Sept. 17, 2006

A noisy heron just flew over the pond - perhaps he was annoyed that I was approaching his desired landing spot.

It's overcast, foggy, and misty this morning, although I can see blue sky above me suggesting that it will burn off. Strangely, it's breezy already at this hour, but anything to ward off the mosquitoes is welcome. Another heron flew overhead, although this one appeared white.

Bird calls have died down considerably from the summer. I can hear an occasional twirp or song in the distance, but I cannot identify it. I also heard ducks at the east end of the lake, but I can't make them out through the mist.

Cottonwood leaves - brown or occasionally green, are scattered on the grass all around me. The tent months on the Tilia tree are no longer crawling among the leaves. The boughs with their tent homes are bowed by the weight of the presumably morphing worms inside.

The squirrels are still chattering a bit, but even they are not noisy as they were a month ago. A woodpecker is thumping softly on the large cottonwood.

The cabin has become an extremely noisy place on windy evenings. The hickory nuts of the shagbark (I think not pignut) behind the house dropped onto the roof, sometimes from great heights so that it sounds as though someone is throwing large stones on our roof.

We went for a lovely hike at Pinkney yesterday - this time on the lesser used trails north of Hell. We saw no one else on the trails except one hunter coming in as we were leaving.

A very small flicker has just started pecking away at one of the small trees near me (maybe 3" in diameter). It might be a cherry or chokecherry tree - many of its leaves have been eaten by the tent moth! Another bird - perhaps a sparrow - poked into one of the moth tents, then successfully snagged a love tent caterpillar.

We gathered several types of mushrooms - some large boletes a hen of the woods, and some small puffballs.

We also went by the George Biological Reserve and marvelled at the huge, cyclone deer fences.

Out of nowhere the surface of the lake in front of me is covered with small bugs - surely a feast awaiting the bass. The bugs must know better than that somehow as the fish are not taking notice. Ah, at last glimpsed some fish movement to the west among the branches of the fallen cottonwood ("ideal fish habitat" as HT would say).

9/12/06

There are still plenty of pesky mosquitoes around - currently they are swarming around me - especially my knees since my long pants are taught there. It's a humid morning - quite summerlike after the fall weather we've been having.

Two ducks took off not long after I sat down. I really need to learn my ducks - many of them are not mallards and are quite shy.

Plenty of grasshoppers and crickets are still doing their thing. HT saw another fox on Jackson Plaza, but we've yet to see one in the woods.

The mosquitoes are too much - I've moved to the porch.

Walking through the woods toward Pall (East) the huge, majestic ball sized fungy are perched on the woods floor like large, glowing eggs. According to our mycology books, they are edible, but somehow they appear less than appetizing.

The sun rises quite late these days. This, combined with the low clouds this morning make it seem like one of those quiet, bound to be rainy days.

We had a caretakers meeting yesterday with DLF. She's trying to figure out how to get more attention to the properties and possibly to get some income from them. It seems as though her boss really wants to sell them off, which would be a complete shame. These properties are the genesis of SNRE, and they are known and loved by the communities surrounding them.

9/2/06

Went for a walk today... not many mushrooms out. We found a random banana peel quite off the trail though. We also found on the west side of Lot 2 (Block 5) a small log, 2-sided structure. It had a fire ring in one corner and someone had erected a stick "wall" on one side between 2 trees.

It must have been erected prior to our tenure by the by the looks of it (it certainly was older than 3 mos. - more likely 6 mos. or more). I know that a homeless person was living in a soil pit across the lake (covered w/ sticks) at some point while MR was here - perhaps this was a remnant of it.

We have started the anti-mouse campaign in the house. Set sticky traps - one behind the trash and one under the shelves - and set two traditional ones - one in oven drawer and one on top of fridge. The buggers managed to haul off the the cheese in both of them! So now we put peanut butter on it to see if that works. We've seen one run across the floor twice. They can also be heard upstairs in the ceiling... probably gathering their winter stores.

