Fox & Geese anyone?

This winter must be getting a little long...I'm attempting to blog again!

After our recent little 5-6" snowstorm, we got another dose of "pretty" and everything was white again.  Then right away the next morning I looked out our window and I saw this:

That is evidence of our two flocks of turkeys--one with about 30 turkeys and another flock fewer in number but BIGGER turkeys...like this:

These turkeys pretty much live in and around our yard all day, mostly because we feed them--and the deer--shelled corn twice a day.

Looking out at all of the turkey (and deer) tracks in our yard brings to mind a couple things related to expanses of untouched snow.  One memory relates to the title of this blog--the game of Fox and Geese. [http://grandmaideas.com/fox-and-geese]  To play this game in the snow you first need to mark out the playing area in the shape of a wagon wheel, like this:

The center is "home" or free space for the "geese" and the fox "it" chases the geese only on the spokes of the wheel.  This was something we often played when my cousin Charlotte and her family were around.

My other memory comes from when I was about 11 or 12 and living in Illinois.  The mother of one of my classmates was VERY particular about how her front yard looked and got quite upset when any of the neighbor kids (perhaps her daughter and friends?) played in the snow in their front yard and messed it up.  She wasn't even my mother and that's what still comes to mind when I look out on a "messed up" yard.  I wonder how my friend, Jeanne, has come through life!!

But we really like our turkeys and deer.  And come spring and summer we are going to have a crop of grass like no other, because those turkeys leave behind more more than just turkey tracks!

And here are a couple of today's deer visitors.  Turkeys all day, deer all night!

Always catching up!

I hate when I drop off the blogging train.  I get so behind!  And then there is too much to write about, but I guess I'll just get started.

Spring has definitely come, but before we get too enthusiastic about planting gardens full of flowers and vegetables, we are facing one more threatened dose of snow tomorrow night to Monday.  So far we have only planted onions and also some spinach that hasn't shown up yet.  We moved the onions to where the potatoes were last year.  Definitely didn't need that many potatoes!  But they are so fun to harvest!

On Tuesday we went to Hauser's Nursery and Orchard in Bayfield to check out their selection of plants and trees.  And what a selection!  And what a view of Lake Superior from up on that hill!  Notice the barn quilt there on the side of the barn.  Leann wants to make one of those for our very much smaller "barn."

We left there with three new trees--a Honeycrisp and two Connell Reds, a currant bush, burning bush, two forsythias, several new perennials and some herbs.  Most are all planted except the herbs and maybe I should bring them inside tonight!

Our wildlife viewing is also going into summer mode.  One of the last pictures on our wildlife camera when it was still located in the backyard aimed at the deer feeder was this cute little guy checking out the food situation.  By this time, I don't think there was anything much there that would interest him.

Also in our back yard was this pile of evidence that the bears are out of hibernation.  I have a closeup if there's any question it's from a bear...  We haven't seen any actual bears yet but someone saw a mother and three babies not far down Highway 13.  Gotta watch those bird feeders now!

So,  now I moved the camera to a spot across the field in our front yard.  There are always a lot of deer out there, so I put it there to see what else visits us in the night.  Here's another not-so-little raccoon:

And here's the back end of something dog-like.  It doesn't look straggly enough to be a coyote and it's got a pretty bushy tail so maybe a fox, but foxes are usually a little smaller.  Wolf?  Probably not...

This deer posed nicely...

And then today we have this wild species riding a different kind of "deere!"  Yes, it's mowing time again.  A sure sign of summer!

Hot topic, at least for now - Ice caves!

Another 11,000+ visitors came to see the ice caves today.  Our B&B guests spent most of 6 hours today getting to Meyers Beach--the starting point--and then walking out onto Lake Superior to make the trek over to the caves.  The weather was perfect--sunny and temps in the upper 30's, so it was a perfect day on the Lake.

Our pilot friend Carri posted a Facebook account from a friend who flew up here from Oshkosh (I think) today to see the caves.  Check out the link above to see the rest of his pictures, but I was interested in seeing the crystal clear ice he had to land on with the ice on the rock walls behind him.

They don't allow any motorized vehicles within a certain distance of the National Lakeshore area, so he had to land a distance away from the shore.  THEN he had to TIE DOWN his plane so it didn't "ski" away while he was away checking out the caves.  He did this with ice screws and apparently it worked great.  Last year Carri landed her plane out on the Lake on the day we were there, but then there was a think layer of snow so tying it down might have been easier.  There's something about ice that clear and that smooth on that BIG Lake that just fascinates me!

