My nephew Tony spent the late afternoon in to evening time with us today. He doesn't get to geocache unless we're with him, so before we left the Saylorville Lake area, we went after cache. Make that, we attempted to go after a cache. Tony excitedly said, "Yeah!" when I said we could try to get one before we left for dinner.
We walked about 0.3 miles on a bike path, then had to turn off the path for less than 100 ft. We braved the tall grass. We ducked in to the understory. Our posture was like walking through caves or tunnels. Things then turned for the worse. Then my older son pointed and said, "Poison ivy!" and headed back to the bike path. Yes, he was correct. Poison ivy was everywhere. My youngest, who is extremely allergic to poison ivy, got scared, bolted from the front of the line to the pavement, saying, "I'm too sensitive! I have to leave." My oldest child was bored, so she went out to join them. My nephew and my younger son, who are age-mates, and I were left in the understory, facing a fence. The cache couldn't have been on the other side of the fence. We looked a little more, but left cache-less. This must have been a winter or very early spring kind of cache for us. My finding average and seeking frequency both took a turn for the lower. At least we got to see an oriole and two bluebirds, and an egg. We think the egg is a kildeer egg. Haven't looked in my identification book yet.
In more positive news, our CSA box is getting fuller all the time. On Sunday, I came home to find: 2 heads of pac choi, two heads of lettuce (Merlot and Speckled) as well as other loose leaves and edible pansies, turnips (Hakurei), four radishes, and two boxes of the most heavenly strawberries a person ever tasted. Driscoll's pales to these berries. I diced the turnips with zucchini and cauliflower, added garlic and basil, then steamed. Once they were done, I sprinkled with shredded cheese, let it melt, and YUM. Great with a turkey sandwich.
My garden also was overflowing when I returned from my Minnesota trip. I cut a lot of lettuce, gave some to a sister-in-law, and kept some for myself. Everything grew well in my absence, and I am sure it was due to Gabe's handy bunny fence. For a photo of the Mississippi River viewed from the banks in St. Paul on Saturday morning, click here.
1 comment:
i've noticed a lot of poison ivy this year already too. burt's bees poison ivy soap is a life saver. i lather it on and dont rinse it off a few times a day. it gets rid of the itching asap and rash in a few days. my lil commercial!! let us know if you still want the tent and raft. i dont think we're going to use it b4 he leaves in 2 weeks. it's no big deal either way to us at this point.
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