Watercress (A Winter Harvest)

Desiree and I made a brief winter trek to a mountain stream to gather watercress from the chill running waters flouncing through the snowscape.

I wrote about this aquatic perennial two years ago.  The plant is a superfood packed with calcium, magnesium, potassium, dietary nitrates, and the antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid.  At the same time, on the darker side, watercress is a non-native species that has been deemed invasive in 45 states.

Watercress offers a bright, peppery taste, something near the taste of a radish.

Immediately after harvesting a batch of sprigs from the stream, Desiree mixed some into a delightful salad – a familiar use for me.  Yesterday, she added watercress to mongo bean soup at the very end stage of its making.

This would be a far better world if all invasive species were so delicious.

Watercress

Desiree and Mongo Bean Soup

—Mitchell Hegman

How to Spot Me

If in a rock and gem shop, you will spot me continually circulating amid the fossil displays.

At the lakeshore, look for the man wearing full-length pants in the array of swimwear.  

If in a line filing into a theater, I am the one frantically trying to locate the ticket on my person.

When hiking in the mountains, you will find me where the beargrass grows.

At the grocery, look for me cleaning up the floor where I crashed my cart into an endcap display.

In general, look for Desiree and you’ll find me.

—Mitchell Hegman

A Finicky Eater

Some people (everyone who knows me) would say I am a finicky eater.  I don’t like condiments, spicy hot food, cantaloupe, most desserts with chocolate, green peppers, clam chowder, and I am just warming up here.

As a young boy, in addition to being picky, my behavior while eating often proved strange.  When eating my breakfast cereal, I didn’t want anyone watching or talking to me.  To that end, I staged three or four cereal boxes around my bowl on the table and then hunkered down inside this little fortification of my making to eat.  If one of my sisters moved a box – which they regularly did to annoy me – I squealed at them.  

I also found myself repulsed if different foods on my plate touched each other.  The thought of mashed potatoes and gravy mixing with peas in particular drove my batty.  While eating, I made a point of keeping all foods separated.  In addition, I ate only one thing at a time.  Once I finished one food, I moved onto the next.  If eating fish or red meat, I always ate those first.

Some years ago, I stopped making protective fortifications around my breakfast.  I am no longer disgusted by foods touching together on my plate.  But if you plop a dollop of mayonnaise on my plate, I am going to squeal.

—Mitchell Hegman

Desiree’s First Snowman

On a drive along West Shore Drive at Canyon Ferry Reservoir, Desiree and I stopped at Lorelei Picnic Area for a stroll along the lakeshore.  After walking through the snow for a few feet, I turned to Desiree and said: “This is what we have been looking for.  This type of snow is perfect for making a snowman.”

I knelt down, scooped together a big ball of snow, compacted it little, and then rolled it through some untracked snow to collected more.  “This is good.  Today, you can make your snowman!”

Desiree took to making a snowman with the zest of a six-year-old, which is a compliment of the highest order.  After she stacked her man together, I helped her gather a few sticks to use for arms and facial features.

Once we fixed our sticks to the snowman, I stood back and appraised.  “That’s a good-looking snowman,” I remarked.  “What’s his name?

“I need to name him?”

“Yep.  You need to name your snowman.  That’s part of the deal.”

Desiree thought for a moment and then said, “Sandy.  Sandy the Snowman.”

“Makes sense to me.  We are at the beach, after all.”

Your first-ever snowman is a big deal.  Given that, I captured a series of photographs of Desiree with Sandy.

After poking around a little more and enjoying the sunshine, we left Sandy standing there alone overlooking the receding, yet unfrozen waters.  By spring, only a random collection of sticks will remain where Desiree made her man, and we will likely remember the day as being a little warmer than it actually was.

Making Sandy

Sandy and Desiree

Desiree at the Shore

Desiree at a Picnic Table

—Mitchell Hegman

Assessing Yourself

Are you better shaken or stirred?

• If you were a color, could you be used for painting the sky at midday?
• Have you ever considered peeling off all your clothes and dancing a jig in a crowed place?
• At what point do you feel panic is absolutely required?
• Have you ever hidden a key under a rug on the front porch?
• If you were a celebrity, would you make the list of “Celebrities Who are Perfect Asses in Real Life”? 
• Have you ever been startled by a houseplant?
• Have you ever looked for keys under the rug on someone’s front porch?
• What number would you choose?

—Mitchell Hegman

Shooting Stars

Early every morning, Desiree and I soak in the hot tub just outside our back door.  Given our short winter days, we presently find ourselves in full darkness amid the clear array of heavenly bodies.

While soaking, we share stories of our night’s dreams, talk of our previous lives, and watch for shooting stars.

