Buffalo Gal

 If you are old enough to remember a TV show called "Highway Patrol" starring the late, great Broderick Crawford…you may remember how he did his mumbling admonition at the end of the show to "Leave your blood at the bloodbank, not on the highway!!!"   MBF can do an almost perfect imiation of the Broderick Crawford mumble.

I did that today.   I answered the call at the United Blood Services located in far south Fargo and left a pint of my blood there, instead of on the highway.  The last time I gave a pint, I had a rather unpleasant experience when the technician(s) had a hard time finding a vein in the crook of my left arm and I got poked like a pincushion many times.  It made me a bit wary and I pleaded with them to give me an extremely adept tech. this time and I think I got the Supervisor.  She went immediately to my other arm and found a vein right away and we were off and bleeding—-into the prescribed container for the blood draw.  Then I spent my requisite 10-15 minutes in the lounge where snacks and liquids are provided and while I was there in recovery from my bloody ordeal, I picked up a common-place magazine, WOMANS’ DAY  and paged through it while I sipped Pepsi and ate a granola bar (forbidden foods on the new eating plan but, what the heck—-there was not much other to choose from).  I ate a half bag of popcorn too, from their freshly popped supply….it tasted heavenly after not having any popcorn for several weeks. (bad carb!  bad corn!)  I felt amazingly stronger after I ate the bad food at the UBS snack bar!!!

I needed something to do while I noshed for the required time, so I begin to tally up some facts about the WOMANS’ DAY magazine.   It had 144 pages in it.   Of those 144 pages, 46 pages were ads for non-prescription drug products (foods, pet food, over the counter stuff from drug stores, et al).  Then additionally , there were 22 pages devoted to ads for prescription drugs including the back sides of pages listing all the possible side effects of the advertised drug and other pertinent information.   Those pages of ads totalled 68 and 68 subtracted from 146 leaves 76 pages of the magazine devoted to articles about subjects supposedly of interest to women.  One 3- page spread had information about the best lipstick and rouge colors for women with different hair colors. There was no advice for gray hair so I quit reading it immediately.    I cannot remember what the other articles  were about but they were not of much interest to me, apparently.  One had to do with living out the rest of your life if you are 30, 40 or 50….not very useful for this over-50 Buffalogal either.  On to the next article…..but it bored me even more so I laid it down and went on my way to my next port of call—-the Carlson Library in south Fargo. Now there I find interesting things!!!

Next time you have the desire to reach out and touch a WOMANS’ DAY magazine when you are standing in a grocery store line…. and if you entertain a  moment when you think you might lay your money down to buy the magazine…..think of my stats.  You are paying for  68 pages of advertisements….or more in some issues, I suspect.   Bah, Humbug!

This blog would be for those who like to do things naturally to keep themselves healthier, in as much as is possible.  

  For a number of weeks, at this household, we have been eating on a new plan designed for reduction of fungal overgrowth in one’s body.  The source of the change came when MBF began to watch and study the website of "Know The Cause.com"…an informational source and media presentation by Doug Kauffman who is a Micologist—one who studies small organisms like fungus, bacteria, and viruses.  His website is loaded with information about the effects of fungal overgrowth on human health and it caught MBF’s eye because he has experienced this phenomenon after having to take massive doses (IV antibiotic for almost 2 weeks last winter for a condition that warranted the use of such powerful IV antibiotic treatment.  It was not without its side effects….the killing off of the "good bacteria" in one’s body and the resultant overgrowth of fungus causing other health problems after one problem was solved by the antibiotic.  Some amazing information about the role of fungal overgrowth in sinus infections which do not respond to antibiotic treatment has been especially interesting for us.  Many other bad health conditions are linked to fungal overgrowth….it is worth looking up the website:  know the cause.com on your ‘puters.(our  one granddaughter’s word for computer when she was small)

What we are currently doing is eating food that does NOT feed fungus growth…..and that is done by eliminating sugar and carbohydrates which turn to sugar in the body’s process of digestion.  Going without bread (except for one slice of toast per day) potatoes, pasta, cereals, and sweets is a pretty different lifestyle for us since both of us were pretty much raised on a carbohydrate/sugar- heavy diet in our homes.  Mothers who descended from Norwegian/Swedish background almost insures that you will be eating a lot of carbs(potatoes and "hotdish") and sweets, especially BREAD, the staff of life for Scaninavians.  My father used to insist that my sister and I eat lots of bread—-it was homemade bread, so it was not hard to do.  We had potatoes twice a day in my home…boiled or mashed at noon and fried for supper!       My mother always loved to have cookies on hand and used a lot of sugar in her cooking, especially the canning of summer fruits so I was loaded early in my life with pro-fungal foods.

The fungal overgrowth is diminishing greatly due to this eating plan and one side effect of the plan is that both of us have lost a lot of weight.  We are not fading away or becoming scrawny, by a long shot, but the absence of 20 pounds so far, for both of us is a bonus that we did not anticipate.  I have started wearing smaller clothing sizes and MBF is going to have to do some clothes- shopping before his pants fall down to his knees (or he gets a better belt and looks like he has gathered pants at the waistline). Fortunately for me, I have some smaller sizes in the closet already…..I have that old habit of NOT getting rid of everything, just in case you might need it again…a habit I learned at home from parents who suffered through the Great Depression!!!!  (use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without)  In this case it has paid off.

