Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) Trip

My life-long friends Amy, Angie and I traveled into he Boundary Waters last week. We traveled approximately 20 miles in 3 days, traversing three rivers, two lakes and portaging 13 times. It was a new moon so it was incredibly dark at night. We all had spectacularly vivid and weird dreams. We saw a family of muskrat, loons, bald eagles, hawks, ravens, a river otter, the biggest garter snake in the forest, a river otter or maybe a mink (do they swim?), ducks, lots of red squirrels and one rather aggressive chipmunk. Sadly we did not see any bears, wolves or moose but I did hear something large and hoofed cruise through camp the second night and we saw wolf scat on one of our portages. We grazed on blueberries on our long portage on Sunday, which make the hike totally worth it. The last leg out on the Snake river was a bit trying and the map was inaccurate which did not help. We had one minor detour off into a bog before our group common sense and the compass turned us around and got us back on track. Overall, a nice experience in a beautiful place! Click on the photos to see bigger versions of them.

Starting Point on the Little Isabella River
The first portage

Enjoying the evening on Quadga Lake

Morning on Quadga Lake

Portaging on the Isabella River

Sunrise on the Isabella River

Portaging again

Camp on Bald Eagle Lake

Hammock Time

Drinking wine

Hanging the food pack using the "bear confounder" method

Making dinner...mmmm, stroganoff

Taking it easy

The last portage!

Dude, he's, like, standing already...

Summertime and the livin' is busy!

Nathan pointed out to me this morning that I haven't updated the blog in almost a month. We've been busy!!! Now that Henry is mobile, there is less time for me to leisurely sit about with the computer and we've been outside, enjoying the summertime while we can. In fact, with the sudden heat wave this week, we are investing in a kiddie pool today. I suspect that when Henry is not in it, I will be, perhaps with a gin & tonic... Hmmm.... So, here are the highlights from the last month!

Henry had is 9 month check up and got a thumbs up from his pediatrician. He is right on track developmentally and changing in leaps and bounds. They say that babies experience a leap forward in cognitive abilities around 9 months and we are certainly seeing that to be true. In addition to crawling, he pulled himself up to stand for the first time on August 9th, he is clapping and sticking his tongue out and pretending to drink from a cup when he's playing. He's putting blocks into boxes and chasing the cat mercilessly. Fortunately, Fela is a good sport...so far. He is getting quite the headful of wispy light brown hair and loves to sing and babble and bang on things. Ever the mimic now, he tries to whistle and blow and is king of "so big!" He is nearly weaned and is eating a ton of *real people* food. He likes shredded organic chicken, cheddar cheese, Cheerios and new to his repetoire last night, black beans. Here are the latest stats:

21 lbs (55th percentile)
29 inches tall (75th percentile)
18 3/4 inch head (90th percentile)

Henry's Auntie, Lis, and his two cousins were here from Oregon for two weeks. We spent several days at our friend's cabin in the Wisconsin north woods. It was some pretty awesome family bonding.

Hazel (4) Henry (9 mo) Dahlia (8)Playing with GrandmaEnjoying the warm morning fire

Just hanging

We have done a lot of camping and hiking this summer in addition to lots of walks and general outside time. We hiked to the top of St. Peter's Dome in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forrest:

We also took Henry on our annual pilgrimage to Madeline Island in Lake Superior where we hiked at Big Bay State Park and saw our friends play at Tom's Burned Down Cafe. Both Nathan and Henry sat in with the band:On the Mad Island Ferry

Bellied up to the bar at Tom'sDancing with MommaWatching the band intenselyPlaying drums with Pachanga

We are also continuing to enjoy our summer bounty of vegetables from our farmshare and I have found many creative uses for numerous vegetables. We also have been taking part in various local food events and last week attended a dinner at the Garden Farme where three of our friends our living and working this summer. It was a beautiful night, with great food and time with our friends. Henry got to hang out with his buddies Miranda, Lukas and Tobin!

One of my favorite local, sustainable foods is Izzy's ice cream. They use solar power to make their ice cream and run their shop as well as use as many local ingredients as possible. Henry is tasting the banana flavor, one of my favorites. It somehow tastes like fresh, hot banana bread right out of the oven... but cold. It's magic.Ahhhh, summertime!

Crawling and Jumping and Oh, MY!

Meanwhile, back at the cookie chapter...

I had given up baking for the summer, but then today its only 67 degrees in July and, well, it feels like cookie baking weather. So! Back to the Cooks Illustrated cookie chapter. What haven't I tried yet? Turns out, a lot of things. My god, that chapter is long. The next chapter I tackle will have to be shorter. Anyhoo, I decided to give the Hermits a try. Weird name for what is essentially a molasses cookie. According to the book, the name is derived from the fact that these are even better after they've been tucked away for a few days. They're kind of like molasses biscotti and good for dunking in coffee. They use the same spices as the Molasses with Rum Glaze that are devoured around here in seconds. And, they are easy since they are baked in a log and then cut apart. The verdict? Delicious!

Hot Pink Pasta

What to do with all those summer beets? Try this!

4 red beets with stems and leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon
1/2 lb pasta
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Wash and dice the beets into 1/2 inch cubes, cut the stems into 1 inch pieces, wash, dry and chop the leaves into inch wide ribbons. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan, add the garlic and the diced beets. Season with salt. Saute until starting to soften, add the stems and cook a few minutes more until everything is soft but not mushy. Add the leaves and wilt. Squeeze lemon over the beets and greens, salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions, until al dente. You want the noodles a little undercooked so that they soak up the beet sauce.

Drain pasta, but do not rinse, and immediately toss with the beets. Add more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and top with cheese. Eat!

The pasta will soak up the beet sauce and turn bright pink/red. Kids think this is cool. Try serving it to your pink-obsessed little princess. Use whole wheat pasta for more of a nutritional punch. Beets are loaded with folate and potassium as well as fiber and are very, very good for you. Just don't tell the princess that...

He's on the move!

Riding the carousel at Como Park with Daddy

Oh, baby, baby, baby boy. You are growing up too fast. This week in Henry's world, developments and frustrations abound. He is too busy practicing his new found physical abilities to sit still long enough to do things like drink milk or eat. He is only nursing twice a day now, at bedtime and in the morning and has decided that he does not care for the bottle. Instead, he's gone straight to the sippy cup, albeit with the soft, nipple-like spout. For two weeks now, he's been up on his hands and knees rocking and I've found him sitting up in the crib. Yesterday, he pulled up to his knees in the crib, reminding me that I have to keep that rail up! Look what I can do, Momma!

This morning Nathan and I saw him go from hands and knees to sitting on his bum in one swift motion. He will be crawling in the next few days as he is rapidly figuring out how to move his knees and hands forward. He lunges for the kitties and soon will be all-out terrorizing them.On the move

All this new activity makes for frustration for both Momma and baby. He insists on twisting around dangerously on the changing table, making for difficult diaper changes. He has grown an opinion about where he wants to be when and I forecast major battles of will between the young son and I. At the same time, I am thrilled and his accomplishments and sad, too, that he won't be an infant much longer. He'll be weaned from the breast in another month and I'll miss nursing a lot. However, the prospect of kicking Daddy out of bed when the boy wakes up and sleeping in is increasingly appealing...