I'm not Feeding the Deer. . .Really!

The warm weather reduced the ground snow by about half and that has moved the deer a little ways back into the forest. That is a good thing as deer need to be deep in the woods and not hanging around yards and roads. Ecery Winter a few unluck deer are road kill, but that does feed the Crows, Chickadees, and eagles.

Michigan has a feed ban for deer, but its impossible to stop them from cleaning up under the feeders and stealing a snack from the Turkeys. The only deer I don't begrudge cleaning up is this orphan yearling. This little guy is about the size of my lab dogs and has lost its mom. He tries to hang out with the other yearlings, but most will not have it. Even though its early in Winter, I think that Spring will find this little guy a bit bigger and stronger.

Of Course, Its in the Timing

This, my first Winter at the cabin has been strange. First off, we have received more snow so far this Winter than we did all of last Winter (nearly 100 inches so far). Because the snow has been fairly deep, the deer have already set a routine of raiding the feeders - even though it usually isn't until the end of January in the past.

Yesterday, the air flow reversed and the temperature soared up to nearly 50 degrees which caused much of the snow and ice to melt - now there's only about a foot of ground snow. This morning, the temperature is back down to 30 but the wind is blowing fiercely and small flaked snow is falling.

I had burnt through about half of my wood pile, so I arranged for another load. Ofd course it came yesterday amid the warmth and melted snow. Today it sits out in the blowing cold, waiting to be stacked - or freeze together which every comes first. As I look out the window at the blowing snow, I wait with anticipation to go out into the day and start stacking before it freezes solid!

When You're hot, you're hot; When you're not. . .

Boy, my weather station recorded a low last night of -22 degrees! With the sun shining now its up to a "balmy" -17. The feeders are quiet as everyone must be staying home in the very cold temperatures.

Luckily, unlike fellow birders the Stokes (Lillian and Don) out East, at least I have electricity - theirs has been out for most of the week due to the winter storms that dumped all of our snow.

All of this reminds me why I love the tropics!

Dave

Cold and blustery

Winter has definite come early and hard this year, and the weather has bounced from 40 degrees yesterday to twenties this AM and finally into single digits this afternoon. The turkeys came in for a quick snack and then headed back into the woods to get out of the wind.

The wood peckers have been cleaning out the suet feeders with as many as four pairs of Hairy Woodpeckers dining and several Downies and the Red Bellied waiting a turn.

Everytime I return from outside the deer move into the feeder area hoping to find a meal. The does and their yearlings are getting a bit protective of any fallen seed and work to keep others are bay. Even with the melt in yesterdays warmer temperatures, they seem to have become more determined to glean the easy pickings under the hanging feeders.

A Day in the Life

SNOW! The routines of Winter have set in. We have about 2 feet of snow on the ground and most days are very much the same while waiting for Spring. Generally, I have never woke to the sound of an alarm preferring to wake based upon my natural cycle of time. I like to get a start just before the sun is up regardless of the time.

In Winter the first task is to start the day's fire in the wood stove. I heat with wood and generally the fire needs attention from burning overnight. If I forgot to restock the wood pile on the porch, that also means a quick (cold) trip to the wood shed for a few splits to get things going including the coffee pot! This time of the year, that also means I can sit by the fire and watch the local morning news and weather to see how the day will be. So far this year, that generally means more snow!

Once I get coffee into me its out to top off the feeders. Every morning the Blue jays are massed at the feeders awaking their daily peanuts, corn, and sunflowers to stash out in the woods. Unofrtunately, they (and the squirrels) stash more than they eat. Usually also waiting is the "new" Cottontailed Rabbit and my favorite Black Squirrel. I miss the chipmunk and Ground Squirrels scampering about, but I know they stored enough to get them through the Winter without having to brave the cold outside their dens.

I noticed that a White Breasted Nuthatch has taken to overnighting in a nest box outside my bedroom window and it doesn't take long for the feeders to be over run with Chickadees, both species of Nuthatches, Hairy, Downy, and my single Red Bellied Woodpecker.

The last to come in about mid morning are the five Turkeys who live in my woods. As the snows pile up, I figure the Turkeys need the easy food found under the feeders and will give them a cup of seeds each for their morning breakfast.

