Red Lake Falls

The past few weeks have felt very busy - it's a lot of work to settle in to a new house!

We've been in the new place, here in RLF, for about three weeks. It's amazing how fast a new place can feel like home. I can't overstate how wonderful it is to have our couch out of storage, our books on the shelf and our dogs sleeping on the carpet in our own house.

Today, Calhoun took Vasa for a mid-afternoon grocery trip (hunting then a stop at the local grocery store) and Sogn and I went for a walk. RLF has a bike-path that goes through town so we went for a stroll to check out the neighborhood.

Sogn, not afraid of the bridge

It was sunny and beautiful and even though Sogn has been a country dog for a long time now and hasn't been on very many leash-walks lately he did a great job. He even posed (kinda) for a picture! RLF is a cool town, it is a little east and north of the flat flat plains of the Lake Agassiz/Red River Valley and sits high above the bank of the Red Lake River. What that means is that this small town, in northwest Minnesota, does not flood and isn't flat. It makes for some pretty cool views from old train bridges.

Our walk this afternoon was also one of the only times in the past few weeks that Sogn has been without his new companion, Vasa. Mostly they are getting along pretty well. As well as any two creatures can who are incredibly curious about one another and what each other is doing and simultaneously very apprehensive of the other. It's kinda cute but I do think that Sogn sometimes misses his alone time. So, we had quality time together this afternoon and each of them did very well without the other.

When Calhoun and Vasa came home they had groceries and a sharp-tail grouse. Sharp-tail grouse are pretty unique to this corner of northwest Minnesota and we haven't eaten much of it in the past. So, Calhoun took to his favorite game cooking blog, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, and found an incredible recipe for Maple Bourbon Sauce. Calhoun was also inspired by some recipes he saw on Upland Journal that called for a "trencher" - a piece of fried bread that is used to soak up sauces and juices from your meal.

Luckily, we had a loaf of Calhoun's homemade peasant wheat bread to use as the base of our meal. He fried that up, topped it with caramelized onions and fried bacon, rare slices of sharp-tail and topped it with the Maple Bourbon Sauce. It was incredible and has made us more excited about eating sharp-tail and the recipes we will get to try as the season goes on.

dinner, a la Calhoun

All in all it has been a great weekend here in RLF, we really are feeling like this place is home and we enjoyed this beautiful, sunny Sunday.