Five: Vandolah Nature Preserve

Saturday afternoon, after getting my orange hair cut off (another story), I headed to Vandolah Nature Preserve, which is perhaps 2 miles from my home. My friend Tammy and my friend and husband Steve met me there. After we had a picnic on the entry bench, we headed into the preserve.


There are a lot of very old apple trees at the entry, remnants of a farmstead. Ellsworth Smith told me that the woman who donated the land recalls her grandmother telling how Johnny Appleseed would eat dinner at their farm but would then leave to sleep outdoors. Are these descendants of trees planted by Johnny?


After leaving the orchard area, we hiked along a trail that borders I-69. At this point, you wonder if you really are in a nature preserve, with the numerous trees downed by the utility company, the cars and trucks whizzing by and the bush honeysuckle thicket.


Then you head into the ravines. We had quite a discussion whether this wetland was a fen, swamp or marsh.


The cut-leaved toothwort is ready to bloom.


And the hepatica is in full bloom. Once we spotted this bloom, we discovered the whole south-facing hill was abloom in hepatica.


Looking down the hill, we spotted this hollow stump, with the perfect peephole over the wetlands.


And a perfect place to get out of the wind.


Oh, no! Someone has lost the trail.


If only that person can make it to the solid log off that rotten log.


Will we have to undertake a rescue?


A picture of perfect grace.

And a successful landing.

After prancing down the ravine, we slowly climb up, taking rests as needed.


Perhaps we will see you at the next preserve we hike.

Four: Tom and Jane Dustin Nature Preserve

I visited my fourth ACRES Nature Preserve yesterday. Before hiking a few trails, I attended a talk by Don Gorney about the 18 warblers that nest in NE Indiana. Don moved to Indy and is devoted to Lights Out Indy, a movement to turn out the lights on tall buildings which confuse many birds, including migrating warblers. These birds crash into the buildings and die. He estimates that more oven birds were killed by running into buildings in Indianapolis than were hatched.

As a very amateur birdwatcher, I decided to focus on finding a Yellow-throated Warbler because it nests in riparian woods with open canopy, primarily sycamore trees. We spend a lot of time in this habitat on the river. It should reach this area in mid-April. I'm also keeping an eye and ear out for the prothonotary warbler because it is such a beautiful bird.


After the talk, the naturalist from work joined me for walk on the short trails around the ACRES' office, the former home of Tom and Jane Dustin. The Dustins started ACRES Land Trust 50 years ago and were active environmentalists for years. They were inaugural members in the Indiana DNR's Conservationist Hall of Fame, along with Gene Stratton-Porter. The preserve borders Cedar Creek with the canyons formed by a glacial tunnel valley. It is also one of four designated Natural and Scenic rivers of Indiana. (I live on the other side of the creek.)

Despite the recent warm weather, it is still early spring and trees are identified by bark and other characteristics. The beech tree is easy to spot because of its smooth grey bark and the fact it holds its leaves all winter.

We saw a nice example of shelf fungus.

And numerous purple cress in full bud and

the first wildflower in bloom, Harbinger of Spring.

Three: Foxfire Woods Nature Preserve

In my quest to visit 50 ACRES preserves, last evening Steve and I stopped by Foxfire Woods on the way to the Highlands (our tree farm) and we ignored the random capitalization on this sign!

It is a small preserve, just 7.9 acres, acquired in 1974. We hiked a half mile back to the preserve and then the half mile loop through an open forest.

There was not much green yet, but I did find a Christmas fern.
We were entertained by the songs of birds and a very noisy chorus of spring peepers in the vernal pool at the back of the preserve.


Foxfire is a bioluminescent fungus that is best seen in late summer and early fall, but I did see several other fungi.


We saw an interesting burl on a tree.

And when I looked at the other side of the tree, this happy wood gnome was staring back at me.


It was a pleasant way to start our evening, which ended by enjoying a pizza and wine by a campfire at the tree farm.

Two: McNabb-Walter Nature Preserve

Such a busy weekend and I wondered how to fit in another ACRES visit. Then I realized that the McNabb-Walters Nature Preserve is almost across the road from our tree farm and we had to drop a load of wood off at the farm anyway. When our friends Tammy and Brian called, I asked if they wanted to meet us at the preserve for a quick hike. We met at the entrance at 5:00 on Sunday March 7, 2010.


