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Grow the change you wish to see in the world

4/25/2016

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By Ryan Hunt

​I am King Moo.  My wife is Queen Moo.  We live in Mootopia, our up-north urban micro-farm.  We have four little Moo-lings, several cute chickens, and we drive a big white van called The Mooliner.  And we now have an elegant royal garden to help sustain the populace.  


A wise king makes his kingdom resilient.  That means he is constantly looking out for future risks and steering the kingdom in the right direction to either avoid them or be ready.  And boy, are there risks out there today.  Political risk, economic risks, and climate risks to name a few.   The climate is changing, the Great Recession is fresh in our memories, or even still a struggle in some parts, and the politics are off the chart muddy.  It’s enough to make a person feel insecure.  

Insecurity is the root of all evil.  Food insecurity, especially, since civilization is only three meals deep.  The images from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina bear that out.  As king, I realized we needed more practical knowledge and better assets for growing food ourselves.  

Growing more food in Mootopia would help address the risks from food of questionable quality or nutritional value.  It would help the citizens better understand nutrition.  It’s also undeniable that getting one’s hands dirty and working hard is so earthy, yet, paradoxically, it leads to a real spiritual benefit from really understanding our relationship to the food we eat.  And, while gardening hopefully will never be our sole source of food, it would make our lives better in good times and especially in bad.  In short, it was a good idea on many levels.  I believe that the world would be a better place if more people grew more of their own food.
I believed it so much I decided to be the change I wished to see in the world.  So I made a garden.  I made it with raised beds that were tall enough to be easy to plant, weed, and tend.   My knees thanked me.  I planted, I actually weeded the whole thing, and I watered.  I did not hunch over and I did not have to get onto my knees.  Gardening is hard enough work already, so why not make it a little easier wherever possible?  Whatever helps you grow, right?

Key to the whole project, I made them efficient and low cost.  My pocketbook thanked me.  Raised beds are typically a very luxurious, but a very expensive way to garden.  With a little fencing and some landscape fabric, the Mootopian budget was saved.  Well, actually, we just put in more garden beds and splurged on the really good soil.


I made the raised beds so they could string together and make interesting layouts.  My children thanked me.  They enjoyed the maze-like spaces between the garden beds and hiding amongst the tomatoes.  They saw the miracle of the seeds sprouting.  They felt the prickles of the zucchini leaves and they hunted for the cucumbers.  They nibbled peas and beans right from the plants.  They experienced where food comes from.  

I made the garden beds to hold lots of rich, black soil and go above the ancient asphalt tennis court that was the only sunny spot in my yard.  The plants thrived and thanked me with a hearty harvest.  It was like a giant vegetable love fest by autumn.  

Come autumn we learned even more about where food comes from.  We chopped and we froze.  We learned to sauce, and can.  We made jellies and apple butter.  We picked and we pickled.  We had to buy a new freezer to hold the bounty.  The kids got tired of it, but at least they know what food is, now.

For quite a while in the fall, we had more than we could use ourselves.  For the first time, food became a Mootopian export product as we gave away produce, bartered veggies for a lawn tractor, and gifted people with jellies and pickles. Turns out is not that hard to feel like a producer instead of just a consumer.  And it feels good.

Ryan Hunt is currently running a Kickstarter to fund production of his raised garden beds, called Garden Circles. Search “Garden Circles” on www.kickstarter.com or visit www.facebook.com/gardencircles to purchase your own Garden Circles or donate the raised beds to a local community garden.
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Birds of Dusk

4/21/2016

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By Judd Brink
Owner, MN Backyard Birds

At dusk each spring, three birds take to the air and use their aerial skills to display for females and to hunt.  These three birds are the American woodcock (scolopax minor), common snipe (gallinago gallinago) and whip-poor-will (caprimulgus vociferus).  They can be heard more often than seen in central Minnesota.  Both the woodcock and snipe are considered shorebirds but are rarely found on the shore.  They are most likely to be encountered along a wooded edge near water.  The whip-poor-will is in the nightjar family and is strictly nocturnal.
The woodcock is a medium sized shorebird 9-16 inches in length and is mostly brown with gray streaking found on the back along with some black bands atop the head. The woodcock has very large eyes and a long bill that is used to probe for worms in moist soil.  It is a well camouflaged bird that spends most of its time on the ground feeding on earthworms.  Woodcocks are known for their elaborate rituals that take place each spring. These evening aerial displays attract females and warn other males to stay away. The “skydance” takes place in open fields where males spiral upward to heights of over 100 feet where you can hear the twittering notes and chirping calls before they spiral back to the ground.  Once back on the ground the males give several calls, sounding like “peent,” before taking to the air again.  This ritual can start as early as March and last into early June.  The female then nests close to the “skydance” area, laying four eggs; the chicks leave the nest within hours of hatching.
The common snipe, also formally known as Wilson’s snipe, is a shorebird like the woodcock. It is similar in size but less chunky than the woodcock and the bill is much longer and thinner.  There are many various shades of browns on the back and head with a whitish chest.  The Snipe is generally found in more typical shorebird habitat like flooded fields, moist grasslands and wetlands. The snipe also performs a ritual at dusk called “winnowing.” During these spiraling flights a “winnowing” noise is caused by rushing air going over their modified tail feathers.  One interesting note about the snipe is that the male will take the first and/or second chick away from the nest to raise as the female continues incubating.  Their main food source is also earthworms, which they find using their highly sensitive bill.
The whip-poor-will is the least common of the three and their numbers are declining.  At dusk the bird starts calling out its own name repeatedly, whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will.  It is smaller in size, about 8-10 inches, which makes it better suited for catching insects in flight similar to a bat.  They feed primarily on flying insects (including moths and beetles), and have a large mouth that allows them to capture insects up to 2 inches long.  When not feeding, mostly during the day, they often perch in a tree or on the ground.  No nest is built, but rather the eggs are laid on ground in a leaf litter making it very difficult to locate.  The adults are also very well camouflaged. The eggs are laid prior to a full moon so that both of the adults can forage during this moon phase and bring back more insects.  The food is then regurgitated and fed to the newly hatched young.  Whip-poor-wills prefer mature mixed forests of pine and deciduous trees with an open understory.  During the writing of this article I was hearing whip-poor-wills calling out from the woods near my home.   Two years ago a birder from Mesa, Arizona contacted me to see and hear the Whip-poor-wills at my home. The species was recently split in 2011 into two separate species known as the Eastern and Mexican Whip-poor-will.
Listen for these birds at dusk or during a full moon in your area now through June.  If you see one of these birds consider yourself lucky since they are only active at dusk and during the night.  Enjoy the sounds of the American Woodcock “peent,” the winnowing of the Common Snipe and the repeating call of the Whip-poor-will. Happy Birding!
This spring thousands and thousands of birds will be arriving from a long migration and will need to refuel and rest. This is great time to clean your bird feeders and refill with fresh seed and to check how to make your windows more bird safe.  MN Backyard Birds offers our complimentary consultation to help you attract and enjoy more colorful songbirds this spring.  Judd Brink is the owner of MN Backyard Birds and offers birdscaping for homes and businesses. Please contact us at MN Backyard Birds (218) 838-4784 or email info@birdminnesota.com


