Birdy Birdy

Hey you in the house!
Fill the feeders!

Eagles just hanging out.

At first there were two....

And after I got done putting sand, grit, and hay chaff on the driveway and up the hill...

There were three!
[Two were close together]

I sent Charlie into the house. He'd be just a nice snack for these beauties.
They stayed for a couple of hours and then flew off. 

I was pretty happy.

Earlier last week I went to the creek for a walk and saw dozens of Cedar Waxwings eating on what I think were either dried up cherries or Buckthorn berries.

What an incredible site they were!

Yesterday while spreading some chaff near the house [due to the icy driveway], I heard a Robin! I wonder if he/she were lost. 

Two winters ago I did spot a small flock of them in the valley where I found the Cedar Waxwings. 

I had one of these guys land on my mitten and grab feed. It took me about 20 minutes of standing absolutely still with a mitten full of birdseed before they came. Twice a Tufted Titmouse landed on me and took feed.

Hubby got to watch from inside the house. He though it was pretty cool.

KVR Trail Challenge Old 131 & Robin

Bill had a schedule to maintain, he greets two of his grandsons at the bus stop by the intersection near his house. I had a late start to my day so we decided to take a short easy route.

We thought we'd hike point to point from Gate 12 and the canoe landing south to County P. Any of the trails in the woods would be slushy with ice under the snow, so we opted for the old road.

We've always biked this part of the trail in the summer and thought it would be fun to see in the winter.

Here is the sign at gate 12:

So many people just use a photo of the map to Navigate the Reserve, but that is ill advised. Often, you will lose cell service. I'm an advocate of carrying a map. Some intersections can get tricky and the landscape is such that getting turned around is easy unless you are familiar with it.

We thought the blacktop would be melted off. Well, we were wrong. It was slushy and in some places the snow topped ice and under the ice water was moving. 

This part of the trail is called section 11 on the Challenge paperwork. On one side there are rock formations and little bluffs, on the other side the Kickapoo River flows.

During hard rains or spring floods this section usually gets partially or fully covered by the river.

We found several places were the snow had melted from above and created tiny little waterfalls. If I'd had time I would probably explored some of these rocks. There were little caves that we could see without all the summer foliage hiding it.

So enticing! But we had a schedule to maintain.

The hike was only just short of two miles but the March sun was bright and cheery with a promise of spring soon to come.

We took a break at Bridge 13. This is one of the few remaining Truss Bridges in the State of Wisconsin. At one time every crossing over the Kickapoo between LaFarge and Ontario was constructed this way.
The original highway was built in 1926.

Old 131 trail is the original road between LaFarge, was moved and rebuilt to make way for the Dam Project that never happened in the early 1970's.

Bridge 13 looking north towards Rockton.

Looking west from the bridge. The ice is melting and the river was flowing above and below the ice. 

Here Bill is on the bridge giving Charlie a dog cookie. So far this tiny dog has done all the trails with us. I told Bill I would try and make sure that Charlie made the whole 59+ miles with us even if he needed to be carried part of the time.
Charlie must be our mascot!

After the break we headed south to County P. Here is a shot of Black Hawk Rock from old 131, section 11.

This is zoomed in of course so the outcrop looks closer. In the summer it is harder to pick out this formation due to all the greenery.

And the best surprise of all was the chirping we heard of a Robin!

Lucky us that he/she landed in a oak tree just above the trail. The orange surrounding him Bittersweet.

And that was our really enjoyable hike.

To date we have covered 15 sections and 12 miles. I don't know if that is impressive or not, but coordinating two schedules and working around the weather is pretty impressive.

Totally Unexpected

 

I was having a very hard morning. The end of the year blehs. The things I couldn't to do because I am the sole caregiver to a person with frail health were weighing on me. Maybe it was just the culmination of so much sameness in the past year. Or...perhaps even deeper yet was the question I'd asked myself the night before.

 ~ Who am I?~  [Deep thought is not for the faint hearted in the middle of the night!]

Today I asked Rich if he'd mind if I hike the Valley of Ice. That is what some folks call it. I hadn't really explored it yet. 
I set off. The day was dreary. Dreary.
It fit my mood.

I hiked the trail and noted fresh human and dog tracks. 

I started exploring and found my way to the first ice cave. I wondered if the tracks weren't from someone who had tied the blue ribbons up. But as I climbed around a snowy hillside and over downed trees, I heard a woof. And a "Hello there!"

I met a younger than ME fellow. He used to be a Geology teacher in Madison. Eventually we ended up in a larger Ice Cave where we sat down and talked about rocks and rock formations. He told me about his dog, who doesn't love talking about their loyal pets? He explained to me the history and make up of the  different layers in the rock that were were sitting in.

There was an area at the bottom of the ice where other older icicles had formed and dropped because of warm weather.

And as we admired the rock formations and the ice, I set up my camera to take a quick time lapse of the water seepage over the ice. The video is at the top of the blog and is 12 seconds long. I shot that just in front of where he was sitting.

I enjoyed his conversation and it was pretty fascinating. He explained the geology of this place in a way I could grasp it. Although, truth be told, I won't recall all the terminology he used.

We both joked about liking Lichen. He knew Lichen too! He didn't mind me taking his photo while he sat in the cave just enjoying nature. He said it would provide good perspective for the cave. He was right.

He is exploring all the Wisconsin State Natural areas and noting their specific and interesting formations his intent is to map them out so others can enjoy their natural beauty.

Eventually we parted and I went on to explore more of this valley. It is steep and rugged. 

I found the third formation.