Through the day, the birds a few squirrels, and the Cottontail graze the seeds. By mid day the feeders will be nearly empty but I wait until late afternoon to replenish them. Otherwise, the Jays and Squirrels would cache food all day and the seed dependent birds would get little. A little top off of the feeders in late afternoon gives everyone a chance to fill up before dark.

In between watching the birds, I work on reading, writing, and planning for Spring. Some days bread making, baking, and the like keeps me busy as I work inside waiting for the arrival of Spring and the chance to work outdoors in the garden or woods, a chance to go fly fishing, or keeping up with the research projects I have going.

While this Winter's first snow is still on the ground, a few days before Winter officially settled in, a new mammal appeared under the feeders. I've mixed feelings as usually they spell diaster around gardens, but we'll just see how things go through the Winter.

I guess I'll have to wait to see if the garden will be safe next Spring. I do have the fruiit trees inside wire fences, so they should be ok over Winter.

Pew and Phew!

This morning I looked out at the feeders and thought "Pew, there's a skunk in the yard!" But wait, something didn't look quite right. I've got a few "tree rodents" that come to the feeders on a regular schedule - chimpunk, 13 line ground squirrel, red squirrels and a few fox squirrels. An area south of me has a number of small "Black Squirrels" that are about the size of the Reds. (I'm not sure, but I think there is a red version of the Reds or Pine Squirrels, so maybe these are them?) This animal was much bigger.

Phew! It finally turned around to face me an lo and behold, it was a black Fox Squirrel. I knew it was a Foxy because of its size, and the bushy tail showed some deep brown edging like Fox Squirrels. Today was the first day I saw him (yes, definitely him), and hopefully, he'll hang around.

Unfortunbately, the Red (pine) Squirrels are very territorial and often run off the Foxes, but I shall see.

Weather Good News-Bad News

Having my own weather station is a mixed blessing. The cloest NOAA station is about 40 miles away and at a much different elevation and so the predictions are a bit off for my cabin. Having my own recording/measuring devices gives me a more accurate picture of things - especially when it comes to gardening! That's the good news!

The bad news, is that I have a more accurate measure of the extremes. Take last night, for example. NOAA had the low in the uppre 20s when my station recorded a low last night of 12.7 degrees F. Last August, I recorded my first frost at about 26 degrees overnight! I also had my last frost in late May while the frost charts had it in early May. It's nice to know the exact weather at the cabin.

But it was still too cold, too early last night!

Feeders

Up here in the woods, animals can be pretty hard on bird feeders. The birds become easily tamed and return to feeders all day long as they work to survive. Of course, the birds don't need our help to survive, but it feels good to be able to help out and look out the window and see birds close at hand.

Unfortunately, the birds are the only ones who enjoy the free handouts. Almost as quick as the birds to come to a feeder are the Squirrels! In my case, I get Fox and Red Squirrels everyday at my feeder. They tend to move in, bully birds, and not give up their feeder until its empty. The biggest treat to them is another of they own kind. As soon as a squirrel sees an interluder coming in, they sound the alarm and dash off the feeder and chase the newcomer across the ground and tree limbs.
The problem for the feeders are they bad habit of tearing and chewing their way into the seed holder. They will chew off plastic and wooden perches; they chew into plastic bodies, and generally are pretty hard on a feeder.

Next up are the masked bandits - Raccoons. The biggest problem with Coons is that if they can, they'll haul off the feeder into the woods to eat in solitude. This is especially true for suet feeders. In addition, because of their dextrity, they will work on any feeder until they get it opened. At least they eat all of the seeds unlike the squirrels that simply want the sunflowers.

One thing I've done, is to provide lots of feeders for everyone to share. Over on my birding website - www.mi-birder.com I've posted my quick solution to making a nice feeder from a cedar replacement fence picket. For a couple of dollars, I have created a number of small feeders to place on trees and posts in order to feed my natural neighbors.