And finally, below is the crew of eight or nine deer that shows up every late afternoon around 5:30 to see what's what in the feedbox in our back yard.  They are usually pretty feisty with each other.  The bullies get up on their hind legs and "box" the others away with their front hooves.  It explains the marks and scars that some of them have on their backs.  

Time to change the clocks again!  I like this one best because it means spring will soon be here!

Blogging to the sound of fierce winter winds!

Wow!  First post of the new year and where have I been these last seven days?  Here, nowhere but here, so what's my problem?  As usual, I have no excuses and no good reasons for NOT posting, so I will just begin the year as if it was January 1!

Actually I have many good reasons TO post!  While the sun hasn't been showing itself lately, we had this BEAUTIFUL sunrise back on New Years' Eve morning.  The East was on fire!  This is looking to the southeast which seems a strange direction for a sunrise.  It should be rising on the far LEFT side of this photo--and even more left...but I guess that would be summer and we wouldn't be hearing these fierce winter winds outside.

Our trip down to The Lake that same day (no more sun!) showed our two fishing boats sitting in their over-winter position in the middle of the backwaters.  I haven't checked with anyone official, but I think they park them like that so it's an easier straight shot out of the harbor when fishing can begin again in March...or April...or May.  Sign of the season, for sure.

Last Sunday we could feel the resurgence of winter when the winds started up and the temps started down.  This picture is a combination of some blowing snow and the cold making the little bit of open water steam.  If this was happening on a big scale, it's what would be bringing us our lake effect snow.  On the bottom of the picture you can see the ice in the channel and how it has been piling up and stacking up.  Up close it looks like sharp shards of glass.  It all looks promising for more ice caves this year, but we need to stay in this frigid condition for the next month...and do we really want to do that?

And this was a few of our deer friends at our feeder late this afternoon.  It's been below zero with wicked wind chills, so it's not surprising that they are stepping up where the eating is easy!

So, I have had many reasons to post, but my most important reason came yesterday when I was reading some of the blogs on my Feedly list.  I noticed my cousin, Ingabritt, (originally from Sweden but now living in Greece) had posted a new blog post.  I still have to use Google Translate to read her blog quickly--or to get more meaning out of it than my feeble Swedish skills give me--, and right away I saw her title translated to "My Hardest Posts."  And my heart sank.  As I read on, she said this would be her last post because of health reasons, that she was closing down her blog about her life in Greece that she had been keeping up for the last seven years.  I knew that she had been fighting cancer for the last several years, but I also knew that she had continued her blog throughout many times of treatments and medications.  So when she said she was closing it down for good, I knew something more had happened.  

Here's a translation of part of her blog, and remember, this is a "Google Translate" translation from her Swedish so it's not as smoothly written as if it were her original words:

You may have noticed that the blog has been a bit sporadic and uninspired the last time and it is due to poor health. And I put it down rather than have a half bad blog that is not updated. But oh, how it feels difficult. The blog has been my companion for more than seven years. The idea of it has been with me everywhere and almost everything I have experienced, I have done in the company of it.The blog and my camera has been my extended arm. And among the best of all, of course, having been in touch with you readers, both known and unknown! Your comments and questions and positive feedback. Some of you have been following me for years and some have also become my friends in real life. But now it will not be anymore. So even though it feels like that sad as it may cause goodbye to a good friend, so I must do it. THANKS for being with me on this journey!

I've called Ingabritt my blog "mentor" and in the short time I've kept this blog, I understand when she says it became a companion to her; strange as it may sound, this blog is always in my thoughts (even when I don't post), and, yes, it's always great to hear from readers!  But mostly I was so happy to reconnect with her as family.  It meant so much to me to find her--and her blog--on the Internet last February!  And look what that started for me!

So, posts that are hard to post are also very hard to read, and accept, Ingabritt.  Thanks so much for your influence in my life!
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And as happens in life, we also had some very good news today!  Leann's sister, Kristi, was back at Mayo for a checkup today a month after her cancer surgery, and she received great news!  The cancer appears to be gone and she will start up a pre-emptive chemo dosage, but pills rather than infusions!  Yes!  I guess what all these ups and downs teach me is to live each day to its fullest possibility, and not let anyone, anything, or any excuses keep us from living our best life!

Waiting for the fog to lift

Too many warm days like this and there will be no possibility of ice caves this year!  Temps up in the lower 40s and we didn't even wear jackets.  And when we went down to The Lake, this was all we saw.  We're wondering when we will see the sun again!

