Gone Sugaring!

Last weekend, my friend Belinda invited me to come see how to turn maple sap into maple syrup. She and her family do a joint sugaring venture with friends of theirs near Avon, MN. I followed Belinda out to their house, which involved several turns onto increasingly smaller county roads, long stretches of farm land in between, then a dirt road, another dirt road, and finally, a dirt road leading to their house by a lake with woods. Amazing.

Saige teaching me how to collect the sap

The Walsh family working the sugar Maples

First, we went out and collected the sap. They have around 100 trees tapped. Belinda, her husband, Scott, 3 of her kids, one of the other family's kids, and myself went to all the trees, and collect the sap from bags that are specially made for the purpose. We poured it into 5-gallon buckets. It looks completely clear, and has the viscosity of water.

The sap bag nailed to the tree

Scott collected the 5-gallon buckets as they got full and piled them into a trailer pulled by a 4-wheeler. We trecked through the woods and collected all the sap, and it was lovely in the woods as the sun set, and it had been a very warm day, so it wasn't too chilly.

I'm helping!

The 5-gallon buckets then get poured into a giant holding tank (about 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide, 4 feet long...) and is filtered as it it's poured in, to get rid of all the bugs. Scott did the pouring, while Belinda and I handed him up buckets and the kids ate pizza.

A forest of Sugar Maples

Scott and the dad of the other family have a setup in a different part of the woods, near the house, which is a fire built inside a cinder-block frame about 5 ft long by 3 feet wide by 1 foot high. We went on Saturday night, and the fire had already been going steady since Friday. On top of the frame is a big open tray for the sap. There is also a smaller tray that empties down into the big tray, so it heats slowly before it's poured into the big tray. Then the sap is boiled down. It takes 40-80 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup!! It boils down for a long time. I was there for hours and didn't see much change in the syrup. I helped stir it for a bit.

Boiling down the sap

After it's done there, they will pour it into big pans and filter it through a much finer filter, then bottle it in Mason jars. So much work goes into the maple syrup!! It was amazing to see all of this, and help out with it. For one night.

The buckets we collected of sap, waiting to be poured into the big holding tank

I love the weekends!

Weekends are great.  Here are some things I made this weekend.

I made this Jack O'Lantern. It is very scary.

I made this Minnesota fall pillowcase, for a small throw pillow.

I made these toasted pumpkin seeds from the innards of my glorious Jack O'Lantern.

I started coloring this winter scene of cardinals from a coloring book my mom sent me in a care package.

  

I also started this winter scene, from the same book, using watercolor pencils my mom send me in the same care package.

Quarry Park

I discovered an awesome state park near my house! It used to be full of active quarries, which are now lovely places to fish, swim, rock climbing, even scuba dive (and cross-country skiing in winter!) 

I went on Sunday for a little hike, and it was beautiful weather. Mid-70's, sunny, breezy. The woods here are a whole new experience for me! They are so pretty! So many kinds of trees, filtering the sunlight, turning to fall colors just a little bit. 

There are grassy trails through birch and oak forests, there are wetlands, a prairie area, and granite and basalt boulders and other formations. There's also an historic granite derrick for hoisting tons of granite out of the quarries, with a bunch of historic equipment.   

I explored about 1/3 of the park, just following trails around, and I can't wait to go back next weekend to explore more of it. 

Paul and Sarah's Wedding - Vermont, September 12th

What an exceptional weekend!! My little brother got married, and it was awesome. 

I flew in on Thursday morning, and made it to Paul and Sarah's house in Montpelier for dinner. My parents were there, and Brian, and Phoebe, and Sarah's parents, her brother Tim, and Tim's wife Katie, and their kids, and several friends of Paul and Sarah's. It was great seeing everyone and we had a tasty dinner and talked about the weekend ahead.

That's the roof of their house as seen through their woods from near their creek. No, I am not kidding you.