Autumn Watch

Autumn is coming to the great expanse of northern forests where I live. The two days of frost in late August yellowed, then dried many of the fiddleheads (ferns) the dot my backwoods. I did my best to protect the tomatoes and zucchini from those frosts, but the frosts of September have done their job on them. The garden is ready for cleaning before winter (see my garden blog - sodsgarden.blogspot.com) .

This morning, I watched the Red Squirrels tearing, ripping, and gathering strips of the cardboard I lmulched on my garden paths. They carried it off to insulate there winter sleeping dens to bear against the coming cold and snow. Even though Winter is much further down the raod, the creatures of the woods around me remind me to prepare, for Winter will surely come.

Dragging Anchor

As part of my project on the North Branch Au Sable Restoration, I spent 6 hours yesterday floating down 6 miles of the upper North Branch. The project involves a Biological and ecological assessment of the stream in preparation for a Bioassessment and Watershed plan. The area floated was way "upstream" in areas not heavily fished and parts of the reproductive "nursery area" of brown and brook trout. I'll follow up with photos when I recover!

Out of the Darkness

I've found a interest track or two, so I set out my trail cam to see if I could capture images of the creature. The track I found was of a canine left paw print. My guess is its approximately 5 inches long which makes a really, really, big dog or "something" else. (Little Red Riding Hood's Granny??)

Anyway, I didn't capture the creature (yet), but I did get photos of this fellow/gal last night.

Not hardly big enough to be my creature, but a "nice" neighbor anyway (for now)!

For those who might be interested, here is the creature's track. The pen in the picture is 5.5 inches long for comparison:

Autumn is Sneaking Up

It's kind of hard to believe that we're into August already! This year's young birds are mobbing the feeders and water pan in droves include a group of 8 young Orioles, lots of Blue Jays, and even a few Hermit Thrushes. Nights are cooler with temperatures dropping into the 50s but the days are bright and warm. I've harvested the early onions, the peas are done, but still no tomatoes. The squash are into a routine of two or three fresh ones each week. Life is good.

But that will change, the cool nights will linger longer. The days will continue to grow shorter. The Fall radish and lettuce will soon be sprouted. After the first frost - late in September, it will be time to get ready for Autumn. The hunters will be in the woods and things will settle down for winter.

Sigh, What happened to Summer?

The Heat is on. . . .

Northern Michigan has been on the heat and storm merry-go-round lately. With the stiffling afternoon heat, not much is happening. The garden is hanging in there, but no tomatoes or squash yet - although it won't be long!

While inspecting plants (and weeds!) I noticed these spiders. I was struck by their coloration and pattern. Goldenrod Spiders show sexual dimorphism - the females are yellow. Interestingly, the males are white and on whiter flowers (like these Queen Anne's Lace) they are whiter as well.

Drama in the Sand

Recently, I was out contemplating the next step on my back deck, when I noticed some activity in the sand alongside one of the footers. This parasitic wasp was hard at work digging a tunnel for its soon to be layed egg.

Parasitic Wasps (I don't know the specific name for this one) have an interesting life cycle. They will dig a burrow in sand or other appropriate soil for their nest.

They will continue to burrow until their entire body fits down below the surface. Once the chamber is complete, they head out to stock it with food.

Unfortunately, for me, it only took a matter of minutes before the adult returned with a parasitized catepillar upon which it would lay its egg. I wasn't ready with the camera for such a speedy return and missed that photo opportunity.

Once the deed is done and the catepillar safely underground, they will use their legs to throw sand back over the opening and even pull adjacent debris over it to help hid it from hungry predators. Having completed their task, off they fly to repeat the process again somewhere else. After incubation, the yound wasp hatches and emerges from the burrow to repeat the life cycle for the next generation.

Pretty cool!

Wings and Wildflowers

Birds are busy protecting territories and raising families so things are pretty slow at the feeders. Replacing the birds are blooming wildflowers and the butterflies that depend upon them. These two - Tiger Swallowtails and one I don't know - are common on sunny days.

Any guesses oin the second one?

In addition to the Snapping Turtles laying eggs, I've encountered several others including Painted Turtles and Blanding Turtles laying eggs for the next generation.