I noticed my weight loss at first when I was picking raspberries and wearing my old garden jeans that I have had for several years.  One day as I picked fruit off the canes, my pants descended to my mid-thighs and I felt like those kids who choose to wear their pants at half- staff all the time.  I have been hitching up my garden jeans more and more frequently as the days and weeks go by.  I cannot find a belt that works so I am "making do" and doing without the belt. 

Maybe some baling twine would do the job.     If anyone drives in the driveway to visit, I will have to go into hiding in the raspberry canes and that will not be a good plan because the mosquitos that love my flesh and blood reside there by the thousands right now.  But I intend to keep up the eating plan for a while longer…I have gotten used to it and my cravings for sweets and carbs has left me…wonder of wonders!!!  And I do not miss that extra weight at all!!!

For several months I have experienced a definite feeling of suffering a loss.   It gets worse with every passing day, week , month.    It is a loss that is hard to define but I know what sort it is in my own mind…it is just hard to articulate.

This morning while doing some of my usual morning reading on the internet, I read Peggy Noonan’s latest column in the WALL STREET JOURNAL and suddenly I got that "A-Ha" feeling you get when someone else articulates so well what you have been unable to express.  Her columnn is titled "Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare"  but the title is misleading when it comes to what I have felt I am losing recently.    After a discussion of several paragraphs related to what is now happening in our nation regarding the citizens’ regard for the healthcare plan numbered #3200 in the House of Representatives, Noonan hit a nail on the head for me when she made this final statement in her essay:

"Americans in the most personal,  daily ways feel they are less free than they used to be. And they are right, they are less free."

And in a nutshell, that is the articulation of my feeling of loss….I sense that I am losing my freedom in more and more ways since the Obama administration came to the presidency and the Congress became overwhelmingly one-sided.  Many things have led up to this sense of loss.

I have lost a lot of economic freedom due to the passage of bills that went by the names of "The Stimulus" and the "Cap and Trade" bill.    The huge and unprecedented increase in national debt and increasingly huge deficit overwhelms my sense of economic freedom but I especially feel it for my children and grandchildren who are going to be faced with the consequences of this recent presidential and congressional spending spree that will affect every one of us in this nation….presently and way into the future.  I think what troubles me most is the insistence by the present Administration that this debt-ridden, deficit national spending is somehow going to solve the economic crisis we find ourselves in  It makes no sense to me at all and adds to my feeling the loss of economic freedom.

After reading most of the particulars of a 300 page addition to the Cap and Trade bill that was sneaked in at approximately 3 a.m. on the day that the House was due to vote on that bill, I was overwhelmed with the huge number of utterly foolish and massive regulations on businesses and individuals…which will do nothing more than stifle an ecomomy that is already down for the count…. when heavy taxation is added to those who generate jobs, investments and everything else that is necessary for a healthy robust economy, how will out of control spending rescue the failing economy we have been seeing for too long??   And on a personal level, IF all these massive regulations are put in place, how will I…..Buffalogal…afford to pay for the massive increases that will be passed on by producers of electricity, gasoline, coal, natural gas and all the other means of energy we depend on to keep our homes and businesses running???    There certainly are no viable green energy sources in place to replace the energy sources that the Environmentalist want to snuff out.        My retirement income is not going to increase, but my energy costs will increase, even double, if all the things I read in those 300 pages come to pass.  Talk about feeling a loss of freedom!!!!!  I have already practiced using less energy for several years. I am at a point where I cannot cut one more thing out of my daily living.    

Curiously ( or not so curiously, if I think about it twice) both of the bills (Stimulus and Cap and Trade) that have (or will have, in the case of Cap and Trade)  put us into more debt and deficit than any single time frame (just a few months) in our entire history as a nation, were both rushed through so fast that Members had no time to read them.  Both of these bills were hurried in ways that we have not seen as yet in our history also…..Representatives in the House did not even have time to study the entire bill’s particulars and it seems that in order to get it passed while a Liberal/Socialist  Majority is still available…that is the strategy….hurry, hurry, hurry,  so nobody will really KNOW what is in the bill!    And then there is another Loss of Freedom issue:  the failure to keep the pre-election promise about being the MOST OPEN AND TRANSPARENT administration ever……this promise has gone the way of the Dodo….the promise to post all Bills  72 hours in advance of voting on them, has never been kept, nor will it be kept.  A sense of Loss increases when you know you have been lied to.

I am also feeling a personal loss of freedom in that if the Obamacare health bill makes it through House and Senate, even in a reduced form from  from what we are presently seeing—-I will personally feel a great Loss of Freedom about making my own considered decisions about my  healthcare.  Yesterday, I read the minority report of the House Ways and Means Committee which has studied, as much as they are able to study the bill in the hurry-up- and- pass- it- mode we are now acquainted with, made several key observations about troubling aspects of the healthcare bill.  All of the issues related to having our own personal healthcare decisons being made by the government bureacracy which must accompany such  an enactment of Health care bill # 3200. 