The picture above is the Davis-Fisher Creek which drains into the St. Joseph River. It cuts quite a deep ravine through the land and is pretty even without any leaves. We hiked with Tammy and Brian late last fall along the river ravines, admiring the same stark beauty.


This is a locust tree with thorns over a foot long. Some trees are easy to identify in winter!


These shrubs are native spice bushes (Lindera benzoin) and are hosts to the spicebush butterfly. Their buds are round little balls. If you chew on a twig it tastes like spices - cloves, ginger, nutmeg? Tea can be made from the twigs and seeds.


The trail loops around the remnants of an old sugar shack, as the woods are filled with sugar maples. We found scars on the trees where they were tapped many years ago.


Not much left of the sugar shack,


but we did find an old sleigh used to haul sap to the sugar camp for boiling down. The sleigh was in remarkable condition, but buried by so much debris it was hard to get a picture. Hey, ACRES, this sleigh might be worth salvaging. It was in pretty good condition.


I earnestly searched for green. I refused to take pictures of garlic mustard though. There were a lot of ramps, or wild leeks,...


and a bed of ferns...
And rue was starting to grow. I looked for, but did not find, harbinger of spring. It is probably too early.

And I love fungus. These little buttons had seen better days, though.

Steve and I plan to stop by the preserve more often, coming and going from the tree farm, watching it as it bursts forth with ephemeral spring flowers. We feel a special kinship to it as we made friends with Alwilda McNabb Walters when she was in the nursing home. She told of how her husband's family acquired a lot of the land. They owned a funeral home and if someone could not pay for the funeral, he would accept payment in land.

ACRES 50/50: Kokiwanee

ACRES 50/50

At the beginning of 2010, I had only visited 5 nature preserves out of the 68 preserves owned by ACRES Land Trust. So I decided to make a concerted effort to visit more preserves, specifically to visit 50 preserves this year, to commemorate ACRES’ 50th anniversary.

One: Kokiwanee Nature Preserve, Wabash County

February 28, 2010

It was an overcast day but we had high hopes as my husband and I followed our friends Renee and John to the Salamonie Dam, where they had seen bald eagles the previous Sunday. On the drive, I suggested to Steve that we start visiting ACRES Nature Preserves. At the dam, we did not see any eagles, but several fishermen said they saw some at Kokiwanee several days prior. So we hopped in the cars and I started my quest to discover 50 preserves.

It was a gray day, but we happily hiked down Mossy Heights Trail to a limestone ledge overlooking Salamonie River.

Steve and John arrived first and were getting their binoculars out, while Renee and I followed with her entertaining me with her memories of going to Girl Scout Camp at the site. As we approached the ledge, suddenly she said, “There’s an eagle!” It was perched in a tree directly across the river, giving us a full view. I was startled by its size and how white its head was.

In a few seconds, the eagle flew upriver and we settled in for some serious bird watching. Except where were they? So we inspected the moss on Mossy Heights.

Soon an eagle flew down river. It’s the little black dot in this picture. I don’t have the equipment to capture an eagle flying, although this was the first time I tried it.

A few minutes later, an eagle flew right in front of us. I was too slow to take a picture, but, to tell the truth, my mouth was probably gaping open at the sight.

While it was too icy to tackle the trails, spotting bald eagles was quite a start to my 50 in 50 adventure. I wonder what the next preserve will bring?

From ACRES Land Trust Preserve Guide:

Kokiwanee

Acreage 139.5

Year Acquired:2003

“Kokiwanee features bluffs along the Salamonie River and streams tumbling down waterfalls to flow into the river. This is a place of many species of trees; wildflowers, including snow trillium; and many birds from wood ducks on the river to great blue herons wading where the water is shallow, and many woodland species.”

Pruning Wisteria

As I prune the wisteria (and honeysuckle and Tara vines), I keep picturing the last attempt. Wisteria hysteria. Here are the crime scene photos. At least, I'm not pruning them down to their roots.

I know wisteria should be pruned after it blooms in the spring, but the arbor is deteriorating and I have to get it ready to replace all the uprights and cross-beams this summer. I also need to lessen the snow load this winter.

