Mother Turkey

We were driving along and could see a turkey in the road in front of us. So we slowed down, I got my camera ready and here’s what happened.  Mother goes into the ditch but the little ones didn’t follow.  After a few attempts to round them up, she finally got all 8 of them out of sight.

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This summer Jim decided not to mow all of the grass and let the wildflowers grow.  I love seeing them and so do the butterflies and birds. My peony bush blooms about a month later than it’s ancestors do in Madison.   We moved this one up here years ago.  Some years the deer bite off the buds and I never get to see the pretty blossoms, but not this year.

See My Background?

What you see is what we’re getting.  Lucky us and many other folks around the Midwest that are in for a serious winter storm.  Nothing we can do to stop it so I’m keeping busy doing the indoor things I’ve been doing since early December.

I’m still on my pincushion kick, but I’ve decided I don’t have to make one-a-day.  I’ve been to all the craft stores around here looking for some dusty rose colored felt and do you think I can find any?  Hate it when a company discontinues making something like that.  I did find some really nice tan felt that will become my next favorite color.

The other day I got a craving for bran muffins.  I know that sounds strange, but I just wanted that taste.  This morning I made a batch from this recipe and I’ve gotta say, they’re really, really good!  It makes a huge batch, so I froze half of them for whenI have another bran muffin craving.  I’ve had other urges to bake, but restrained myself, because if I bake it, I also eat it and that’s not a good thing.

Jim’s been nursing a sore knee.  In fact it was so bad he went to see his doctor last week.  He had x-rays, an MRI and now he’s supposed to see an Ortho specialist on Wednesday.  With all the snow that’s coming, I’ve got a feeling that appointment will be rescheduled.  At least it’s not getting worse.  Today he doesn’t have hardly any pain, but it doesn’t take much for it to flare up again.

So with his bad knee, it’s put a damper on taking our little trips and getting out and about.  We did take another trip back to the Amish store.  There’s something about that place that I really like and apparently I’m not the only one.  We were there last Saturday and the place was packed with shoppers.  Only one buggy in the parking lot though.  The Amish must do their shopping during the week.

I love the way they stack the corn stalks out in the fields. 

Our computer was making lots of noise so I took it in last week.  I really think the PC guy goofed up when he figured my bill.  He replaced the noisy fan, the USB ports on the front, added new software so the DVD player worked and did a few other things.  There’s a minimum charge of $40 to look at it and my whole bill was only $55.  I didn’t want to question the man, so I just paid and took my quiet PC back home.


About the only wildlife we’ve seen around this neck of the woods are turkeys.  Wow, there’s really a lot of turkeys now.  This gang was walking on the road as we approached.  They just walked to the top of the hill and finally took a left and headed into the pines, but they were in no hurry.Not much else going on in my little world.  It’s just one day at a time, looking forward to seeing the Packers and Steelers in the Super Bowl and trying to ignore winter, which is getting harder and harder to do.

Turkey Week

I saw these guys or girls a couple weeks ago before the big snow.  They were just picking their way through the woods.   I’m pretty sure they won’t be on anyone’s Thanksgiving table this year. 

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The time has come for us to get things put away, packed up and say good bye to all our furry, feathered and northern friends.   The snow from a week ago is still on the ground, yesterday we had freezing rain/drizzle and now there’s a thin layer of ice on everything.  Tonight and into tomorrow more snow is predicted.  We planned on returning home next week, but with all this snow and cold coming, we’re going to take advantage of the clear weather on Wednesday and go home…and just in time for Thanksgiving with all my family.

We’ll miss all the wildlife around here and I know they’ll miss us too.  Just last week we had a new visitor…a gray fox.  Every night around 6:30 it arrives to eat some corn or sunflower seeds.  We’re baffled that the trail cam doesn’t get a picture of it, but I took this one last night through the window.  It’s not the best, but it’s typical of what you get at night when shooting through 3 panes of glass.  It’s really a small animal.  Just a little bit bigger than a cat, but it has a beautiful silvery, red fur coat.

 

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I know I won’t be updating this again until after Thanksgiving, so I’ll leave you with this Thanksgiving greeting.
  

 

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lodge Cam Update Pt. 2

Well, we went out and checked on the cam today and confirmed what we thought…it’s not going to work.  Here’s a picture it took of the lodge in the daytime.Here’s what we got at night.  Well, this isn’t good at all!  The cam is too far away, the beaver moves too fast to get a clear picture and well, this just isn’t going to work out.So we decided to move it again.  There’s a small floating  bog out there that we call Goose Island.  At first we thought it was an island and the geese really liked sitting on it, hence the original name.  This summer with all the rain, it started to break up and move around.  Anyway, we see the beavers get up on this every evening and morning and it’s right next to the T-bar perch.  So that’s where we put the cam this time. Jim even went back and got a fresh limb to entice the beavers up onto to the bog.   This should work.   It may be a few days before we go back out for the card, but I've got my fingers crossed that we will get a couple good pictures.

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When I loaded up the cam pictures this morning, I was surprised to see this big ol’ tom turkey pecking around in the field yesterday.    We haven’t seen the nice buck since Saturday night, but we haven’t given up on him yet.  He may be out running around looking for ladies.  

Wildlife Sunday

We hardly ever see anything on the weekend, but yesterday was an exception.  While I was driving into town to pick up a few things I saw a flock of turkeys along the edge of the road.  I was really surprised they didn't take off running or fly away when I approached them.  They just kept pecking away and then finally crossed the road in front of me.  It was cool seeing the hens out front and at the end and all the young ones in between.

After they all crossed, I pulled ahead, put the window down and this one was nice enough to pose for me.  Strange bunch of turkeys.  Usually they run away so fast, I can’t even get a bad picture of one.
When I got home I could see the little mystery duck out on the pond, so I thought what the heck, maybe I can get a picture of it so I can figure out what it is.  I put on my mosquito net/hat and one of Jim’s camo jackets and went down by the dam.  Well, the little guy saw me and starts swimming right towards me.  I got some really nice pictures and now I know it’s a Pied-billed Grebe.  Kind of a cute little bird that makes a very strange sound.
So later in the afternoon we decided to take a drive around on the dirt roads.  We figured with all the cabin people around we wouldn’t see anything, but we were wrong!  Deer, one with a fawn,  another big flock of turkeys, a couple Cooper’s Hawks and another bear.  I really should’ve been able to get a picture of the little bear, but my camera was upside down and the settings were all wrong.  Darn!  Saw my 20th bear this morning while we were taking our morning walk.  It crossed the road way up ahead of us and was no where to be seen after that.

No hummingbirds around here this morning.  They may all be heading down towards Missouri and will be stopping by Toodie’s feeder.