Another proposed "czar"….a commonplace addition to this administration’s agenda…..let me count the czars…..well, we are going to get a Health Czar too, if 3200 passes and HE/SHE alone will be making many key decisions on our personal health care including being able to override state laws about healthcare for its own citizens. The "Health Czar" ….mentioned over 200 times in the bill….will answer only to President Obama….Congress will have no part of what the Czar does with healthcare decisions for American citizens.   Taking in these details has only added to my sense of Personal Loss of Freedom.

The loss of personal, economic, and healthcare freedoms are all hallmarks of Socialist governments.  After way over 200 years of the freedom that was given us by the founders of this nation, we are on the threshold of losing many of them, if things continue as we have watched them unfold in only one-half of one year.

One more quote from Peggy Noonan’s column says a lot about the National Mood which is close to my own personal one.      Quoting from Noonan’s essay of July 25, 2009:                  "I think the plan (healthcare bill) is being slowed and may well be stopped, not by ideology, or even philosophy in a strict sense, but by simple American common sense.  I suspect voters , the past few weeks, have  been  giving themselves an internal Q and A which goes something like this:   ‘Will whatever healthcare bill is produced by Congress increase the deficit?   Of course!  Will it mean tax increases? Of course!   Will it mean new fines or fees? Probably.  Can I afford it right now?  No I am already getting clobbered.  Will it make the market place freer and better?  Probably not.  Is our healthcare system in crisis?  Yeah, it has been for years.  Is it the most pressing crisis right now?  No, the economy is.  Will the healthcare bill improve the economy?   I doubt it.  "

The national mood has changed and continues to change (especially if you consult the Rasmussen polls of the past few days which are probably the most accurate of all of them.) President Obama’s job approval rating has fallen below 50 % after being in the high 70-80s shortly after taking office.   My mood —sense of freedom…. has changed greatly and now I am able to articulate it a lot better than I was before.          Thank you Peggy Noonan!

Can you tell I looked up some "R" words in a dictionary?   Rapturous…..Riot….Redolent….but I did not use them all and you can be thankful for that! We are in the midst of the most prolific time for raspberries and this year, after a two year hiatus, our canes are producing a bumper crop of the delicious berries.   I feel particularly satisfied, since two years ago when I "took over" the raspberry patch.  MBF got sick of the work it takes to grow raspberries and the patch had gotten away from us; he was all ready to mow the whole works down when I  intervened and pleaded for 2 rows to escape the Kubota power mower tractor.  Since then I have religiously cared for the raspberry canes….getting out early in the spring….March if the conditions are right (no ankle deep mud).  The first thing that must be done is to spread post- emergent weed treatment. I do not like using agricultural chemicals but with raspberries it is a choice between the canes being suffocated by weeds or use the chemical pre-emergent so I made the right choice and use it in the early spring.  Then the old canes must be cut out and disposed of followed by a good application of dry granular fertilizer.  Then it is very helpful if you have a  couple of nice rain showers or if you do not get that….the lawn sprinkler can wet down the raspberry patch.  Then you are free til mid -July when the crop needs to be picked.   This summer everything must have fallen into the right places—cool spring and early summer, plenty of rain, and enough sun and heat to bring the berries to the ripeness needed to pick them.  Oops! I almost forgot….  you also need honeybees to pollinate the plants and we had a riot of buzzing going on at the time of pollination so that worked well also.

This summer the raspberries responded by producing abundantly and we have spent the past two weeks picking berries almost every day.  We have gotten plenty to eat (with "half and half" or to use in health shakes each morning) and plenty to freeze for next winter.  Raspberry picking is the most miserable part of the whole process, at least it is for me.  MBF does not mind picking raspberries at all…he is not attacked mercilessly by either mosquitos or gnats who are my constant enemies, making it necessary for me to wear a "bug hat"…..my large sun hat bought in  Galveston, TX years ago… covered by a mosquito netting- hood that goes all the way down my upper chest and under my arms.  A big long- sleeved shirt covers up my hood and vest and I wear long thick denim jeans …a  necessity because I must get into the middle of the patch to get berries from the inside canes.  It is usually hot and muggy when raspberries are ripe so that adds to my woes since I absolutely prefer November to July… temperature-wise.

We make the picking more bearable by having a radio to listen to out by the patch…music truly does sooth the Savage Beast (me… getting cranky from being dressed so heavily and getting so miserably hot under the beating sun)   Picking early in the morning might improve things but since retiring, I do not enjoy getting up so early.  I should try starting the picking about 8 a.m. one morning and see what it is like then.   Yesterday at the height of the picking (the canes were so full of ripe berries that MBF counted over 60 berries from one cane) I got to feeling woozy after being in the patch for a couple of hours of hot sunshine.  I felt like lying down right where I was, which would have been impossible since I was trapped by canes right in the midlle of one of the rows.  I did quit picking and went indoors but I have felt "odd"….  like I need to recover all day today.  By tomorrow I should be ready for one last foray as a raspberry picker. 

