Braided Onions?

I have seen braided peppers hanging in kitchens and restaurants in the southwest, but never onions. When Corky told me this past week that she was going to braid onions, I was a little skeptical. She showed me an article in an eco-gardening magazine and I have to admit, it looked kind of cool. So, I volunteered to help. (Oh the things I do for a beer.) She started with three onions and began to braid the tops together,

and then kept adding until about 10 onions were added together.

And voila... An Onion Braid which she hung in the kitchen - cool huh!

A couple of days later, I met a Yankton Sioux Indian gal who told me that her "old aunts" had always braided rutabagas together and hung them in their kitchens. Seems that braiding vegetables together to dry is an age old method.

Time to Reconnect ... and Can

On our way home from "Up North", we spent the night at the Casino RV Park in Hinckley. Since they have the world's best wild rice soup, we walked over to the casino for some. While there, we ran into Jim and Ellen who live in Queen Valley, Arizona. They were only at the park for a few days after visiting Jim's mom in Duluth; what are the chances we would see them - great coincidence. Jim was my boss years ago and we have tried to stay connected over the years. It was fun to share stories with them.

The next day, we stopped in North Branch to visit our former neighbors, Jack and Lucille. We talked about visiting them at their Texas residence this winter. It was great to reconnect.



From there, we went to White Bear and had lunch with Sara, a gal we have "adopted" - she and I used to work together. A couple of hours of lunch and conversation brought us back in touch with each other.



And then, it was back at our Southern Minnesota Campground. Since coming back, we have shared food and a couple of rounds of golf with Bob and Corky and today I reconnected with Adrienne. She was kind enough to share some of the produce from their garden with me...

(The hot peppers actually came from my "2-pot patio garden". ) So today, it was canning: salsa that will be used in cooking all winter long.

These jars are now added to the Jalapeno Jelly I made earlier in the week. That is "Grandma's Pot" , Barry, pressed into service for the fall canning ritual.
I also did some canning at mom's these past days; she now has 14 pints of tomatoes ready to be added to hot dishes. When I was a little girl the canning season lasted a long time and included canning peaches and pears and apples for pie and applesauce and corn and squishing tomatoes into juice and making some jelly with orange slices and rhubarb and ... probably lots of other things I have forgotten . And when my mom was little, she helped her mom with canning. She told me a story this week of one time when grandma was peeling onions to go into something she was canning and the onions were so strong that she was crying. Well it seems that a traveling salesman came to their door and when grandma went to the door in tears , he offered his sympathy. Mom said it was funny when he realized she was just cutting up onions. Canning is a good tradition and is, in itself, a way to reconnect.

It has been a good week!

So Long "Up North"...

After a wonderful couple of weeks in the north country, we are headed back to Southern Minnesota. Thank you to Bobbi and David for a warm



a great campsite, very good food (This gooseberry bush is only one of many treats in Bobbi's garden.),

competitive games of Greed and Sequence, (sorry no pictures as I was trying too hard to win),

plentiful side trips (these are scenes from an outing we took yesterday to Baby Lake),

lots of laughter, and

so, we say goodbye to "The Maiden by the Boat" ...until next year.

A World Record...

On Friday, I took off for Moorhead to see my friend, Suz. We hadn't seen each other since last fall in Branson, so I was really anxious to catch up. On Friday night we went out for drinks at an old (restored) hotel in downtown Fargo and then on to dinner at an Italian restaurant. We talked nonstop about everything under the sun! When we got home, Suz shared pictures of her daughter, Jessica's wedding and her trip to The Holy Land - definitely a place on my list of must see.


Saturday, Jessica joined Suz and I on a trip to Casselton, North Dakota. This is the view as you drive into town.Now this was a very special day in the little town; they were going to try to break a world record for the largest number of fire trucks in a parade...

But first, there was a regular small town parade with a very small Honor Guard, very big pieces of farm equipment,

horses, and kids, waiting impatiently for candy to be thrown.

Then, it was time for the big event... But, the wait was long, so we occupied ourselves at the local winery! (Hey, Debbie, I bought a bottle of wine commemorating the event. I will try and save it till we get together.) Then it was finally time... The hometown truck started the procession...

followed by trucks from all over the area and of all shapes and sizes...

They were all greeted warmly.

Some had seen their better days.

The parade stretched as far as the eye could see.

Yes, they broke the Guinness Book of World Records (in spite of the downpour) with 180 fire trucks in one parade - the old record was 159. I am told that one came from Oklahoma and that several were from MN and SD.

After stopping for lunch in another small ND town, we posed for a picture at her home, (hairdos attest to the rain)

and then it was time for me to head to our north woods home. It was a short visit, but great fun and I hope we can do it again, soon.

Still Up North

First off, Mike has finally caught a fish - yes, that is singular, only one, but it was a beauty! While fishing for muskie with this big honking thing... He caught a 19 inch Large Mouth Bass that was at least 6 pounds...

And it did make his day!

The fish was caught on Leech Lake. The next day, we went on Cass Lake and took the tour of Andrusia and Wolf Lakes. The Mississippi River flows through these lakes and they are teaming with wildlife so it was more of a photographic journey than a fishing experience. We saw eagles flying...

and a young one perched in the tree.

We saw deer frolicking in the front yard of a home that was for sale - great incentive to buy...

We saw ducks hanging out with friends... and enjoying an afternoon nap...

At least till we came along and woke them up.

And we saw loons, many many loons. These were nice enough to pose for us.

This mother was very protective of her young one. The baby was just learning to dive and didn't stay under very long.

They finally just turned their backs on us and swam away.

It was a wonderful day on the water!

And yesterday, we took a drive to see our friends, Craig and Roseann. They were our bosses when we worked the Hickory Farms Kiosk in the mall by San Diego. During the summer, they manage Camp Itasca, a campground by the north entrance to Itasca State Park. Last fall, they sold Christmas Trees in Victoria, Texas - now that sounds like fun to me, but Mike thinks it sounds like work... maybe. Anyway, we had a very nice visit and it was fun for Bobbi and David to meet them. Roseanne would like to join us again in Quartzite and says hi to all of you who they met there.

Till next time...

More from Up North

What would an Up North Adventure be without pictures of deer and a loon.




These were taken while out on Winnie and "along the side roads" in northern Minnesota.


We introduced Bobbi and David to Geocaching and these pictures show that it is not for the faint of heart in the woodlands of northern MN. This old logging road was overgrown but passable for the first few miles... and then it required a turn around - not an easy thing to do.

The next path we tried proved to be even more challenging.

But everyone persevered and the cache was eventually found - their first was a challenge!

On Sunday, the guys went fishing on 6 mile lake and caught nothing, while Bobbi cleaned, I made Hot Pepper Jelly, and we went for a walk at the park by Federal Dam.

We look forward to another week in the woods and on the waters Up North.