Last night was the big Lutefisk & Meatball Dinner put on by the First Lutheran Church.  Lots of people came to get their annual infusion of lutefisk...and the rest just had meatballs!  I grew up eating lutefisk every Christmas Eve and I thought it all was delicious.  All the cooks and planners did a great job!

Last time I posted we were just bringing in our Christmas tree from the meadow.  We finally got it all decorated, even the ornament up at the very top.  That was acccomplished by Leann by standing probably too high up on the ladder and leaning in a little.  Next year we'll remember to put it on BEFORE we stand up the tree...and put water in the base.  This year we remembered to measure it while it was still outside and cutting off what needed to go BEFORE we brought it inside.  Learning can happen every day/year!

And finally, we finally got our trail cam put out and pointed at the deer feeder.  Leann made a post with a stabilizing base that we can move to a good position and it's easy to swap out the photo chips to download the pictures.   Mostly we've had bluejays during the day and deer at night.  These jays below are posing nicely.

And these are all in the middle of munching sunflower seeds by hammering them on the side of the box.

And this is our deer friend we've been calling "Mouse Ears" because they look like they've been frozen or damaged at some point in her life.  She's been coming here for a couple years now.

Someone recently suggested that deer might be attracted here by putting out some hay.  So I bought a bale of alfalfa from down here at Johnson's Store and it looks like he might be right.  Turns out he's the one that sold the bales to the store!  Marketing!

Then one night (by the digital time I see it was morning!) we had a group of three deer at the feeder.  They weren't posing very well though.

This one, however, got the memo about posing!

Nighttime visitors & daytime Christmas tree treks

We've had our backyard feeding station set up for a couple weeks now.  Our first diners during the daytime have been bluejays...lots and lots of bluejays!  I don't know if they are staying for the winter or just passing through.  There are so many of them that they even keep the crows away!

But it's at night that things get interesting.  At first it was just all of the wind gusts blowing grasses and things that set off the motion lights outside.  Now in the last week there have been actual animal eaters causing the lights to go on.

These are two of the foxes that we've seen around here.  Our neighbor calls them cross foxes because they are gray with some red fur, too.  There are two here...one is hiding.

Not the sharpest pictures at night in low-ish light.  There's the second fox.

We first saw this big guy a couple weeks ago, just before hunting season.  And seeing him back a couple nights ago shows he made it through this year's "10 days of hunting."  He looks pretty big here but that other one was really very small, maybe from this summer's fawns.

He looks pretty healthy there.

Leann is home from Rochester now, it was a beautiful day, so we snowshoed up to the meadow to get our two Christmas trees--one for inside the house and a little one for the front porch.

We had tentatively picked this one a couple weeks ago, but there are always second thoughts when it comes time to cut it down.  We almost picked the white pine next to this one.  It was REALLY wide but needed a little more height.  So back into the pot for another year!  That's Leann peeking through the branches.

We tied two sleds together to have something long enough to haul them back up to the house.  That little "Charlie Brown tree" laying on top is the one destined for the front porch.  It was trying to grow in the shadows of some bigger trees, so it was a good one to get out of the way.

Down the hill, over the creek, and up the hill over to the house.

Guess what we'll be doing tomorrow?

Everyone here for the concert!

So glad to have Leann home for the weekend.  She spent all last week at Mayo with her sister, Kristi, who started her first of 5 1/2 weeks of radiation treatments.  But they both came home here yesterday and were joined by Leann's other sister, Sandy and their Mom today.  And they all came to go to the Sara Thomsen concert tonight at our friends' gallery in town, the Hoth Lee Art Gallery.

It was such a nice concert, lots of our friends and others who enjoy Sara's music.  And intermission with yummy snacks and a glass of wine!  Thanks, Sandy & Nancy for hosting another great concert.

And before concert time we got a few jobs taken care of.  Sandy got the task of getting the new "Public Beach/Pier" sign ready to hook onto the rest of the arrow signs.  Leann painted the sign and we just needed the eyes screwed into the top to connect to the hooks on the sign above.  Whew!  Got that done and it's still summer...almost...

At the concert tonight we heard that a mother bear and three babies were seen crossing our field in front of our house.  But we missed it!  We did, however, come home to this cutie on our driveway tonight.  We don't know what kind of snake it is, but it's pretty little...as you can see.  Maybe all snakes move in kind of a side-winder manner, but this one did and it was kind of creepy...

