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Lori's Blog Where editor Lori Hunsaker shares some of her sometimes meaningful, often random, thoughts and musings. |
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July 8, 2010
Spiral Jetty
I went with some of my children and grandchildren to the Spiral Jetty last Saturday. It felt a little like a trip to Mars. The red water with whitecaps and sea foam was an eerie site. The water is red because of some algae which release beta-carotene into the water.
We were a little disappointed the jetty wasn't more spiral. But we still had a great time. It was windy (thus the whitecaps on the water) and a little on the chilly side. Even so we frolicked in the waves, Luke sank into some icky mud and we enjoyed our picnic.
As we were leaving, Beth drove ahead a little to find a place to turn around and as she approached a small bend she saw something out in the water. She drove further to investigate and there was the real Spiral Jetty. We'd spent a couple of hours at the oil jetty, thinking we were at a really lame spiral jetty.
We decided there should be a sign at the oil jetty which reads “This isn't it. Keep going.”
This shows how close the two jetties are from each other. Can you guess which one is spiral? We could too, as soon as we saw it.
June 4, 2010
Rural America
Ya gotta love rural America. You never know, as you're driving from barren Ferron to Clawson, what you might see at the side of the road. I never knew, as I was growing up in Emery County, that we had such a close connection to Roswell, NM. A delightful family gathering last weekend led to this startling discovery of UFOs. They seem to be intact (including the solar powered landscape lights on the UFO on the right).
We were relieved no one came out with a gun to shoo us away. Photo by Tiffany Miller.
May 29, 2010
Three Sisters
Here are the three sisters: pole bean on the left (the bugs have already started in on its tender green leaves), corn in the center and a butternut squash on the right.
I love this time of year since the seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago are starting to come up. It amazes me every year. As always I watch the ground anxiously, checking every single day for that tiny hint of green.
The other great thing is that the weeds haven’t taken over yet and I have the mistaken notion there’s a fighting chance to conquer them this year.
I’m trying an experiment this season, something I learned watching Victory Garden on KUED. The three sisters are planted to create a symbiotic trio. Corn is planted alongside pole beans (which will use the cornstalk as a support) and squash, pumpkins or other ground growing plant.
At the time of harvest a chef on Victory Garden demonstrated how to make succotash from the fresh produce. That’s what I’m going to try. I’ve never had succotash before so I’ll have no expectations about it except that it will be delicious. That’s pretty realistic.
I’ll keep readers up to date on how the experiment is going.
Dragon Dome
I’ve got a pest problem but fortunately I’ve come up with an amazing solution.
First, the problem. There’s a small herd of deer living in the thicket of Russian olive trees in the pasture south of my backyard. I started paying more attention to them when they started eating my tulips.
Because of my highly honed skills of observation developed by many years as a reporter, I noticed tell-tale signs, the tulip blossoms were gone and there were little hoof prints in the ground around the ravaged plants.
I was willing to live with that irritant in my life. But then I planted strawberries, a lot of strawberries. They were starting to green up with their cute little leaves braving April’s cold weather but then one morning I noticed the strawberry beds were bare. I went outside and saw they had been bitten off and there were many, many deer hoof prints in the beds.
I was fuming and raging, calling the deer bad names and fantasizing about pellet guns.
Instead, I bought some bird netting and draped it over some hoops covering the strawberries. It seems to have worked so far. But I found out from Semm (who has been battling deer carnage for years) here at the News Journal that deer have been known to eat tomato blossoms as well. I needed a better plan.
A few days later I was on Riverdale Road in Ogden and saw a corner lot full of horses, a cow, moose, alligators and a glorious dragon. These large cast aluminum statuary pieces were very lifelike. I was intrigued and had a flash of insight, I needed to buy the dragon and put him on top of my stone-covered dome. He was about four feet tall with his wings partially unfolded.
I started to obsess about the dragon and decided I wanted him for Mother’s Day. My kids are very indulgent with me. I often tell them “Every day is Mother’s Day for Lori.” So I found a photo of a similar dragon and Photoshopped it onto my dome and emailed it to all the kids, thanking them in advance for the gift.
It was fun to watch for their responses. Beth recounted a conversation she had with her husband, Gabe. “Is your mom serious?” he asked. With total uncertainty (which is rare for Beth) she said, “I don’t know!”
I assured them I wasn’t serious, even though I really wanted to be.
Jeremy told me I’d have to prove to him that I could handle a dragon. The first step would be to watch the movie, How to Train Your Dragon.
Luke shook his head as he laughed and told me he loved me.
Tiffany said I’d have to use my imagination.
Kristi didn’t see it for a few days but was delighted I would want a dragon.
If I had a dragon, deer wouldn’t be a problem ever again. Neither would obnoxious visitors. I’m sure the dragon and I would share thoughts the way they do in my favorite fantasy novels. I could just ask the dragon to scare them off. That would be so cool.
There is one possible flaw in my nearly perfect plan which Semm pointed out to me. She asked me if dragons liked strawberries.
Does anyone know the answer to that question?