After tomorrow the robins are welcome to what is left in the patch.  And speaking of our bird neighbors—-the swallows are done teaching their little ones to fly and have stopped tormenting the Cat.  I watched two Purple Finch parents teach their babies how to eat from the grape jelly plate on the deck and I found an ideal shallow bowl for a makeshift birdbath and bird - water station.  The oriole family is still visiting the jelly plate also.  Other birds besides orioles seem to love the grape jelly as much as orioles.  I need to refill the hummingbird feeder again as it is soon time for the little Hummers to start eating a lot before their migration journey begins.   Another large male racoon (my least favorite wild raiders) was caught in the live trap last night after two of his cohorts met the same fate the past weeks.  Racoons are really destructive around a yard and garden….and they are too smart.  One broke my jelly plate and made a big mess on the deck earlier this summer. One  racoon did not go into the live cage where tasty cat food awaited, but tripped the door and dragged the cage away and got the food dish out and ate the bait.  Fortunately, we did track down the live trap and get it returned for further duty.   It has also caught three skunks this summer and several large wild tomcats looking for trouble.  We had to call in our friend Howard for sage advice on how to handle the trapped skunks and thankfully his advice was very sound.  No "skunk odor" sprays at all.  Howard knows what he is doing.

I am beginning to long for Fall and a bit of a change from the hot summer stuff that has occupied us lately.

 As a follow-up to my "On Blueberry Hill" blog, here are some recipes that Ione sends with her blueberry customers when they leave the farm near Long Prairie.

BLEUBERRY PIE FILLING           1  cup fresh or frozen blueberries/  1 cup sugar/ 3 Tbs cornstarch/  1 cup water/   1 tsp lemon juice.  Stir dry sugar and cornstarch together before adding water and lemon juice.  Cook on low heat til thickened.  Cool.

MILE-HIGH BLUEBERRY PIE      Meringue crust:  8 egg whites at room temperature/  1/8 tsp. cream of tartar/ pinch of salt/  2/3 cup sugar/  2 tsp. vanilla flavoring/   1 cup ground almonds/  1 Tbs cornstarch.      FILLING:  5  cups fresh blueberries/  2 Tbs sugar/ 1 cup heavy  cream, whipped /  1 cup fresh red raspberries.

  Preheat oven to 225 degrees.  Butter and flour a baking sheet. Crust:  beat eggwhites and cream of tartar til stiff but not dry.  Beat in sugar a little at a time.  Add vanilla.  In a small bowl mix ground almonds and cornstarch. fold into eggwhites./   Spread meringue on baking sheet in a 10 inch circle with a big spoon to make a well in the center. Make a rim around the edge.    Bake til meringue is well dried and barely golden, about 2 hours. Turn oven off and leave meringue in till ready to use.    FILLING:  lightly crush blueberries and mix with sugar.  Fold the blueberries into the whipped cream.  Pile the blueberry cream into the meringue shell and top with red raspberries.  (would make a great red, white and blue Fourth of July dessert)

BLUEBERRY CHICKEN SALAD    2 cups fresh blueberries/  2 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts/  3/4 cup celery/  1/2 cup sweet red pepper, diced/  1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions/  1 6 oz. carton lemon yogurt/  3 Tbs mayonnaise/  1/2 tsp salt/  Bibb lettuce leaves, optional.                   Set aside a few fresh blueberries for garnish.  In a large bowl, gently combine chicken and veggies & remaining blueberries.  Combine yogurt and mayonnaise & salt.  Drizzle over chicken mix. and toss to coat.  Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Serve on lettuce lined plates and top with blueberry garnish.  Serves  4.

 When I was a teenager, there was a popular song called "I Found My Thrill On Blueberry Hill" .  Fats Domino was the singer and it was a blue-sy song about this place called "Blueberry Hill". The first line went like this: "I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill, on Blueberry Hill, when I found you…"   It was at the top of the charts in those days and the radio stations that played the Pop Music played it every day more than once a day or night.  I fell asleep many nights listening to "Blueberry Hill" ( on the K-Vox Music Box from radio station KVOX in Moorhead, MN).

It was a sweet innocent song (I think) but later there was a not- so- nice joke about the song (a "blue" joke for a blueberry song)   It concerned a young woman who had blue stains all over her back and you can probably guess the rest of the joke because I am  not telling it!!!!!    When I heard the joke years after the song was so popular, I had left the age of my own innocence and I "got" the meaning of the joke, I am sorry to report.

But I digress.   Today, we…MBF and I traveled to my high school friend Bob’s farm near Long Prairie where he has lived nearly 50 years with his beloved wife, Ione. I have blogged about Bob and Ione before when we first visited their interesting and "going" farm southeast of Long Prairie, MN.   They raise "Christmas Trees", Ione makes and sells the most beautiful wreaths, both seaonal from the evergreen boughs and all -year- round form dried baby’s breath and other dried weeds and flowers.  They have a blueberry field from which customers can pick their own domestic blueberries (not the wild genus) every July when the season produces a bumper crop.  This is one of those years and today we had our very first experience seeing and picking blueberries from the shrubby bushes on which they grow.    The rest of the farm is devoted to garden crops like peas, cantaloupe, corn (a huge corn patch) and raised garden boxes containing lettuce and other greens, tomatoes, beets, flowers and herbs.  It is a wonderland for anyone who adores gardens and gardening.

