May 14, 2014

Today I decided it was time to download the pictures on the camera that usually travels in the truck with me.  There's quite an assortment.  Here's a sampling of a weeks worth of pictures from around here.

Ummm. I'm thinking the weight of the snow was just a little too much for those supports.

This isn't the only structure around here with damage from heavy snow.

We've had quite a bit of rain lately and this road is now closed.

This hole has been repaired.

There was still some snow along the edge of the road and an opportunity for Jim to make a couple snowballs.

This one got to go for a ride with us. 

It was surprising how long it stuck to the hood before sliding off.

Jim pruned out a bunch of brush in front of my blind so I won't have a lot of pictures that look like the next one.

See that branch?  It's not going to be a problem any more.

Always good seeing deer that survived the horribly cold and snowy winter up here. 

Some of our favorite spring birds. Two Gray Catbirds and a Baltimore Oriole. This year I learned besides oranges, they'll also eat grapefruit.

Yesterday we took a walk between the "scattered showers" and I was in the right place at the right time when this train came along.  

Shortly after the sky looked like this and it was raining again even with the sun out.

Taking the Good with the Bad

Some examples of what I’m talking about.  Rain can be good and bad.  This is what the pond looked like on Tuesday, after receiving more than 5 inches of rain in less than 12 hours.  This is what it looked like after all that water caused the hole in the damn to become even larger.  And then there’s good and bad animal sightings.  I showed you pictures of the little wolf pup we saw out on the road the other day.  Well… when I finally took the card out of the trail cam, I wasn’t happy to see this visitor.  Talk about posing for the camera!  This is an adult wolf and it’s the first time we’ve gotten a picture of one…and it’s right in front of the cabin! Getting back to the rain we received the other day.  We don’t have a rain gauge, but our friend Randy who lives only a couple miles away said his rain gauge that holds 5” was full!  All that rain is good for the lakes and groundwater, but not so good for the already bad roads around here.  There were washouts on main roads, secondary ones and on most of our favorite dirt roads too.Notice the butterfly on the sign.  I wonder if they’re attracted to the color of all the road closed signs?  Well, there’s plenty of them around.  This was on our road Tuesday night, but it’s open now. I sat in my blind this morning, not expecting to see a lot with so much of the water gone.  But I was wrong.   Fish, frogs and bugs are easy pickin’s for the herons and other birds.  The kingfisher stopped for a rest right in front of me!  Finally a decent picture of one of my favorite pond birds.  But the decoy isn’t looking so good anymore.  Poor thing, for all it’s been through in the past year, now it’s just another mud duck.  It was frozen in the pond last winter and this spring I saw an eagle pecking at the decoy’s head that was just showing through the snow.

Here we go again

When the forecast showed high humidity and temps in the 90’s for the next 4 days, we decided to go back home a week early, knowing it was going to be hot in Madison too.  We stayed until Thursday morning and returned back to the northland and much nicer weather.  BUT, while we were gone another big storm ripped through here, taking down many trees that survived the July 1st storm.  This really sucks.  There were branches down all around the cabin.

 

More trees snapped in half that will be used for firewood.  Some were uprooted and laying on top of other trees.

Miraculously, the gazebo survived, but has some serious structural damage.  The ancient swing set I use for my flags even got knocked over.  My little blind was in a heap again, but after shaking it a few times, it popped right back up, good as new.  And then I noticed this tree.  Okay, that’s got to come down before it falls on the power line.  It’s the one in the center, leaning to the right.The wind even blew Jenny’s head off.  The other deer were quite confused by this headless deer.  But I’m the kind of person that always looks for the positive and again, we were very lucky there was no damage to the cabin, outhouse, shower tent or sheds.  And tomatoes are fine and they loved all the heat and rain.

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There may be a new camera in Cindy’s future.  She forgot hers at home and hubby (being the sweetheart he is) said I could go “uptown” and get a new one.  Now to decide what kind…but it’s got to be better than the one I forgot, with a nice zoom and a point and shoot. 

Rain!

This week it rained for three days straight.  It’s always good to get rainfall, but that was a little too much.  With the beavers gone, it caused the dam to get washed out even more and the water level in the pond is dropping.  But that’s okay, it’s all part of nature.  This shows the water rushing through the opening. 

All the rain has caused the lake levels to rise too.  The pier on this lake is under water.  I know, this is nothing compared to the flooding going on all over the country.  I feel very bad for all those people and their communities.

Last night we heard there was a sink hole on our road and had to go investigate.

Apparently the old culvert gave out.  The workers replaced it and now it’s just another bump in the road.

On our way back to the cabin, we saw this deer that was totally freaked out by a turtle.  It was really funny watching her.  She should’ve run off when our truck came along but she couldn’t take her eyes off that turtle.

Finally she ran off, but not very far.  Even from the edge of the pines, she couldn’t stop looking at that turtle!

  Funny little doe.

First Cabin Trip of the Year

We arrived around 3:00 last Friday afternoon.  The driveway was clear and the snow wasn’t too deep.  There was a serious layer of ice on the path down to the outhouse, but that was the only problem we had.When we left last November, we knew we were going to buy a new shower shelter because the zipper on the front broke beyond repair.  We left it standing, just to see if it could survive a northern Wisconsin winter.  As you can see, it came through with flying colors.  Considering how much snow, wind, rain and ice there was, this is very impressive.
On Saturday morning we loaded up our water jugs and went to the little park to fill them up.  As we pulled in, I could see two white things out on the ice.  At first I thought it was snow and then I realized there were two swans sitting on the ice. 
As I was standing on the shore taking their pictures, a couple of ice fisherman started walking out to their favorite fishing hole (literally!). 
The swans didn’t like this at all!  They started walking around, flapping their wings and making all kinds of noise.
Eventually the fishermen got to their fishing holes and the swans quieted down.
  We filled up our jugs and headed back to the cabin with a trunk load of water.
Saturday was a beautiful day, somewhat warm with lots of sun.  We filled up the birdfeeders and put a little corn down for the squirrels and deer.  It was really nice to see these two appear during the day.
Things looked good out by the beaver lodge.  We saw 2 beavers out on the ice on Saturday night.  They’re going to have some major repairs to do on the dam when the ice melts.  The water is going through in a new spot.  Just hope the dam holds.  Fingers crossed for our sake and the beavers.

Sunday was an icky, cloudy, drizzly, hang around the cabin kind of day.  On Monday morning  I turned on the TV and this is what the weather guy was showing.  Are you kidding me?  Okay, so now they’re talking blizzard warnings starting on Tuesday morning.  No way!  The snow was bad enough, but the cold weather following it was the clincher.  We decided to come back home.But it was a nice weekend and as soon as the weather straightens out, we’ll be back.  We left the trail cam up so we’ll be able to see what comes by and how much snow fell and all that good stuff.