click here for a link that shows the rest areas along Highway 61.)

Notice how the sky is now blue? The weather is getting warmer now that the sun is out.

Here’s the view from one side of the bridge. The river was “raging.”

To the right was a small grotto that brought to my mind the movie called The Song of Bernadette. (Do you remember the movie? It came out back in 1943 and was about a young girl who said she had visions from the virgin Mary.)

This is the view of the other side of the bridge …

Now it was time to continue to our final destination — the Lutsen Resort in Lutsen, Minnesota.

We checked in and proceeded to the condo that we had rented. Walking into the room, the first thing I did was look out at the view fully expecting to see Lake Superior. Unfortunately this premium room with views of Lake Superior was lacking. What I saw was a view of trees — lots of trees — with peek-a-boo views of water. Literally peek-a-boo. I had to stretch my neck to see in between the leaves for a peek of the water. No. This would not work.

I remember when I called to make the reservation I asked the woman if we had a view of Lake Superior and she said “yes, this is a premium condo.” I then explained to her that I wanted to make sure because when we had stayed in previous resorts we had gotten rooms that had peek-a-boo views. Â And here we were in the same situation.

I called the front desk immediately and spoke to the woman who checked us in. She assured me we were in a premium room and I asked her to come check it out for herself. Instead, she sent someone with keys for a different room that she assured me (again) was a premium condo. When the woman arrived with a set of keys for a different room, I showed her the view and asked her if this is what they meant by premium and she said “no, this room should not be listed as premium.”

Yeah, I knew I wasn’t going crazy. Moving our things out of the condo, we headed over to our new one. Again, I looked out the balcony to see the view. Okay, so, this was so-so. I wasn’t going to argue because I didn’t want to move again as I really wanted this to be a stress-free getaway.

The view from this second condo (which was in the lower level of the building) was half of the lake on the left and trees and a “mound” of grass on the right. Bleh. Oh well. I’ve already given feedback to the resort via email since they asked.

Here’s a picture but for some reason it didn’t come out very clear. Â Bummer.

I was thankful we arrived safely and had, for now, settled down.

An Autumn Getaway

I enjoy the kind of vacation where you actually forget about the “real” world, don’t you? My husband and I took 4 days off and experienced such a vacation — it was great! We went to the “north shore” of Minnesota. Last year we drove through Duluth but did not head further north to see what all the Minnesota rage was about. This year we headed north-er.

The day we started our journey, it was gloomy and drizzly. Our final destination was the town of Lutsen which is approximately a 4 hour drive but we like to “mosey along” so it took us closer to 7 hours to get there.

Our first stop on this “moseying” journey was at a small town called Two Harbors where we stopped to take pictures of the Lake Superior coastline.

The water was choppy when we were there.

Flowers were still in bloom — does anyone know what kind of flower this is? We saw it everywhere we turned — even on the hikes we took.

We saw the Two Harbors Lighthouse while we were there but weren’t able to get close enough to take good pictures. There is a small gift shop that we walked through while we were there but it wasn’t much to brag about.

The lighthouse is the oldest operating lighthouse in the state of Minnesota and overlooks Agate Bay on Lake Superior. Click here to read about the history of this lighthouse.

The “Keepers Quarters” of the lighthouse now operates as a bed and breakfast.

Across the bay we saw a couple of ships — the one called the James R Barker was built in 1976 and was the first one to be built entirely on the Great Lakes.

On the other side of this ship was a steamer named the Philip R ClarkeÂ which was built for the Pittsburgh Steamship Company back in the 1950’s.

There is a LOT of history to be read on these two ships and some people follow their navigational journeys.

It appears that they were preparing to load coal while docked — but this is just a guess as nothing was moving while we were there.

A short drive from Two Harbors, we stopped at the Gooseberry Falls State Park to see the waterfalls.

There is a very nice visitor center here with interpretive displays, a Nature Store and videos.

The trail to the waterfalls is handicapped accessible and starts out paved. Later on, there are steps one can walk down or a paved walkway.

Gooseberry Falls Trail — Gooseberry State Park Waterfalls Trail

See the paved walkway on the right?

The waterfalls are beautiful! There is an upper, middle and lower fall area. Many people were taking pictures and walking around the rocky area. Swimming is not recommended.

Gooseberry Falls — Gooseberry State Park Middle Waterfalls

Gooseberry Falls State Park — Gooseberry State Park

Gooseberry State Waterfalls — Gooseberry State Park Waterfalls

The view below is looking downstream from the waterfalls.

My husband took a picture on his iPod of the “lower” waterfalls.

Gooseberry Lower Waterfalls — Gooseberry State Park Lower Waterfalls

Although it was a gloomy day, this park left a peaceful feeling in my heart but water tends to do that to my soul.

I was intrigued by the formation of this rock.

A little color amidst gloominess always stands out beautifully.

And that, my friends, was the first morning of our trip to the “north shore” of Minnesota.

I’ll post more pictures soon of the afternoon’s adventures. I like to take a lot of pictures because it helps to remind me of everything I saw. But — it makes for long posts so I have to break the day up …

Apple Cinnamon Paleo Muffins

The search continues for good paleo muffins and this Apple Cinnamon Paleo recipe comes pretty close. The original recipe makes 9 regular sized muffins but I made 12 smaller ones. Next time I’ll make them larger as I think the taste might be a little better if they’re Â not smaller.

Few ingredients are needed for this recipe.

You’ll be putting the batter into a muffin tin. I’m guessing this can also be put in a loaf pan then sliced BUT I haven’t tried that yet.

Ready to try the recipe?

