On The Road Friday ~ Necedah, Wisconsin

 

 

Hello Friends,

Our latest adventure was to Necedah, Wisconsin. We visited the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge... and it was a fantastic time. We saw so much wildlife and beauty. A sampling of what we saw, deer, including a fawn, porcupine, turtles, swans, herons, butterfly, and so much more.

Click here for more information Necedah National Wildlife Refuge 

And one more place to click for more information 

 

 

2023 we had a drought, 2024 we are receiving rain, rain and more rain. The boardwalk was flooded, but Ernie and I decided to brave the waters.. it was not that deep, just a wee bit over my shoe.

 

A few photos from the day... one of the butterfly that we saw was a Karner Blue Butterfly. I did not get a good photo of it because it was flying up and down and all around. 

Click here to learn more about the Karner Blue Butterfly

We subscribe to Our Wisconsin Magazine. It is a fun magazine all about Wisconsin. The Spring issue featured the JB Polish and American Deli. We decided to eat our lunch here.

 

 

After reading about Zofia and her deli.. we decided to eat lunch here.

90 percent of the items in her store are from Poland. 

Zofia displays Polish treasures in her deli, including a traditional dress featuring intricate beadwork. Red and white are the country's national colors.

 

A few more photos from the day of exploring the area.

 

 Thank you for coming along with me on our adventure to Necedah, Wisconsin.

 ♥

Carla

 

The First Hodgepodge of 2022!

 

Looking at the Christmas tree sitting in the cold greenhouse.

We keep our little tree twinkling during the cold, dark winter nights until the end of February. It is nice to look outside to see that little tree twinkling in the greenhouse. 

 

Hello Friends, it is Wednesday and that means it is time for the Hodgepodge.

Joyce asks the questions.

We answer the questions.

 Click here to join the fun!

1. Share one happy moment/memory from the holiday season. 

We enjoyed Christmas weekend at my parents farm with all of our family. 

Belly Laughs!!!

 2. Let's be reasonable with our expectations going into this new year, k? What is one thing you'd like to accomplish/improve/complete/do in 2022? 

I have been talking about the kitchen project for over a year now.. well 2022 it is happening. In fact it starts January 17th! Praying all our cabinets, flooring and other do not have any issues arriving to our front door. 

3. Every January 1st (since 1976) Lake Superior University has published a list of words they'd like to see banished from the Queen's English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse or just general uselessness (go here to read more about how the words are chosen). Here are the words/phrases they'd like to see banished in 2022-

wait, what?-no worries-at the end of the day-that being said-asking for a friend-circle back-deep dive-a new normal-you're on mute-supply chain

Which of these words/phrases do you use regularly?I do not use any of these phrases regularly. Wait, what .. would be the closest in my vocabulary.  Which of these words would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why?a new normal.. I guess I just do not think it makes sense to say that, what is a new normal?  Is there a word/phrase not on the list you'd like to add? My Bad .. I just do not like that saying. 

 4. Best thing you ate in the month of December? 

My husband made the best Cheese Potatoes for our Christmas gathering.

 5. January 5th is National Bird Day. Are you a bird lover? Yes! We have several bird feeders around our home.What's your favorite bird to see in the wild? Nuthatch are my favorite birds. Choose a phrase from the list that follows and tell us how it relates to your life currently...eat like a bird, bird's eye view, early bird, bird-brained, free as a bird, a little bird told me, or kill two birds with one stone.

Early Bird.. that is me.

 6. Insert your own random thought here. 

A few feathered friends gathered under the bird feeder.
 

 And a furry friend too.

 

Rescue Mission

 

See that little robin. Well, he is the main character of this story. Do you see the net like stuff that his mom made that nest out of? Well, that is the cause of the rescue mission.

 

This is the second year that a robin family nested on top of our birdhouse. This year the robin got some kind of netting in the makings of the nest. Three of the four babies did fine leaving the nest. One remained over night, which I thought was odd. In the morning I looked closer at the little guy. He had some of the netting stuck around his leg, making it impossible to leave the nest. 

 And so a rescue mission was put into action. My husband carefully caught the little robin, I had scissors in hand and we carefully snipped the netting off the leg of the little robin.

All the time the little robin was squawking.  The parents dive bombing and squawking.

Ah, there  is a happy ending. The little fella was so happy to have the netting off his leg. He was no longer held down, he could fly and fly away he did.

 The End

The Story of Bird

The Story of Bird

Earlier this spring I walked down the driveway to get the mail. I saw two little birds walking down the driveway ahead of me.

Two little mourning dove. I was so surprised to see them. It was Mid-March, I had not seen young mourning dove so early in the season before.

The next day, only one mourning dove baby greeted me.

Each day I would look for our new little friend.

We decided to name him or her Bird.

I fed bird sunflower seeds and millet.

Bird would roost on our deck and I would see Bird each morning in the sunshine.

I continued to feed Bird sunflower seeds and millet.

Bird never would fly away from me.

Bird would watch as I put little piles of seed around.

Bird just happily pecked along as we sat and talked.

Bird was becoming a special friend to us. A happy sight during the COVID19 shut down.

Our friendship with Bird started when the early days of COVID19 began. Everyday brought some new change or cancellation.

Shut downs, shortages, lay off from work,  more cases of COVID19, masks, gloves, ordering more items on line, more cancellations and trying to get use to the way things were going.

