Fall Dune Hike -- Post 2

Here are the remainder of the photos from the dune hike I took the other night. The colors in the dunes this time of year are especially wonderful.  With calm winds and blue skies the color of Lake Superior was more blue than normal.

When you add in the fall colors of the leaves.......

Even the dune grass seemed to be glowing in the late afternoon sun.

And then there were the red foliage from the ground cover in the dunes....

I liked the stark contrast between the Grand Sable Banks and the lake...

More color in the dunes.......

From the log slide, I walked east along the bluff and then headed due south down the back of the dunes, through the forest, to the access road.  Along the way I spotted this colony of shelf fungi.

At the log slide a tree fell over in some of the incredible winds we have been having and took out this bench.

While bushwhacking through the woods I came across artifacts from the old logging camp days. 

Fall Dune Hike -- Post 1

Sunday I opened the museum for appointments and a few others who happened chance by. It was another glorious Indian summer day, so I decided to go for a hike.  I drove west on H58 and stopped by Sable Lake to snap a couple of photos from the overlook.

The tree canopy has completely recovered over parts of the now paved H58 between Grand Marais and Munising.

While hiking, I came across this three foot long garter snake. The Garter snake is a Colubrid snake common across North America, ranging from Alaska and Canada to Central America.  It is the single most widely distributed genus of reptile in North America.  The garter snake is the Massachusetts state reptile, is the only species of snake found in Alaska, and may be the northernmost species of snake in the world.  This snake is far ranging due to its unparticular diet and adaptability to different environments, terrain, and varying proximity to water.

Garter snakes, like all snakes, are carnivorous. Their diet consists of almost any creature that they are capable of overpowering: slugs, earthworms, leeches, lizards, amphibians, birds, fish, toads and rodents. When living near the water, they will eat aquatic animals. Food is swallowed whole. Garter snakes often adapt to eating whatever they can find, and whenever, because food can be scarce or abundant.

Garter snakes have complex systems of communication. They can find other snakes by following their pheromone-scented trails. Male and female skin pheromones are so different as to be immediately distinguishable. However, sometimes male garter snakes produce both male and female pheromones. During mating season, this trait fools other males into attempting to mate with these "she-males". This causes the transfer of heat which is an advantage immediately after hibernation allowing the "she-males" to be more active as well as to garner more copulations than normal males.

If disturbed, a garter snake may coil and strike, but typically it will hide its head and flail its tail. Although there is a small amount of venom delivered in a strike, the amount is not enough to impact humans.  These snakes will also discharge a malodorous, musky-scented secretion from a gland . They often use these techniques to escape when ensnared by a predator. They will also slither into the water to escape a predator on land.  Hawks, crows, raccoons, crayfish and other snake species (such as the coral snake and king snake) will eat garter snakes.

Being heterothermic, like all reptiles, garter snakes bask in the sun to regulate their body temperature. During hibernation, garter snakes typically occupy large, communal sites called hibernacula. Garter snakes go into brumation before they mate. They stop eating for about two weeks beforehand to clear their stomach of any food that would rot there otherwise. They then begin mating after emerging from brumation. The males mate with several females.  Males usually come out of their dens first.  As soon as the females emerge, they are surrounded by males who are immediately attracted to a sex-specific pheromone that attracts male snakes in droves.  Sometimes there is intense male-male competition that results in the formation of mating balls of up to 25 males per female. After copulation, a female leaves the den/mating area to find food and a place to give birth. Female garter snakes are able to store the male's sperm for years before fertilization. The young are incubated in the lower abdomen, at about the midpoint of the length of the mother's body. Garter snakes are ovoviviparous meaning they give birth to live young. However, this is different than being truly viviparous, which is seen in mammals. Gestation is two to three months in most species. As few as 3 or as many as 80 snakes are born in a single litter. The young are independent upon birth. On record, the greatest number of garter snakes to be born in a single litter is 98.

I also captured this image of a milkweed plant, and decided to open up a pod. Since it is October, I expected the seeds to be ripe and ready to spread in the wind.  The pod was not yet ripe, but provided a beautiful array of seeds.

Milkweed ia a genus of herbaceous perennial plants that contains over 140 known species. This plant is named for its milky juice, which contains alkaloids, latex, and several other complex compounds including cardenolides. Some species are known to be toxic.
Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner. Pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains or tetrads, as is typical for most plants. The feet or mouthparts of flower visiting insrects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower. The pollinia then mechanically attaches to the insect, pulling a pair of pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Pollination is effected by the reverse procedure in which one of the pollinia becomes trapped within the slit of another flower.

Asclepias species produce their seeds in follicles. The seeds, which are arranged in overlapping rows, have white silky filament-like hairs known as pappus, silk, or floss. The follicles ripen and split open and the seeds, each carried by several dried pappus, are blown by the wind. They have many different flower colorations.

While walking near the dunes, I spotted this perfect evergrreen showing in sharp contrast to the golden leaves in the background.

Minnesota Trip -- Post 2

The October weather continues to be amazing here in Grand Marais. Temperatures were in the mid 70s yesterday with plentiful sunshine. Today is supposed to be about the same -- again!

The blog posting this morning will include the remainder of the photos taken during the few days off I took in Minnesota last week.  The following three shots show how low the water level is in some of the Minnesota rivers.  This is the river that runs through Jay Cook State Park in Carlton County, located around 40 miles south of Duluth.  The second and third were taken from the same spot.  I couldn't decide if I liked the vertical or the horizontal format better, so I included both.

Jill and I spent the day up in Duluth visiting with friends.  Thanks go out to Terry Roses for the great lunch and meeting we had.  Terry just retired and closed his Fragments of History store.  We will certainly miss going into the store!  We also stopped by to visit one of my agate dealer friends.  Here are some shots of Eric's agates.