A fine Day for Egg Laying

Today, like most of the past week, was rainy. Regardless I was scheduled to go out and investigate the North Branch of Au Sable watershed. With the rain, we decided to cover the upper headwaters area from Otsego Lake down to Lovells.

The rainy weather and season was perfect for turtles to be out and about making nests and laying eggs. We came upon this gal at the end of her efforts. While she was preoccupied we shot a few pictures to record the event. Snappers are known for their long life, so the reproduction of the species is in fact an real monumental event.

Birds and Bugs

somehow, birds and bugs seem like a natural fit together for a naturalist. The obvious bugs would be butterflies, but I always enjoy seeing Hummingbird Moths. These are smaller day-time moths who feed on nectar more like butterflies than one would expect for a moth. Today, while I sat out after the rain, I found one coming to a pot of Pansies sitting on my steps with me.

As you might tell from the blurred wings, these moths hover much like Hummingbirds as the feed, hence their name.

Not much excitement at the cabin the last few weeks - just slowly working away at getting things in order. The garden structure is all done, including the perimeter fencing - hopefully, I won't have to share too much of the harvest with the critters. Harvested the first of the lettuce, spinach, and radish for dinner tonight.

A few new birds stopping by including a pair of hummingbirds that frequent their feeder. The hen turkeys are mostly nesting and only come up with Toms in tow once or twice a day. Its run in, get a bite and a drink and run back. Probably a couple of weeks yet before they'll have little ones to care for.

About the only thing exciting involves more work. I've gotten the first two footers in for the back deck after deciding on a two level design. Once I get the deck(s) done, I'll be able to fence a run in the back and let Charlie and Max come up for a visit! That's kind of exciting, but its also a ways down the road.

Pretty much settled into the "up north" mindset and routine now - except for the cold nights (like tonight!). More posts to follow as the deck(s) progress along.

Fencing me in

In late April, Grayling had a close call by a 1700 acre wildfire. The day after, I drove through part of the area along I75. The entire area was blackened by the fast moving fire - 24 hours after the fire was contained, hotspots still smouldered. I was struck by the level of ashing and the speed at wish it moved. It got me thinking about what I need to do around my cabin and the surround acres and acres of Jack Pines that are around it.

I realized it would be important to establish a fire zone on all sides of the cabin. That means removing and controlling trees within 50-100 feet of the structure. Over the next few days I started to identify trees that need to come down.

I also continue to build raised beds in my garden. As I thought about critter control, I realized that rather than buying fence posts, I should simple used the trees I'm cutting for the needed fence posts.

so that's what I've been doing. I have all of the posts needed to fence the garden and will now start to work on those needed for fencing an area for the dogs so that they can come up for visits. I figured I'll be ready to start fencing in about a week or so. Oh joy, another project!

Back on-line . . .

It's almost overwhelming to have been off-line for most last five weeks. Regardless, WildBlue has come and gone and my satellite Internet is up and running.

Lots has happened since I was able to post last - all involving my final move to my retirement cabin near Grayling. There are still boxes here and there and I have no idea where anything is, but over time, new order will be created.

I have half of my raised bed gardens in and radish, peas, lettuce, onions, broccoli, and herbs in the ground. Over on my gardening site (see links) I'll post how I built my raised beds and the critter guards for them.

Now that I have Internet back, I'll get to regular posts in a day or two.

Absence temporary until I get Internet at cabin

You Say Good Bye and I say Hello

Well, this is the last crazy week of living in ann Arbor for me. It has been and will continue to be hectic trying to pack, move stuff, drive back and forth, and keep up with everything else, but I'll be out by the (hopefully) weekend or Monday at the latest. I have list after list of address changes to make, services to cancell, services to order, things to sort, things to pack and things to trash.

Luckily, its so crazy that I don't have time to worry or to get pensive about the moving after living here for over 20 years. There are everyday things that I'll probably miss, but I plan to get back this way to bird later in the Spring and Fall. I'm also keeping my cardiologist and doctors at UMHS so I'll be back for appointments once in while.

And with the Beatle's song playing in my head, I'll sign off for the last time from Ann Arbor. My next post will either be from Bay City or (once I get service at the cabin) the great north country near Grayling. Its been a good run, but now its time to go. So long Ann Arbor, I'll see you again!

