Hiking

Ash Creek North trail

Last week I managed to get over to Ash Creek for a short hike. The weather, which had been really nice the day before, had gotten pretty nasty. But I was craving some exercise outdoors and decided that a little drizzle and temperatures in the high 40’s wasn’t all that bad. I decided to go anyway.

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River Update

The river is extremely high!

Here’s a short update about life on the river.

The Eagles we have living across the river seem to have hatched their eggs. We can’t see into the nest but on more than one occasion it seems as if Phil & Nancy (names courtesy of Melissa) are feeding young ones. We are very excited and hopeful to see them soon.

Guest Blog: Gardening with Frank!

Frank's Garage

by Melissa Pahl

I, for one, am very excited about today. First – some background. Last weekend I volunteered to help do a controlled burn at Frank’s Hill. First of all , I’ve never been allowed, much less encouraged to burn anything. I thought we were just going to be burning some brush. But when I showed up there were a handful of hearty souls and I was instructed to grab a rake and a shovel.

Controlled Burn

So today is Monday, April 4, 2011. Over the weekend Melissa had the opportunity to do something pretty cool and even though I wasn’t with her I thought I’d write about it anyway. Plus she shot some video on her camera that’s pretty cool to watch.

In the past I’ve written about the Effigy Mounds that we have here in southwest Wisconsin. In particular I’ve told you about Frank’s Hill that our neighbor has about 5 minutes away where we hike often and also go to for events on the solstices that feature the HoChunk Indians.

Tower Hill

Well, it’s been quite a while since I posted an update. Today is the perfect day to do a little writing that isn’t work related. It’s raining a freezing rain outside right now – forming icicles on the bird feeder right outside my office window.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here. The sun was shining, the birds were out and you could almost smell spring in the air. Somewhere around noon Melissa and I decided to head out for the afternoon.

Knapp Creek

Unlike most mornings (which start out with a dense fog over the river and the fields) today started out absolutely bright and clear with a decent breeze coming off of the water. With the sunshine coming off the river the air warmed up quickly and it turned into an unbelievable day. About 75 degrees outside while in the direct sunshine it felt like it was about 80 or 82.

Perfect weather to be outside. Our morning hike wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. The usual 1 or 2 miles along the backwaters on the southern side of the river. But after getting some work done and having a hankering to get out in the sunshine, we headed out.

Hickory Nuts

In the front of the house (river side) we have a great big Hickory tree. This tree has been here forever. A doctor built this house back in the early 1970’s. When he did, he made sure to build it using the Hickory tree as the anchor. He wanted it to cast a shadow on the living space and the deck.

Well it definitely does its job and is quite beautiful. It provides shelter and shade from the sunshine in the dead of summer and a way for the squirrels to escape the charging pup when he spots them in the yard.

The Moon, Mars and S’Mores!

Stunning!

Well we finally did it. A couple of weeks back it finally cooled off enough at night that we had a bonfire on the river’s edge. We had a LOT of twigs, branches, and scrap wood that needed to be burned so we decided that the time was right for our first real fire.

Fly Away

One thing you learn pretty quickly here in the country is that September and October mean one thing in small towns: Fall Festival. It appears that this is the time of year when all of the clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Knights of Columbus, fire fighters, etc. have a pancake breakfast, a chicken grill-out or some other type of fundraiser. It’s pretty awesome. For less than $10 you can get a great meal and support a good cause.

We’ve only made it to a few so far but one took the cake for best ever.

Killer Cat

 

Miles Cat

 

So the weather has started to change. It actually started to get cooler here at the house a few weeks ago. The days would still get in the high 70’s or even the low 80’s but the nights would fall. Sometimes as low as the 50’s.

This change in the weather has actually been a wonderful change. It’s given us partial relief from the mosquitoes as well as given us the chance to get the fire pit going, etc… It also has meant that the critters outside are starting to look for shelter.