Ingredients

1Â apple, peeled, cored and diced
1Â cup almond flour/meal
3Â tablespoons coconut flour
3Â eggs, whisked and at room temperature
1/4Â cup coconut oil, melted
2Â tablespoons raw honey
1Â heaping tablespoon cinnamon
1/2Â teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
Add the almond flour, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt to a large bowl then mix to blend it all together.
Â Add the eggs, oil, honey, and diced apples to the dry mixture.
Combine everything thoroughly.
Line your muffin tins with muffin liners then, using a large spoon, pour a large spoonful of batter into each spot.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes if using a convection oven and smaller muffins or 25-30 minutes with larger muffins and in a non-convection oven.

That’s it! These were especially good!

Special thanks to PaleoOMG for this recipe. I encourage you to head over to her website as she has some pretty good recipes.

The Power of Concentration and Balance

Having had balance problems for over 16 years, I watched this video with amazement. It is truly incredible what this woman does — with both concentration and balance.

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Don’t you think it’s amazing after watching it?

Garlic Beef Sausage Patties

This paleo recipe for Garlic Beef Sausage is very very easy. I know you think I must say that a lot but that’s because I like trying recipes that are both tasty and easy to make. I mean, who wants to be in the kitchen all day, right? Occasionally I’ll make two or three different recipes for dinner but that’s not the norm.

I made this Garlic Beef Sausage so my husband could have something quick for breakfast. All of the ingredients are easy to find in your grocery store. (Excuse the shoddy photos on this post — my camera froze on me so I had to use the backup which has a broken screen so I had no idea how the pictures would come out.)

You’re basically going to put all these ingredients into a bowl, mix them all up (preferably with your hands as it works really well), make them into palm size patties and fry them up.

Then — whala!

They are quite tasty.

Here’s the recipe for you …

Ingredients

1Â lb ground beef (I like the really lean meat – 96% lean)
1/4Â tsp Caraway Seed
1/4Â tsp Ground Coriander Seed
1/2Â tsp Garlic Powder
1/4Â tsp Ground Mace
1/4Â tsp Salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon olive oil for frying

And there you have it! Just fry them up until they’re cooked through.

Special thanks to the Paleo Mom for this recipe.

Asian Chicken Thighs

This Asian Chicken Thigh recipe was a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did as the marinade looks “yellow” and, well, it just didn’t look appetizing. But, I’ve learned to not judge things too harshly until I try them.

The recipe is paleo although many paleo-ites will not use the rice wine vinegar. Â I did. There was also an expensive ingredient that was a little hard to find — coconut aminos. I finally found it at a health food store as the local store and Trader Joe’s didn’t carry it. It only required 1 tablespoon of the aminos but I wanted to be true to the recipe so splurged on it. I’ll definitely make this recipe again so it’s worth it.

Here are the ingredients you’ll be using — minus the olive oil and the chicken thighs.

As I said earlier, the marinade doesn’t look very appetizing but ignore the looks in this recipe.

You’ll be pouring this marinade into a large bowl along with the chicken thighs and making sure the thighs are coated thoroughly. Â That’s a LOT of marinade but that’s because the original recipe called for 4 pounds of chicken thighs and I used 4 chicken thighs.

Instead of putting the thighs on an aluminum foil lined rack, I put them in a glass dish to bake.

Put Thighs in a Container to Bake — Put Thighs in a Baking Dish

They will crisp up really beautifully.

Ready to try the recipe?

Ingredients

1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and cut into thirds
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 slices of fresh ginger
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon coconut aminos
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons honey
Â½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
4 chicken thighs

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare all the ingredients except for the chicken then put them into a blender.
Blend until everything is combined and pour it into a large bowl.
Cut any extra fat off the chicken thighs and put the thighs in the large bowl with the marinade. (This does not have to sit overnight or even for an hour.)
Make sure the marinade is blended well with the thighs and then put the thighs in an oven proof dish.
Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

That’s it! Pretty simple if you ask me. And very very tasty. This will be a regular at our house.

Enjoy!

Buckthorn Progress

Well, no pictures yet of my buckthorn pulling progress but they’ll be coming soon. Â I worked three mornings in the yard last week — in between the cool morning weather and the 90 degree temperatures.

The thermacell mosquito repellant is working great but I still have to put other repellant on my arms since the thermacell doesn’t repel ticks. So far, I have yet to see one tick so I’m not sure what they look like “in person.” No worries though as I’m sure when something sticks to my body everyone will know about it. Â hahahahaha

We had another 90 degree humid day today so no outside work for me. I’m gathering information on two new projects for late fall and early winter — a wooden woodpile rack that I’d like to make myself (with help from my husband) and a sewing project which consists of making new family room curtains with grommets. This will be my first ever sewing project and I’m apprehensive and excited all at the same time.

Tomorrow I’ll do more inside work and then head back outside on Wednesday and Thursday to pull more buckthorn. I’m definitely making progress on the removal of the smaller buckthorn. There were a couple of spread-out buckthorn bushes that I couldn’t pull out easily but upon further inspection they were large sprouts from two previous large buckthorn trees that the previous owner had cut down. I’ll have to trim those and pour pesticide on the trunks to kill them. It’s recommended that you put a tin can over the buckthorn trunks so they don’t re-sprout instead of using pesticides but I don’t have tin cans that large.

Once I’m finished pulling buckthorn for the year, I’ll post pictures so you can see what I spend most of my mornings on. It’s a little cumbersome to work on my property because there are many many branches strewn about so I have to move those to get to the buckthorn. I still have to gather all the branches and send them off with the garbage which is another large project.

I’m actually looking forward to working outside again. With the cooler weather coming I’m noticing fewer mosquitoes. Â Woohoo!