Feeling Lucky

And who wouldn’t if you found not one, but two four leaf clovers in one morning? 
We walked down a different road this morning and while I was taking pictures of wildflowers, Jim just happened to look down and there was a four leaf clover.
We continued on our walk, I took more pictures of flowers.  I saw another fresh badger den , held my camera down and got a picture of dirt.  OK…no one home and no one hissing…thank goodness.  We got back to where he found the first four leaf and as he glanced over to the right, there was another one!

So now what to do with these 2 lucky four leaf clovers?  Press them?  That’s what I did.  Right now they’re way in the back yellow pages of a Madison phone book with two other phone books on top of it.
I couldn’t help but think of this song and now I can’t get it out of my head.  Care to join me in a verse or two?

♫♫♫♫♫♫
   I'm looking over a four-leaf clover
That I overlooked before
One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain
Third is the roses that grow in the lane

No need explaining, the one remaining
Is somebody I adore
I'm looking over a four-leaf clover
That I overlooked before
♫♫♫♫♫♫

Summer Sweetness

Back in April I was seeing lots and lots of sweet little blueberry blossoms all over the place.   The weather stayed mild and for once there wasn’t a late spring killing frost.    Even the bees were happy to see all these pretty blossoms.On our morning walks, we watched the blossoms turn into little green berries and all of a sudden…..BLUEBERRIES are starting to ripen! 
Yesterday we went out with our pails to see if we could find enough for blueberry pancakes and by gosh we did! Had these for breakfast with real maple syrup!  Mmm mmm good!  This is just the beginning of a great year for blueberries.  Last summer we picked them in August.  Hope it will be a good year for blackberries too. 

Down by the Pond

We’ve had a lot of rain here in the last couple months and so far Barney the head beaver has done an excellent job of keeping up the dam.  
This morning I took a walk down there to see how high the water is and how the dam was holding up.  It’s been at least 10 years since there’s been this much water out there.  After each rain, we see Barney cruising around and checking out the dam.  During the night he must call in the rest of the family and they all get together and have a big ol’ dam party!  This morning a little water was going over the top and some was coming through it but not bad, considering how much rain we’ve had.  I think they do a dam good job. 

There’s lots of birds and waterfowl around here because the beavers created this pond.  We’ve seen 3 different duck families and a goose family out there this summer.

Today I finally got a picture of the Catbird that has nest somewhere near the dam.  I could hear the little ones, but couldn’t see the nest.   Mrs.  Catbird was scolding me, so I took her picture and left her alone with her babies.  Catbirds are all gray with a patch of black on the top of their heads.  They eat lots of bugs and  have a really pretty song.   Nice birds to have around.

Hissy Wisconsin Badger

bagYesterday after it stopped raining we went for a walk in the Bird Sanctuary.  Along the road we saw this hole that looked like fresh badger diggings. 
Whenever we see something like this we tell Molly to “smell that hole”.  If it’s a fresh one, she’ll really check it out.  If it’s an old one, she’ll just walk on by.  This one got her interested and she really gave it a good sniffing.
So I figure something must be in there and I’d better take a picture of it.  I get my camera all set, flash on and hold it down by the hole.  All of a sudden I hear this growly, hissing sound, scaring the crap out of me and here’s my blurry picture.
Yup, it snapped the picture as I was jumping out of the way.  Darned badger. 
We continue on our walk and decide to try again on our way back.   Or I should say, Jim’s going to try again.  No way was I going to get near that hissing badger.  Camera’s ready, Molly and I are on the other side of the road and Jim’s takes this picture.  Now, all you can see is dirt.  The badger kept digging into the side of the road and filled in the hole. 
We had an extra special treat last night.  Little Mama Doe came by to show off her little fawn.  So adorable seeing this tiny little deer so close.  Besides the pictures that I took through 3 panes of glass, the trail cam got some nice pictures too.  It made my day!

Father’s Day Visitors

These two came by last night to get their pictures taken.  I don’t know if they’re father and son or not, but I’m going to say they are.   The big guy gets kind of pushy with the little spike buck and makes him run off, but last night they were getting along and let me take their picture.  I’d be very surprised if this one makes it through another hunting season and northern winter.  We were shocked to see him this spring.  Oh and Jim did find both of his antlers from last year.  

