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?