Shooting stars are not particularly rare.  Something near one million random objects spark against Earth’s atmosphere every day.   Shooting stars are, after all, little more than space junk hooked by gravity and pulled down, fizzling, through our sky.

The other day, Desiree and I witnessed six shooting stars scratching at our heavens in only a quarter of an hour.  Rare or not, we squeal with delight each time we see a stroke of light where an object has ended a long journey to reach us.

This is not a sacrifice.

This is a celebration.   

—Mitchell Hegman

Shedding Snow

Some years ago, a coworker excitedly asked me this one morning upon his arrival to work: “Hey, Mitch, have you ever listened to snow melting?”

“Snow melting?” I responded.  “Um, no, but I hope it’s better than watching paint dry.”  After a sufficient pause, I asked, “What are your really talking about?”

“I’m talking about snow and ice on your sidewalk.  It makes a lot of weird noises when you throw snowmelt on it.”

“Can’t say that I’ve ever heard that.”

Now, twenty-some years later, you might find me asking this: “Have you ever watched snow melting from your roof?”

Well, melting isn’t the proper term.  We need an action word here.  More like cascading from your roof.

Twelve years ago, I replaced my shingle roof with metal.  I didn’t install cleats or guards to hold the snow in place.  When temperatures climb above freezing, snow loads shed from my roof in chunks, sometimes in massive sheets that cascade into huge piles alongside the house.

It’s a pretty good show.

Yesterday afternoon, warm weather provided an opportunity for Desiree to witness sheets of snow calving from my roof.  I captured two short videos while she watched.  The last video is only three seconds long, but it’s filled with action.

 

—Mitchell Hegman

Public Holdings

Over the years, I have held unchanging views regarding how public holdings such as forest service property should be treated.  At the same time, I have had many conversations, sometimes debates, with others about this.

Essentially, I feel we should be free use the land, for picking berries, hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, and so forth, but do so with the utmost care and respect for all resources provided.  On more than one occasion, someone has suggested to me that we should treat our public lands as if we own them (which in a sense we do).

My response is this: “No.  I think we can do better.  I try to treat the land as if you own it and have been kind enough to let me use it.”

—Mitchell Hegman

Warming Your Cockles

Living with someone from the other side of the world (think Desiree here), makes you consider the things you say a lot more.  For one thing, we constantly use common phrases and clichés that simply don’t translate.  Regularly, after hearing one phrase or another, Desiree will ask: “What does that mean.”

The other day when I said something about “warming my cockles,” the thought occurred that even I had no idea what that really meant.  I know it means, in a general sense, something pleases you.

But why cockles?

A little prodding at the fluffy layers of information on the internet provided me with more details.  In the full idiom, something is said to "warm the cockles of our heart."

The heart is key to meaning.  A ‘cockle’ in this phrase is something of a slang term for the chambers (ventricles) of our heart.  This name is derived from the Latin "cochleae cordis", from "cochlea" (snail), alluding to their shape.     

Honestly, I imagined something more exotic, if not sexy, behind the meaning of cockles.

—Mitchell Hegman

Where Banana Leaves Meet a Snowy Winter

Desiree is making suman (budbud).  For those unfamiliar, suman is a type of sticky rice (and coconut) cake rolled in banana or coconut leaves.  After being rolled in the leaves, the rice is boiled or steamed.

In Desiree’s version of Suman, banana leaves are preferred.

If you are from my hometown of East Helena, Montana, you know banana leaves are not common around here.  Fortunately, a couple clicks on Amazon delivered a package of neatly folded banana leaves to our door.

Getting fresh (relatively speaking) banana leaves here in the heart of a Montana winter is pretty incredible when you consider it.  Desiree also found it slightly funny.  “It’s weird to buy banana leaves,” she told me.  “They are free in the Philippines.  You just go outside an grab them.”

Watching Desiree making rolls entertained me for something over an hour.  She is meticulous in her work and the finished rolls struck me as both exotic and attractive.

Our Back Deck (Where Banana Leaves Meet the Northland Winter)

Desiree Holding a Banana Leaf

Sticky Rice Ready to Roll

Finished Suman

—Mitchell Hegman

Off Track

You would be surprised how far off track you can be thrown by simply waking from a dream in which snakes are found everywhere you look.

