The MN State Fair With Sharon - Day 2

Day 2 at the Minnesota State Fair is always our full day. We're there as soon as the first bus can get us to the gates, and we often stay until the fireworks after the evening concert (they usually are sent up between 10:00 and 10:45 pm) after DH has joined us after work. We didn't make it quite that long this time, but we did stay past sunset and wandered through the Midway, lighted everywhere by moving lights and bright neon. It's our major day for exploration and to return and purchase things we saw and wanted from the previous day. We also know that Day 3 will be shared with DH and Chickie, so Saturday is our main "must see this and do this" day. Warning - today's blog is photo-heavy. So ... here we go - a full day at the Fair. 

We started out with a peach-filled scone and cup of coffee. Sitting
at the table, we were joined by a talkative woman who worked
at the Bonsai exhibit in the Horticulture building. We actually had
toured the exhibit on Day 1. She also told us about her husband of
more than 50 years having proposed to her on that very day at
the Minnesota State Fair. Sweet! 

After breakfast we headed west to the animal barns and exhibits. Although
it sometimes doesn't seem like it, the State Fair is also an active livestock
fair with hundreds of milk cows, sheep, pigs, goats, horses,  rabbits and
chickens being exhibited and judged. Minnesota is a largely rural state and
the chance to show your animal in the State Fair is huge. Here, cows are
waiting their turn to pass into the Colosseum for judging.  

We continued through the cow barn which is huge with hundreds of cows,
and went through to the Swine Barn to look at the piglets and the
largest boar. 

The piglets were already pretty big, all crowded on top of Mama for
milk, and all grunting and rooting for a better position. 

Next to the piglet pen was the Largest Boar pen, with one very big,
very lazy boar named Charlie. He's not the biggest we're ever had
exhibited, I think that one was more than 1400 pounds, but
Charlie was impressive. 

He's definitely a big boy, just lazing around during his twelve
days at the Fair. I picked up my "I Went To The Oink Booth"
paper headband, affixed it around my hat, and we were off
once again. 

On our way to the Horticulture building, we also walked the aisles of
the milk goats in the Sheep and Goats building. These three were
a fine example of milk goats waiting their turns in the ring. I've always
loved goats, so walking through the aisles, looking at the various
breeds and petting and stroking a few of them always makes my day. 

The other half of the Sheep Barn building is the Poultry Barn half. This
switches between poultry, ducks and geese, and rabbits - usually meat
rabbits, but also rare breed exhibitors. This lovely velveteen lop-eared
bunny caught my eye. So soft and so sweet. 

A quick stop at the fish pond and wander through the DNR (Department
of Natural Resources) building, and Sharon saw an old friend. I couldn't
resist a photo of Sharon and Smokey, together again. 

We then proceeded to the Horticulture Building and waited
in a VERY long line for the Crop Art exhibit. A word of
explanation about crop art. The pictures must be made from
seeds ONLY. The detail work on them is amazing and
skilled. I'm only showing you the Blue Ribbon winners here.
I took WAY more photos of the crop art than just the
blue ribbons. 

You might get a better idea of the seeds by looking at this lovely
example. You can see the texture as well as the list of seeds used
below it. 

I loved this one - Harold Lloyd, if I'm remembering the old movie
correctly. It's a beautiful job and that cutout form isn't easy to
fill properly. 

I really loved the brilliant colors here. The artists
are allowed to dye or color their seeds, and this
dragon was beautifully done. 

The text in each of the boxes is also done with seeds. The detail work
in this piece was amazing. 

The Junior Crop Art Champion did a view of
one of our tourism campaign posters. I love the
mix of large and small seeds giving the podium
a rough look and adding dimension to the
background trees. DAMN, that reminds me - we
didn't wander through the Christmas Trees this
year. Oh well, can't catch everything. 

The Reserve Champion was a twelve-year-old from
Saint Paul. Really not bad at all for that young age. 