Before lunch we walked around downtown.  Here are some shots of the freighter that is now a tourist attraction.

This large teddy bear was sitting outside of a chocolate factory.

I just love this little draw bridge.

Minnesota Trip -- Post 1

After packing up my booth in Eagle River, my friend, Jill, and I headed to Ironwood, MI. There is a small motel there with great owners (Classic Motor Inn). We left very early the next morning to head to Minnesota, hoping to have plenty of time to agate hunt. I have been so busy all summer that I have not had more than a few minutes here or there to hunt the elusive Lake Superior agate.

Things went well until I was driving over the bridge between Superior, WI and Duluth, MN. The construction on I35 makes the already scary drive over the bridge a bit more challenging. The exit to I35 south is blocked, so you have to drive up into the city, get off an exit, and then turn left and circle back onto the highway. For most of the summer my car has been acting up. It always happens when the car has been running and is hot, especially in warm weather. I have brought the car in on several occasions. Since there are no codes showing in the diagnostic computer, no one has been able to determine what should be done. We even tried to duplicate the problem, which of course didn't happen when a mechanic was watching. What occurs is that all of a sudden while driving down the road the car will either hesitate and not respond, or worse yet -- just stop. Last Monday morning I was working through the one-lane construction zone with cement barriers inches away from both sides of my car and the engine died. When you have no power steering, no power brakes, and no ability to accelerate -- all you can do is just coast to a stop. There was traffic coming up behind me and I had no where to go. Finally, I spotted a small merging lane on my left (I think for construction trucks) and I was able to coast into the tiny space. Once you turn off the key, the car in most cases restarts. It did that time, thankfully. I was able to continue and sputter down to the next exit, where I immediately got off the highway. I parked at a motel and went in, still shaking, to ask about places to get the car fixed. I decided that no matter what all the mechanics say, I wanted a new fuel pump.

All of the dealers and other car repair places we called said they would not be able to get me in until the end of the week. Thanks to Jill who suggested that we call one of our friends, and to that friend, Andy, I secured an appointment for the next day. Since the mechanic was renting a building right next to one Andy's family's old gravel pits, Jill and I were forced to agate hunt the whole next day. Although it was an old pit, they dumped a load of newly sorted gravel collected at one of their other pits right next to where my car was being repaired. We found a lot of agate in that pile. They were small, but it was fun.  A big thanks goes out to Jill for her suggestions and patience, to Andy for making the referral, and to Jason for fixing my car.  The problem has not re-occurred so it must have been the fuel pump.

After the car died and then cooled off a bit, we continued down to Carlton County.  Here is a shot of us at a pull-off overlook.  We decided to stop for a while to let the car cool off a bit more.  Here is a set-up shot of us looking dejected and stranded.

From the overlook there is a path down to the St. Louis River.

Along the river there is a four-wheel track.  We walked down a mile or so to see if we could locate any gravel bars.  We did not, unfortunately, but it was a nice walk.

During our adventures in Minnesota, we spotted a family of pheasants.  Here are a couple of shots of one of the males, as well as a picture of the less colorful female.

The Ring-necked Pheasant is the name used for the species as a whole in North America.  The word pheasant is derived from the ancient town of Phasis, the predecessor of modern Poti in Western Georgia.

It is a well-known game bird, perhaps the most widespread in the world. The Common Pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds.  It has been introduced in many regions. Ring-necked Pheasants in particular are commonly bred and were introduced to many parts of the world. The Ring-necked Pheasant is the state bird of South Dakota, one of only three US state birds that is not a species native to the United States.

Cranberry Festival in Eagle River, WI

I arrived back home yesterday -- one day later than expected. I wanted to see the movie, Money Ball, in Marquette. Plus I decided to visit with friends, Helen and Jimmie. After arriving home, I unpacked the car and set up the museum's gift shop. There are a lot of fall color people in the area, so I opened the museum for a few hours yesterday and will do the same for the next few days. If you want to get into the museum, however, it would still be better for you to set up an appointment by sending me an email to karen@agatelady.com or calling 906-494-2590.

Last weekend I exhibited my mineral art at the Cranberry Festival in Eagle River, WI. It is a huge show with nearly 300 vendors and over 20,000 attendees -- all in a town of 1,500 people. It is always a mad scramble to set up the booth. I changed location this year, however, to the other side of the big tent so it was easier to get the car close to my booth space.  That is important when you have to carry rocks!

Apparently the northern Wisconsin area is one of the largest producers of cranberries in the country.  There were cranberry products located throughout the fairgrounds.

As I said, my booth was in the large tent located near the back of the fairgrounds.  I pay extra to be inside the tent so that I don't have to set up my own tent.  This strategy backfired a bit because of the low nightly temperatures.  Due to cold temperatures in the mid-20s, frost built up on the inside of the large tent.  I used a towel to scrape off what I could reach, but as the rest melted it dripped on everything.  I'll have to think about setting up a tent inside the tent next year as many of the other artists did.

My booth was inside the right hand section of the big tent, on the right just as you entered.  I'll probably try to keep this location in future years.

There were lots of people......

Here is a shot of my booth.  Jill is in the middle helping customers.  Thanks, Jill, for your help during the show!

The selection of items for sale is better at this show than at any other event that I attend.

This year we stayed at Edgewood Inn.  It is located right on the river.  It was such a beautiful night that Jill and I decided to rent one of the canoes.  I own two, but due to my busy schedule they have not been in the water in two years.  Thus, it was great to be out on the water paddeling.  I do love to canoe.

When I went out to the car to get something, I just had to capture a shot of the quarter moon.