—Mitchell Hegman

Things That Don’t Work

Here is my definitive list of things that don’t work:

• Inserting your left and right orthotic inserts in the opposite shoes
• Scheduling anything other than watching the Cats/Griz football game on the day they have their annual matchup 
• All the “sure-fire” methods for easily removing pomegranate seeds you watch on YouTube
• Bumper jacks
• Marrying anyone other than your best friend
• Hotel room TV remotes
• The flashlight found in your junk drawer
• Fudging a few numbers when you balance your checking account

—Mitchell Hegman

The Universe of Sounds

My house is dark.  Here, somewhere after three in the morning, the immediate space around me has been given over entirely to sound.  Without the physical details offered by light, the constant whirring of an oscillating fan in my sunroom has become the glue holding together all the universe.  At irregular intervals, a call for heat forces my boiler to whuff to flame, layering a low roar of constant urgency below the sound of the fan.

Random sounds also populate the darkness.  Somewhere deep within its wooden framing, my house cracks its knuckles.  Twice, as I listen more intently, something inside the refrigerator ticks lightly against hard metal.

Even my own body has become a vessel for errant noise.  My internal plumbing murmurs as it pressurizes and recharges empty chambers following a colonoscopy procedure.

As I sit upright on my sofa, I swear I am hearing my own thoughts.  They sound softer than the other sounds but far more insistent.

Here is a thought: It’s good to be alive and know my wife, my family, and my friends are out there somewhere amid the sounds.   

—Mitchell Hegman

The Advantage of Drinking Scotch

In matters of taste, there exists no middle ground with Scotch.  You either like it or you are repulsed by it.  Scotch delivers a powerful flavor, one that sometimes merges the heat of fire with smoke good earth.

I am on the side of appreciating the muscular flavors of Scotch.

My appreciation for Scotch is a particularly good thing at present, given that I am now drinking a mix of sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and potassium chloride.  This particular cocktail has a somewhat wicked purpose – it is designed to clear out my entire digestive tract in preparation for a colonoscopy.

The taste of this chemical brew is just as robust (read awful here) as the ingredients imply, but Scotch has provided me the advantage of understanding drinks without nuanced flavors.

Cheers!

—Mitchell Hegman

An Observation

While gazing up at clouds the other day, I made an observation: The clouds that look just like me appear to be gaining weight.

—Mitchell Hegman

Neighborhood Watch

All neighborhoods are the same in that locals take notice when strangers show up.  Yesterday, six turkeys appeared just outside my back fence.  In the last thirty years, I have seen turkeys here a couple times, but they are a rarity.

As Desiree and I watched the turkeys scratching at the snow to find pine nuts amid the cones under the trees, one of the local deer, a yearling, arrived.  Upon spotting the huge birds, the deer cautiously backed-up to a safe distance and observed.  Obviously, the deer had never encountered turkeys before.

After watching the turkeys for a minute, the deer bounced over my fence and came closer to the house to seek something good to eat.  Not long after that, a neighborhood magpie spotted the turkeys and swooped down to perch in a pine tree directly above them, wondering if the bigger birds might have some lunch worth sharing.

I have posted a photograph Desiree captured of the deer encounter.  If you look to the bottom left, you can spot the turkeys just below the fence.

—Mitchell Hegman

Pub Crawl

A few days ago, Guinness World Records released news of another record falling.  In this case, a fellow named Heinrich de Villiers was awarded a new world record for a “pub crawl.”  Heinrich secured the record by visiting 78 establishments in Melbourne, Australia, in a 24-hour period.  According to Guinness rules, a minimum of 4.2 ounces of an alcoholic beverage must be consumed at each stop.

I must admit, reading this shocked me.

Obviously, the folks at Guinness have never been to Butte, Montana.  In Butte, visiting 78 bars in one night is nothing more than a Friday night warm-up for a full runner on Saturday.

—Mitchell Hegman

Source: UPI

One Last Thought

• You are never too old to act young.
• There is no wrong time to fill the fuel tank in your automobile.
• Always speak as if your grandmother can hear everything you say.
• Finishing a project is more important than starting it.

—Mitchell Hegman

Late for Departure

Somewhere in the countless days leading to this one, I read about a school for training flight attendants.  The school enforced one particularly stringent rule.  If a student arrived late for class (without an extraordinary excuse), they were immediately ejected from the training.

The reason for this, obviously enough, is because flight attendants cannot arrive late for work and compromise a scheduled flight’s departure time.

During my days training apprentices, one of my students arrived a few minutes late for class two days in a row.  I gave him the benefit of doubt on the first day, but on the second morning, I asked him to join me in my office.

“You can’t be late for class,” I told the apprentice once he stepped into my office.  “Why couldn’t you make it here on time?”

The apprentice shuffled around a bit, shrugged.  “I was only three or four minutes late.  I guess time got away from me.”   

“Okay, let’s say it’s three minutes late.  When was the last time you got on a plane three minutes after it departed?”