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The perfect fishing rod- just an arm's length away!

4/21/2016

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By Kate Perkins
Editor
If you ask Kris Kristufek, your fishing rod should act as an extension of your arm as you fight a fish, and create a lever to help you bring in your catch. The handle should fit you like a glove, and the rod should be well balanced.
And while hours and hours can go into enhancing the aesthetic value of a fishing rod- and for Kristufek, it does- the technical aspect of a fishing rod “needs to be perfect,” Kristufek said.
Kristufek owns Lake Lady Fishing Rods, and he’s made more than 2,500 fishing rods that have shipped all over the world. His custom-built rods, made in a workshop at his Breezy Point home, are made specifically to fit the fisherman who will be using them.
“Manufacturers are building rods for the average fisherman- he’s five-foot, ten-inches tall, 160 pounds, has a size 9.5 shoe and fishes four times a year,” Kristufek said. While that model may work just fine for many fishermen, “it doesn’t describe the serious fisherman. So I have to build that rod differently.”
Since every person is unique, Kristufek builds every rod unique. He measures his clients’ arm and hand lengths to dial in the length and weight of the fishing rod he’s making. Those rods can range from fly fishing, to ice fishing, bass or pike rods. The materials, too, vary greatly. Often they’re graphite or carbon fiber, but bamboo is also a popular material.
Bamboo is not only a very delicate, but very expensive material for fishing rods. The special species of bamboo is split, dired, straightened and planed before six pieces are glued together to make the base of the fishing rod. Because of how labor intensive the process is, the price goes up.
“But it sure is fun to fish with,” Kristufek said.
While Kristufek seems to feel that the technical aspect of a fishing rod is the most important, he still spends plenty of time on making the rods’ appearance look fantastic. Many of the rods are wrapped in thread in intricate patterns and bright colors. Kristufek also inlays beautiful feathers onto the rods, and some of the thread designs he creates take the shape of salmon or other fish.
The handles of the fishing rods are made from layers of Portuguese burl cork, which is high-quality and comes in several colors. By layering the colors with, in some cases, abalone shell and birch bark, he creates an individual work of art. From the base of the handle to the smallest guide at the other end, the rods are works of art.
Kristufek didn’t start making rods until after his retirement, though he’s loved fishing ever since he was a child. After he retired, Kristufek said that he and all his friend,s who had also recently retired, were “climbing the walls trying to figure out what to do.” A friend suggested that Kristufek build a fishing rod, so he made his way to the Brainerd library to find everything it had about building fishing rods- which was all of two paragraphs.
But it was a start, and soon Kristufek had created his first fishing pole. “My first rod was atrocious,” Kristufek admitted. He kept it, though, and when he teaches classes he shows it to people to show that everyone’s got to start somewhere.
Kristufek kept building rods, and began to get serious with the hobby when then-governor Jesse Ventura was to visit the Breezy Point area for the Governor’s Fishing Opener. Marv Koep contacted Kristufek and asked if he’d make a fishing rod for the governor.
“It didn’t take but a split second to agree,” Kristufek said. He ended up building 8 rods, for the governor, luetenant governor, the governor’s wife, and several others.
Since then Kristufek’s spent a lot of years taking high-quality rod blanks and improving upon them. Today he insists that a fishing rod of his making will be one of the most sensitive rods you’ve ever fished with.
Fishermen, he said, are always trying to tell the difference between what their hook is hitting- a rock, leaf, blade of grass, or a fish.
“If you can’t tell what’s going on on the other side of the rod, you’re not going to catch many fish,” he said. “I want to transfer what’s happening under the water to the hand and to the brain.”
Today there are endless pieces of technology in a boat that are all meant to bring in fish- GPS, fish finders, the motor- but it’s the rod that puts the fish in the boat. To learn more about Kristufek’s Lake Lady Custom-Crafted Fishing Rods, visit www.lakeladyrods.com.
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