For "Hamilton" fans, this one should look familiar. It
richly deserved the Blue Ribbon it was awarded. 

The last Saturday of the Fair is always a busy and crowded day. I know many
of you will look at this scene of packed people and shiver. It's really not
that bad, and there are always open spaces available too. The main streets
can be crowded in some areas, but the crowds lessen a little farther on. On
this Saturday we had 266,412 people attending, on our way to a record
attendance of 2,126,551 for this year's State Fair. 

We dropped by the Grandstand a second time to purchase some
T-shirts and other items that we had seen on Friday. I loved
this hat on Sharon, but she said it was too large and didn't
buy it. I think she looks really cute in it, though. 

Our final meal of the day was two new foods from RC's Bar-B-Que.
The Jammin' Grilled Cheese was a grilled cheese with bar-b-que brisket
and a sweet onion jam. It was fabulous. The Hot Hen to the left was
barbecued potato chips smothered in pulled chicken, jalapeno peppers,
and two different types of blue cheese. I'd eat either/both of these again. 

DH came out after work and we continued wandering the Fair. I had TONS more photos, but really, I've probably photo-bombed you enough. After a long wait for our bus, we returned home and totally crashed. Tomorrow's post will be Sunday at the Fair. I'm sure it's going to be less photos, just because we were with DH and Chickie, so we were moving throughout the Fairgrounds with a different cadence and focus. Have a great Thursday and I'll return with Day 3 tomorrow. 

St Paul's Inspiring Raccoon

We're back into a heat wave for the weekend. I'm happy that I'll be swimming for the next two days, but did have to sleep with the fan on overnight just to keep sultry air moving. I'm settling back in from "vacation" and trying to catch up. Almost there. 

The young raccoon was frightened and ran from would-be
rescuers, climbing straight up a 25-story building in
downtown St Paul, Minnesota. 

Like the rest of the universe, it seems, I had my eye on the raccoon climbing up the side of the UBS Bank building in downtown St Paul. My city so rarely makes the headlines for something other than politics or sports, and having the world hold its breath for the health and well-being of a rather lunatic raccoon, was refreshing. Did you hear about our adventurous raccoon? 

The story of the raccoon went viral and was covered by individuals
and news organizations world-wide. Everyone was rooting for
the raccoon to safely ascend to the rooftop (except for the pigeon,
I suspect, who was less than pleased at losing her eggs to the
hungry raccoon). 

Apparently the raccoon was eating pigeon eggs when it got startled and responded with a simple flight instinct. Normally that would have entailed running for the nearest sewer drain, but since the pigeon nest was at least one story above ground, the raccoon ran up - straight up the side of the building. 

Everyone was worried about that final stretch without any
resting places. Would the raccoon take a long and nasty
fall down to the ground below? 

The building is 25 stories high, with the top two stories a blank wall. The world caught its' collective breath as the story began to spread and it became front-page news in many newspapers and was featured on many newscasts. The raccoon continued climbing up. One story, then another, then a break to rest for a bit on a window ledge, then continuing the climb up the sheer facing of the sky scraper. 

Raccoons are dangerous, aggressive, can carry diseases, etc., but after
examination, this young lady was determined to be rabies-free and
was released into the wild, far from the concrete jungle of
downtown St Paul. 

Animal control was contacted, of course, but aside from putting food and water out for the raccoon to access when she got to the roof, there was little that they could do. But Wednesday morning around 2:30 am, shortly before I settled down to write my blog for the day, the raccoon finally crested the top of the building, found the cat food and water in the live trap, and relaxed. After drinking a lot of water and eating all of the food, the skinny adventurer, determined to be a female approximately 2 years old, was released on private woodlands where, hopefully, the only climbing she'll be doing in the future will be trees. 

So what's been happening in your city? LOL


Want to see CNN's short You Tube video of the event? Here's a link. Enjoy. 


