A New Day Dawns

Northwoods Journal
Easter Sunday
April 5, 2015

I am going to condense two days into one for this post mostly because I didn’t take a single photo yesterday (Saturday), and what is a blog post with no photos? LOL

Saturday was very busy. We ate a very light breakfast of cereal, saving room for cinnamon rolls from the Baklava Shop, then took the dogs for a short hike. We went up the road to the gas field and there is a trail that goes up a ridge and across for a short way. Nothing overly strenuous. The Baklava Shop opened at 10 a.m. and we got there at 10:30 only to see NO cinnamon rolls!! Gasp!! Turns out the girl had burned them. 😦 So, we had to make do with other goodies instead, and of course Mark got his shortbread.

Then we made a stop at a real estate office to get some information on some properties we had seen on line. This then led to 2 1/2 hours of driving hither and yon to look at five places. I must say that one of the biggest lies perpetrated on the human race is the real estate photo!! The first place had 10 acres and we liked the property but the place was too small and it was on a private road so would not be accessible year round. The second place was gross. The third place was 12 acres on Crooked Creek but unfortunately the cabin was built right on the property line and within arm’s reach of the neighbors. The fourth place was too close to town and the 5 acres was swampy. The last place we went to was on a very questionable trail. Mark got nervous enough that we got out and walked the rest of the way in, which was more than a half-mile downhill. When we got to the cabin, he wouldn’t even let me go up and look in the windows because it had such a bad vibe to it, he was sure it was a murder scene or something!! So, needless to say we returned to our cozy little water-less place hungry and discouraged.

We ate a quick lunch and then hitched up the trailer and went to pick up some deadfall for firewood for the coming winter. (Don’t tell the DNR we didn’t get a permit!) We hadn’t been home long from that when friends of ours who have a cabin in Lewiston stopped in to visit and later we all went into town for dinner at the Elk Crossing Café. It had started to spit snow while we were collecting wood and was really coming down during dinner, but it didn’t stick and by time we got back from eating, the sun was back out and the evening was mild. We took the dogs for another hike, up the power lines across the road and back to Wayne’s World and then back to our road. After that I laid on the couch, exhausted, wrapped in my quilt. Mark asked if I wanted to go driving looking for wildlife, but I couldn’t make myself move!

Easter morning dawned very pretty and not as cold. Mark made French toast with really thick Texas toast bread. Yum! But after breakfast he didn’t allow any lollygagging as he had wood to cut and stack. Who doesn’t love the sound of a chain saw at 9:30 a.m. Easter morning?? When he was finally done with all his noise, I was able to go out on the porch with my camera and I finally met one of my goals to get a GOOD photo of a chickadee!!!

Chickadee

I also managed a non-blurry shot of a white-breasted nuthatch – another bird on my “I want to get a good photo of that bird” list. (This shot, obviously, does not qualify, LOL.)

White-breasted nuthatch.

The resident chipmunk was not the least bit intimidated by my presence on the porch.

Please, ma’am, may I have some seed?

Of course! Who could resist that face?

We decided to take the dogs for a nice long hike and I suggested going back to Sportsman’s, via the two-track behind our place, and then continuing over the dam and all the way back around to Voyer Lake Road. It was such a lovely day, a bit brisk and crisp, but plenty of sun. Sportsman’s was even more frozen over than it was on Friday and only one pair of swans was there.

Tundra swans and Canadian goose.

Check out the geese, skating on thin ice. 🙂

Canadian geese doing their Jesus impression, walking on water.

When we reached the power lines, Mark suggested we walk them back to the road. This is the area that is pretty much impassible in the summer. Spring is about the only time we can make it through and this was a good time since the ground was still mostly frozen. If you look closely at this picture, you can see the road about half-way across, before the trail climbs uphill.

Tricky trail.

I had been playing with taking some shots in black-and-white, just for the heck of it. What do you think?

Stark poplars in black & white.

And in full color.

I was just playing around and wasn’t really taking time to compose the shots or anything.

Here’s the watershed that is part of the creek that flows from Sportsman’s to Voyer Lake.

Watershed in color.

Watershed in black and white.

Looks a bit too much like winter! LOL

Here’s part of the creek we had to jump over. There are two creeks in this boggy part that we have to cross. In the summer the grass is over our heads!

Boggy creek. The dogs love jumping over this!

Little waterfall.

It took about an hour and a half to hike the whole way around.  Milo was pretty pooped by time we got home, but he’s a trooper and keeps up pretty well even with his advanced age, bad joints, and heart murmur. I had more time on the porch to take pictures before packing up to head home.

Hairy woodpecker.

Red-bellied woodpecker.

We got on the road just before 3 p.m. On the way home we saw a hooded merganser in a roadside pond, and sand hill cranes in a field. I have to add all the new birds I saw the past four days to my 2015 Big Bird List. I think I am close to 40 species so far, and I haven’t even been trying!

It will be about 5 weeks before we return for Mother’s Day weekend.