Last weekend

Well Hello everyone,

Last weekend we were at the cabin together, a rarity. It was our 16Th wedding anniversary. I got there on Friday evening. Denise was already up. She had gone to the morel mushroom festival with her Mom, Uncle and Aunt. No luck looking for mushrooms.

Saturday morning we went to the Kirkland's Warbler Festival. A little history on the Kirkland's Warbler. It is very rare birds who only nest in Jack Pine trees in the a very small area of the northern lower peninsula. The birds have become endangered due to loss of habitat and the Brown headed Cowbird. The cowbird is invasive birds that lays it eggs in the nest of other birds and then those birds than end up raising the cowbirds and there own chicks end up not making because the cowbird chick out competes the other chicks. For more information go to this website,http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12202-32591--,00.html

A pic of a Kirkland's Warbler

A pic of the Brown headed Cowbird

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, U.S. Forest Service and the Michigan DNR work together to create habitat for the Kirkland's. They set up traps, catch the cowbirds and than they are euthanized.

Pic of the Cowbird trap used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

We took a field trip out to the Kirkland's nesting area. You could hear the birds singing but they are hard to see. When they do the bird count they count the numbers of Kirkland's heard singing. This is made easier with the fact that the female Kirkland's do not sing

A pic of a Kirkland's Warbler roosting in a tree. (so they told me anyway)

After arriving back at the festival site we took some classes on Michigan Mammals, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Sharp tailed Grouse and Bats. All the classes were informative. During the lunch break they had a silent auction. Denise bid on a wood duck house. So while she was getting our food I hovered near the wood duck house to make sure we ended up with the highest bid, which we did. We won it for 25$. We are going to put it on a little outcrop area on our property.

We attempted meet up with Shelly and her husband but were unable to because I had no cell service in this area. In fact we had to put minutes on Denise's On Star account so we could try to get a hold of Shelley. Sorry Shelley, I am looking forward to meeting you and the Hubby.

So after the festival we went out for our anniversary dinner. The restaurant was in a bed and breakfast and oh my goodness was the food out of this world. Denise had a Kobe prime rib and I had New York Steak. This absolutely the best meal I have had in years. Than it was back to the cabin to wind down. All in all a very good day.

Red-headed Woodpecker's Home Again

I have to wait all winter for my Red-headed Woodpecker's to come home. They are finally back and have been making whoopie, all day, everyday....



Here is Daddy. Yes, you won't believe it, but I know which is which (He has an odd black stripe on his back). This virile young man is approx. 2 years old. He came from a brood of 2. He was a NOISY juvie. He would cry mercilously to get to my bird bath. It was really funny. As an adult, he's just as noisy, but is a better flyer. He is the noisiest RHWO on the lake.


He's home and I'm thrilled to pieces!

Going to the cabin

Well I am going to the cabin on Friday after work. Denise is already there and she has to come home on Saturday. I have a short son in law list to take care of for my wonderful Mother in law ( yes I have t say that she reads the blog).

Anyway Denise is excited because the tree swallows have nested in the one of our nest boxes. This will be the 3rd year in a row they have used this box. Her redheaded woodpeckers are also back and she is hoping they nest in the one snag on the property. We'll see.

Had an unusual thing happen at work today. We noticed a pigeon standing on the hood of one of our ambulances and next to her was an egg. We felt bad but we had to shoe her away. Our marketing manager took the egg home and she is going to try to put it under a heat lamp and see if the egg will hatch. There was no nest anywhere around. Again we felt bad but we needed the ambulance. Below I posted a pic of the pigeon.

Well we hope everyone has a great weekend and to all you moms HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

Bill

Busy Busy Busy

Well Hello Everyone,

We just do not seem to have enough time in our days right now to blog. I did break away last weekend to go fishing with the boys. Only caught a 24 inch cat fish. The weather would not cooperate. The winds were 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40mph. It made it very hard ot anchor. It was still nice to get away.

I have been working a lot of hours 10-14 hours a day. So it does not leave a lot of time for anything else. Denise is at the cabin as I type this. Her Mom and Grandma are back from Florida. So Denise has been helping them settle back in. She will be home on Friday and I am thinking about going up to the cabin after work which could mean we will pass each other on the freeway. My trip will depend on work.

