Earth Day Stroll

Today it finally warmed up here in the frozen north country!    Finally!!  It has been a very long winter, and spring has been very late in coming.   Up until today our road has been muddy and it's been windy and cold.  Not a good time for walking.  But it warmed up to 58 today and so I was able to get out and take a nice walk.  Nothing is really blooming yet, and the buds on the trees are just starting to look like they will pop out.  Up here, we're very much behind other places in the nation.  But for the next 7 or 8 days anyway, we are supposed to get temperatures in the upper 50's and low 60's, and a chance of some cleansing showers.   This will really make wildflowers and trees bud out!

Two days ago there was still a thin coating of ice on Two Squaw Lake.  Our resident trumpeter swans still managed to find a little water!

What a difference a few days and temperatures make!  Our resident swans took to our other lake, which we call Lake Harold.  This little lake iced out today in the almost 60 degree weather.

This is a general view of our Lake Harold.  We also own 7 acres of land across the lake on the other side. 

As I was walking on the road, I saw many, many deer prints in the soft sand on the edge.  I wonder why the deer like to walk in the sand instead of the road?   Maybe it's softer on their feet?  Or closer to the little trees they like to nibble on?   Every evening 7 or 8 deer like to come to our yard and work over small weeds, green grasses, and sometimes squash pieces I put out for them. 

All along the road are patches of swampy land.  Soon we will be hearing the frogs sing!  That's a nice sound in the evenings!

Walking back towards home and looking at a view of Lake Harold.   The road is mostly dry now, just a few places where it is rutted and muddy.

We also have a pair of Canada geese nesting on Two Squaw Lake.  They like to stroll around the yard and eat grass.  But they are rather skitterish and it is hard to get too close to them!

This is about as close as they would let me get to them before they started walking away.  My little digital camera has zoom power, but not that much as I would need!

My farm cats really enjoy the warm weather after being cooped up all winter!  They spent all day long hunting mice and chasing birds.  Now they're gathering for dinner time!   They seem to know what time it is even without a clock.  The long hair cat in the very back is a matted mess and she will NOT let me comb her out!   Long haired cats don't do well on a farm with weeds and woods.   The poor thing tries her best to keep the mats out, but mostly the hair has to just grow out.  I sure wish she would let me hold her and brush her!

Now that the weather is warm, I will be able to sit out on my porch in the mornings and have coffee and breakfast!   By the way, I grew those flowers in the old white coffee urn.   They are dried strawflowers and statice.  Aren't they pretty?   And they kept their colors nicely throughout the winter. 

And so, life is beginning to come alive again here in the northwoods!  I have been enjoying watching all the ducks and birds around the lakes.  We have beautiful hooded mergansers, mallards and scaups on Two Squaw.  Now that the lakes are opening up the loons will be coming back very soon.  I just love those loons!  We have eastern wood pewees building a nest under the eaves, as well as robins all over, building nests.   A friend of ours is going to bring us several wood duck houses to put up along Two Squaw Lake.  Those are beautiful birds too.   Harold said he heard the coyotes the other day.  Unfortunately everyone's game cameras here have seen too many of them chasing deer.  This could be why the deer population is down quite a bit.
     On this Earth Day let us all do our part to keep this earth clean and natural.  Recycle, reuse and conserve!!