There is a 4th but I didn't have enough time to climb around the deadfalls  to take any photos. I found an old equine trail and followed that on the ridge while stopping to peer down on the Kickapoo River.

By the time I reached my Subaru, I was the only vehicle around. My phone went off with weather alerts for our area. 

Just in time then.

By the time I got home, I was UN-bleh. I'd met another nature lover and interesting person.

I still hadn't answered that nagging question from the middle of the night.

But I figured I'd get to that ... next year.

Girry got lost and...

That nasty little Elf was up to no good again. Hiding gifts in hollow trees.

However, the little Christmas Bears were on to him. They are Christmas Ninja Bears. More stealthy than the Elf on the Shelf.

They caught up to the Elf and shoved him into the hollow tree to teach him a lesson.

One simply does not mess with these little bears. 

And what happened to Girry? He had been told by the big bears to meet up at the Mossy Rock. 
Girry went to the forest and discovered that there were so many rocks with moss on them. He climbed the highest one and waited.

and ... 

waited...

He waited through the night and listened to the spooky forest sounds.
And he waited because he wasn't sure how to get back to the house where all the other bears were.

It started to snow. Girry figured he was lost or the big Christmas Bear had tricked him and he wasn't really wanted.

What Girry didn't know is that the Big Bears had asked some of the other bears to search for the funny Giraffe. After all, Giraffes were not native to the woods and they figured Girry had gotten lost. 

A search ensued.

And Girry listened to the wild forest noises. He figured he was a goner. Some wild creature would come by and carry him off...chew him

to bits...

pull out his stuffing...

or worse???

However the Christmas Bears tracked him. As I said, they are like tiny Ninjas. Nothing escapes their attention.

They may have only buttons for joints, but they sure can get around!

Girry was found with a huge sigh of relief.

They warned Girry not to wander off by himself anymore and to definitely not trust the Elf on the Shelf ever!

That's my toy story and I'm stickin' to it.

If the weather service is correct, we could have a dozer of a snow storm coming.
That makes me happy.

Winter Wonderland

Outside Monday:

The mules went to play in the fresh snow. Apparently snow baths are very refreshing.

As is snow sleeping:

We had inches of snow. Beautiful wet heavy snow.

During evening chores I did my usual while the mules were eating. As the temps dropped the top layer of their winter coats had some ice on it.

I pulled back the hair and dug in deep to the skin.
It was nice and fluffy and dry.
Sunshine ignored me as I did this. I check everyone each day as I owe it to these creatures who have taken me safely on rides for nearly 20 years.

The next morning the sun appeared over the trees and dropped into our hollow. The mules ate and sunbathed.

The roads were pretty awful as I made my way to town and to CrossFit. But I decided that I'd take a slow hike after I got back and explore the valley. Just a short walk of course!
The landscape had been turned into a Winter Wonderland.

My short walk became a longer walk as I took extra time to stop and enjoy the skies and the 'icing' on all of the branches above me.

The breeze would blow above us and snow would gently fall down on Charlie and I.
In the shot below you should be able to see the snow cascading down in the right side of the photo. It really added a bit of glitter to the outdoor scene!

I will be curious tomorrow after another subzero night as to how the creek will refreeze.
Yesterday was wet and sloppy. This morning anywhere the sun doesn't hit is iced!

Rich isn't feeling well again so I'll be spending most of my time indoors. I thought it would be fun to work on some Still Life shots of the little houses I created out of sticks and rocks.
I even spent some time watching some YouTube videos on how to make some more miniature plants. I have some more fun ideas to try.

As it happened....

This is my favorite view in the whole wide world.
The view between a mule's ears.

Of course this is Sunshine's ears and her mane is wild and wooly just like everyone else's on the farm this time of year. I don't roach the manes towards fall as the mules need that extra insulation on the top of their heads.
Well, at least that is what I think.

Molly texted that she was coming for a visit and bringing two friends. I was properly surprised to find that one of her friends was a guy. Nope, he wasn't a boyfriend of Molly or the other gal, but they are all pals at school.

More interesting was the fact that as we talked a bit Friday night I noticed his t-shirt and asked him if Glenbrook North Highschool was indeed the one in Northbrook. He said it was. I was stunned. And then I laughed.

"I graduated from Glenbrook North 45 years ago!" We spent a few minutes discussing a few streets and I told him what Northbrook was like when we had moved there when I was a kid.
And...we both went to the very same grade school.

I had one more intramural CrossFit 'game' 20.5 to do Saturday morning and I told the 'kids' that they could clean out burrs from the mules' tails and manes if they wanted to do some bareback riding when I got back.

All the mules had been cleaned up of burrs and brushed, well, all except Fred who was his usual anti social self.

Everyone was eager to try bareback riding. Only Will hadn't done it before. I decided to just stay in the adjoining pastures. Everyone would get some more experience on the two young mules with nice round backs...and some experience riding the bony backs of Mica and Fred.

I allowed them to switch mounts to see how different each animal was. Siera behaved as expected. After a while of riding in her pasture she decided to test her riders by putting up a little mule protest.

Mules generally don't like doing the same thing over and over so it was no surprise. Plus Siera felt she could get away with refusals.

I explained to Will and Sonya that these were not 'lesson' animals like they had at their school. These mules were more into trails and doing difficult things, not an open pasture where walking was boring to them.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and I imagine there may be some sore butts and legs this morning.

I brought out their cell phones after the ride was over so they could all get photos of themselves on mules to share.

I'd requested the phones be left in the house before riding. You should have seen their faces when I said that! Shock! [Well Molly wasn't shocked]

All in all we had a fun time and Molly's friends got introduced to mules.