May 20, 2014

Slowly but surely it's looking like spring around here.  We had a lot of rain yesterday as you can see by the rain gauge.  We got most of that over night.

Here are two pictures to compare the difference that much rain makes in the pond.  I took the first picture on Sunday, the second one on Tuesday.

I've been seeing some wildflowers and mushrooms, although these aren't edible.  Soon the yummy oyster mushrooms should be popping out.    

The other day when I was sitting in my blind I saw a couple turtles sunning themselves along the edge.  All of a sudden something goes swimming by them!  Whoa!  Are the beavers back?  No...it was a muskrat.

They're kinda ugly critters, but they do have nice fur and are still trapped around here.

Another sign of spring is seeing all the lonely and confused yearling deer.  This poor thing is so tiny, but she's a real trooper to have survived the cold and snow of last winter.  Her mama should be having new fawns any day now.  This little one was right up by the cabin.  I think she was hoping someone would come out with a bucket of corn for her.  Hint hint....maybe later this afternoon.

And finally the grass is getting green and there are leaves growing on some of the trees!  Yay!  

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.

Changes

No, I’m not talking about Facebook, I’m talking about all the changes around here.  It seemed like it happened over night.  The deer lost their pretty red coats and are now wearing their winter coats.  The fawns have lost their spots too.

The summer birds are all gone and now the tough winter birds have taken over the feeders.  Blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers and an occasional goldfinch.

Our menu has changed from summer salads and meat cooked on the grill to soups, chili and all the other great comfort foods I cook when it starts to get cool.  And cool it has been!  We had a couple killing frosts and that took care of the pesky mosquitoes, gnats and flies. 

The landscape has gone from green to shades of yellow, orange, red and brown.  Oh yeah, it’s fall and I’m lovin it!

Many more colorful fall pictures will be coming next week.  The leaves are changing really fast and it’s just gorgeous out there!

Moving the Cam

We’ve been getting pictures of the same deer and the same raccoons around here, so we decided to take one of our trail cams and try it out on some of the roads we walk on.  We picked spots where we see tracks of other animals.  Mainly deer, wolves and bobcats.  So far we’ve been happy with the pictures.
 

Night and day pictures of wolves.A bobcat and another wolf at a different spot.

And from yet another location, a small bear (not the best picture) and two different bucks.

Look at the strange set of antlers on this one.

At the cabin, it’s always nice to see the little doe and her fawns come by.  The dots are slowly fading away on little Spottie and Dottie.

And it wouldn’t be right to leave out the raccoon family.  They don’t have names, because I don’t like them and wish they’d find another place to hang out.

About that new camera I mentioned…

Well, I got a new one, but I have to tell you the rest of the story.  We were about 3 hours from home when I remembered I never put my camera in the truck.  I did a frantic look-see in the glove box, hoping it was still in there, but it wasn’t.  I said “Oh sh*t, I forgot my camera!”  As it turned out, this was a perfect time for me to be forgetful, because in just 3 days was my birthday and guess who didn’t buy me anything?  So he says, “If you’d like, for your birthday present you can get yourself a new one”.  Hmmm, that sounds pretty good to me.  I knew I wanted to keep things simple and I didn’t want an expensive camera that requires expensive lenses.  So after some online research and shopping around, I decided this was the one I wanted.  A Nikon Coolpix P500.I’ve only had it since Wednesday, but so far, I really like it.  And I really like the color of it too!  I’m still learning the settings and other features.  I sure was glad I had it when we were driving along and saw this little cub along the edge of the road.  Such a cutie.  Mom and the rest of the kids crossed the road before we came along.  While we were watching it, Jim caught some motion in the review mirror and most likely, Mrs. Bear pushed this deer out of the woods.  The next day Little Doe brought her two fawns around.  Jim was stacking wood over on that side, so Little Doe had the kids hang around while she decided whether it was safe of not.  She decided to take them back from the direction they came from. I grabbed my camera and took some picture through the front window.   We’re finally seeing some pretty butterflies.  I just wish more of them would be on flowers and not on piles of poo.  I don’t know what kind of butterflies these are, but the small ones really blend with the sand, don’t they?This little bird was sitting in front of my blind, singing it’s heart out.  I got all excited and took a video of it.  After the fact I learned that unless you record your video in HD, there won’t be any audio.  Okay!  Won’t do that again. 

Another thing I’m learning is that HD videos take FOREVER to upload to YouTube.  I’ll have one for you in my next chapter.

So that’s my story and I’m very happy with my new camera. 

Around the Trail Cams

We haven’t been seeing many critters around here except for deer and raccoons.  So a couple weeks ago we decided to put Jenny/Kenny out by the field trail cam.  She stood there when other deer came by. She never budged when the squirrel was running around by her.She even stood like a statue when the hay cutter went past her… in both directions!And then two horrible events happened. 

1.  The trail cam’s batteries died.

2.  Jenny/Kenny was assaulted!Probably a bear out on the prowl.  Jim was able to put Jenny/Kenny back together again and…  I reloaded the cam with batteries and reset the time and date.  We’ve probably missed all the action, but you never know what will be lurking out there. 

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Here’s a great trail cam picture from yesterday.  I wished they didn’t pass so close to the camera, but it was exciting to see two fawns at once.  Look at those dots!