Have a great Friday. I indulged in a croissant yesterday and the scale pointed out the error of that poor food decision to me today. Dang! I really should know better - LOL. Enjoy your Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

DH - The Turtle Whisperer

So here's your laugh for the day. We love our backyard and this year's project is to continue grading the open area for appropriate drainage and build a rather large and fancy wood shed near the back chain linked fencing. On Tuesday DH walked out to water the plants and this is what he saw. 

Our patio is to the right, the new shed to the left, and the place
where he wants to build the wood shed is along the chain
linked fencing at the back. Here is mama turtle laying her
eggs in a pit that she dug. She's big - her shell
was about a foot across. 

Yes, it's a turtle, sitting in a pit that she dug into the middle of the land where we had wanted to regrade, laying her eggs. In fact, it's not just a turtle, it's a snapping turtle. We've stopped traffic on our busy street in the past when the large snappers who live near our creek want to cross from our property over to the woodlands on the other side of the road. One summer when DH wanted to mow the grass, he gathered a group of 8-10 little baby turtles that were in the front lawn heading toward the street into a laundry basket and took them across, keeping them from getting hit by cars. This is the first nest we've had. DH will be building a cage from chicken wire today. According to our Department of Natural Resources, the eggs will take 2-3 months before hatching and we'll need to remove the cage around the first of August so that any hatchlings can get away from their nest. DH is thrilled, although the snapper has made this year's building projects a bit more challenging. 

Baby snapping turtles are really cute, although they can still
bite hard. We love the variety of wildlife we get around our
house, and are hoping that the eggs laid by the female
turtle will actually hatch. They have a nice open and hot
area to bake, so I hope they'll all hatch successfully. 

In other news, Chickie has managed to pass her head and chest cold on to me - a gift that I'm really unhappy about getting. I'm going through tissues like crazy, coughing crap up from my lungs, and generally feeling horrid. I'm torn about swimming today or just going into the sauna. Next week I'll only be able to swim on Tuesday because of scheduling issues and my trip to Milwaukee, so I hate to miss a swim this week. I guess I'll have to wait and see how I feel when I show up at the gym. Maybe I'll just swim a shorter time and then use the sauna. That might be the best of both worlds. 

Meanwhile, enjoy your day and laugh along with me at my husband, the turtle whisperer - LOL. Happy Thursday to all - tomorrow is the first of June. Are you ready for your summer? 

Life in Suburbia - Sharing With Others

I find myself at a loss of topics today. I am not a mother, so didn't celebrate Mother's Day, and I purposely stayed at home. The weather was perfect, the lilacs were in bloom, and the only work I needed to do all day was carry a full load of deadwood and brush to the compost collection point. It was a day of "nothing happened" and that's really OK sometimes. But for a blog post, it's a total bore. So I think I'll talk about my local animals because they've been really evident, lately.

We're not one of the best suburbs in America. In fact, not a single
Minnesota suburb made their list. But that's OK. I like where I live. 

I live in what's called a "first tier suburb", i.e. the closest suburb to the main city in the ring of suburbs that encircle the metro areas. I'm close to just about everything, but not within the vertical rise and the metropolitan intensity that the actual city features. Our lots are larger, there's more green space, and less mass transit options, but there are still a lot of people, individual homes and apartment buildings, and shopping centers. It's still urban, not the country.

The fox startled me a bit, he's new to the neighborhood and
so beautiful. The sun was hitting him just right and the grass
was so green. It was a stunning looking animal. 

Within the past week, within a half mile of my home, I have seen three animals that I don't usually associate with urban living whose homes are in my immediate area, and I think that's really fun. The fox is a newcomer for me. I saw him a couple of weeks ago along the road I take to the gym. At that time it was dark and I saw his eyes and the shape of his body as he moved away from the road. The next time I saw him. about a week later, it was early morning and he was a splash of golden red against a green hillside about 1/4 mile from my home. So beautiful!