We are also trying to by a rental property. We will keep you all updated on all the happenings as they come about and time allows.

Take care
Bill

It's been a long time!!!

Hello everyone,

Well it has been a long time since I have posted, but as Denise stated in her last post we have been extremely busy with work. Which is a good thing because here in Michigan if you have a job you are truely blessed.

A couple of weeks ago we were up north, Denise posted some pics but I am going to share some others with you as well as some she took this last weekend.

First we start with her Royal Highness Cleopatera, Queen of the Backyard and Cabin grounds. Cleo was enjoying a warm day in the sun by lying in Denise's garden, that is fine until the tomato plants go in.

A view of Houghton Lakes west shore. As you can see the ice has melted away from the shore. Did that stop the ice fisherman from going out?

You guessed it, no it did not. These fools, oh!!! I mean the ice fisherman were out there doing their thing. Now as many of you know I love to ice fish, however when the ice is melting away from the shore it is time to give up the adventures on the ice.

Whats that you ask? How did they get out on the ice if the ice is not connected to the shore? A fine question. The answer is below.

Why you build a bridge out of 2x6. I do give these die hards credit for going out but personally I think it is not safe.

Back at the cabin these seagulls stopped by for awhile but thankfully they left. This is the first time we have seen seagulls on or near the lake.

This a pic of a bunny statue Denise had in the garden at the cabin. It basically has disintegrated under the three feet of snow and ice.

A view of our lake looking north at the cannel that connects the two parts of the lake. The ice is moving out.

This is a view from the front of the cabin. It is so good to see open water, I cannot wait to go fishing in a boat.

I spent this last weekend at my friend Tom's house putting his dock in. It was windy and a little on the cold side. Thank God for waders. We got done with that and we watched Michigan State beat UConn. We all had good time.

Monday I got a call from my friend Mark and another friend of ours Tom (not the same Tom whose dock we put in) was in town from New Jersey. They were going up to a local bar to watch the Michigan State vs. North Carolina final game. Tom and Mark are both graduates of MSU and were disappointed with the lose. But we had a good time anyway.

Well I have rambled on long enough. From Denise and I we hope everyone has very safe and blessed Easter.

Bill

Leaf burning and Avian Salmonellosis

It's leaf burning time again. I'm not avoiding everyone, we are UNBELIEVABLY busy at work. Very strange, but hopefully this is a sign of the economy trying to rise back up again. International cargo is on the move! But, I am soooooooo exhausted after working 12-16 hour days without breaks or lunches. We do eat, we just order in. I cannot maintain this pace much longer, I'm getting tired.

Bill and I did manage to get to the cabin last weekend and I am heading up myself tomorrow morning. We were able to burn some leaves last weekend, but we have tons more to do. And, we had a hot water line break in the ceiling, so we didn't have water until late Saturday afternoon after Bill fixed it. Yep, that's me in the photo below. Got my hair cut and no one, including me, likes it. Oh well, it will grow.



American Tree Sparrow on the move northbound for breeding season! Unfortunately, I just heard today that there is a Salmonellosis outbreak in our area and people have been advised to remove their feeders for a couple of weeks. We seem to get this about every April. Since, I'm familiar with what it looks like, I'll remove my feeders if I see a sick bird and I'll take them down when I leave to come home. Salmonellosis is very easy to spot. The birds puff up and are easily approachable and they don't fly away when the others fly away. Unfortunately, the finches are hit very hard by salmonellosis.

The purple finches are back in town for breeding season! This is one of a gazillion males that were at the feeders last weekend. I like to call them Raspberry finches and House Finches as Red finches.

Magic Kingdom

There was a family that rode over on the boat with us. The Mom wrote in a sharpie marker on her sons arm: If found, please call -----------. It was really funny. He even liked his 'tattoo'. The Mom said she had lost him once.

Space Mountain. One of the kids working there asked if I was '29'...LOL I said that I had ridden Space Mountain the year it had opened. Well, that was 1974!

A topiary near Cinderella's Castle.

This is where they used to have 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, but they haven't had that attraction in a long time.

A holograph in the Haunted Mansion. Bill took this. I'm surprised it turned out in the dark! He has such great luck.

Cinderella's Castle from the boat to the Magic Kingdom.