A really cool handmade wedding gift

Friday was wedding setup. We drove to a camp called Common Grounds, outside Burlington, and it was beautiful! The camp has a big dining hall, lots of little cabins tucked away in the woods, a lodge, several barns, and open spaces.  Actually, everything I saw in Vermont was beautiful. Rolling hills, tons of trees, picturesque barns and creeks. The weather on Friday afternoon was perfect. It had rained on Thursday night, but Friday it was clear and sunny, warm but not too hot, a gentle breeze blowing through the trees. Ah, Vermont. 

The view of the dining hall from the top of the hill

We got settled in, and started getting things ready for the wedding on Saturday.  Their friend Kit was in charge of the kitchen and planned and prepared many of the meals. Chris arrived on Friday afternoon. I spent some time playing airplane with Tim & Katie's boys on the impressive play structure. (We were flying to Indonesia. The in-flight meal was hot dogs and juice.) After dinner there was big campfire with s'mores!

A real live cider press

Brian doing what he does best - umping kickball

 Saturday!  Another gorgeous day. I was on the breakfast crew, which meant I had to be in the dining hall at 6:30 to help get breakfast ready. Phoebe came in and woke me up at 6:45.  Yep. I wasn't a great help at getting breakfast ready. After breakfast, I was tired, so I took a nap, and I spent some time reading, and some time walking the grounds with people, and chatting with people. It was nice being part of the wedding family, because I already knew so many people there. There was a kickball game that I watched for a bit, and they had set up an apple press to make fresh cider from apples Paul and Sarah had gathered at their house. Oh, Vermont!

The Eley men getting ready for the ceremony

We got dressed and ready for pictures after lunch. Everyone looked so nice! The ceremony started around 4pm.  It was outside, and it was one of the best wedding ceremonies I have ever been too. Paul and Sarah said their vows, then we all sat in silence for a bit, as it was a Quaker wedding. Then people could stand up and share something if they wanted. Tim stood up first and talked about him and Sarah growing up. Friends of their said lovely things and gave advice and told stories. My dad, Brian, and Chris, all stood and said beautiful things about Paul and Sarah. There was lots of happy crying. Even thinking about it all now I'm pretty much crying again. It was all beautiful.  The ceremony ended around 5pm, and we headed for the dining hall for cocktails and appetizers and rain. Yes, the rain waited until just after the ceremony!! 

 

Sarah and her dad doing some neat folk dance that I didn't know

 Sarah's mom made a lovely marriage certificate that every person in attendance signed. We had dinner catered, then had some fun dancing. It rained harder and harder.

Sunday morning came way too soon. I had breakfast, said goodbye to family and friends (new and old!) and Brian drove me to the airport in Burlington.  I will say, that airport is typical of Vermont - small, adorable, clean, and charming. Sigh. Vermont. 

SUCH a good weekend. I didn't want to leave. It was so happy, and everyone had a real good time.

Making Headlines

One of the pleasures of being in a tiny town is that I'm pretty newsworthy.  By doing basically nothing, I have already been featured (writing and photos) in two local newspapers. The Cold Spring Record published an article about one of our ESL students who 'graduated' from EL this year. Gwen, my counterpart, insisted I be in the photo, and mentioned in the article, even though I had nothing to do with this girl's success.  Here is the article about her, and in the photo is me, my counterpart, Josselyn (the student), and our principal, Eric. 

Cold Spring Record, September 2015

La Voz Libre is a bilingual newspaper published out of Long Prairie (I don't know where that is any more than you do.) They sent me interview questions via email, and sent the same ones to all new ROCORI teachers (my school district) and all new teachers in Long Prairie and Melrose schools. Then the answers were translated into Spanish. The questions were about why I chose ROCORI, why I teach the subject I teach, and, randomly, a favorite memory of a grandparent.  I have almost no memories of grandparents, and I felt that saying, "I remember they had an organ and a chair that hung from the ceiling, and I liked to play with those things when I went to visit" was a little vague. So I went with the memory (which really, I don't even really remember except my brothers re-tell the story because they love it) of my grandpa offering to pay me if I tripped as I went up to accept my diploma at my high school graduation. Haha, hilarious. So here is the interview in Spanish if you're daring, and in English if you're even more daring (small editing budgets 'round here).

