Stix n' Twigs

Just when you thought Dickinson, ND was completely devoid of good places to eat (two winters ago, the fanciest place Nathan and I could find to celebrate a promotion was Applebee's), we have a winner! 

Stix n' Twigs opened a few months ago: a cute little urban cafe nestled in the old downtown area.  I've been dying to try it ever since I saw this phrase scrawled across the doors: "innovative organic cuisine".  There's definitely no other place like it in these parts!

Unfortunately, it is only open Monday-Friday for breakfast and lunch, so unless you work downtown you're out of luck.  Last Friday I happened to be in Dickinson near lunch, so I took the opportunity to try this little place out.

It has a great interior atmosphere with a stone fireplace, couches, and a few scattered tables.  It's clear that they specialize in coffee and tea based on the plethora of choices, but they also make pastries and sell organic sodas at the counter.

The food is, indeed organic and many times vegan, ranges from soups/salads to ravioli to sandwiches (including bison burgers) to more adventurous Eastern dishes.  Everything is in the $10-$15 price range except for the soups, salads, and a few appetizers.  I ended up with the Curried Chicken Sandwich, which included peanuts, peanut sauce, curried chicken, cabbage, and a touch of wasabi on a pita flatbread.  It also came with a cup of roasted red pepper soup topped with mozarella and croutons.  The soup was fantastic.  I kind of wish I had gone with my second choice for an entree: the organic black bean daal with naan and a salad only because the purple cabbage on my sandwich made it really hard to eat (tasted delicious, though)! 

Curried Chicken Sandwich w/Organic Raspberry Lemonade

I'm hoping to go back on Monday when I have an appointment in the afternoon.  Can't wait to try something new and delicious!

Think

The US Supreme Court did something that makes our lives a little tougher today.

I've been watching the Ken Burns National Parks DVDs this week and each one has overwhelmed me with gratitude.  It seems like as special as these places are, it must have been a no-brainer to set them aside so that I, a person at least five generations removed, could experience their natural and never ending beauty.  How was I to know that just as every step we take as a society today tends to be argued, politicized, and hard-won, the parks were no different.  Can you imagine a world that hadn't preserved The Grand Canyon, that dammed up the Colorado only to allow resorts encased in concrete, helicopter launchpads, and businessmen as far as the eye can see to inhabit the cliffs and prime views?  What a loss that would have been.

And yet, that's what so many people wanted to do with the canyon.  Keep it private, buy it up, ensure they were able to profit from it and not others. Every park had its tireless supporters, its people much less influential than John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt who fought business and private land owners so that I, five generations later, could set foot on land that largely hasn't changed in thousands of years.  I couldn't be more thankful.

Today, the US Supreme Court made it easier for big business to run their own campaign ads (and non-profits to be fair, but we all know who has the real money).  A piece of me is sympathetic to the argument for free speech (I am a blogger after all), but should an entity such as a business, which is made up of individuals with beliefs as varied as the plants of the rainforest really have the right to take a stance and use their exorbitant funds to influence the public?  Who's going to speak for us, the individuals?  The people whose pensions are getting cut by these companies, who didn't get raises last year, who may not agree with the company's current environmental practices, who were told they won't be paid while on maternity leave, who've been working overtime without extra pay for...ever?  You see, a company is not a special interest group.  A company is a business.  The needs and decisions of the business reflect a few key executive's strategic insights and may or may not be prudent for their employees, their customers, or the world at large.  Is a business entitled to have an opinion and to participate in a democracy?  Absolutely!  Should it be allowed to spend its income on influencing external factors that affect it?  Absolutely!  Should it be given the right to use its resources, resources bestowed on it by the collective effort of diverse individual employees, to set forth any public campaign that hasn't been approved by the employees and shareholders?  No.  One may argue that whatever is in the company's best interest is in its employees' best interest since their income rides on the company's success.  I argue that many a horrible decision has been made by companies - decisions that squander our natural resources or eventually bring the company down.  Our democracy is special because it has such a diversity of people with a diversity of needs.  Unlike a special interest group, a business can't represent all the beliefs of all of its workers fairly. 

The toughest thing we need to overcome in this country is the deafening roar of money.  It speaks through the media and your paycheck.  How many times have you decided not to pursue a career you might love because you don't think it would pay the bills?  Money is power, but until today some of the power that money had to speak louder than the individual and influence a great section of our country into doing things that simply are not in its best interest was squashed by protective laws.  That protection is gone.  It's clear that we're on our own.

The only thing we have left to do is THINK.  Who's behind the ad?  Is it true?  Is this really in my best interest?  A nation of thinkers can suppress a nation filled with money.  If you pay close attention to what's being said and make decisions based on your beliefs and campaign facts what you'll be left with is the knowledge that you're leaving behind a nation filled with many beautiful things for generations to come.  I urge you to think!

Elkhorn Ranch

This January saw tempuratures in Medora drop down to -34...twice, we've gotten snow dumped on us by the foot, and now we're exiting a week of 40-degree weather (annual January thaw).  Assuming pleasant company might be reading this, all I have to say is WTH?!

We started off the year with a visitor (yes, it is possible to get here without a dogsled).  Nathan's dad, Allan, came to celebrate the New Year and participate in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, the world's oldest citizen's science project.  What did we turn around and immediately make him do?  Hike 1.5 hours through 1.5 feet of snow in -14 degree weather to the park's seldom-visited (and I'm guessing almost-never visited in the winter) third unit: Theodore Roosevelt's former residence: The Elkhorn Ranch.

New Year's Eve Blue Moon

Many attribute Theodore Roosevelt's time in the North Dakota Badlands as the birthplace of his conservation ethic.  That's an incredible place to witness given he was a man who went on to set aside more acres of land in this country for preservation than any other president.  Theodore Roosevelt spent, combined, about a year ranching cattle in these parts, but the experience stuck with him for a lifetime.

I had never been to the Elkhorn Ranch, mostly because we don't have a vehicle that will safely navigate the road there - especially in winter.  With Allan's Jeep we were able to just barely make it.  The way there is pretty well marked, but instead of street signs and landmarks, you have this - directions by way of who lives where. 

I have to say the 1.5 hours outside was, in retrospect, very worth it.  One of my favorite things to do is to stand silent in a place steeped in history and imagine what life was like "back then".  Here, I was transported to a rocking chair "in the hot noontide hours of midsummer [on] the broad ranch veranda, always in the shade".  I could have really used that hot noontide summer at the time.

 

Elkhorn Ranch House Cornerstone

Don't worry if you aren't able to make it to the Elkhorn Ranch.  You can still learn all about it by listening to this audio clip!  You might recognize the voice behind Theodore Roosevelt's lines.  Amazing place, amazing time to be alive!