May 31, 2013

The nasty little bugs appeared yesterday so this morning we took our walk out in the bird sanctuary.  It's in the open and there was lots of wind today so the little buggers didn't bother us.  Now we wait for the dragonflies to hatch and watch them gobble up all the little bugs.

But something totally weird happened when we were walking.  You know I always wear cheaters and I have a pair in every jacket I wear.  Well, we're walking along and I noticed this little pine tree growing right on the edge of the road.  I mean right on the edge.  

It caught my eye because it had so much new growth on it.  As I got closer, I see a pair of my glasses laying in the branches of the little tree!  

Well, I'll be damned!  A week or so ago, I knew I lost a pair but had no idea where.  Some other walker must have found them and placed them in the tree hoping the owner would find them.   They aren't scratched, bent or broken, just ready to wear again.  What are the odds?

May 29, 2013

Spring has sprung!

May 28, 2013

Things are slowly greening up in the Northland.

May 25, 2013

A pretty nice day in the Northland.

May 24, 2013

A great day for seeing birds!

May 23, 2013

Finally some sunshine!

The first picture is a quiet bay on the St Croix Flowage.   The next one is the water going over the dam!  Lots of water!

It would be really nice if we could get some warm temps with the sunshine.  I know, sooner or later it will happen.

May 22, 2013

Today's rainfall. We've had around 4 inches since we put out the rain gauge on Monday. But they're saying tomorrow through Sunday should nice. Fingers crossed. Enough of the rain and cold temps!

May 21, 2013

Today we drove over to see the damage from last weeks wildfire.  Here are some picture.  

If the trees were small, now they're all black.  

If they were tall red pines, the tops looked like this or worse.

Most of the paint got burned off this road sign.'

We stopped at a little lake that was on the edge of the burn area.  There were some survivors.

Soon loggers will move in and salvage what they can.  

May 20, 2013

Went to the garden center today to buy our plants. I let Jim pick out the vegetables while I browsed around in the pretty flower sections. This year we're going to grow tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers and zucchini. I'd really like to plant some flowers too, but the deer eat everything. Although, I may go back and get a hanging basket of fuchsias. They're so pretty and the hummers will love them.

May 19, 2013

The weather guy predicted today to be a washout. As of 5:00pm we hadn't seen a drop of ran. We hung another hummingbird feeder, I planted my little herb garden, put the screens in the screen doors and the outside refrigerator is stocked with "adult" beverages. Wink, wink! We're ready for nice weather to stay here for a few months.

May 18, 2013

Well we're back at the cabin and things are slowly greening up.  The heavy rain we had today should help move things along.  It was another day for seeing birds.  So far we know there's two pairs of tree swallows  using the blue bird nest boxes and we saw a flicker flicking sawdust out of a dead tree. There's a pair of geese and some ducks hanging around the pond, so most likely they have nests out there.

This sapsucker will probably find a place around here to nest and were hoping the orioles and hummers do too.

This squirrel has a nest somewhere around here too.

These are all reasons I love spring in the Northland.  There's so much going on. 

May 16, 2013

We're back in Madison for a couple days and the weather's been perfect.  It's hard to believe how green things got in the two weeks we were gone.  There's so many blossoms, flowers..and dandelions! At least we're not the only ones in the neighborhood that don't spray them.  

   

   

The big fire in the Northland is contained.  So sad for those that lost everything, for the wildlife and property owners that loved all the trees on their land. 

We'll be back up there tomorrow after we both get our hair cut.  It's time for our summer cuts!

May 14, 2013

After having almost two weeks of cold ugly weather, today was like SPRING!  It sure was for seeing birds and so many pretty ones showed up. Orioles, red headed woodpecker, blue jays, tree swallows, rose breasted grosebeaks, goldfinches and house finches too. It started out very cloudy, but after a few showers, the sky cleared and it got hot!  All of these pictures were taken today.

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May 13, 2013

I'm going to attempt to blog like the old days.  I'm sure I'll still have days with just a collage, but if there's something interesting going on here, I'll share.  I found a new app that seems to work pretty good on my iPad.  So to start things off I'm going to share a celebrity sighting I had today.
We decided to go into town for breakfast at the little cafe today.  We were all done with our meal when I saw some other people come in.  I immediately recognized one of the women and as she walked past our table I said "Hi Donna!"  She stopped, looked at me and I explained that we see her on TV all the time.  She says, well you're not from around here.  I tell her we're from Madison and have a cabin in Gordon.  Come to find out, she does too.  Donna occasionally appears on a local 5:00 news show with tips and ideas to eat healthier.  I did a couple google searches on her and found out she's one of many, University of Wisconsin media experts. She's the one in green.

We always get a kick out of watching the guy in the middle chow down on the foods Donna fixes.
As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day we had to take a trip to the local correctional center today.


Nah, not what you're thinking. Actually it was to pick up some trees at the DNR's storage site.  Last week a crew was here planting pines and the trees we picked up today were tamarack that Jim's going to plant


Like it says on the box...Trees can't run for their lives only you can prevent forest fires.

This is a test

I'm trying out a new blogging app called Posts.  It was free today, so I've got nothing to lose.  

What I want to be able to do is insert a picture, then some text and another picture or two.  I really want this to work.  

Supposedly I can even insert a link to another site.  So, lets see if it works.  I'm inserting a link to our weather forecast in Gordon. Click here to see if it works.

Now I'll add another picture just to see how this looks when published.

Okay, now it's the time to hit publish and see what it looks like over on my blog.

May 12, 2013

Happy Mothers Day! We went to Superior for lunch and some shopping today. Saw a classic passenger train go past Walmart when we were loading up our stuff. The last car was a Hiawatha just like what used too through the Dells back in the old days.

May 11,2013

We had it all today. Rain, sun, ice pellets, wind, clouds. Gotta keep smiling though. No mosquitoes, ticks, humidity or other things we dislike.

May 10, 2013

A cool, windy but nice day in the Northland.

May 9, 2013

It was one of those days...cold, wet and ugly.

May 8, 2013

Come and get it! We're all ready for the pretty summer birds.

May 7, 2013

A beautiful day with many of my favorite things. We took a trip to Crex Meadows and there was lots of bird activity. Stopped to buy some cheese, had lunch and did some shopping. Jim took the card out of the trail cam and we loved the picture of the little red fox.

May 6, 2013

Finally a gorgeous spring day, but there's still ice on some lakes. We saw this little fox run off as we drove by a road kill. Jim stopped so I could take a picture and it acted like it was posing for an 8x10. Also today, the crew arrived to plant trees in the field next to our cabin. Ten of them planted 3+ acres of trees in about a half hour.