“Well…never,” he answered.

“Exactly,” I said.  “Late is late.  I don’t see any other way to look at it.  My flight leaves at eight in the morning.”

—Mitchell Hegman

Sapphire Hunters

In mid-October, Desiree and I joined our friends, Tad and John, for a day of digging sapphire gravel at the Helena Mineral Society sapphire mine.  The mine is just off the shore of Hauser Lake and must be accessed by boat.  We met at the boat ramp of Devil’s Elbow Campground and piled into John’s boat for the short ride to the mine.

We arrived at the sapphire mine with a plan to process our diggings down to gravel and fines and then haul some of that home for sapphire hunting at a later date.

Desiree and I worked a compacted bank of cobbles atop a shelf of bedrock.  After filling five-gallon buckets with material, I classified that down in a sifter and partially filled a couple heavyweight bags with gravel to haul home for processing at a later date.

Though enjoyable, our day at the mine proved to be a lot of work.

Yesterday afternoon, Desiree set up shop in the warmth of our sunroom and hunted for sapphires in some of the material we hauled home.  I can’t think of a better way to spend a chill winter day.  Best of all, we found a decent garnet and a few lightly colored sapphires.

Our Finds from Yesterday

Desiree Scratching Material from the Bedrock

Desiree and Tad Classifying Material

—Mitchell Hegman

Falling Snow

My island girl is enjoying her rookie year of watching falling snow.  Early on, she witnessed graupel (pellet) snow plinking down all around us.  She has also seen her share of fine snow sifting straight down and fine snow propelled at sharp angles by the wind.

Yesterday, she finally witnessed a storm delivering giant, fluffy snowflakes.  Big snow wafted down for the better part of an hour.  Naturally, she pranced out onto the deck and allowed the flakes (many the size of nickels and dimes) to swirl around her.  She captured a few on her gloves and examined them.

I must admit, even I am impressed when big flakes fall.  And remember, Montana is on the map when it comes to this kind of snow.  Guinness World Records lists the largest snowflake in the world as having fallen in January 1887 at Fort Keogh, Montana.  The flake measured some 15 inches wide.   

—Mitchell Hegman

Complaint or Statement?

While talking on the phone with an electrician friend, I caught myself carping about some confusing mandates found within the 2020 National Electrical Code.   “Oh, jeez,” I said, “I’m starting to sound just like an electrician – I’m complaining about everything.”

“Are you making complaints or statements?” he asked.

I thought for a moment, scratching at my head.  “Hmm.  Never thought about it.  That’s a fine line.”

“My family has been giving me a hard time about complaining recently.  I am trying to convince them I am only making statements and not complaining.”

“You may have a point,” I said.  “But I’m not sure I know where I begin separating the two.”

Following our conversation, I thought about just one common phrase expressed by electricians after reading a section of Code: “This doesn’t make any sense.”

Is that a complaint or a statement?  Written on paper, it could fall either way – especially if the Code really doesn’t make sense at first reading.

In the end, the determination seems dependent on the tone of the speaker and the perceptions of the listener.  The difference is situational.

—Mitchell Hegman

Escaping From the Zoo

In late October, a seven-foot king cobra escaped from its glass enclosure at a zoo in Stockholm, Sweden.  The snake, named Sir Hiss, had only recently been moved into a new terrarium and escaped into the building at large by way of a light fixture in the ceiling.

Having had both a snake and a tarantula escape my own terrarium in the past, I can attest to the alarming nature of this.  More distressing here is the fact king cobras are deadly venomous.

King cobras can grow up to eighteen feet and are native to India, Indonesia and the Philippines.  The mostly cold and sterile indoor spaces into which Sir Hiss fled were not exactly ideal for a half-grown king cobra.   Moreover, outside the building, the oncoming Swedish winter made survival there impossible.

After several days, zoo officials using X-ray machines determined the snake had found refuge in an insulated space between two walls.  In an effort to encourage the snake to leave his hiding place, workers drilled a series of holes in the walls.  Soon after, the snake disappeared again.

Nearly a week after escaping, Sir Hiss appeared again.  Zoo workers discovered the snake had escaped back into his own terrarium.

The stories about my snake and spider ended somewhat differently.

—Mitchell Hegman

Source: AP News

Science at Play

 Today I am posting a short video without explanation.  This is real science at play and not trickery.  At work is something called Lenz’s law.  Reading the comments below the video and digging in is helpful.

Enjoy!

—Mitchell Hegman

Video Link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9b0J29OzAU

Falling Back

Late last night, our clocks fell back an hour in time as prescribed by daylight saving time.  Naturally, this morning I woke at my normal time, which is now an hour earlier than just yesterday.