The wild turkeys seem to be stationed on land owned by the college
across the street from me. I see them strutting in the glades and even
across our front yards. They're quire big and rather intimidating. 

We also have a large flock of wild turkeys who have been roaming our neighborhood lately. I think they have taken up residence at the college across the street from me. Sometimes I see the flock together, but more often I see the toms roaming solo. They're astonishingly large birds.

Deer are more common in the more open spaces, but they love
early spring growth and can wander the backyards in our area
searching for tasty morsels of new plants. 

Finally, we have deer. Of course, we've always had deer in this area - in fact, they've been in my front yard before. I have to be very conscious of them as I drive to and from the gym in the early morning hours. Hitting a deer would be a total downer to start my day.

Muskrats are water critters, but we live next to a small feeder
creek, so we get them in the yard occasionally. They're larger
than I thought; the last time I came across one in my yard, it
startled me. Normally they stay in and near the water, though.. 

I wonder what other wild critters live near me. In the past I've seen muskrats and there are always a variety of birds - owls, crows, ducks, geese and my lovely egrets and herons. Do you have wildlife sharing your home? I hope you do - it makes things just a bit more special to see a fox gamboling on the greensward. Happy Monday to all!

A Virtual Zoo For You

I want animals today - but I'm not fond of cleaning up after them, finding fur in my new carpeting or making sure that the little (or large) beasties are let out or taken out on walksies. I actually am very fond of animals and household pets, but I want a virtual zoo today because, well, ANIMALS. What could be better?

Let's follow the Monarch butterfly and see where it leads us ...

Starting out at our entrance and leaving the kitchy gift shop behind us, we start walking around the zoo. Oh! What's that? Let's just follow the butterfly ...

As someone mountain raised, I have a great love and respect for
the cougar or mountain lion. 

The first place we come to is the Big Cat House. Here we can find lions, tigers, leopards and ocelots. Because it is a virtual zoo, I can have cheetahs chasing game across a wide stretch of grassland and a black panther perched in a tall tree. A cougar greets us with a scream as we enter the building.

Wolf cubs at play are a joy to watch. Here, two cubs play
tug of war over a piece of fur. 

Leaving the cats behind us, the butterfly leads us to the wolf exhibit. The beasties aren't very active in the heat of the day, but their young are playing outside of the den, growling and chasing each other around the rocky landscape. The wolves here are active at night and their songs echo throughout the zoo.

Watching polar bears swimming always brings a smile. You can
watch them cavort in the water for hours on end. 

Leaving the wolves behind, we come into the bear dens. Here we find black bears, grizzly bears, and the kids are crowded around the polar bear enclosure watching the wonderful white bears swim through the water, get out and shake, and then swim once again. It's mesmerizing.

Emperor Penguins are the largest of the penguin breeds and they
live in the harshest conditions - in frozen Antarctica. 

Nearby is an exhibit of other cold weather critters - the always perfectly-dressed penguins. Here we have King, Rock, and my favorites - the Emperors. Notice that they are separated from the Polar bear. That's because in real life they live in opposite hemispheres and are never near each other except in places like zoos.

I have always had a soft spot for owls of all types. This little guy
lives in the Pacific Northwest. 

The penguins lead to the Aviary. Here we have fantastic birds of all types, their cries filling the air. There are owls for the night and hawks for the day (it's a virtual zoo, so there's lots of height for my high-flying hawks and eagles). There are birds of paradise, the flightless birds like the ostrich, and the songbirds - all filling the air with their calls. It's a bit noisy, so we're on to the Reptile House ... but we're out of time. The bell is ringing and it's time to go to the gift shop and then leave for our own dens. We'll return to the zoo another day. Have a great weekend, all! Enjoy!

Time is NOT My Friend Today

So, let's see how fast I can put a post together. Comcast was working on my internet this morning and I'm running about fifteen minutes behind before I have to grab my gym bag and head out for a machine day.