8/27/06

Recent work:

• 8/23/06 - Mowed lawn
• 8/25/06 - Put up 4 additional signs (at causeway, at junction, across lake)
• 8/26/06 - Cut up 3 downed trees + removed from trail

Yesterday we found an excellent polypore edible mushroom, "chicken of the woods" Lactiporus sulphureus. It was growing on an old stump (probably conifer) on east side of driveway not far after bent when heading out.

On 8/24/06 at between 9:30 + 10:00 am, I ran into crazy dog walker (see 7/31 entry) while running on the north loop, north side. This time I was prepared with my cell phone in hand. Shockingly, he had his dog on a leash. I said "good morning" as I approached, and just after passing said, "Thanks for having your dog on a leash, we appreciate it."

We'll see if he continues to comply, but this was certainly heartening.

The roadside ditch I dug out is working well with recent rain. However, the upper 1/2 of the driveway has no ditch, and the road continues to wash out.

Gutter was put on back of the cabin around 8/16 or so. It seems to work well, although apparently UM charged SNRE an arm + a leg for it!

Lots of evidence of mice in the house (droppings on counter + top of fridge) - scurrying sounds at night. We have set some traps.

The chimney needs major cleaning!

8/9/06

• CHAINSAW JUST BACK FROM SERVICE & SHARPENING
• it was working fine, but previous caretaker indicated that it was about time.
• BOUGHT GAS FOR MOWER (gas is 3.19/gal at present)

We've been mowing every 2 weeks now instead of every week due to gas prices and desire to pollute less, etc.
Went birding the other morning here w/CM and saw a wide variety of species: kingfisher, northern flicker, hairy woodpecker, possibly grebes, peewees, flocks of redwing blackbirds. Many others that I can't recall. The causeway on the west side of the lake overlooking the neighbor's pond seems to be the best place to bird.

We also listed to tapes and realized that our owl is an Eastern Screech Owl. Quite an eerie sound, human/mammal-like, combined with a horse whinny sound. It usually comes from the trees on the west side of the lawn.

Picked more boletes at the end of last week. We also found a large patch of coral fungus that we haven't identified yet. We found some huge boletes that at first sight appeared to be king boletes. However, close up they were fuzzy and light purple colored, with a rather fishy and putrid smell. Amazing + beautiful nonetheless.

7/31/06 Monday

Tired this morning. It's just before 7 AM, and already I can feel the humid air close in around me. We had quite the storm yesterday afternoon - they even had "severe thunderstorm" warnings in the morning. We should have guessed it given the fact that we'd just finished clearing the downed trees the day prior. No more trees are down on this side of the lake - the other side remains to be seen.

The past several days have been extremely humid and in the '90s. Not sure when relief will be coming.

Found lots of mushrooms in Blocks 3 and 4 yestarday. One kind in particular really liked the oaks.

Also yesterday, I had my first unpleasant encounter with a talk walker. HT + I met this man while we were cutting wood during the first couple weeks. He mentioned then that he didn't like runners. When I ran by the first time I told him that dogs needed to be on a leash. He said his was well behaved, and I nicely explained that they still needed to be on a leash. He said he didn't care if he was breaking a rule. The next time I passed him I apologized and said it was my job. "What's your job?" To enforce the leash law, I told him. He said that my job was to "get out of here" - I don't know if he realized that I was the caretaker, and I should have introduced myself as such. He then said he hated all runners and that included me. I told him that he'd been warned and that the next time I would have to call the UM Police. He then started swearing at me.

He seemed to be on his way out, so I jsut called to report him rather than to have them come out.

The H20 in the lake is the highest we've sen it. The sandbar by the boats is entirely submerged. The "seasonal" creek was running yesterday.

7/30/06

• Spent 1 hour digging out the drainage trench along the road on 7/27.
• Yesterday, HT and I spent 2 hours cutting up and removing downed trees from the yard and the trail.

The standing dead three that was down proved tough to cut - we could see burn marks from the chainsaw on the ends.

The humidity + heat has been incredibly high of late. We're in for a few more days of it at least. HT slept downstairs in the cabin last night. We've continued to keep the dehumidifier on 27-7 and all of the windows shut. This does make a huge difference inside. Our clothes actually dry inside, whereas on the screened porch, they've remained wet. There was a nice breeze yesterday, but none today so far. It could be quite the scorcher.