Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

We were in the BWCAW from Saturday, Sept 13th through Wednesday, Sept 17th.

I wanted to never have to leave this beautiful wilderness... thinking I could fend off the rangers with my canoe paddle after the maximum 2 week stay.

I could live on squirrel, grouse, leaves and wild berries, right?

It was peaceful and wonderful wilderness.

Changing Lives

My sister and I made a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, for a USANA International Convention. It was a blast, during our last morning in town we had 2 hours to walk around the city before out checkout time at the hotel. It was a very nice city, amazingly clean, and the buildings around the Mormon church were amazing. Of course I saw these amazing flowers, and I have not a clue what they are, but they'd look good in my yard I am pretty sure.

3 Team Northrup Members

USANA sells the best pure & potent supplement, with maximum absorption, which meet label claims and are GMP Certified. They follow Pharmaceutical Grade Manufacturing, and are NSF/ANSI Certified. Their products are awesome, and their manufacturing site is top of the line!

I started with this company almost a year ago, and it has entirely improved my life. Taken away pain from 2 injuries that the doctors could do nothing about. Which in turns saves me about $100-200 per month on doctors and specialists (I mean saves, as in I was paying out between $300-$400/month on PT, massage therapy, chiropractics, etc...). I have also been able to lose 20 lbs, and keep it off without having to work hard for it. Not to mention improved my skin with non-chemical facial & body skin care which is cool. After I did extensive research on all the toxic things most people use in their households daily, and some of the long term side effects I decided that anything there are so many products that just aren't safe.

Location, location, location

A September Morning on the farm

Location: It's not just a geographical situation... it's also the "You Are Here" of your head & your heart.

As much as I love it out here, farmboy* and I have made it a home and we welcome friends and family with open arms. It's not multi-million dollar home, with a manicured lawn, Ethan Allen furnishings, or treasures from around the world. It's a some what modest old farm that everyone who comes has the urge to hang their hat and tie the horse up for a drink of fresh water. They want to walk into the chicken coop, grab some eggs and offer to help cook dinner. It's a place that feels like home to anyone who walks through the doors... and I love that!

For me it's that place in I go in my mind when the day is dragging on and on with the nagging agony of being part of the rat race, which just isn't a solution for any human being!

This place reminds me that the grass is not greener anywhere else. The Field of Dreams, "If you build it they will come" sort of mentality. It could be said for so many aspects of life.

Schermeisterbrau

This is the counter is the magnetic North of the house.

It is the place where yeast finds its way into our beer and our breads... I helped cap the bottles last night with some big lid-squeezing gadget. This picture doesn't quite do the bottles justice. The detail on each of those Grolsch-style bottles is really sleek. Of course over the last week I have sort of been noticing the 'details' of many things.

Good Pickin's

Lots of spaghetti squash... if you are my neighbor and need some, please stop in! The zucchini's have again gotten out of hand, and more like the an arm. The Cultivator* planted a lot of grape and Roma tomatoes because he knows they are my favorite, and there are a lot of peppers too! Neighbor T. gave us the round cucumbers, which I have never seen in my life, but I am excited to try, and Neighbor R. gave us corn which we shared because there was more than we could possibly eat in a month. Oh and the eggs... going to town to sell some today.

Now back to the studio...

Watching my girls prey

Loki and Sesame (aka Little Dog)

An average afternoon delight as I sit at my kitchen table and eating grapes and watching our cats watching the finches. It's only a moment that passes before Sesame is circling my feet with the most annoying mew (high pitched and stuttering) until I get up to let them outside.

Lokes is the first mouser on the farm, and she couldn't have come at a more perfect time! Just fresh from the city, living alone in the middle of the woods in a new town. I was sleeping one night and I heard a noise in the kitchen, after getting up several times I figured out it was a mouse. So I set a trap... the next day it was 4 am and I hear a 'clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk' I slowly approach the kitchen to find this little mouse with it's tiny head stuck in the trap but trying to push it's way out. All I could picture was an old cartoon, and I could swear the trap read ACME! Not only did it not snap the mouses neck, it seemed as if the mouse may have been strong enough to pry the trap off it's head. I thought eventually it would die or strangulation, so I left it for awhile. Tick, tick, tick... ok, damn-it, what do I do? I called Farmboy* in Colorado, he said to just kill the thing with a broom, but I could bring myself to do it mostly because I thought what the heck would a broom do, he also suggested a shoe, but I like my shoes too much to have them be murderers! So I scooped it up and put it down a sink hole in the driveway... with the trap still on it's head. After that I knew a cat was a good thing, allergic or not. Turned out she even got along great with the ferrets.

Sesame showed up last October... a drive and drop. She belonged to some one, she was clean, no bugs/ticks, and trimmed claws. It only took her 24 hours to wiggle her way into our home. It was touch and go at first if she would be a hunter (which if not, then there's no room for her here... jk) but when the warm weather settled in she was climbing trees and finding critters. She's a personality clone of our youngest dog, a pest with a heart of gold.

I believe they think they are dogs, just like our boys. The go out to relieve themselves, they come in to nap; they hunt all day and then come back at noon for lunch and 6 PM for dinner like clockwork. Until these two rascals joined us, I didn't know cats were so goofy. They wrestle each other, and then wind up in a tangle or hissing to end up licking each others like they were from the same litter.

They are both great hunters, Loki will take down chipmunks and squirrels and eat them in one sitting, while Sesame hunts mice and shrews, and of course the hummingbirds (that stinker)! Not many mice around here these days.

I have never seen either with a finch like the ones in the picture, but they sure do annoy the little birds! However, out here they are quick to run across open spaces because they know they are the prey too, but still there's nothing funnier than watching the sparrows dive bomb them relentlessly!