Spring . . springing

Well, March 20th was the first day of Spring, and like many bird species, I am in "mid-migration" in terms of my move to my retirement cabin. The pace has been pretty steady all month, but I'm down to the home stretch (or should I say week's stretch) and will remain somewhat well traveled through this coming week. Once I get to the weekend, I should have my apartment fully emptied and officially become a home owner/occupier!

Of course, with Spring officially here and me trying to finish up the move, the (hopefully last), great Spring Snow is scheduled for later today and into tomorrow morning. With luck, I'll have a load into the car before it gets too bad. The crazy weatherman is talking about 6-10 inches of sloppy snow potentially so it could get (more) interesting.

Just my Luck

On Tuesday, I was up at the cabin delivering yet another load of boxed possessions when a few birders in Ann Arbor had spied an Icelandic Gull nearly in my apartment's back yard. It was even closer than the Ross Goose hybrid of a few weeks back! It would have take next to nothing to get down to Gallup Park and have a look see, but alas, I was 200 miles away. Such is life, bird seeking, and moving!

As it now stands, the target to be fully moved is March 26th. I'm getting less and less time at the cabin to find places for everything that is getting moved, so I'll end up having to organize myself once I take the last load.

Fortunately, it looks like I'll just catch the beginnings of the summer fuel increases although its a bit pricy this week.

Moving Boxes and Dodging Snowflakes

It seems as though when Spring tries to push Winter out of the area, Winter answers back with yet another snow storm. The correct one started out as a possible 6-10 incher, but now is looking more like a mild 3-5 somewhat similar to the one earlier this week. Regardless 13 days to go until Spring!

Moving is well, moving along. Its a little complicated trying to keep enough in two places so that I can live in either location, but that is drawing down to the end. Here in ann Arbor, I have clothes, kitchen ware and storage boxes to go and 25 days left.

I turned in my offical 30 day notice at the start of March, so its now or never in terms of getting things moved!

A Tiny Little Goose comes A-Calling

Things got a little hectic for a couple of days as a Ross Goose was spotted in Ann Arbor and very close to my apartment. That meant a couple of days of photography, editing, posting, and such.

This little guy came on the scene on Thursday, February 28th and by Saturday the 1st, he was no where to be seen. To give you an idea of its size, here is a more distant shot with a gull and Canada Geese along side of it for comparison.

After much debate it was decided that this was most likely a Ross x Lesser Snow hybrid to some extent. Regardless it was a fine bird (a life bird for me) and created a great deal of excitement.

Deer in Winter

While I don't mind the few deer that stop by and eat fallen seeds from the feeders, or even the one or two that raid the feeder itself, there's a cabin near mine that has a real "Deer Diner" in their backyard. In the evening, when I drive by, I've seen upwards of what I guessed to be 100 or so deer all browsing about in their backyard. Obviously, with them being so close to their house, they have put out feed for them (or they're overfeeding the birds by a lot!)

Here's a view of just a small section of the herd last time I went by:

Eclipse

Well, the lunar eclipse has come and gone until the end of 2010. Viewing here was not perfect, but ok until clouds covered the sky around the moon. It started like this (around 7:30 PM):

Soon after 7:45 IT had begun

By 8:15 the shadows were really moving along

And finally around 9:30 it had nearly covered the Moon entirely

And by 10 the entire Moon was covered both by the shadow of the Earth as well as enough intermittant clouds to prevent any more photos.

Tonight the Moon does its thing

Tonight, the Moon will do it thing and shrink into the shadow of the Earth in a Lunar Eclipse. This one is visible from North America and I will have a good seat. I've tried to get photos of past eclipse with pretty limited success. Unfortunately, this will the last for a while as the next scheduled event visible here will not be until December 20, 2010 - so if it doesn't work out this time any better than usual, I have a long wait.