The Good, The Bad and The Fix

Yesterday was a hard day at work as I pruned the wisteria preparing for a new arbor: snow, cold and up and down the ladder. So when I came home, I was thrilled that Ricky had cleaned the house, taken care of the garbage cans, loaded the dishes and had supper in the oven. We were in the kitchen talking and laughing when he looked at the floor and exclaimed. I turned around to find a huge puddle of water. The dishwasher decided to drain on the floor. We cleaned the mess and drained the rest of the water.

Tonight, facing a lot of dishes after dinner, I decided to fix the dishwasher. I quickly determined that the seal had deteriorated in one corner and pushed the pieces back in place. Getting the carpet cleaner handy to suck up water, I decided to try it again. And it worked!

Steve checked it out and will get a new seal this weekend, but I felt so competent. Recently my sister told the story of how impressed she was when I fixed my dryer when I was single. I had forgotten about it, but I guess I just put the belt back in place. That caused me to wonder how or why I lost competence when I married a man who can take care of things around the house. Yes, it is division of duties and he is much more skilled at maintenance, but why did I stop trying?

Merry Christmas to all

We will soon leave for Christmas Eve services. After Santa comes in the moring, we are going to my inlaws. Saturday is the Bishop Brunch here (over 30) and Sunday is the Ferguson party. You know, the 12 Days of Christmas begins on Christmas.

And here is a thought for this Christmas season.

Decades

My decades coincide with the calendar decades, minus two weeks. Happy Birthday to me as I turn 60 today. Reflecting on the decades, I came up with one word for each. These words are not all-encompassing but capture the general focus of how my life evolved.

20s was my decade for education
30s was my decade for career
40s was my decade for family
50s was my decade for community

What will this next decade bring?

"We can't see the forest for the T- Mobiles"

I don't think this is a problem for garden bloggers, but is it a problem for others? A friend's son recently graduated with a degree in recreational forestry (or something like that!) and his first job is at Pokagon State Park. He doesn't like the wifi in the campgrounds, because it distracts visitors from enjoying nature, but the visitors are demanding it.

I particularly like this part of the article:

Landscape designers talk about bestowing on a garden its genius loci, or spirit of the place, that bubbles up into your consciousness if its presence is strong enough and the visitor meditative enough to receive it.

Harrison says a garden truly reveals itself only when its own depths and those of the beholder flow together. But that takes time. "For the gardens to become fully visible in space, they require a temporal horizon that the age makes less and less room for."

This is my man

It is 27 degrees outside now. He teaches 4th grade and, unless the weather is extreme, they have outside recess. Yesterday he had recess duty and asked a girl (not in his class) if she had a coat. "My Daddy said he would buy me one when he has the money." I mentioned getting a free coat for her at our church's clothing bank. He just gave me a look that said, "This little girl will have a new coat." My husband bought a bright pink coat last night and will leave it on her hook this morning.

This is my husband. A good man, quietly making the world a better place, wanting no recognition. Truth be told, even this post is too much recognition.

Family Drama

Thanksgiving is about family and family is about drama. Right?

Wrong.

I am thankful this year that there is so little drama in my family. Oh, we're passionate and opinionated, but we are also kind. So much family drama involves some type of cruelty.

I don't understand those who thrive on drama, those who create drama for its own sake, those who stir up drama.

So this year, I am thankful that I am part of an extended family that thrives on love and kindness.

Last planting of 2009

I just planted 300 crocus bulbs in irregular groupings where my front walk opens to the sitting area under the maple tree. You can see the opening in this photo, which obviously was taken in late May/early June during the blue phase of my garden. (Yes, I could look up the exact date, but then I would get distracted by something and never post. ) The pond is on the other side of the tree so you are drawn through the opening and under the tree toward the pond. Usually I have reasons for my "designs" even though the reasons may not be obvious to visitors. hey, this is MY garden. The older I get, the more freedom I give myself to do things my way.




















I love the larger crocus but they bloom two weeks later than the early crocus. I am so hungry for flowers in March that I decided to plant the smaller, earlier blooming crocus: white (Biflorus Purity), lilac-blue (Sieberi Tricolor) and yellow (Chrysanthus Goldilocks).

So does that mean my fall chores are done outside? Not quite. I still need to clean up a few beds and add the detritus to the compost pile and then turn the compost pile. I'm composting at the end of a new vegetable garden and will expand the garden next spring to include the compost area.