I tried sleeping in, but my mind flooded with thoughts about property taxes, magpies eating animal fat, and Christmastime in the Philippines.

In other words, my normal thinking.

Knowing I would not sleep—no matter how long I flopped around trying to find a perfect body position—I rolled out from bed and quietly dressed.  After getting my old-timey coffee maker brewing, I wandered out into the sunroom and flicked on the lights for a look.

Desiree has nurtured something of a jungle-in-a-bottle thing in our sunroom.  I have always like plants and this is an equivalent to marrying them.

Good stuff.

During our long winter nights, I set a tall oscillating fan to work wiping air back and forth across the glass at the outside corner of the all-window room to prevent moisture from forming on the metal structure.

I stood there watching the fan for an extended time.  I think our year-long tomato plants are fond of the fan.  They waved back at the fan every time an oscillation directed the fan toward them.

—Mitchell Hegman

Overhead Exoskeleton

You may know the Hilti Corporation for their lines of tools and fasteners.  Hilti hammer drills and powder-actuated tools have long been popular with construction workers based on the quality of their products.  

Recently, Hilti produced a surprising new product: the EXO-O1 Overhead Exoskeleton.  The EXO-01 is a mechanical assist for workers engaged in overhead work.  With the exoskeleton strapped to their torso and arms, a worker becomes a bionic man of sorts.  The EXO-01 provides support for the arms.   

While visiting with an electrical contractor at his shop, I tried wearing a demo exoskeleton the shop was trying out.  The EXO-01 weighs less than five pounds and is not uncomfortable to wear.  More importantly, the exoskeleton does offer considerable support when you reach overhead.  For certain types of work, it may be worth wearing.

I am sharing a photograph of me wearing the exoskeleton and a short video produced by Hilti.

Me Reaching Up while Wearing the Exoskeleton  

—Mitchell Hegman

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRb9XU9dmiA&t=8s

My Trail

If you look behind me, you will see a trail of overturned rocks.  What kind of trail have you left behind?

—Mitchell Hegman

It is Written: First Snow

As an island girl, Desiree has been most curious about snow.  Following her arrival here in May, I drove her up to the top of MacDonald pass so she could stand in a sundrenched snowbank.

Yesterday, she finally experienced her first snowstorm.

As soon as I noticed the falling snow, I dragged Desiree to a window so she could see it.  She squeaked at me, more or less, and then trotted from window to window peering out.  After a minute or so of that, she wriggled into the heavy winter jacket we recently purchased for her and she scampered out onto the deck to catch some snowflakes.  She examined her prints in the fresh snow.  She made a snowball.  She scratched a message in the snow collected on the hot tub cover.  And then she video chatted with her daughter in Manila to show her the snow.  

I think we can justly say the snow thrilled her.

Watching Desiree playing around in the snow was also immensely satisfying for me.  We ‘shared a moment’ as the cliché goes.

I have posted three images of Desiree I captured as I watched her.

—Mitchell Hegman

Catching Snowflakes

Video Sharing Snow with Her Daughter in Manila

It is Written

Creating Habits

Over the last few days, I have had several conversations about habits.

To one extent or another, we are all creatures of habit.  Some habits are created as a reaction to the environment and spaces we occupy.  This would include such things as going to the refrigerator when we want a snack or automatically pitching clothes for laundry in a certain place.

Other habits we cultivate with great purpose.  This might be something such as leaving at an exact time every workday so you arrive on time.

For a long time, a myth persisted that it took 21 days for a person to firmly develop a habit.  Recent research conducted by Phillippa Lally, a psychology researcher at University College London, has proven otherwise.

In a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Lally and her research team attempted to determine how long it actually takes to form a habit. According to the study, 66 days are required, on average, to form an automatic behavior.  But underlying that, the study concluded it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit, depending on various circumstances.

The question then arises: How long does it take to break a habit?

I suspect a similar time frame exists for that.  Certain habits are particularly persistent.  When I gave up tobacco 34 years ago, I know I was much closer to the 254-day mark before I entirely stopped reaching for my can of chew.

—Mitchell Hegman

Source: https://jamesclear.com/new-habit

Recently Learned Things

• Three wrong clicks while searching the internet for “venting a clothes dryer” can deliver naked people to the screen of your device.
• A pillow mostly comprised of tassels might be less comfortable than no pillow at all.
• You are never too old to put your shoe on the wrong foot.
• The new full-length mirror you just installed may look like a door opening at 2:00 in the morning, but you can’t walk through it.
• The older you get, the more random screws in your junk drawer.
• Washing and reusing plastic bags is a thing.

—Mitchell Hegman