When we arrived this morning, Bob and "Bear"… their little dog greeted us…."Bear" is a tiny little guy who looks like a Pomeranian cross with a couple of other breeds.  He is a darling little companion and follows either Bob or Ione everywhere in the house or outdoors.  Ione was already in the blueberry patch picking berries along with a couple of customers who had started picking early to avoid the hotter part of the day.  Ione picks blueberries EVERY DAY and either cooks and bakes with the fresh ones or freezes berries for the winter. She put up over 40 big bags of frozen berries last summer and has not run out of them as of now but is freezing fresh ones from this summer.  She is also so kind to her customers that she often helps the pickers with their own picking.

One thing that went through my mind this morning while we picked blueberries for 3 or more hours, was the childrens’ picture book I have loved for years and years…BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL by Robert McCloskey, a children’s picture book artist and author who did most of his work in the 1940′s.  His books are classics and are still purchased for libraries and also are available in bookstores at all times.  The book about blueberry picking concerns "Little Sal"…a pre-schooler who goes blueberry picking with her mother from their summer home in Maine. They go to a true blueberry "hill" where they climb the gentle slopes picking wild blueberries all the way.  However, on the other side of the gentle hill,  Mother Bear and her bear cub are also harvesting blueberries but they are eating them as they make their way to the top of the hill.  I recall the mother bear’s "speaking" to her Little Bear:  "Eat lots of berries….gulp, gulp, chew, chew…..Little Bear…you must get big and fat…gulp, gulp…for winter."    On the other side of the blueberry hill Little Sal’s mother is saying to her:  "Pick lots of berries, Sal…Mother wants to can  lots of blueberries so we will have them all winter".     In the course of the sweet story about two mothers and two "children"…Little Sal starts following Mother Bear and Little Bear starts following Sal’s mother…until the two mothers discover the mix-up in their "children" and frantically go in search of each "child" til they are reunited.  The lines from this part of the story go like this:  (as both Mothers turn around and see the wrong offspring behind them)   "Little Sal’s mother backed slowly away from Little Bear because she had not seen a little bear before" and then, "Mother Bear backed slowly away from Little Sal because she had not seen a little girl before."  One of the most wonderful things about the book is that it is printed…both drawings and text…in ink the color of blueberries.  It has to be one of the most charming and memorable childrens’ books ever written and McCloskey, the author, wrote it, based on his own wife and daughter’s experience picking wild blueberries in Maine.

Our day at Bob and Ione’s farm and in their blueberry patch was a memorable  day also.  It was so pleasant….not a mosquito or gnat in sight all morning.  Ione claimed she had a deerfly  sit on her arm earlier in the morning but she dispatched it with a sound slap and said that was all the deerflies there were!!!!   The song of birds all the time we were picking was magical. I saw cedar waxwings and robins waiting patiently for the Human Berry Pickers to vacate the patch so they could have a turn in the blueberry bushes.

We are home….I have just finished eating a bowl of fresh blueberries with "half and half" on them…. there’s nothing more delicous to me than that sweet combination during berry season.  MBF had enough energy left when we arrived home that he has picked a full bucket of ripe raspberries that are now freezing on trays along with two trays of blueberries.  I will have to set my alarm early and go out to the raspberry patch early in the morning before I head off to Silver Sneakers class tomorrow.  I can recall these "halcyon" days of summer and ripe berries next January when I look out and watch the big snow drifts cover the raspberry patch during a wintertime snowstorm.  

I wish I could preserve the warmth and golden sunlight and long days  of these days like I preserve the fresh berries!!!!

I got my thrill on Blueberry Hill today…..but it was not a hill, but a very flat and lush blueberry patch east of Long Prairie!!!

For the first time in many, many years, I have hollyhocks growing by my home.  I got seeds last summer from FarSide of Fifty and planted them.  They came up last summer and I protected the small plants with lots of dry leaves over winter.  Now they are tall and beautiful…. with deep wine- colored blossoms swaying in the wind each day.

I just went outside to collect seed pods from the lupines (FarSide sent me those seeds also and now the new plants have made their ripe  seed pods after blooming).  While I was there, I plucked a green bud off the hollyhocks and a nice big flower as well.  Then I picked a smaller coreopisis (yellow daisy) bloom and went inside the house to make the first hollyhock doll I have made since I was about 10 years old….back when the dinosaurs were  still roaming the earth.

For anybody who has hollyhocks and has children or grandchildren of an age to enjoy this, you need a toothpick, a holly hock bud (green one) and two blooms from flowering plants.  The hollyhock is best for the doll’s skirt.   Put the green bud on one end of the toothpick..this is the doll’s head.   Put the hollyhock flower on the other end of the toothpick..this is the doll’s wide, beautiful skirt.   A smaller bloom like a daisy or similar size flower goes on top of the dolls bud-head.   She is a lovely little lady and girls can spend hours playing with her, fantasizing about her home, how she lives, that she loves to dance with her wide skirt swirling about her toothpick body…..I used to imagine all sorts of things with my little Hollyhock doll-girls and ladies.  I made whole families of them using various flowers for hats and skirts.  I picked whole wardrobes of "clothes" for my hollyhock dolls. I entertained myself for many summertime hours in July when the hollyhocks bloomed by our house where I grew up.

With the current trend for spendy , unimaginative toys for children, there may be some kids who think this is really a dumb doll!    But for those kids who have great imaginations and like to make things…a Hollyhock Doll is a great summertime toy…..only when the hollyhocks are blooming.  But oh, how sweet it is… when the child loves to play imaginatively and loves flowers as well.    Moms and Grandmas can go back to being little girls again , just for a little while with their kids or grandkids.