What are you doing Saturday?

Come join me for a Holiday Walk at Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site in Rome City, Indiana. Here is more information.

I will be working all day and hope to see you there!

Veggies Update

Green Beans
While I was recovering from pneumonia, the green beans came and went. We were able to have German Potato Salad with fresh green beans and new potatoes before I was stricken, but there are no beans in the freezer and dried pods are still on the vine in the garden. I may start a fall crop and hope we have a long fall.

Potatoes
For some reason, growing potatoes gives me a thrill, cutting the tuber in small pieces and getting a bounty from it. I still have some to dig and I hope they are OK with all the rain we have had these last several weeks.

Corn
This is my second year growing corn. Last year I was able to freeze enough to see us through the winter. This year, we had one good meal and two rather pathetic meals from the garden. They germinated sparingly and about half of them grew tall and the other half were stunted.

Tomatoes
Just starting the harvest. I love the heirloom "black" tomatoes. I'm drying most the Roma tomatoes with oil, garlic and herbs.

Peppers
These are just starting to produce. I look forward to a good harvest of red and yellow bell peppers.

Cucumbers
This is my third season growing cucumbers. The first year was good, last year was horrible and this year was amazing. I have canned many pints and quarts of bread-and-butter pickles and still the vines are producing.

Grapes
I have watched many clusters of grapes form on the vines and mature to fat green clusters, tracking their ripeness carefully so I can pick them at the peak pectin stage for grape jelly. Then I went out this weekend and I may have ten grapes (not ten clusters, but grapes). What happened? Luckily, my in-laws have lots and lots to share with me. Oh, and the wild grapes are about ready to pick also.

Teenage Sons

I have a category called teenage sons. I will have to change it to sons, because they are no longer teenagers. I started blogging when they were 13 and now they are 20. The last seven years have gone by quickly (and sometimes slowly).

It's a whole new parenting game, guiding them while letting them stand on their own. They are so eager to fly from the nest, but I want to help them avoid any big crashes. About the time I master this stage of parenting, they will be on to the next stage. But so it went in every previous stage.

CobraHead

I'm a winner! Of course, thanks to the good people at CobraHead, all commenters were winners. I thank Carol at May Dreams Garden (check out her blog) and I thank the CobraHead family (buy their tools).

It has been an unusual summer, and I'm not talking about the weather, which warrants several posts. I started strong. Then the day after my niece's graduation party at our house, I went to my bed with pneumonia and didn't get up for ten days. It has taken a while for me to get any energy back. I'm told that is to be expected, but, having been healthy all my life, I'm impatient to be able to work all day in the gardens at Gene Stratton-Porter and then come home and whip out the housework, dinner and work in my garden.

Which circles me back to the CobraHead. After two months of neglect, I spent the weekend in my garden. I made good use of the CobraHead and it is definitely a wonderful tool. I tackled the ornamental garden along my walk and it sure lifts my spirits to see it looking so nice.

As I was removing errant grass under the hydrangea with the CobraHead yesterday, I noticed the funniest looking worm slithering away. Wait, worms don't slither. It was the smallest brown snake I ever saw, about 4" long and 1/4" across. I lifted it up with the CobraHead and it moved its tiny head back and forth and flicked its little tongue. A cobra wanna be?

My guiding principle

Two bits of wisdom from my past converged this week resulting in an epiphany of my life's philosophy.

My Father and Tennyson
My father read Tennyson and I have his book, The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, copyrighted in 1892. When I was a mere child, Dad had my sister and I commit to memory a portion of Lady Clara Vere de Vere. This portion is underlined in Dad's book:

Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
and simple faith than Norman blood.

This week I was reminded of the verse when my husband wrote a parody for a friend based on The Lady of Shalott and we pulled out Dad's book for reference.

Proverb Plaque
A few days later, I noticed a plaque hanging in my house. I hand-carved a proverb 25 years ago as a gift to my ex-husband, trying to encourage him to live a better life. When he left, he left the plaque. I put it away, but when my husband found it years later, he loved it because of the sentiment and because I carved it. He insisted that it be hung. This is Proverbs 21:21, Revised Standard Version:

He who pursues righteousness and kindness will find life and honor.