Labor Day already! Can you feel the gears shift?

If you come from Minnesota, Labor Day is the day before the first day of school.  There was always great anxiety in our house the evening of Labor Day with two little girls getting backpacks and new outfits ready for the next day.  And I probably added my own anxiety since I also was starting school/work that next day.  (Not a problem anymore!  Yay!)

I grew up in Wisconsin and Illinois where we started school late in August.  So any anxiety about starting school was past and it was a day to work around the house and yard.  I remember lots of car washing happening on Labor Day.  And, since my parents' anniversary was on September 7th, some years--when the dates coincided and they remembered--that became part of Labor Day remembrances.

Today we awoke to a rushing creek flowing in the ravine behind our house following the gully-washer of a storm last night.  Our guests wondered if we had arranged the evening's show last night, especially that one mighty CR-AAA-CK right near the house that we're sure took down a tree somewhere.  (More on our guests below) The rain gauge only showed 1 1/2 inches of rain but the creek showed more!

This has been a dried up bed of clay since June!  Like I said...gully-washer!

And this is the road up to our trails.  I don't think we'll be making any 4-wheeler trips up to the meadow anytime soon without tearing up the road.

Tomorrow we're going to try to remember to go down to Twin Falls where all this water leads.

So, we went with the "labor" theme today and took care of some veggies.   We made another batch of "Best Ever Sliced Luncheon Pickles," taken from my mother's 1966 edition of the St. Croix County, Wisconsin, Extension Homemakers Cookbook.  Can you tell the age by the name of the recipe?  You just don't hear the word "luncheon" much anymore!  They are really good though!  Cucumbers, onions, red and green peppers, vinegar, sugar and salt.  Not processed, just kept in the fridge.

Also, we made a first attempt at dilly beans.  Until this past year I don't think I've ever heard of dilly beans, but everyone talks about them around here, so we gave them a try.  Then we froze the rest of the beans, although there are many more out on the vines.  Tomorrow we'll try freezing carrots.  We have many more in the ground and no good place to store them over winter.  And...we're going to try basil pesto with pine nuts--you grind it all up, freeze it in cubes in ice cube trays, and throw in a cube or two into spaghetti or something similar.  Love this time of year!

If you check my blogroll on the right, you will see a new blog listed there called My Minnesota, and the author/blogger is John Harrington who stayed with us as B&B guests last night.  He and his "Better Half" were on a getaway and explored our part of the Lake and Wisconsin while they were here.  Check out his blog today to see what he discovered!

Finally, we "discovered" this mom and kids out on our ride tonight.  It was past dusk and almost dark, so they look like I've applied an effect to the picture.  No effect, but didn't they pose nicely?

Happy first day of school to all our school friends!

Blogs in the Spotlight: John-Robert McFarland

I haven't done a "Blogs in the Spotlight" lately, but today seems like a good day to feature my friend and once campus minister, Rev. John-Robert McFarland.

John-Robert back in May, 1972, shaking hands with my roommate at his going-away gathering.

When I went to Illinois State University in September, 1971, John-Robert was the campus minister at the Wesley Foundation which was the United Methodist presence on campus.  The first weekend we were there, my roommate (see above) and I went to the "Inner Ear" coffee house (it WAS the early '70's after all!) where all the campus religious groups were doing their introductions and giving out information.  Even though John Robert left after my freshman year to go on to get his doctorate, the Wesley Foundation became an important place for me, as well as an employer, for the rest of my years at ISU.  I still have contact with lots of WF friends.

There are lots of reasons why I would feature him here, and I suppose the main reason would be because he is a blogger---but he'd probably relate to being referred to as a writer more than a blogger.  His blogs are his vehicles for disseminating his daily writings.  And he actually has three blogs to his name--two are now the more active ones.  

In Christ in Winter he writes from his location in Upper Michigan (that's the "winter" part) and subtitles it, "Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter…" Just recently he began a blog that I think he would like to call "Just Words," and this was at the request of the publisher, Black Opal Books, of his latest book coming out soon, Vets.  Today's post in this blog explains the situation with Amazon Books and Hachette Books, both Goliaths (as he calls them) in the book biz, and the negative effect both have on authors and all the smaller book sellers.  As an Amazon addict with my iPad loaded with Kindle (Amazon) books, I really need to think about this.  So, support your local little bookstores when possible, and think about the authors who get caught up in the politics of this situation.