GBBC Lists

Grayling List - 3 hours
Ruffed Grouse 1
Wild Turkey 27
Bald Eagle 3
Mourning Dove 3
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 2
Common Raven 3
Black-capped Chickadee 30
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
Dark-eyed Junco 5
American Goldfinch 3

Number of Species: 15 with 93 individuals

Bay City List - 3 hours
Canada Goose 7
Mallard 8
Bald Eagle 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Ring-billed Gull 7
Herring Gull 6
Rock Pigeon 12
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 3
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
European Starling 7
American Tree Sparrow 5
Dark-eyed Junco 7
Northern Cardinal 4
House Finch 8
American Goldfinch 6
House Sparrow 18

Number of Species: 24 with 120 individuals

Ann Arbor List - 3 hours
Canada Goose 50
Mallard 25
Common Goldeneye 1
Hooded Merganser 2
Turkey Vulture 5
Rock Pigeon 15
Mourning Dove 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
American Crow 7
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 1
European Starling 5
Dark-eyed Junco 15
Northern Cardinal 3
House Finch 7
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 11

Number of Species: 20 with 164 individuals

Great Backyard Bird Count

Somethings I try to do every year and the GBBC, Feederwatch, and the Christmas Bird Counts. Both of these "citizen science" projects contribute to the collective knowledge of bird distribution. GBBC is held each year over President's Day weekend (Friday through Monday) - this year that's February 15-18th. If you haven't participated, you still have time. Bird lists and information are submitted electronically at www.birdcount.org .

I will have counts for the cabin (Crawford County), my family home (Bay County), and my apartment (Washtenaw County) here in Michigan. Once I get them completed, I'll stop back and post them here.

Two Places at Once

Trying to live in two places at once is quickly wearing thin. I've worked out a "move this first" list and have been working to figure out exactly how to accomplish the smoothest possible move. Yea, good luck. It seems like no matter where I'm at I don't have the one thing that I really, really, really need at that moment. Ah well. . .

The plan right now is to gentle move about 10% of my stuff each trip to the cabin over a 10 trip period. That needs to be coordinated with giving up my 22 year old lease on my apartment here in Ann Arbor! The target right now is to be completely moved as of the end of March.

I will have paid two months of rent at the month-to-month rate which is much higher than my old lease, but the alternative was to be moving in December and January! Speaking of wintry weather, that's another factor that comes into play when moving. You have to time both ends so that there is reasonable temperatures, light, and no precipitation.

Regardless of the hassles of moving, it will be worth it once its done. It's like all of the construction work - it was fun and exciting, sometimes frustrating - but in the end it was worth the savings of not hiring it all out.

I thought I saw. . .

a Blue Woodpecker for a second!

I was taking a coffee break from hanging new rods, drapes, and all the hardware that goes with them when I looked out over the cup rim at the suet feeders. For a split second my mind tricked me into seeing a Blue Woodpecker working away at the suet.


You now how sometimes your mind sees something a bit different from what is actually on the other side of your eyes? Well, it was one of "those" kinds of sightings. In the split seconds that are normally spend on identifying a common bird, the "ole brain" comes to the perfectly wrong solution!



I guess the issue wasn't the fact that I "mis-saw" a very common bird as much as it was the fact that it was doing an uncommon thing - at least at my feeders.

In the end, I laughed at my mind's error and realized that my Blue Woodpecker, was just a Blue Jay acting very "woodpeckerish" at the suet feeder.

Being omnivores, I guess they too need to fuel up on suet during the cold days of winter.

I must resist. . .

Every year the same seasons cycle through the year. Even with global warming, the shift in timing is not noticable (at least not yet!). The worst time of the year for me is the next two months. Spring can not get to me soon enough.

All the seed catalogs start arriving with the Christmas bills. That means my brain starts turning over soil, peat pots try to appear in unused crevices, and dreams of really doing "it" right this year occupy every waking moment. Of course, with it being snow covered, freezing January outside, I must resist.

Then along comes February and a winter thaw. That, along with the seed orders that must be placed, makes the day dreaming worse. Rows of what to plant where sudden begin turning up on scraps of papers and the odd note pad begins to fill with grand schemes. Alas, I must resist still.

Finally, March roars in. The earliest of migrants are filling up at feeders and scraping through the wet leaves and grass eeking out enough to eat for them to begin to think about nesting. Those peat pots in my mind begin to make real appearances and the dreams are firmly laid out on paper. With luck, March will roar in like lion and out like a lamb.