From the Trail Cams

Saturday night we got back up here after being home for 5 days.  We left the trail cam up in the usual spot with a little corn down for the deer, squirrels, birds and bunnies.  We put the second cam on a tree that’s on the edge of woods and overlooks our neighbor’s hayfield.  There was no corn or anything else by this one to lure the critters within camera range.  We were really hoping to see Mama Doe with her little one(s) again and we weren’t disappointed.  Here’s a picture from the cam that had some corn.
And here are the best ones.  The cam is programmed to take 7 pictures when it detects motion and it takes one picture every 3 seconds.  This is near a trail animals travel on to avoid the pond which is on the left side, out of view.  Here are the 7 pictures we got of them passing through. 






I was so excited when I saw these and really happy we didn’t get any pictures of bears, bobcats or coyotes. 

Mushrooms

There’s nothing like a couple days of rain to get the mushrooms popping.  I know there’s lots of edible ones out there in the woods, but I don’t know a good one from a deadly one.  Until  the other day.
Jim was down by the wood pile, which isn’t too far from the road.  He saw a Jeep go by, then the driver slam on the brakes and back up.  Soon a little Hmong man gets out, climbs up the bank and starts picking mushrooms off one of the dead trees on our land.  He picked as many as he could reach, put them in a gunny sack and then drove off without ever noticing that Jim was right there watching him. 
Later that day we go out  and see what these mushrooms look like.  Obviously they must be edible.  I looked them up in my Mushroom Book and find out they’re called Oyster Mushrooms and are considered choice edible mushrooms.  Even though I like mushrooms, you won’t catch me eating the wild ones. 

Here’s one he couldn’t reach. 

Caught Passing Through

Yesterday while sitting here on the computer, I caught some motion out of the corner of my eye.  Low and behold, there was Little Mama with two fawns sprinting through the lawn.  I wasn’t exactly sure which direction she came from, but I knew they passed in front of the trail cam.  Unfortunately we didn’t get the whole family, just the last little sweetie.  So if you didn’t see this picture on my Facebook page here it is.   Cute, huh?

Flickr Tags: deer,fawn,trail cam

The Phoebe’s Have Landed

Every year a phoebe nests somewhere around the cabin.  One year it was in the outhouse, once behind a little shed and a couple times on top of one of the window frames.  Seeing how we didn’t like any of these nesting spots, Jim built some little shelves on another shed and the phoebe moved right in.  There have been years where they built one nest right on top of an old one.I kept trying to get a picture of Mother Phoebe sitting on the nest, but every time I came near, she flew off.  The other day I decided to try again.  Holy Cow!  The eggs hatched and the little ones were fully fledged  They flew out of the nest right after I took this picture.  There were birds flying and chirping all over the place.   It was quite a ruckus!
Phoebe’s aren’t the prettiest bird in the woods and they can almost drive ya crazy with the fee-bee song they sing over and over and over.    But they eat bugs…lots of bugs and as Martha Stewart would say, that’s a good thing!

Flickr Tags: phoebe,nest

Moving over here

Well, here I am.  This isn’t necessarily a new blog, just a new location.  I liked the Ning network, but with the changes they’re making and not much happening with the other members, I’ve decided to ditch that one and stay with Blogger.   As long as they keep it free and simple this is where I’ll be.  I will not return to Windows Live Spaces.
After a day of rain we were finally able to get out for a walk yesterday.  Everything is so green now and the wildflowers  are blooming all over the place.
        


The birds and animals came out in the open after it stopped raining.  On one of the back roads we saw this Barred Owl out drying it’s wings after a day of rain.

The turtles are busy laying eggs along the side of the roads.  I hope they lay lots of extra because the raccoons seem to find them as soon as they get buried.
      
So that’s what’s been going on up here in the Northland.  We had a few days of summer type weather, but lately, it’s been very cool and that makes me very happy.  I’m not a fan of hot weather!  Weather?  Did you want to see some weather pictures too?  I sure hope so. 
             
Ok, I guess that’s enough.  Have a wonderful day and get out and enjoy the great outdoors!