In Pursuit of Wonder

Larry paused, sat back on his heals within several feet of the brushy tree line. There was a narrow window, at the base of the trees, in which we had a glimpse of the pond. A duck (probably blue –winged teal) floated right before us in that window. I moved…

“There’s a pair of teals right there.” Larry indicated a spot almost directly ahead. I marveled at the handsome pair. Another group circled and landed on the pond. “Northern shovelers.” The water fowl were noisy – everyone was talking at once. We just sat taking it all in; the brilliant,…

Larry and I wanted to canoe early in the morning to increase our chances of seeing aquatic mammals. I arrived at his place around 6:30 am; we loaded the canoe and were off. We didn’t take Hank (or Jake) this time, Larry told them, “sorry guys, you can’t come along,…

I finally got around to cleaning out my last dead hive last Monday. Mice had moved in so I was procrastinating getting it done. But letting it sit open in the cold and rain for a couple weeks killed the mice so at least I wasn’t dealing with live mice.…

We went around a bend in the channel. The bridge, normally our stopping point, was within sight. The beaver lodge, piled up sticks in a dome shape, stood near the bank between us and the bridge. “How deep is this water?” “Start out about breast height, then sink to your…

Canoeing along the wall of wild rice, we approached the spot where there had been an ice ridge when we walked down the channel in January. The Wisconsin bluffs were ahead of us, Goose Lake stretched out between, filled with waterfowl. The wild clamor of tundra swans became louder as…

So much to see and soak in, to revel in – my attention shifted to our right. A good sized tree had been felled by a beaver. How awesome it would have been to watch him chew around the base of the tree with his mighty teeth, and to have…

March 22, 2016 Larry pulled off highway 84 on the northeast side of Schmoker’s bridge into the small, graveled parking lot. McCarthy Lake stretched before us to the north and Schmoker’s channel flowed on the south side. He parked the truck parallel to the bridge, facing the water (west). Hank,…

March 9, 2016 I felt miserable with a fever and chills, achiness, and a nasty cough that violently shook my body. I felt so awful, it seemed I could barely walk. Despite being sick, I met up with Larry. (We had scheduled to go to the dunes two days earlier…

Walking along we noticed in some places the birds had been working over the seed heads of the various prairie plants, the remains were sprinkled a top the snow at the base of the plants. “Do you suppose we walked over some snakes?” Larry asked, eyes gleaming. “I hope so!”…