We all would wake up in the morning and ask "How is Bird today?"

During my husbands time off from work during the shut down gave him time to do some projects.

He built me another raised bed.

I filled the bed with soil that we made in our compost pile.

I was so excited at how well our compost pile did and the fantastic dirt I had to fill the raised bed.

As I worked, Bird watched. I went past with wheelbarrows full of dirt, shovel and rake.

He sat in the sun, watching me and would peck at his sunflower seeds.

Bird was a little bird in March. It is June now and Bird is getting to be a big Bird. I am happy to report that Bird still comes to roost on the deck in the mornings and enjoys our birdbath.

It is the little joys in life.

♥

On the Road Friday ~ Northwest Wisconsin Barrens

At our North Country Master Gardner meeting on February 28th. We had a guest speaker, Mark Nupren of the Friends of Namekagon Barrens.

Stretching from just south of Lake Superior in Bayfield County

 to northern Polk County.

The sandy soils that define the region, along with the numerous lakes and rivers are all remnants of past glaciers. European explorers often described the region as "barrens" or "brush prairie" created by fires that for centuries burned over much of this land creating an open landscape. While appearing to be barren due to the scarcity of older forests, the grassy and brushy landscape contained a rich diversity of plants and animals.

 One of the birds that makes it home in the barrens is the sharp-tail grouse.

I have never seen one in the wild, only photos or video.

The  sharp-tail grouse have a very fun mating dance. I am not sure if I would be able to stay quiet during it. I laugh watching both of the video below.

There is nothing like the sharp-tailed grouse mating season!  

You can witness it yourself in one of our viewing blinds.

 You are able to sign up to sit in a blind to watch this amazing act of nature.

Click here for more information.

I am putting the Northwest Wisconsin Barrens on our list of adventures for 2019. The Barrens are not that far away from where we live, so maybe we will adventure in Spring, Summer and Autumn.

Wildflowers bloom during spring and summer.

Autumn colors show off during September into November.

The Barrens are also home to many butterflies, including the endangered Karner blue butterfly. 

To be continued..  once all the snow melts.

More Winter Tracks

Looking behind us at the snow.. well I can share with you we have a LOT more snow! These photos were taken in late December. We have GOT SNOW!  We have 4 more inches in the forecast for Friday.

I will post a snow update on Monday. 

In the mean time lets look at a few more tracks.

 What do you think made the following tracks? The same mammal made the tracks in the above and below photo. Who is traveling in circles?

 Some bird made a landing in the above photo!

What kind of bird?

And who made these fancy tracks?

1. A Mole

2. A Ruffed Grouse

3. Wild Turkey

"Every mile is two in the winter."

George Herbert

 

Nothing Uglier Than An Empty Garden

 We have received more snow since I took this photo. 

I wanted to share how leaving some plants out in the garden makes the garden pretty during the winter and how it helps the birds.

I use to clean my gardens in the autumn. I would cut down all the dead plants. Haul everything to the compost pile and look out at just snow during the winter. In the last three years I started to leave more and more in the garden. This is my first winter leaving corn stalks, sunflowers, zinnia, snapdragons and phlox. I am so glad I did.

 Nothing uglier than a empty garden in the snow. Even the brown sticks give it character.

Not only do I have more character to look out at. We have many birds come and take up home in our back yard. It has been so much fun to see new to our back yard birds this winter come to the feeder. We have the following visit daily, cardinals, nuthatch, red breasted nuthatch, common red poll, pine skin, tufted titmouse, chickadee and juncos come feed on the plant seeds left in the garden and enjoy sitting on the plants that we left standing to sun themselves.

SNOW

  And here I was wondering if we would get snow. How silly of me!

These photos are taken February 7th, 2019.

 Just before the storm started I spotted our mourning dove eating. 
We put corn out for our mourning doves. They are ground feeders. We clear several areas on the ground for them to eat.

 It is starting to snow!

 2:30pm in the afternoon.. take a peek at the roof of the bird feeder.

Happy Cross Country Ski Time in Wisconsin!

3 Snows on a Robin's Back

I saw a Robin! I saw a Robin!

A Robin is the sign of Spring in Wisconsin.

or is it?

They say ..

It has to snow three times on the Robin's back before Spring has really Sprung!!

What Northwest Wisconsin still looks like.. not sure what that Robin is finding to eat.

 

On the Road Friday ~ Como Zoo and Conservatory, St. Paul, Minnesota ~ Part 2

Hello and Welcome to, On the Road Friday!

If you missed my first post about Como Zoo and Conservatory, click here.

 Last week I shared about our photo scavenger hunt we made up for the boys. I shared some of our youngest son, Atticus' photos. This week I am sharing my husbands photos. He was on a mission to capture the creatures of the zoo. A few of these creatures where in the conservatory, like the fella up above.

 No, thank you.

 I loved how my husband captured the beauty of this guy.

 "Good Morning"

This is my very favorite photo.

 Zoological Building

 The male and female tigers where together. The zoo is crossing fingers and toes that the two will decide to mate.

  Como Zoo was successful to have a baby giraffe.  Sweet as could be. When we visited him he kept looking at our boys. I think he wanted to play.

Thank you for coming along today, to Como Zoo and Conservatory.

The winner of the Spring Giveaway is Marilyn of Mountain Top Spice. Congratulations Marilyn!

Have a great weekend.