Recently as I have driven back and forth on Highway 10 and other areas close to my homebase, I have noticed that it is the summer season of small town celebrations that are held annually.   Most of these small towns that have the variety of "fests" are dying towns with little or no business in them anymore….only the post office, usually a gas station or two; maybe a grocery store but sometimes, not even that…..occasionally a surviving drug store but that is becoming rarer also—-and always the town bar or tavern plus maybe a small cafe where the locals can have breakfast, coffee and the lunch special, but then the cafe closes up in the mid afternoon.  

This pattern of dying small towns has gone on for several decades already.  The advent of better highways with four lanes and the proximity to Fargo Moorhead has changed the patterns of life in the small towns in this immediate area.   People no longer have jobs in the small town.  They must commute to a job in the city each morning and afternoon making the bigger and better highways a nightmare of commuter traffic twice a day.  They still have a desire to  reside in the small town and have their kids attend a small town school if the town is fortunate enough to NOT have lost its school,also, in the dying process.  Consolidations among small town schools has grown to be a common thing….sometimes there are as many as four small towns consolidated together to hang on to the "smaller town school" concept that is so hard to lose or let go of.

The "main drags" of the small towns are sad to see now.   What remains are the "ghosts of businesses past"…with more empty buildings than ones with any business in them.  Some of these empty and long-gone business buildings have been converted to day care centers or senior housing apartments for two examples.  In some places the old empty buildings have had to be torn down and now yawning gaps stand in their places……the appearance of a ghost town becomes more and more realistic with passing years and more razing of once- busy business places.  Car or implement dealerships are mostly non-existent in small towns now.   Those who can remember the days of the bustling business district in these small towns must feel a heavy sadness if they think about it enough.  I remember 6 grocery stores, two or three hardware stores, two lumberyards,  three or four car dealerships and at least three places that sold farm machinery.  There were four places to buy clothing and shoes. The movie theater, now one of the ghostly buildings, showed 3 movies each week with good crowds paying admission for all three films.  Cafes and restaurants abounded also….they all were making a profit and serving food to many eager customers every day and even in the evenings.  There was a dry cleaning establishment;  there was a shoe repair store.  There were multiple "beauty shops" and at least 3 barber shops.    Now the main street is so empty that it appears that one could close it down by 6 p.m when everyone has picked up their mail for the day.

But the little towns strive to remain "viable" by holding festivals or rodeos or pumpkin days or turkey days or all sorts of "daze" as the signs advertise.  They hope that community members will turn out for games, pancake breakfasts, a little parade, ball games, ice cream socials, a barbecue or picnic ,  a street dance.  The remaining business people and the remains of commercial clubs or jaycees or lions’ try hard to keep their viability as a small town.  But it gets harder with every passing year. People who are bedroom commuters are not as interested in small town life as the ones who used to live and work and do everything in the small towns.  People are now distracted by shopping trips to Big Box stores where they can "get a good deal"….they are not easily entertained by the small town delights that held the people in days gone by….today’s commuters need more excitement than a small town "fest" or "daze" can offer.  The call of the Big City is a Siren Call to most of the younger generations who now might live in a small town but they do not shop there nor do they participate in community activities, including church memberships.  That has gotten to be too passe and boring.  The small town churches have a hard time too…..the old time Ladies Aid Societies have died off,  church dinners and social times are getting fewer and farther between.  Modern people just do not have time for such things.

But what is true viability when it comes to the struggling and dying small towns?  Maybe true viability lives in the relationships that are still forged among small town folks.  Maybe you do not have to have a bunch of "going businesses" to be viable.  If the small town fests and daze and reunions serve the purpose of getting some of those who used to live there or grew up there together for one small period of time in the summer, it is worth remaining "viable". One tiny town north of where we live, has an annual "fest" and amazingly, people who have not lived there for years come back and reunite for two days of fellowship and celebration. Those people who had to choose to live elsewhere from economic necessity still love to return to the dying town where they spent happy years as a much different community.  The school was still open; there WERE businesses in those empty buildings and families were happy and content to live there—-once.

It is painful to see the little dying towns continue to die a bit more each passing year…..but people who once lived there keep some things alive and well for years after the town itself has gone the way of the dinosaurs.  They still love people who live there and they cling to happy memories of better times in small towns.

I was NOT going to the Fargo Street Fair this year.  It was perfect weather for 3 days but I resisted…..until this morning when MBF said he would like to go and take a look around at the Fair and I acquiesced and went along.

I suggested that we park in the library parking lot (at the civic center and city hall sites) and visit the library first; I had some things in mind that I wanted to check out and I thought I might be able to stay there instead of going to the Street Fair and just let Hubby go and check things out by himself while I stayed in the luxurious comfort of the new downtown Fargo Public Library to browse contentedly like a cow in a cornfield (well not maybe exactly like that but—–contented anyway).