The Epiphany
Is there anything more winsome than kindness? Righteousness connotes that one is living a life that is pleasing to God and the root word in Hebrew means upright, just, straight, innocent, true, sincere.

Can I live a life of kindness? Can I live a life that pleases God? I often fail, but it will not stop me from pursuing kindness and righteousness.

Exercising My Brain's Executive Network

While you may have thought my last post was about daydreaming, I was only giving my lateral medial prefrontal cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex a heavy work-out.

Here's the basis for my claim.

Garden Plans

It's a rainy dreamy day and I'm dreaming of my veggie garden.

Steve tilled the fenced garden this week and I wanted to plant today since I'm off work. I can just see the sweet corn, green beans, Roma tomatoes, red peppers, and cucumbers (for bread and butter pickles). The heirloom tomatoes and basil will go in the raised bed once I harvest the spinach and lettuce. The new compost bed has potatoes coming up and I think I will put some squash on the end.

Aliens Attack Earth Girl's Home

Several alien invaders have insidiously established strongholds around our home, but Steve and I have been attacking them on several fronts. Here's a report from the fighting front.

Bush Honeysuckle
Twenty years ago when I noticed how much the birds like the red berries on the pretty bush by the bridge, I should have been suspicious. Now we are surrounded by bushes, blocking our view of the woods. This spring we launched a full scale attack. While there have been skirmishes elsewhere, the main battles have been along the stream bed and the meadow edges.

Autumn Olive
Oh, your heavenly scent seduced me into leaving just one or two bushes. Then you show your true colors. If you cut the thorny bush down, it sends out suckers. Off with its head with a few drops of pure glyphosate on its neck. It likes to hang out with the honeysuckle, but our brush pile is now about 20 feet tall as we attack both invasive shrubs.

Multiflora Roses
Sure, you call yourself a rose, but I call you dead. Once upon a time, I had a pretty native pink rose growing here; what did you do with her?

Garlic Mustard
Just search my blog with this term to find out how long I've been battling this alien. Every time I think I have won, I find you hiding among the canes of the multiflora roses, or under a large mayapple. And you are mutating into ever shorter plants all the better to hide from me. But I have trained my eyes to find you, even to the point of missing the morels.

Potential Threats
I won't even mention the English ivy that is trying to creep into the woods, or the ajuga romping along the stream edge, or the dandelions, or the red osier or poison ivy. And how did lily of the valley get in the woods?

Please send care packages!

Resilience

This article captures what I think is one of the secrets to a successful and happy personal life, and it makes the case that it is effective for other systems also. Resilience is a skill that we have worked hard to teach one of our sons, battered through his experiences before we adopted him at almost six years old. It is not his natural state, but he has made great strides.

GSP Outdoors

Check out the recent posts on GSP Outdoors. Our site director is now posting on it also and there are pictures of wildflowers, salamanders and bobcat tracks, all from the grounds of the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site.

An Easter Sunday

As my nephew, his friend and my son headed up to the road to play ball today (and why in the road when we have a perfectly good meadow?), I called after them to watch for cars. Our road is not heavily traveled, but there are two sharp curves that block vision. My husband laughed and reminded me that my nephew and his friend just returned from combat duty and could probably handle the rare car on a back road. The "boys" were good-natured about my warning though.

A walk is always on the agenda after we eat and we headed down into the lowlands next to Cedar Creek. Yes, we did get a bit muddy, but the spring flowers were just emerging. I discovered several large patches of wild leeks or ramps (Allium tricoccum). My ten-year-old nephew was especially interested in identifying animal tracks in the mud. He called me over to look at one track that he couldn't identify, but my husband identified it first. As Sean held a mud caked stick behind his back, my husband announced it was the track of the wild Sean-boy dog.

Pileated Woodpeckers (plural)

I just walked onto the back deck and saw 2 - TWO - pileated woodpeckers in the woods. I looked because of the loud pecking and then saw the second further back in the woods moving around the tree and then flying to another tree. I wonder if we will have baby peckers this spring?

Wonders

There is a lot of chatter on blogs about the medical benefits of letting children play in the dirt. I just read an interesting article about how high fever, whether viral, bacterial or plasmodic in origin, triggers the immune system to fight cancer.

Deja Vu

Just when I thought I had nothing for a blog post, there is a twin repeat from last week. Car in ditch. Ricky this time. "Mom, it's been 3 months since the last time."

