Hammocking...

 Lex read the Harry Potter series twice last summer.  She recently began reading it a third time and yesterday she took it outside.  It was over 70 degrees and when I got out of the hammock to do something, she jumped in and read for quite awhile...

The face she makes when you interrupt reading for a picture...

Minnesota Birds...

 I'm going to try something new and keep a list of birds that we see throughout the year at our feeders.  There's over 800 birds in North America, 400 of those have been seen in Minnesota and 300 of those are considered regulars.  So how many species can we see at our feeders?

We currently keep six feeders full stocked.  We serve a variety of foods:  three different types of seeds, corn, four suet cakes, peanuts and grape jelly/fruit/sugar water seasonally.

Here's the birds we've seen through 5/11:

1.  Black Capped Chickadee 

2.  Blue Jay

3.  Purple Finch

4.  Northern Cardinal

5.  House Finch 

6.  House Sparrow

7.  Red Bellied Woodpecker

8.  Dark Eye Junco 

9.  White Breasted Nuthatch

10.  Downy Woodpecker

11.  Mourning Dove 

12.  European Starling

13.  American Crow (didn't eat, but was near feeders)

14.  American Robin (didn't eat, but was near feeders)

15.  Northern Flicker

16.  Mallard (male and female in the yard)

17.  Red Winged Blackbird

18.  Baltimore Oriole

19.  Ruby Throated Hummingbird

20.  Wild Turkey

21.  Rose Breasted Grosbeak

***I expect to update this list somewhat regularly if/when new species come to the feeders.                                                                                      

New Years Day Hike...

 Happy New Years to some of you today.  We took a hike this afternoon to the Carver Rapids on the Minnesota River with our new snowshoes...

The last normal thing I did last spring before the world went to hell and everything was cancelled was take a snowshoe lacing workshop at Gooseberry Falls.  I laced a pair of Ojibwa snowshoes and planned to take another workshop this fall making a pair of urban shoes.  Well that workshop was cancelled but I decided to lace them on my own...then I decided I should lace three more pairs for Christmas presents to the kids...

It was the first time that Lex's pair had seen snow...

The pairs I laced for them are sized for their later adult heights/weights...so these should last and have plenty of opportunity for usage in the coming years...

We went to the lower rapids on the Minnesota River...when the river is low you can see the Jordan Sandstone that forms the rapids, historically, the rapids were a major impediment to travel up the river and certainly play a role in why the towns of Carver & Chaska are located where they are.  In 2011, I did a post on my geology blog (which I haven't added to in years) on the rapids that can be found here...

 

Of course we needed to grab one quick selfie near the end of the hike...

It was a fun day...and tiring as well...

Nature Illuminated...

 We started Christmas week with something new...we visited Nature Illuminated at the MN Zoo...it's a drive-thru look at animals around the world and in Minnesota...

The display breaks the world down to different biomes (things like the arctic, prairies, rainforest, temperate forests, etc.)...

First up was the arctic and antarctic...

As we drove through each section, there was an accompanying sound file that describe the animals and conservations efforts and needs for each region...

The oceans...

Lex's favorite is below...the tapir...the tapir at the zoo had a baby over the summer, but we never got to see it, very disappointing to Lex...

The bull snake of prairies...

Temperature forests, this is the red panda from Asia...

The brown bear...

The snow monkey...

The last section is a drive-thru representing Minnesota...starting with the Blanding turtle...

A very fun evening...

And a different take on the drive-thru events happening because of COVID and a different educational take on Christmas lights...

VCO and the Gunflint Trail...

 It's been awhile (teaching on the hybrid model and now the fully distant model takes up more time than most people know), but I'm still trying to catch up on posts from late summer and this fall...

Some posts from August outlined portions of a trip we took to NE Minnesota in mid-August.  Well, most of that trip (3-4 days) was spent at the end of the Gunflint Trail at Voyageurs Canoe Outfitters just on the outside of the Boundary Water's Canoe Area.  We spent our nights at one of their cabins and spent the days playing in and around the BWCA...

Within in moments of arriving, he was fishing off the dock...

Off the dock, he was catching some baby bass (and one large, pissed off painted turtle that he was toying with, then allowed it to bite), but out in the canoe we were getting into some good sized bass...

We've been visiting this beach at Seagull Lake for years...zoom in the picture, that's Lex way out there...I bet the water isn't even up to her waist...

Though they spent the most time this trip playing in the sand...

Evenings were spent canoeing in the small bay we were at and playing cards until bedtime...

During the day, we'd pack a day pack and head off in the canoe...

 

We'd get out when we could and do a little walking, or just resting...

But our day trips into the BWCA were meant as preparations for future, longer trips...

If campsites were open, we'd pull in and take a look...

Pretty sure this was the first time they saw a remote latrine.  Lex said "there's no walls!"  Lukie countered with "but there's a lot of trees."

This campsite could have easily been home base for 2-4 days...maybe it will...

Mornings were the best though...

We'll be back...the Gunflint is a special, special place...

Thanksgiving...

 We had the COVID responsible Thanksgiving today.  Kept to ourselves, yet had all the usual Thanksgiving foods/activities.  Watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade while getting the meal ready and it was time to eat...

Lex had made some table decorations for us...

After eating way too much (and ready for a nap), we sat down for a movie...

After the movie, it was time for pie...even though no one was really hungry...a good day...

Lukie - Teeth Extraction...

 This morning was an interesting morning for Lukie...as of early summer, he needed 8 teeth extracted for the orthodontic work to be done.  He lost three of those teeth, but the time for the other five came due today...

His first time with an IV and he did great.  He had five baby teeth removed and a 'chain' attached to a permanent tooth that the orthodontist will pull into position over time (that's the one that is going to be sore the next couple of days)...

Thought for sure he'd take a nap afterwards, but he didn't.  We just watched some television for awhile (and he didn't like his picture taken for this)...

By late afternoon, we finished Back to the Future 3 (we started the trilogy a few weeks ago and they loved it) and it was back to normal...PlayStation at night...

Which reminds me that I have a lot of missing posts to add here, some are still from the summer...teaching on the hybrid model has been a ton of work and very time consuming...these posts will come soon (I hope)...

Minneopa State Park...

 Lex wanted to see some bison this morning (she really wants to see the baby tapir at the MN Zoo and used the bison at the zoo as bait, we'll be going in a few weeks), but we didn't have tickets, so we went to Minneopa instead...

Up first was the waterfall area...

It's been a real dry last few months...there was more water flowing than we expected...

Upstream from the falls...

The upper falls...

Then we went through the bison drive and stopped at Seppman Mill overlook, the herd was below the mill at a decent distance...good thing we brought binoculars (though taking this picture with Lukie holding the binoculars wasn't easy)...

We had planned on hiking down the hillside to get closer to the bison, but something spooked them and they took off running...that was cool to see...

They probably ran a couple hundred yards before they started walking, but there was no need to walk down the hillside, there weren't anywhere close...

On the drive out, this was as close as we got...

Near the group campsites, we took another short hike overlooking the Minneopa Creek valley...most of the oaks are past peak, the maples are just beginning to turn...

It was a fun morning!