By the time we parked and walked into the library I must have gotten a faint whiff from the Food Court a couple of blocks away because suddenly, I just knew if I did not get a Corn Dog (I used to know them as Pronto Pups from my teenage forays to the Minnesota State Fair)…if I did not get a corn dog I was going to faint and fade away.    I have not eaten a corn dog since my schooldays as a teacher/librarian at the Home of the Raiders in Lake Park/Audubon and forgot my lunch on the kitchen counter and had to eat hot lunch ..which was corndogs, nachos and cheese and other salty foods that put me into a fit of thirst and additive Hell for the rest of the afternoon.   But today I knew I HAD to have a corn dog or die….so I shucked the comfort at the library plan and went boldly to the Street Fair.

There is nothing quite like it—–the biggest free event in the entire state of North Dakota and who knows where else?   Even on the third day, it was jam-packed with eager street fair shoppers and browsers.  The food court, as always, was where the action was.  I got my corn dog and downed it in record time and then went racing to the drugstore on the corner of Broadway and….the Radisson Hotel street.. whatever it is…..because I just HAD to have a Blue Bunny ice cream cone.  I got a nice big cherry nut cone and went back to MBF who was eating his barbecue dinner off a plate in that nice paved area where people can sit in the shade on the multiple concrete strips that seemed to be designed for sitting upon.  It is fun to people- watch at the Food Court….some are carrying huge turkey legs browned to perfection; some are balancing the loosey- goosey "uff-dah" tacos or fry bread tacos;  there are cheese curd afficianados eating their favorite food,  gyro sandwich consumers, shake-shack sippers,  ice cream cone lickers, people gobbling from the 3 foot long bags of Copper Kettle Korn ( I bought some once and nearly spit it across the street when I found out is was SWEET.  Popcorn is supposed to be salty isn’t it?)  The fresh-squeezed lemonade stand had long lines; others were swigging from big bottles of soda pop or bottled water.  There were strollers full of children and dogs on leashes by the dozen. (why do people bring their poor dogs to the Fair?  Why do they bring their newborn infants?  It is beyond me.)  Girlfriends walked together; elderly people rode in wheelchairs with family members pushing them.   Family groups were bunched, up eating together in the shade.  Most people were too busy enjoying the Fair to even pull out their cellphones to make one of their myriad calls of the day).  Some had sat down on the sidewalk by the Metro Drug in the shade even if the sidewalk was not the softest place to rest….at least it it was shady and they could eat their food in relative comfort.   I actually think that many, like me, enjoy the Food Court the most at the Street Fair.   Where else can you throw caution to the wind and gorge yourself on forbidden foods for an hour or more or even return more than once to sample more of the unhealthy, greasy, salty, delicious, nasty, no-no  foods that you do not eat on a regular basis??     Well, maybe at the Minnesota State Fair where you can buy walleye on stick or a pork chop on a stick or most anything on a stick.

Before we came to the Street Fair I had begged to go to the Carlson library on the southside of Fargo.  I had some things to return and some things I wanted to check out.  During the process, I sat down with the newest NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and read an article on State Fairs in the midwest.  The pictures were fabulous—-a mother/daughter look alike contest held each year at the Iowa State Fair, a solemn faced 4-H girl with her prize winning calf at the Indiana State Fair,  a panoramic picture of a livestock arena where owners were parading their black and white dairy cows before the Judges, the garish colors and lights of the Midways.      The text was written by Garrison Keillor, he who cannot miss a Minnesota  State Fair and in his writing described his visit to the state fair with his young daughter who had talked him into the water-flume ride where he came off looking like he had wet his pants and then tried to find a place on the fairgrounds where he could buy a pair of dry pants.  It did not exist, so he had to walk closely behind other people to keep his wet spot covered up and hopefully drying in the warm air of the Fair.  He described all the food he and his daughter sampled —pork chops on a stick… followed by huge milkshakes to wash them down.  And then cheese curds, french fries, candy apples….more and more as they walked the lanes of the Fair.       They visited the Midway and went on rides….NOT on the Slingshot… but the picture of a couple on the Slingshot ride would explain why not—no picture has ever captured such sheer terror as were on the faces of a forty-something couple who looked like they were ready for their Last Rites from shock and terror produced by the ride on the Slingshot.  Both of their mouths were open so wide a flock of birds could have flown in and built nests.   Their eyes were mirrors of the most abject terror that only a fair midway ride could produce.  Keillor talked his daring daughter into a double Ferris wheel ride instead of the Slingshot where his pants dried nicely and he came off not having to huddle in the crowds to cover his shame.  

He mused on the fact that Minnesotans and Midwesterners are not the kind of people who like to touch each other or stand too close at any time but at the State Fair…..these cautious people have to move in a crowd ( ie,  human herd) and touch each other a lot!   Sharing the odors of fried fair foods, cheese curds, corn dogs, hamburgers and fries, manure smells from the Agricultural barns where the animals are penned for visitors to inspect, gas fumes from the carnival rides,   the scent of human sweat, many aromas of perfume and shaving lotion, maybe a whiff of something spilled on  clothing…..the stay- apart -don’t- get in- my- space- Midwesterners have to rub against each other’s bare skin at times while they clamber down the byways at the fair on  hot, humid days in late August or early September. The fair crowds remind one of the pictures you see of the teeming cities of India where humanity is crushed together on streets every day of their lives.