Oh, he's fine, except for a huge bruise on his left shoulder and some self-disgust that it happened.

I've changed my (kitchen) ways

Parchment paper
I grew up "greasing" cookie pans. It worked but was messy. Parchment paper is easy to use, easy to clean and works well. I recently tried "Baker's Joy" oil and flour spray and didn't like it except for those tiny muffin tins that are impossible to grease and flour as well as pans with ridges.

Chef's knife
I used a Chef knife for the last 15 years of my 40 or so years of adult cooking. Whap, whap, whap and I'm done slicing and dicing. I remember Mom dicing a whole onion with a paring knife while holding it in her hand.

Joy of Cooking
I started with a Betty Crocker cookbook. Sure, there are serviceable recipes in it and I still use a few of them. I changed my ways about 1985 with the purchase of Joy. It gives me so much background and variations that I often I just create my own recipes. I am now migrating to the internet, researching recipe variations and then creating my own.

Microplaner
In the olden days, I used the smallest side of a grater to zest lemons and oranges. Then I upgraded to a Pampered Chef zester. It was easier but still resulted in chunky zest. The microplaner is perfect. I use it for nutmeg and hard cheese also.

Potato Masher
For years I whipped out the mixer to whip potatoes. I now scrub the potato, cut them into small chunks, skin on, and then use the oh-so-quiet potato masher. We like little chunks in the potatoes, especially with lots of butter (and cream cheese or sour cream or whatever else I feel like adding.)

Pyrex small bowls with lids
I bought eight 2-cup glass bowls to bake and serve individual berry puff puddings at a dinner party. I used them so much afterward that I bought four 1-cup bowls and lids and then another eight bowls. I use these bowls instead of plastic storage containers or freezer bags for most items. Cook, freeze, microwave, serve--all in the same bowl. I use the refrigerator freezer to store prepared food in these containers and all we have to do is pop the lid and microwave. Right now, you could serve yourself potato soup, cuban black bean soup, turkey and noodles, chili soup, teriyaki pork or meatballs from these bowls, all neatly stacked in my small freezer.

A day at The Highlands

After church, breakfast and grading homework, we headed out to the tree farm for some cross-country skiing. We call it The Highlands because of the 70 foot bluff overlooking the river and the fact that my husband's ancestors came from Scotland.























We discovered the neighbors from the Art Farm (two artists are rehabbing an old Amish farm across the road, starting with purple paint) had laid ski tracks around our land and through the neighbor's woods. A fine powder of snow filled the tracks for perfect skiing. The weather seemed balmy (24 degrees) and the sun was shining, but the wind was blowing hard. After some skiing, we built a little fire in a sheltered spot and warmed up Cuban black bean soup for lunch.























We hit the trails again and then switched to boots to prune some of the trees. Note the small hardwoods behind Steve. We are pruning so all the hardwoods have one dominant straight leader. This is called financial pruning (best timber price when mature) rather than aesthetic pruning, although I let one oak in an open spot continue growing with spreading branches. Maybe someone will put a swing there someday.

Daily Life/Daily Disasters

I'm sure glad yesterday is done, over, kaput, never to be seen again. Today has been much better (so far).

First, the temperature is now a balmy 26 degrees compared to last night's negative 14 degrees. I went outside several times today in just a lightweight jacket, while I dressed in layers yesterday. I recently read that what I call long underwear is now called a base layer. Much more civilized, don't you think?

Second, I got a call from my son yesterday morning. He was sitting in the ditch in the canyons, just like his brother several months ago. Car sustained damage from the front bumper to the rear bumper. Son missed the big trees. Son was not injured. This is his "new" car. My husband cosigned for it. Insurance is already over $1400 a year for him. And to top it all, I told him to stay home and he disobeyed. Last night I decided to talk to him as an adult instead of a child. I reminded him of Proverbs 19:20, "Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days." And I think his eyes glazed over while I was talking.

Finally, I made the best Cuban Black Bean Soup last night. See that line: If a thicker, smoother soup is desired, purée half of the soup in a blender. I decided I wanted a thicker soup, so I put part of it in the blender and hit pulse. The lid flew off and black goop literally flew five feet in every direction. Today, my kitchen is clean and I'm heating a bowl of soup for supper.