John-Robert is also a cancer survivor...big-time cancer survivor!  Back in February, 1990, a seemingly minor issue sent him into the hospital, finding himself in the operating room at midnight, and waking up to learn he had colon cancer and only part of his colon--something he now calls his "semi-colon."  His oncologist then told him he would be dead "in one to two years."  That was 24 years ago.  So much for predictions.  But based on his experiences and his year-long cancer drug trial, he wrote the book, NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them, which I think I have whole-heartedly recommended here in a previous post to anyone who wants to look at life in a new way, cancer or not.

If you ever have been asked or thought about who those top five significant people might be in your life, John-Robert is one of them for me.  He has done so many interesting things in his life with so many interesting people, which he writes about in another of his books, THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry.  And I'm sure I will write more about him in the future!

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Update on our deer - We think Mom and Little One, or LO as I'm calling it, are still here and doing fine.  I did see a fox or coyote coming near to where LO was resting, but no damage done.  And, several crows were attacking a raven which upset Mom very much, so she was chasing the crows around the yard!  Quite the show indeed!

Just chillin' in the weeds 'til Momma comes!

Early this afternoon Leann was trimming up the long grass over by the sugar shack when she was surprised by this:

Actually, I don't know who was more surprised, Leann or the little fawn.  He/she jumped up when Leann came along, but then lay down just a short distance away.  Mom must have said to stay there, and he/she did!

They seem to have a habit of hiding down in the tall grass.  Unfortunately, hiding out like this sometimes leads to unhappy endings for baby deer as our friend found out recently.  The story is too sad to tell!

Of course I wondered all afternoon if mom ever came back.  When I checked the first time a couple hours after this picture was taken, he/she was still there with no mom in sight.  But, good news. Leann saw both mom and baby together this evening.

Now we can all sleep!

Orioles, wild flowers and red squirrel remorse

Now that spring finally got started, it seems like it's "bustin' out all over." (Thank you, Rodgers & Hammerstein!)  All our birds from last week are still here this week only in higher numbers.  But today we had a new surprise!

Meet Mrs. Baltimore Oriole.  Mr. was around, too, but not when I had my camera.  He's much brighter...of course.  Last week we put out this dish with jelly in it because we've heard it attracts orioles.  And...success!  I haven't seen an oriole around here for a long time!

And the wildflowers are also waking up.  We were surprised to see lots of trilliums in our woods this morning, but, alas, no camera.  I had better luck on my rather misty walk today -- wild strawberries, pussytoes, and marsh marigolds, also called cowslips.

Wild strawberries

Pussytoes (I should have zoomed in a little more, but they look like little cat feet.)

This bunch of marsh marigolds is right along our driveway.  Leann dug them up from someplace years ago and planted them in the marshy ditch by the driveway.  They come back every year but it must not be the IDEAL spot, because the bunch never gets much bigger.

And now for my remorse, the red squirrel variety.  Tonight I went to my Feedly blogroll and there was Laura Erickson's blog, Laura's Birding Blog.  Laura Erickson is an expert on birds and kind of a favorite daughter-in-law of our town, and she often comes back for various birding purposes. Her mother-in-law, Helen, now some past 90, was a major force in all kinds of community organizations, especially church and museum, when she was in her best days...which was really until just a year or so ago.   Anyway, in Laura's blog she discusses her attempt to eradicate an insect infestation on one of her orchids, and goes on to ponder other beings that we call pests, questioning our right to fight pests and the possible consequences, as with the passenger pigeons.

Since we were gone several days, one of my first tasks this morning was to fill the bird feeders for all our bird friends.  But who should show up for the filled feeder but a little red squirrel.  He hangs upside down, clinging to the "squirrel-proof" feeder with his little toes, and sucks in the sunflower seeds from the tray.  With gray squirrels, we can always go to the window, pound on it, maybe even open the window and yell, and they run away.  This little red squirrel had no fear.  I was looking around for something to toss at him.  I finally tried a handful of tongue depressors, one at a time - we somehow have a box of them leftover from a school project, I'm sure.  Turns out tongue depressors are way too light and, also, I can't throw very well.  Next weapon was an old ski pole.  I thought I would stand inside the screen-less window and just whack at the deck floor and scare him.  Again, no fear.  So finally I took my ski pole outside and actually walked up to him and whacked at him...a little.  And he ran away down the ravine, but was back with a vengeance later in the afternoon.

So now, thanks to Laura and my friend who also heard my squirrel story tonight, I'm feeling remorseful.  After all, what's a few sunflower seeds??