That's right, I made the front page! Can you find me, way down in the bottom right corner? My profile continues below.

The rest of my profile in Spanish, and a stunning photo to match.

 In the English section, I left in some of the other stuff in case you wanted to read some advertisements (often my favorite part of small town newspapers) or the profile of my colleague Leah, who is a new EL teacher in the secondary school. Her interview is next to mine, in the right-hand column. Nicole is the other new EL teacher in the ROCORI secondary school, her picture is above, but her profile didn't make it onto these pages. The three of us work somewhat closely together.

My English profile. Left column.

So, if you'd like an interview, photo, or autograph, contact my publicist. I'm looking to be featured in the St. Cloud Times next, although Gwen actually was in the Times this week because a guy broke into her house! A really short article about it here. I'll be looking to get into the society pages, naturally.

Minnesota State Fair

This weekend I got to go to the Minnesota State Fair!  I've been hearing how great this state fair is, and the radio has been doing stories about the fair ever since I moved here. The fair is held in St. Paul, so I went down early Saturday morning.  My friend Ellory and her husband Ben were my hosts for the day, and me and Ben's sister Michaela, who also lives in St. Cloud, spent the day with them and then stayed at their place over night.

We made it to the fair by about 9:30, by taking a free shuttle from near Ben and Ellory's house. The fair is amazing! There is so much food, and that is what most people talk about when they told me about the fair.  So we started with food!

We split a bucket of cheese curds first off. Yep, a bucket of cheese curds. Fried. They were delicious, though I pretty quickly felt like I had had too much grease. Ah, the fair.

Nothing like fried cheese curds in the morning!

Prize winning honey on display, as well as frames of honey for people to see.

Beekeeping demonstration by U of M beekeepers

Next we visited the Agriculture building and watched a beekeeping demonstration, saw all the ribbons for honey and honey-related projects. We saw a bonsai competition, learned about apples, including the amazing number of apples invented by the University of Minnesota. On to the baby animal building, we pet baby pigs that were four days old, and saw baby lambs, rabbits, and cows.

We raced each other on the giant slide, got some more junk food, and went shopping for Fair t-shirts. We also went to the International Bazaar and watched a Hmong community group perform dances. Then we took the shuttle back to Ben & Ellory's house, where we took naps and rested for a few hours.

Hmong dancers

In the afternoon, we went back to the Fair. We met up with Kate & Carolyn, friends of both Ellory's and mine, and spent time looking at the craft building (quilts, pies, knitting) and fine arts building (painting, sculpture).

1st place honey-themed quilt

Kate works for Minnesota public TV, so we went and sat in rocking chairs at her stage, and listen to some excellent local artists play marimba music. Got some more fried food, then Ellory, Ben, Michaela, and I went to an Avett Brothers concert in the fair grandstands.  It was a great concert, and right afterwards, they had fireworks! We caught a shuttle home, and we all went to bed.

So great to be with Ellory, Carolyn, and Kate at the fair!!

I had a great time at the fair, though it was very hot and muggy.  There were sooooo many things I didn't get to see, I can't wait to go back next year!

Alexandria

Today I took a visit to Alexandria, which is an hour northwest of me on I-94.  Alexandria is a pretty town with lots of lakes, biking, some museums, theaters, and other activities.  I just went up for a few hours.  I was planning to rent a bike and go along the Central Lakes Trail, which looks perfect for me.  It is an old railroad track that has been paved and goes for 55 miles.  It's flat, it goes past lakes and farmland, it's smooth and wide. Sounded great. But when I got there the weather wasn't very nice.  It was a nice temperature, around 73 degrees, but it was very windy, and cloudy. So I will do the bike ride another time. Maybe in the fall, because apparently the fall colors are awesome.

But I still did some things.  First I went to the farmer's market. Then I stopped by the statue of Big Ole. Big Ole was built in 1965 for the World's Fair in New York. He is 28 feet tall. For his 50th birthday, the town of Alexandria is repairing and repainting him. Here are some fun historic pictures of Big Ole.