But, until then I must resist.

Free at last, free at last. . .

The last of the inspectors didn't leave until after 7PM, but everything is now in order and I can occupy the cabin. "Free at last. . . ." While it seems like a short time ago that I started the finish work, it has been nearly one full year. Well not exactly. I was only working a few days per week, was out of the country for a couple of weeks, had several family members get sick and require my attention, but regardless, the wait was worth it.

Of course, now I have start buying furniture and decorating materials, before its time to go fishing and work in the soon to be new garden beds!

Long time coming

A year ago, I purchased my retirement cabin along with ten acres of surrounding woodlands. The cabin was just a shell with water pump and septic. For some God awful reason, I thought it would be a good experience to do most/all of the finish work myself! While it is satisfying, it has taken most of the past year.

HOWEVER, There seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel and I have scheduled the final inspections for Monday. I'm a bit nervous as I've never done this kind of work before or dealt with permits, rules, regulations, and the like. Oh, I've tried my best to do my homework, and I know its not 100% perfect, but it is my work and that alone is satisfaction enough. Whish me luck!

Baby, It's Cold Outside. . .

Weather reports for the state cautioned an Arctic Cold Front was dropping down into the state and boy is that an understatement! Temperatures dropped down below 0 degreees overnight and promise to stay in the single digits for the next 24-48 hours. Wind Chills will push the temperatures even lower with -10 to -20 being felt.

Before leaving the cabin (and heading back south) I loaded the feeders there, in Bay City and even here in Ann Arbor. The birds, predictors of cold weather were fueling up before the front arrived and continue to home in on the black oil sunflower and suet in order to stay warm.

Fortunately, the cold snap should break before mid-week and we can return to normal activities - bloggin and otherwise.

Can't Help Myself. . .

I don't know why it is, but I can't help myself. Maybe it was too many Saturdays with Walter Lantz' Woody Woodpecker (and Mel Blanc's voice) growing up. This cartoon character made his appearance in the late 1940's and continued on for over 20 years as a staple of Universal Picture's Saturday morning cartoon fests.

Woody is alleged to have been modeled after a Pileated Woodpecker, but I thought it was a Red Headed Woodpecker with a bad feather day. Regardless, whenever the real Woody (make that Pileated) Woodpeckers show up at my suet feeders, I can't help but not drop what I'm doing and watch them.

Being shy and reserved, they are not daily visitors, but will stay on the suet for an hour or more unless they are disturbed. If they haven't had their fill, they was wait until the coast is clear, then return to finish snacking on the suet and peanuts. It's either their cartoon past and the joyful remembrances of Saturday mornings or their striking size that makes it impossible not to observe them every chance available.

In, On, and Along the roads

When I travel "up" to the cabin when its cold and snowy, I anticipate getting to Roscommon county. That's because its usually there that I can reliable see turkeys. I've seen them on the roadsides picking grit, crossing the road, crossing halfway then forgetting what they were doing ending up blocking traffic, and often picking through any plants that show in the snow. I've seen tracks, droppings, and feathers along the roads, but fortunately, no "roadkill" turkey. (I think the locals understand their obligations living in wildlife neighborhoods and the "visitors" are amazed to see turkey flocks!)

Turkeys are much better along the roadways than Deer. Deer will stand watching, then dart in wrong direction every time. Turkeys, on the other hand may stand watching, but the usually remember what they were doing and finish crossing the road taking their own sweet time - no darting for them!

New Year - new starts

Over night, Mother Nature dropped the deepest snow of the season over the area. The storm began above freezing and so the trees and shrubs were covered in a thin sheet of ice that allowed the snow to pile on their branches and limbs. Like all snows this time of the year, the fluffy white flakes reminded me that winter is a time for reflection and resolution - of new starts. Most think of Spring as the time of renewal, but not for me. For me, its Winter because at the beginning of a New Year, its time to make plans for the coming seasons. And so as I sit and wait out the fallen snow, I'll be making my plans for the coming year and season as I dream about my future.

May you each have a blessed New Year and prosper in all that you do.