When we got to the Street Fair, I thought about that NG article I had just perused at Carlson and thought how much the Street Fair is like what Keillor described at the MN State Fair.  The street fair crowds brush against each other too…standing in lines in the food court, sitting down to eat close by each other where ever they can find a shady spot on the street or in that neat court space by a down town bank building.  They inadvertently push and shove against each other as they visit the booths of the vendors.  The share the human intimacy that only such an event as a Fair can offer…and require, if you are going to join the madding crowds that fill up the streets and sidewalks of down- town Fargo for those three days in Mid-July….those days that I was not going to participate in but ended up doing so any way. 

I did not go to all the booths of the artists and crafters.  I made a deal with MBF and said I would take my aching legs and hip back to the library where he could meet me.  I sidled into one of the delightful coffee shops on Broadway and had a cuppa before I went back to the coolness and quiet of the library.    The day at the Street Fair turned out to be much to my liking.  The corn dog and the cherry nut ice cream cone were wonderful.  The coffee was an ideal end to the orgy at the food court.  I got to people-watch for a while.

I might even go again next year.   And next year I am going to order the foot-long corn dog.

I am feeling sorry for the swallow family that lived most of the summer in a nest built in one peak of our house.   I refused to have the being-built mud nest disturbed earlier because I am a soft-heart for birds and animals and did not count the cost of having a swallow family living in close proximity to humans and pets.  The pair of swallows completed the nest, she laid eggs, they hatched, the baby birds have been fed and the entire family has been marking the upstairs window and one side of our house (including a hydrangea bush) with their swallow "droppings" (a.k.a. liquid white P – - p)   I should have known better.  I have allowed swallows to make nests on other places on our home including under the deck so that we could not go out one door for fear of being attacked by the pair of nesting swallows.   Now in the past two days, this year’s  pair are frantic…they are teaching their young ones to fly and everything that comes into the yard is being dive-bombed.   The cat is scared to death of the swallows.  They have terrorized her for days and caused her to want to come inside the house in the daytime, which is highly unusual for her.  I got buzzed by one of the pair today when I was innocently carrying my bucket of nice fresh raspberries back from the berry patch.  It was almost like the scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s "North By Northwest" when Cary Grant was being chased by that airplane on the top of Mt.Rushmore…or where ever that scene was set.  I felt panic as I saw that swallow approaching me from the front… flying about 2 inches above my head, ultimately, and screching all the way across my helpless pate.

But that was not the worst of it this morning.   MBF went out into the garage and opened the big door early this morning….and suddenly the garage was filled with the whole swallow family who flew inside the garage screeching and attacking my husband as he tried to swat at them with his hat.  Two of the young ones "roosted" inside the garage….one on the bar above the door and the other—-most unfortunately—-right on a fly catcher device—one of those super sticky things that catch bothersome flying insects.  The bird was hopelessly caught in the sticky catcher and there was no hope of getting it off.  It probably died of shock in the process but it was removed from the garage and I did not ask any more questions.  I was traumatized enough for today.

Three days ago we witnessed more swallow sorrow.  We took a short drive in the early evening on a narrow gravel road near our home.  We were looking at some summer crops and other field things when we spotted a gathering of swallows sitting on the road ahead of us.  We slowed way down wondering what was happening because there were a lot of swallows sitting still on the gravel road.  Getting close enough to take a good look, we saw that the swallows were sitting by bodies of dead swallows—probably young ones whose first flights had ended in disaster.  The electrical lines close by were loaded with other swallows-obviously a large gathering of swallow families all teaching the young ones to fly.  I have read about animals that will not leave the bodies of their dead comrades.  I have seen a bird mourn over a dead mate that smashed the life out of itself colliding with a window. Now I have seen swallows watching over the bodies of dead birds.   It is one of the sad scenes of Nature that makes you choke up and wish that such things never happened.  The sad scene on the gravel road and the swallow caught in the fly catcher made me think of the choked up feeling I had in the spring of 1997 when a deer fawn died under our deck during the last bad snow and ice storm in April of 1997 that did so much distruction all over the region.  Nature is cruel and stark.    The happy endings of the old Walt Disney animated films do not always happen in real Nature.

One much happier item about wild things……two days ago I watched Daddy Oriole bring 3 of his fledglings who already were flying expertly… into a landing by the grape jelly plate on our deck.  He sat down and showed the babies how to lean forward and eat the jelly.  He even put jelly from his mouth into theirs to give them the sweet taste and all of them performed well and Daddy Oriole flew away with the "kids", all of them happy.  The little orioles are getting big and have their markings in place even though they remain dull in coloration as of yet.  Today I saw one of the female orioles eating from the jelly plate. She must have gotten away from Dad and the kids for a brief moment of relaxation.  My friend Avis was here today and told me about some baby orioles who had eaten at her jelly plate. She said one of the little ones tried to get another little one to feed it and it was a pretty funny scene watching two babies arguing about who should feed whom!!!!  Apparently they do a feather- fluffing motion when they want to be fed and that is what one of the baby orioles had done to the other.

Even though I have had to witness some of nature’s cruelty, feeding and watching birds this summer has been well worth it.  I have to remember how many survive and migrate south with the adults each season and come back in the spring—-maybe even to our woods again to raise their own young ones in their own nests.  Meanwhile I will keep the feeders full to help them get fit for their long journey when the days get shorter and cooler and their instincts take over and lead them southbound for the winter.