Across the street from Big Ole is the Runestone Museum.  This is sort of a crazy story, and the reason for viking mania in Alexandria (and I guess, all of Minnesota). In 1898, a farmer named Olof Ohman, in Kensington, Minnesota (near Alexandria) found this runestone in the roots of a tree he was removing from his land. Believers say Vikings left it here in 1362; unbelievers say it is a hoax.  The museum shows the scientific work that has gone into proving it is real, and it tells the sad story of what happened to the Ohmans after their discovery. Personally, I'm inclined to believe it is real, because I like to believe in interesting, magical things.  But the museum puts so much into proving it is real, that it makes it feel like they are trying too hard, and I kind of want to roll my eyes about it.  Here's what wikipedia has to say about it.

The controversial runestone

But the runestone is only part of the museum. Being a small town museum, they also have a diorama of (frequently poorly) taxidermied animals native to Minnesota, an exhibit of housewares, some Native American beadwork, some guns and uniforms from WWII, several pump organs, photos from main street in the 1800's, and other old knick-knacks.  In museums like this, I can't help buy think about the amateur presentation. For example, in the stuffed owls display there was description of a snowy owl, but there wasn't one on display. Lots of stuff is on display simply because someone donated it. Mannequins in bad wigs are inside displays, or more creepily, just sitting at an old desk when you walk into the room (I just kept walking past that one).  And then there are the flags.  As you can see from the picture below, there are five Scandinavian flags on display. In the label, only four of them are identified. (Can you identify the left-out flag??)

There was large painting in the runestone area that really captured my imagination. It is called The Last Goodbye? and is by a local artist, Myron Sahlberg, painted last year specifically for this museum. Here is a copy of it from the internet.  There was a whole book published about the creation of this painting, and I want to go back and get the book next time I'm there. I just thought it was a really captivating painting, and it was huge. 

The artist also made the frame, which isn't shown here but was beautiful and symbolic.

Outside the museum they have old prairie buildings from the area - a log cabin that instantly reminded me of the Ingalls' cabin in the Little House on the Prairie TV show; a post office and general store, a school, a church, and a stagecoach stop. Also a huge barn filled with farm equipment, carriages, and a big boat.  There was a cell phone audio tour, at each stop you could call in for the narration. It was pretty well done, but the first time I called in, I accidentally called the Norwegian language one. The only options are English and Norwegian.  Go Vikings!

Can you see the bed that Mary and Laura shared?? I can.

After the museum I walked along Lake Agnes, found a peaceful spot, and ate the lunch I brought. Then I drove up to City Park, and waded in my first Minnesota Lake!  It was cold! And wet! I only took like one step in, stood there for a bit, and stepped back out. I didn't see any fish. But it was exciting for me. I became a Viking for a Day.

Farmer's Market!

Every Friday afternoon there is a farmer's market in St. Joseph, the little town between my house and my school.  Also, on Wednesday afternoons there is a farmer's market in the small town my school is in, and on Saturday mornings there is one in St. Cloud.  Lots of farmer's markets! I went to the one in St. Joe yesterday, and it was great.

The weather was lovely, the drive is less than 5 minutes, and the parking! So much available parking! And there weren't crowds you had to wiggle through like at the Cherry Creek and Pearl Street farmer's markets in Denver. I just walked around, looked at all the stands, and bought stuff.  Also, there was a guy on a small stage singing, which I thought was great.

So much parking! It's a dream come true.

I didn't really need anything, so I bought basil, an ear of corn, a stalk of gladiolas, a honey almond croissant from the Collegeville Artisan Bakery, and a pack of naan made that morning.

In my teacher training the last few days, I asked about the Cold Spring Bakery, which is a big deal in Cold Spring. People here have strong opinions about their baked goods, however.  One guys swears by the bread from the Collegeville Artisan Bakery, so I will probably buy a loaf of something next week.  Another girl says there is a bakery in St. Cloud that is even better.  So many baked things to try, so little time. The farmer's markets won't last forever.  Though the one in St. Cloud goes through October, apparently.