This is the main workout room at my YMCA. I am most often found at
the ellipticals in row two or the recumbent bikes in row three (where the
woman reading is seated). A second section extends behind me with
treadmills and weight machines. I like the high ceiling. 

So ... Updates ...

Squirrels? Yup. Still in the chimney and still making their noises at around 2:00-2:30 am. They actually settled down relatively quickly this morning though and only awakened me twice. *sigh*

My fireplace takes up an entire wall, mostly with rough marble
bricks similar to this (when I get the room cleared for carpeting, I'll
try to remember to take a picture). I want that color to be brought
out into the carpet and window treatment. 

Carpeting/drapery - Carl and Chara were over yesterday afternoon and measured. We discussed many things, but I have a good feeling about them. Chara will pull samples for me and I hope to get in to their showroom to see what she's pulled on my next day off. DH wanted to know if I showed them an old sample that we still had lying around somewhere. Uh ... NO ... first - I don't know where the silly sample is, and second, I have my own idea of what I want in carpeting and drapes. So ... NO.

I do enjoy playing with my virtual jigsaw puzzles. Thanks to
Aearwen for the suggestion a few months ago. As usual, she ROCKS!

Had a very productive day, yesterday, but realized as I sat down for a final hour on my computer that I hadn't done a single jigsaw all day. I quickly loaded one up and did it - LOL.

So - a machine day today. Elliptical (ugh), recumbent bicycle (yum) and a bit of treadmill at the end (not my fave, but not the worst, either). I downloaded new workout songs onto my iPod last night, so I'm looking forward to new music this morning while I sweat and moan. Have a great Thursday, everyone!

Welcome to the Weekend

I wrote a post, realized it was a depressing pile of word vomit, and deleted it. I think we all need something much more fun and uplifting for the weekend. So here I go - I'm searching for ...

Cute animals. These two bunnies are a good start to brighten my day. 

This baby kitten and ball of fluff duckling are too cure for words! 

These two look like such good friends, although the cat has a bit of
"caught in headlights' aspect. 

These kittens in socks are just adorable. I'm almost to a happy place
now. Just one or two more pictures...

I love this kitten and bird pic. I probably should know the type of bird, but
rather than misidentify it, I'll just call it "Pretty Bird" - "Pretty Bird". 

Ignoring the incorrect grammar (which is driving me crazy, BTW), I still
loved the fact that I can look at this and think both John Lennon and
Harry Potter. SCORE! 

So that's it. I'm in a much better frame of mind and I hope I've brightened your day also. Have a fabulous weekend.

Happy Weekend - Beautiful Pictures of Animals

I'm working today, as always, but I'm well aware that most of you who read my blog and postings have the weekend off. I'm a bit rushed today, so I'm going to play with some beautiful things instead.

Time to go hunting for beautiful things...

Earlier this week I went through pictures of fabulous cars - so beautiful in their form and the engines underneath the hood. But there are many types of beauty in the world and I'm on a hunt for some to share with all of you today. Let's see what my hunt has come up with.

You can find beauty in the most unusual places. Just look at this
stunning lizard. The jewel-toned skin color and that deep amber eye -
he's a stunner (and probably knows it). 

Who can resist a beautiful tiger photo? Tigers are one
of the few cats who actually don't mind getting wet. In
fact they love the water. 

Here's an encounter that could go very badly. The leopard is coming
a bit too close and comfortable with the African porcupine. Those spines
range in length from 3" to 12" or even longer and they're thick. The North
American porcupine is a pussy-cat compared to his African cousin. 

Kingfishers have the most amazing and beautiful plumage. Just stunning!
I really loved this picture of two kingfisher birds together on a branch. 

And as I sign off for the day, here's a stunning elephant picture. I adore
elephants, and many of my friends are also enamored with them. They
are exceptional, loving, strong friends and faithful parents. Elephants Rock! 

Have an exceptionally beautiful weekend.