Summer is right around the corner…

Today we put the screens in the storm doors and brought in the fan.  I opened all the windows so the breeze can blow through and we can hear the birds singing their pretty songs.  There’s still a few sticks of wood inside in case we need a fire, but I’m hoping that won’t happen again until fall.  Our tomatoes and cucumbers are doing really good.  Jim’s pampering is really paying off.  But we’re still crossing our fingers that we’ll have a bumper crop later this summer. 

 

This morning I saw an eagle overlooking the St. Croix River again. 

See it over there on the left side?

The reptiles are starting to move around too.  Here’s a garter snake that stuck it’s tongue out at me and a turtle with a really shiny shell.

We’re seeing lots of deer, but only one more new fawn.  We’re pretty sure there’s one or more around our cabin, but mother doe hasn’t brought them around yet.  She comes by each day and munches the brush along the edges.  We put up another trail cam hoping to catch a picture of her new babies.  I’ll keep you posted.  Here’s a video of her munching the leaves on a limb that broke off a tree.

Taken from inside the cabin on June 3, 2011.

This week I saw my first of the swallowtail butterfly of the year and the first lupine in bloom.  So many pretty things in my northern world this week.  Hope you see many pretty things in your world too.

Lodge Cam Update – The Finale

Today Jim rowed out and brought back the Lodge Cam.  We got a few more pictures of the busy beavers, but that’s enough for this year.  Next year we’ll put it back out there but first we’ll need to do some modifications so it doesn’t get too much bird poop on it.  Since last Friday there were only a few pictures worth keeping.  (Again, ignore the time and date on these pictures.)

These busy beavers do most of their work at night and sleep during the day.  We see them cruising around just before dark and for about an hour in the morning. 

MissBeth asked me what happens when the water freezes.  I’ll try to explain how these beavers will survive during the winter.  They build the lodge in fairly shallow water and build a food bank of sticks around the outside.  The ends of the sticks will hang below the ice so they’ll be able to munch on them during the long winter.  The lodge sits above the ice and they’re able to swim around under it and cuddle up inside so they’re not always in the water.  I think they also move around outside the lodge if the snow isn’t too deep.  This is the first year since we’ve had the cabin that beavers will be living out there all winter.   

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The nice sunny weather last week brought out some not so nice critters.  This is a deer tick…the kind that can cause Lyme’s Disease.  They really are small and easy to overlook. 
This is just a harmless garter snake, but still, snakes make me stop in my tracks. 

Last night while watching the Badgers play Ohio State we saw a real badger cross the lawn.  Too bad the trail cam didn’t get a picture of it and really too bad my camera was sitting out in the truck!  Darn it all anyway!